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Show 79 that exceeding care is needed to keep the boat from pilling up on the rocks. therefore, it is necessary for men to wade out into the water and lead the boat around, haul it around, etc. There is always danger that the force of the current will, as they say, get the " bulge" on the boat; that is, that the force of the current coming between the shore and the bow. Then your boat turns back and goes toward the middle of the stream, and then it is dashed back on the rocks. Nearly all of the boats that have been wrecked on the river, so far as I know, have been wrecked by being caught in holes or whirlpools while lining along the large rapids. It is an extremely difficult and dangerous operation, and not at all what it might seem simply to let them down along the shore. Q Now, take the first one of these five instances in which you lined the boats. Do you recall what aggregate distance you thus lined them to get by that rapids? A I remember fairly well, because we always unloaded the boats when we lined them. We had to carry our stuff along this rocky shore. We had to carry our stuff at that point a half or three- quarters of a mile. Q A half or three- quarters of a mile. Did you have the boats lined during that half or three- quarters of a mile-- clear down the entire distance that you saw fit to carry your supplies? A Yes, we lined our boats down to the lower end of the rapids. 2039 |
