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Collection: Books and Periodicals

Three Years in California by John D. Borthwick (1857)(LoC) (423 pages)

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SACRAMENTO CITY AFLOAT. 279 before the waters could subside, as the snow which had fallen in the mountains had yet to find its way down, and would serve to keep up the flood. Sacramento City was in as wretched a plight as a city can well be in. The only dry land to be seen was the top of the levee built along the bank of the river in front of the town ; all the rest was water, out of which rose the houses, or at least the upper parts of them. The streets were all so many canals crowded with boats and barges carrying on the customary traffic ; watermen plied for hire in the streets instead of cabs, and independent gentlemen poled themselves about on rafts, or on extemporised boats made of empty boxes. In one part of the town, where the water was not deep enough for general navigation, a very curious style of conveyance was in use. Pairs of horses were harnessed to large flat-bottomed boats, and numbers of these vehicles, carrying passengers or goods, were to be seen cruising about, now dashing through a foot or two of mud which the horses made to fly in all directions as they floundered through it, now grounding and bumping over some very dry spot, and again sailing gracefully along the top of the water, so deep as nearly to cover the horses’ backs. The water in the river was some feet higher than that in the town, and it was fortunate that the levee did not give way, or the loss of life would have been very great. As it was, some few men had been