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Show 503 even when the river was running in a straight course? " A. Yes sir; these waves did not cover a long stretch of river. The curvature of the river was not very essential. " Q. That was not caused by a bend? " A. No; the waves were in general at an angle of about forty- five degrees, perhaps I should have said with the current. " We had a skiff with a freeboard of about one foot, and the length of the skiff being about sixteen feet, using those as measures. " I estimated that from crest to crest, some of the worst of these waves was not more than ten or twelve feet; it was not as much as the length of the skiff; and that the height of the waves-- of the crest of the wave above the trough was fully three feet. [ R. 1261.] " Q. You say that is some of the worst ones. What were the normal ones? " A. Well, they ran from that down to the point where we had nothing but the chop. " This smooth, undulatory form lasted only a very short time, I should imagine it was considerably less than a minute, perhaps not more than thirty seconds; then they broke, breaking up stream, and in another few seconds they disappeared, and we had the choppy form. " I didn't succeed in timing that cycle, but one of our camps was within hearing of one of those sand waves |