REPORT. JOHN O'MEARA, STATE PRINTER. To the Honorable Senate of the State of California: In reply to a resolution of your honorable body, requesting the Surveyor General "to inform the Senate whether he has in his office any information to the effect that any of the lands offered for sale in May next, by the President's proclamation, are swamp and overflowed lands," I have to state, that the information on this subject thus far received, is but meagre. Both my predecessor and myself have written to the county surveyors, urging them to furnish us with all the facts relating to this matLittle has been elicited in reply. I am not surprised at this, for it would have been impossible for the surveyors to furnish the required information without an outlay of money and time, for which they knew it was not in my power to remunerate them. ter. Before entering upon the duties of my office, I had the best opportunities for knowing that a large amount of land, properly belonging to the state, as swamp and overflowed land, had been sectionized by the United States surveyors, and reported as United States lands. As such they are claimed, and as such they have been, or will be offered for sale. Since assuming my present position, I have received information from various sources, confirming my previous impressions. From the letter of O. M. Brown, Esq., deputy county surveyor of Fresno county, I extract as follows: "I have made some observations of the swamp land, which has been surveyed by the United States, and which will therefore be lost to the state unless some immediate action is taken by the state to prevent it. A large portion of these lands are now advertised to be sold in May next. The state will then lose nine hundred thousand dollars, if not double that amount, unless they are previously secured. The lands I refer to are principally bordering upon the east side of the San Joaquin River, between the northern county line and the junction of the San Joaquin Slough and river; and between the latter point and the head of the slough, on the east side; and between the head of the slough and King's River and Tulare Lake, on either side of the strip of land between the latter points, designated on the township plats as swamp land, and averaging from three to six miles on either side of the so designated swamp land. which, I am satisfied, is as much swamp and overflowed land within the true meaning and interpretation given it by the commissioner of the gen All of eral land office, as any that is designated on the United States township maps as swamp lands, and I am at a loss to conceive by what rule the United States deputy surveyors were governed when they made surveys of lands in the above-named sections, to determine them in the courses pursued in segregating the United States' from the state land. "The land to which I allude more particularly as being swamp and overflowed, although not so represented on the plats, and which has been surveyed by the United States surveyors, adjoins, borders on, and lies within the following named townships and ranges, to wit: T. 15 S., R. 16 and 17 E.; T. 13 S., R. 14 and 15 E.; T. 16 S., R. 16, 17, and 18 E.; T. 17 S., R. 17 and 18 E., Mount Diablo meridian. "There are other swamp lands in other parts of the county, but, of course, if an act is passed, it will be general, and therefore it is unnecessary to enumerate them. It is to be regretted that the Tulare Canal Comany might set up a claim to one-half of this land if secured to the state, yet as there is hardly a possibility of anything being done towards the construction of a canal by the company, there is but little danger of its being lost. But if contrary to expectation they should succeed in carrying it through successfully, and make a successful claim to the additional lands secured to the state, the increase in the value of taxable property would yet be highly advantageous as a source of additional revenue." L. A. Whitman, Esq., a justice of the peace of Fresno county, in an affidavit now in my office, says, he has resided on lower King's River, for three years, and that to his own knowledge, large tracts of land which are overflowed in consequence of the rains in winter, and the melting of the snows in April, May, and June, have been surveyed by the U. S. Deputy Surveyors, and returned as United States lands. He also says that the lands on King's River and the Four Creeks, are being rapidly settled by bona fide settlers, who are subjected to much inconvenience and expense, on account of the uncertainty in regard to the true ownership of the land. From Mr. John Barker, for three years a resident of Fresno county, and from Aaron P. Cromby, for four years a resident of Tulare county, I have similar statements under oath. Mr. William S. Green, county surveyor of Colusa county, says a great deal of swamp land has been subdivided and has not been returned on the plats of the U. S. surveys as such. Major Cooper of the same county, while in this city a few weeks since, informed me that in some instances whole townships, without doubt the property of the state, had been subdivided by the U. S. surveyor. Mr. J. E. Whicher, civil engineer, who has been at work the past summer, in Tulare Valley, finds this to be the case in that section of the country where he has been lately residing. I have also received information of a similar character from various sources. My predecessor estimates the amount of lands, properly swamp and overflowed, belonging to the state, thus divested to the United States, at two million of acres. It has always been very difficult to work in those portions of the state, bordering upon swamp lands, in the rainy season. Hence the United States surveyors generally selected the driest season of the year to carry on their operations-a time when the waters had subsided into their natural channels, and the continued heats of summer had dried large extents of overflowed lands. Many of the surveys were made long in advance of settlements. The surveyors saw the country, probably for the first time, and it is not sur prising therefore, that they should have so largely encroached upon the domain of the state. Under these circumstances it is fair to consider the case cited by the surveyor of Fresno county as an illustration of the rule, and not an exception. I am therefore of opinion that the estimate of my predecessor is not exaggerated. Some immediate action on the part of the Legislature is necessary to secure to the state the valuable rights of which the United States has dispossessed her. I would respectfully recommend that the Governor be requested to ask the President to postpone the sale advertised for May next, for one year, that the state may be enabled, by conclusive testimony easily obtainable, to substantiate her claim to the lands in question. Respectfully, your obedient servant, H. A. HIGLEY, Surveyor General. REPORT. JOHN O'MEARA, STATE PRINTER. The joint Senate and Assembly committee who were directed by concurrent resolutions to proceed to San Quentin and take an inventory of all the property in use by or for the state prison, and to make a full statement and report as to the quantity, quality, variety, and value of all said property, showing to whom each article belonged, have performed the duties devolved upon them, and respectfully beg leave, as the result of their labors, to make the following REPORT: Your committee left Sacramento for San Quentin on Monday, March first, and arrived there the following morning, having been joined by Thomas H. Hanson, James M. Harris, and Russel Frink, the committee authorized by concurrent resolutions to be appointed by John F. McCauley to co-operate with your committee in taking the inventory of the state prison property. We commenced and prosecuted our labors by visiting the various yards, workshops, buildings, prisoners' quarters and cells, guard-houses, brick-yards, vessels, quarries, etc., taking as we proceeded, a full inventory and memoranda of the quantity, quality, variety and value of all property found on or about the state prison grounds, determining, as far as possible with the limited means of information at our command, to whom each article belonged, or by whom it was claimed; being careful to place no single item to the credit of the state about the title to which was any serious question. Upon comparing the inventory of articles taken by the board of commissioners and delivered to James M. Estell, in March, A. D. 1856, with our schedule, we discovered a deficiency, to account for which, depositions of various parties were taken, who were supposed to know of the whereabouts of property not found on the prison grounds, but belonging to the state. The result of our investigations and examinations is contained in the following catalogue, the exhibits and appendixes thereto attached, marked respectively, numerically and alphabetically, and in the concluding suggestions and remarks. All of which are most respectfully submitted. In continuation of their report, your committee would state, that they have placed as low a value upon the property enumerated in the foregoing schedule as they would be justified in, its present condition considered. This fact, coupled with the knowledge that, on the first day of March, the state took possession of her prison and all the property found on or about |