WCP6628

[1]¹

Columbia

July 18^th1853

My dear Mother²

Agreeable to the request of all I send you a Daguerreotype of myself as I now am. I had commenced shaving before I thought ^{heard that} you would have wished to see me in my rough costume, but I now have ^probably more beard than would be considered necessary for a civilized christian [sic] — so that you view me in a medium state, gradually passing from the rough barbarian state of early Californian life to the more peaceful and mild state of civilization. as [sic] I am not a miner I could not properly appear in that character, but in the position which I now hold as chief Engineer to the "Tuolumne County Water Company" which is a company no way to be sneezed at, although it has not yet answ[ered] the sanguine expectations of some of its members — The stock of the company is however good and it is confidently anticipated that after this month when all our debt has been paid off that it will realize five or six per cent per month on the Capital stock which would be considered great interest in England but here it is thought to be rather small considering the nature of the work, as some of the much smaller works of the same kind have paid as much as fifty per cent per month on the first cost of the work[.]

I have no doubt the professional Daguerreotypists at home will severely criticise this american [sic] production of art but I do not think it can be taken as a specimen as in the mining Towns they have not the convenience[s] which are required to produce perfection. I should very much like to have a family picture in a group, yourself [,] Fanny³ & Alfred⁴ as a specimen of Thomas’s⁵ best style. [I] am glad to hear my brother in law is doing very well in his business[.] [2]

I hope to have a copy of Alfred’s work when published[.]⁶ The american [sic] people have an eye towards the Valley of the amazon [sic] and a surveying expedition has lately returned from thence and I believe there is a pamphlet published on the subject by Lt Murray (but I am not sure of the name)[.]⁷I am thankful for the information my Brother sent me in April last it was valuable to me and exactly what I wanted, my main objict⁸ being to get the method of calculating the amount of water discharged thro[ugh]’ a given channel at a given grade. I had observed that Theory could not be releid [sic] upon entirely — you seem to think we have fall enough to carry any amount of water but we could easily dispose of three times as much if we could only obtain it. In my quarterly report read at the meeting in June I stated the amount of water delivered to be 10 million Gallons every 24 hours[.] By the calculation you send I see it would make it about 11½ million — now [sic] considering that I had no accurate mode of calculation and scarcely any data to go upon I may congratulate myself upon my being so near the truth — and consider myself a considerable yankee at "guessing" —

You seem to have a wrong idea of our reservoir[.] What we have are used for holding the water that runs through the main channel during the night and on Sundays[,] so that we distribute the whole of the water that runs in the 24 hours during the day time. The water is of course drawn off from the bottom of the reservoir by means of a gate and a long wooden spout laid through the bottom of the dam so you’ll see there is no difficulty in getting the water out of the dam especially when we have the pressure of about 20ft head of water. we [sic] have again [been] unfortunate in our operations [3] lately — about [sic] 6 weeks ago one of our largest reservoir[s] situated about ½ a mile from the Town, suddenly burst just before day light in the morning and the whole rush of water mixed with mud along with logs, trees &c. came rushing through the centre of the Town filling several houses and carrying causing many serious and ludicrous scenes, damaging stores and provisions[,] wearing apparel and sundries, filling up miner[']s holes and carrying off their tools &c.[.] a [sic] committee was of our Company immediately formed to estimate the amount of damage sustained, by each individual and to make compensation &c.[.] the [sic] whole of amount ^{of damages} which we have paid for is eight thousand dollars, and there are a few small accounts yet unsettled. I had to set to work and construct a new dam which I got compleated⁹ in 3 weeks at a cost of little less than 4 Thousand dollars[.] This reservoir will hold about 8 million gallons of water[.] Since then we have had several breaks in the flume owing to blockage — So that I have been very busy, and have had scarcely an hour to myself for the last two months or sh[oul]^d have answer[e]d your letters sooner. my [sic] much[?] previous one was duly received with the account of the little female dog which was so mysteriously found and lost! do [sic] you know, hear or see anything of the spirit manifestations in England? it [sic] is all the rage here just now and numerous and wonderful are the revalations¹⁰ that they make out. I have not yet had an opportunity of testing or examining the subject, but from what I can hear, it appears to be a kind of mesmerism acting on on inanimate objicts, or a curious instance of mind acting on matter —

Having nothing more to add | I remain your affectionate son | J Wallace [signature]