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Show 524 between canyon walls, wouldn't it? " A The Colorado river can spread out between canyon walls by merely filling up its bed a few feet above where it is at the present time. " Q You said there was a leeway of about one hundred feet on each side, did you? " A Speaking generally, I should say the box canyon is eight hundred to a thousand feet, while the river surface is not more than six hundred, Moab to the junction, a distance, speaking from memory now, of, say, sixty- seven miles, the river has a fall of roughly sixty- seven feet. [ R. 1303] " It is an unescapeable law of nature that this river must create friction of sixty- seven feet, use up energy corresponding to a sixty- seven foot fall in going from Moab to the junction. If the fall were twice that great, it would be necessary for the river to create twice that much friction. The friction is an inverse function of the depth; the less the depth, the greater the friction per mile. " Therefore, with swift river flowing on a steep slope with an abundance of sand with which to build a bed, the steeper the slope the more shoal the river. We have experimental data on that, also. " Q The steeper the slope the more shoal the river? " A Yes sir. " Q And with a river flowing sluggishly, what with respect to that? |