The Daily Astorian

A number of prominent grain shippers and managers of steamboat lines on the upper Sacramento, have issued an acknowledgment of the work recently done in improving the channel of that river, by Colonel Mendel.

It is stated that the high water of last winter washed quantities of debris out of the Feather and deposited the same in the Sacramento river, immediately below the confluence of the two rivers, forming a bar upon which there was only two to two and a half feet of water.

Colonel Mendel's attention being called to this matter, he procured a steamer with barges and a pile driver, and proceeded to construct a dam to confine the water to a narrow channel, and in a short time succeeded in washing out a channel through the debris, the result being that from five to six feet of water could be found, and that barges and steamboats drawing four and a half feet of water could safely navigate the river, carrying on a barge 10,000 to 11,000 sacks of grain, when half that amount could not be carried a short time before.

The shippers and managers referred to proceed to express their confidence in Colonel Mendel's ability to permanently improve the river channels; and also bear testimony to the efficiency of W. P. Smith, the immediate superintendent of the work. They desire to help forward and encourage the work of clearing out the snags in the channel and building coffer dams wherever needed, to which end reasonable appropriations are desired from the government. They call the attention of the exchange, the chamber of commerce and of the public in general, to this subject.