in the side hill work in Colusa County, and its capacity by a quantity equal to that of the branch. Three lines of levels across the country enable me to make an approximate estimate of the quantity of land irrigable from it, of the grade required, and of its size and cost. It will be a canal of the cheapest kind, of only two and a half feet maximum. depth of water, made in part within, and in part above the ground, by an excavation scraped into banks rising one foot above the water line. It will be fordable at any point, but seven fords covered with stone, and as many bridges for footmen are estimated. No culverts will be needed. Sluices for the distribution of water for irrigation will be small, and of wood; made of the proper size and adjusted to the proper level, they will require no attention except for occasional repairs. The construction of this branch may be made in such manner as to prevent overflow from the river of lands between the point of its intersection with it and and the head of Sycamore Slough. A few miles of canal inland of the branch, and west from Colusa, will relieve and drain a large scope of flat country at present occasionally overflowed by drainage from the foot-hills. The overflowed area has an average fall of three and a half feet to the mile. 12. Right of way-Acquisition of lands. At and near the head of the canal there may be a small area of land which will sustain more damage than benefit from the canal, for which compensation in money would be required. But along the route the advantages to the lands resulting from the canal will be so great that nothing more than the marketable value of the land taken would be awarded to the owner, if demanded by him. A large proportion of the lands upon the route are uncultivated and unfenced, and of a part the title is in the Federal Government, which is liberal in donations for such purposes. Making special allowance for the damage at the head, I estimated the average price of other lands at two dollars per acre. Restricting the quantity of land to be acquired to the mere strip embraced between and covered by its banks, is always attended with inconvenience and often with loss to the proprietors of the canal. They should exercise the rights of ownership for some distance on each side. I advise that a width of ten chains be acquired, from end to end of the canal. This may be taken at eighty acres for each mile in length of the canal. Branch canal. A strip of land three chains wide at the head and two at the lower end, is necessary upon the branch. The average width is two and a half chains, and the quantity, twenty acres to each mile in length of the branch. Extension to Suisun. The excess of distance of this extension over the line to Cache Creek Slough, is twelve and one eighth miles. The average price of two dollars is applied to the branch and extension. Plans and specifications. A requisition is made in the Act for plans and specifications. I do not understand it as requiring, in a survey merely preliminary and experi mental, elaborate drawings of the various structures which will be estimated as part of its cost. A written description, which will precede and be combined with the specification, will give the plan of each, from which drawings can readily be made whenever needed. Any plan that I can now present would probably be subject to some modification, required by peculiarity, location, etc. The plans can, therefore, be only general. In like manner, the specifications will be brief and only general, and much of detail will be omitted which would have entered into them if they had been prepared for a letting of the work for construction by contract. The term "excavation," used in the following descriptions, plans, and specifications, means the removal of earth from the trunk of the canal and its branches, and all mucking and puddle ditches, side drains, and the inlets and outlets of culverts; pits for the foundations of culverts, aqueducts, locks, flumes, and sluices; the preparation for overfalls, and the opening of channels for streams; the slope of any excavation to be made, and trimmed to the slope and form which may be found necessary for it. The term "embankment" includes the earth filling over or against all culverts, aqueducts, locks, flumes, sluices, etc.; the filling up to bottom of canal, and the formation of the banks of the canal and its branches; also, the construction of the guard bank of the basin at Red Bluffs. It means earth, free from stones, sticks, stumps, grass, leaves, and vegetable mould, to be scraped or carted into a bed or foundation prepared for it, and to be spread in horizontal layers not exceeding six inches in depth. The term "puddle" means earth like that for "embankment," spread in layers not exceeding ten inches in depth, made wet with water, and cut or worked with the shovel until it becomes cohesive and stiff enough to bear the weight of a man. By "mortared masonry " is meant a compact mass of stone, or of brick, or both, of durable quality, well shaped, with fair beds and joints, and mortar made of best hydraulic cement and clean sharp sand. Every joint between two stones must be broken by the stone above it. Headers must be frequent. In a thin wall they must bind the two faces together, and in a thick wall, each face with the heart of the wall. No two stones in the work should touch each other, but be interlaid with mortar, the smallest quantity of which that will fulfil these conditions is the best. Each stone should be laid in a full bed of mortar, and be pressed into it. In all cases where embankment or puddle is to rest against a wall, it will have a batter, and will be made smooth and be plastered with mortar, if necessary. The same conditions apply to brick work, which will in all cases be of the best quality, and hard burnt. Dry walling and paving imply, stone of as good quality as that last described and as well laid, but without dressing the beds and joints, and without mortar; the paving to be always placed on edge. Rock dike, rip-rap, or rock protection, is rough stone thrown in at the foot of a bank to prevent slides, or upon its face to prevent abrasions by water. Timber and lumber entering into the foundations, especially of masonry and of the sluices, to be of the best quality and perfectly sound; to be square on the ends, and to be hewed or sawed so as to have true faces and joints, and when laid in the work to be water tight. Sheet piling will always be driven with close joints, and so deep that no water can pass through or under it. WM. H. BRYAN, REPORT AND PETITION OF THE MANAGERS OF THE MAGDALEN ASYLUM OF SAN FRANCISCO, From January, 1864, to February 1st, 1868. REPORT AND PETITION. To the Honorable the Senate and Assembly of the State of California: The undersigned, managers of the Magdalen Asylum of San Francisco, beg leave to present the following report and petition: Following the report of January, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, the number of inmates increased so rapidly that the building in Hayes' Valley then occupied was very soon found inadequate for their accommodation, so that, early in eighteen hundred and sixty-five, it became necessary to provide more commodious apartments. To this end, an eligible site was purchased in a better locality near the city, and a substantial brick building erected thereon, the grounds fenced, and other necessary improvements made, costing in the aggregate a large sum of moneyabout twenty thousand dollars of which was contributed by persons whose appreciation of this great work of mercy is commensurate with their generous liberality. The increased number of inmates and consequent growing necessities of the establishment, added to the large balance due for the land and improvements above mentioned, leaves the institution heavily involved, and renders aid from your honorable body imperatively necessary if this beneficent work of charity and reformation is to be continued. The field of usefulness is daily being enlarged, and the management can plainly see the necessity very soon of adding to the capacity of the present buildings, thereby incurring additional outlay of money. At the last session of the Legislature the usual appropriation was withheld, and the institution, being without endowment or revenue from any source, is left to depend solely upon the means derived from the sale of needle-work executed by the inmates and the contributions of the charitable, which form but a slender basis for the maintenance of such an establishment. The following tabular statement exhibits summarily the number of persons admitted to the institution, the date of admission, age, place of nativity, and the disposition of each: |
