Congressional Serial Set (4246)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1902 edition. Excerpt: ...area, which extends northerly and southerly for more than 70 miles. The river flows down through a steep, rugged canyon, in a westerly direction, to its point of debouchment upon the open country at Pollasky (formerly Hamptonville), 27 miles northeast from Fresno. From this point it continues in a southwesterly direction for 55 miles to the trough of the San Joaquin Valley. Here it unites with the waters of Fresno Slough in a swampy region subject to overflow and turns sharply to the northwest. From this junction on to its mouth, near Antioch, a distance of 120 miles, it is the main river of the great valley, and receives the drainage of the latter from all the streams on either side. These are numerous, and some of them on the eastern flank of the valley, deriving their waters principally from the Sierra Nevada's rains and snows, are considerable in volume. As a rule, these tributary streams from the Sierras lying north of the Upper San Joaquin run in deep beds for many miles below their exit from the mountains, and come to the level of the great plain only when nearing the trough of the valley. At this point in their course they turn northward and unite with the main stream--some as distinct branches; others, as in the case of the smaller ones, through swamps, sand-flat deltas, or overflowed tracts. Those named below are the principal streams flowing down the east side of the valley, as enumerated from the northerly end, with the drainage area of each given. The streams marked with an asterisk derive their waters largely from the melting snows of the high Sierras. These snows are substitutes for extensive storage reservoirs, and slowly yield their waters throughout our early springs and summers--the irrigation season--in an unfailing supply of...