FORKS, any report dated June 30, 1897, of THUS : hillenden, Corps of Engineers U.S.A. Missouri River Commission. 105 Eng 55 2 APPENDIX X X. ANNUAL REPORT OF THE CALIFORNIA DÉBRIS COMMISSION FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1897. CALIFORNIA DÉBRIS COMMISSION, San Francisco, Cal., July 1, 1897. GENERAL: The California Débris Commission has the honor to submit the following, its fifth annual report: The Commission was created by act of Congress approved March 1, 1893. During the past year its members have been the following officers of the Corps of Engineers, viz: Col. Charles R. Suter, president, Maj. Charles E. L. B. Davis, and Capt. Cassius E. Gillette, secretary. The State Débris Commissioner, the Hon. John F. Kidder, has been present at most of the sessions of the Commission, and has accompanied its members in visiting hydraulic mines. Mr. Hubert Vischer, civil engineer, has been in the employ of the Commission throughout the year, inspecting the operations of mines working under permits from the Commission, and looking after illegal mining in the district under the Commission's jurisdiction. The jurisdiction of the Commission extends to hydraulic mining in the territory drained by the Sacramento and San Joaquin river systems in California. The duties of the Commission may be briefly stated to be: First, the prevention of such hydraulic mining as may be deemed injurious to the navigable waters within the Commission's jurisdiction, permitting, under proper regulation, such mining in cases where it can be carried on without such injury; second, to mature general plans for the improvement of the rivers whose navigability has been injured by hydraulic mining, and, if practicable, to devise general methods whereby such mining may be carried on without damage to the navigable waters. PREVENTION OF ILLEGAL MINING. In accordance with the opinion of the Attorney-General of the United States (Appendix A, House Ex. Doc. No. 11, Fifty-third Congress, third session), the Commission has, since the date of its last annual report (July 1, 1896), called the attention of the owners and operators of ten mines, which were being worked illegally, to the requirements of the law and the duties of the Commission in the matter. So far as known, these mines have been closed, and in five cases applications have subsequently been made to the Commission for permits to mine. These mines are all small. On June 8, 1897, the Commission received notice from the United States district attorney that the injunction suit requested by the Commission on December 4, 1894, against the North Bloomfield Mining Company, had been decided by Judge Ross of the United States circuit court in favor of the United States, and that the injunction had 3961 |