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Show 973 of a little rapid in the mouth of Moonlight [ Creek], there are no rapids; it is all sand. R. 2314. " Q How did you get along with the sand? " A We lacked a lot of having enough water. " Q How did you get your boat through? " A Walked and led it through; run on to a bar, get out and hunt a little deeper place, if we could. " Q When you were on the San Juan in 1895, did you ever encounter, or did you ever observe these things that have been referred to as sand waves? " A The largest sand waves I ever saw in my life was above the Mendenhall cabin; I think it was about February, 1895. Just before these sand waves there was an ice gorge at the head of the canyon, which stopped the flow of the river. " I got out along in the bed of the river and went up and down panning, thinking probably I could find a pocket of gold in there. " I crossed the river without getting my feet wet, because the river was dammed off. Finally, when this ice gorge broke, I know I moved my placer outfit twice, and then it carried part of it away, rose so high. " After the ice got through I went up about, I imagine, about half a mile above the Mendenhall cabin; that is the last work I did, was at the Mendenhall cabin; I went up about half a mile above there, and the waves, if they was an inch, they was ten feet high; I believe you could hear them a mile and a half or two miles away, when they would break. " When a sand wave breaks, it makes a great, roaring noise, and those were so big- " Q Was that on just one occasion? |