We can get no information as to whether our money will be on hand the first of March, as has been promised, or not.

Rates have risen here to three per cent a month lately, which shows how hard the money market is. It has been but one and a half per cent up to the last month.

Since I last wrote the weather has been good and the waters in the great valleys have been receding, but there is much water still. I have heard many additional items of the flood. Judge Field, of Sacramento City, said a few days ago that his house was on the highest land in the city and that the mud was two feet deep in his parlors after the water went down. Imagine the discomforts arising from such a condition of things.

An old acquaintance, a buccaro, came down from a ranch that was overflowed. The floor of their one-story house was six weeks under water before the house went to pieces. The “Lake” was at that point sixty miles wide, from the mountains on one side to the hills on the other. This was in the Sacramento Valley. Steamers ran back over the ranches fourteen miles from the river, carrying stock, etc., to the hills.

Nearly every house and farm over this immense region is gone. There was such a body of water—250 to 300 miles long and 20 to 60 miles wide, the water ice cold and muddy—that the winds made high waves which beat the farm homes in pieces. America has never before seen such desolation by flood as this has been, and seldom has the Old World seen the like. But the spirits of the people are rising, and it will make them more careful in the future. The experience was needed. Had this flood been delayed for ten years the disaster would have been more than doubled.

The telegraph is now in working order, and we had news this morning—up to 5 P.M. last night from St. Louis—surely quick work. But the roads will long be impassable over large portions of the state.

San Joaquin Valley near Friant Dam, April 2006; by Pete Flickenscher, courtesy of NOAA Photo Library, on Flickr

We have had very bad weather since the above was written, but it has cleared up. In this city 37 inches of water has fallen, and at Sonora, in Tuolumne, 102 inches, or 8 1/2 feet, at the last dates. These last floods have extended over this whole coast. At Los Angeles it rained incessantly for twenty-eight days—immense damage was done—one whole village destroyed¹. It is supposed that over one-fourth of all the taxable property of the state has been destroyed. The legislature has left the capital and has come here, that city being under water. This will give us a better chance for our appropriation, but still the prospect looks blue. There is no probability that we will get enough to carry on work with our full corps….

All the roads in the middle of the state are impassable, so all mails are cut off. We have had no “Overland” for some weeks, so I can report no new arrivals. The telegraph also does not work clear through, but news has been coming for the last two days. In the Sacramento Valley for some distance the tops of the poles are under water!

¹Probably refers to Agua Mansa.

Chinese New Year Parade, San Francisco; by Generik11, on Flickr

Chinese New Year Parade, San Francisco; by Generik11, on Flickr

Flooded area near Davis, April 2006; by presley*, on Flickr

The rains continue, and since I last wrote the floods have been far worse than before. Sacramento and many other towns and cities have again been overflowed, and after the waters had abated somewhat they are again up. That doomed city is in all probability again under water today.

The amount of rain that has fallen is unprecedented in the history of the state. In this city accurate observations have been kept since July, 1853. For the years since, ending with July 1 each year, the amount of rain is known. In New York state—central New York—the average amount is under thirty-eight inches, often not over thirty-three inches, sometimes as low as twenty-eight inches. This includes the melted snow. In this city it has been for the eight years closing last July, 21 3/4 inches, the lowest amount 19 3/4 inches, the highest 23 3/4. Yet this year, since November 6, when the first shower came, to January 18, it is thirty-two and three-quarters inches and it is still raining! But this is not all. Generally twice, sometimes three times, as much falls in the mining districts on the slopes of the Sierra. This year at Sonora, in Tuolumne County, between November 11, 1861, and January 14, 1862, seventy-two inches (six feet) of water has fallen, and in numbers of places over five feet! And that in a period of two months. As much rain as falls in Ithaca in two years has fallen in some places in this state in two months.1

The great central valley of the state is under water—the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys—a region 250 to 300 miles long and an average of at least twenty miles wide, a district of five thousand or six thousand square miles, or probably three to three and a half millions of acres! Although much of it is not cultivated, yet a part of it is the garden of the state. Thousands of farms are entirely under water—cattle starving and drowning.

Benevolent societies are active, boats have been sent up, and thousands are fleeing to this city. There have been some of the most stupendous charities I have ever seen. An example will suffice. A week ago today news came down by steamer of a worse condition at Sacramento than was anticipated. The news came at nine o’clock at night. Men went to work, and before daylight tons of provisions were ready—eleven thousand pounds of ham alone were cooked. Before night two steamers, with over thirty tons of cooked and prepared provisions, twenty-two tons of clothing, several thousand dollars in money, and boats with crews, etc., were under way for the devastated city.

You can imagine the effect it must have on the finances and prosperity of the state. The end is not yet. Many men must fail, times must be hard, state finances disordered. I shall not be surprised to see our Survey cut off entirely, although I hardly expect it. It will be cut down, doubtless, and some of the party dismissed. I see no help, and on whom the blow will fall remains to be seen. I think my chance is good, if the thing goes on at all, but I feel blue at times.

Rainy day on Polk Street; by Tom Hilton, on Flickr

The rain storm of yesterday was renewed at an early hour this morning, the waters pouring down with a volume and violence almost unprecedented, even in California. The waters were fairly pumped out of the clouds, and the consequence is that considerable damage has resulted to such portions of the city as would receive the drainage of the streets built on the hill sides….

Montgomery street never presented a like view as it did about 8 A.M., for nearly the while length from Market to Jackson was covered with water, and some places over the curb and sidewalks. A large amount of water and mud inundated cellars, but further damage was prevented by the prompt removal of the culvert and sewer covers, which soon reduced the accumulated waters….

To show how heavy was the fall of rain the past twenty-four hours, the gauge, (which, if anything, is inclined to under rather than overrate) at nine A.M. to-day indicated that 3 40/100ths inches of rain had fallen since nine A.M. yesterday, giving us nearly a foot of rain within seven days.

The greatest damage has been done to that portion of the city lying at the base of the hills. On Bush street, between Kearny and Montgomery, where a sewer was in course of construction, a large gully was washed away, and the water and mud ran into the cellars on the four corners of of Montgomery Street, doing the most damage to the Tontine and Occidental buildings….

Below Sansome street nearly all the cellars were filled with water, and the services of the Fire Department were called into requisition, and their apparatus used to pump them clear….

Telegraph Hill cliff after massive rockfall, February 2007; by Tom Hilton, on Flickr

On Second and Third streets the planking and sidewalks have suffered considerably. The top of the sewer or fire cistern (we do not know which) at the intersection of Mission and Second caved in, and a large, and by no means inviting hole, left in the centre of the street.

The morning stage for San José…was forced to return to the city after going three miles, the county road being impassible.
The waters in Mission Creek have overflowed their boundaries, and Brannan street, in part with the flats in that vicinity, have been flooded….

The head waters of Mission Creek overflowed the Willows, carrying off a number of the improvements.

The Market street Railroad track was washed away by the flooding of a branch of Mission Creek, which runs by the Acid Factory….
The buildings on Post street, between Stockton and Powell, have from eight to ten feet of water in them….

The various streams feeding the Mission Creek have all overflowed, and much damage has been done to gardens and residences.