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Show Record der lines. It had an Evenrude motor and was about a sixteen foot, round bottom boat, drawing ten to twelve inches with a 2833 light load. We were frequently delayed in striking sand bars; also in shearing off propellers when we struck submerged rocks close to the shore. That was a source of trouble all the time in the working parts of the motor that were submerged. The propeller blades would stir up the sand and the abrasive particles would wear on the bearings and wear off the and of the propeller; I believe it required the replacement of one propeller blade during the 1926 season. The lowering of the water would tend to force it into a more definite channel. During the infrequent rises in the river the water would cover the bars and it would be almost impossible to find a definite channel. From time to time I noticed changes in the channel on our trips up and down the 2834 river where we frequently followed one channel. Sometimes these changes occurred within twenty- four hours, and sometimes the channel would be the same during the entire period we were there. In warm weather when we got stuck on a sand bar we would simply go over and pull ourselves off the bar and back into deep water; in the cold weather we were inclined to stay in the boat more and try to push ourselves off, and if that didn't work would have to get out and lift the boat off. Our boat had a sharp keel, which would settle down pretty deep into the bars when it would hit them. 2835 The surface width of the water in 1926 would be from three to four hundred feet; in some places it would exceed that, but that is probably an average. I once waded the river at the mouth of Mill Greek before we had a boat available, and the maximum depth there was about thigh deep. The current there was probably five or six miles an hour but offered no resistence to wading. In 1927 I pur-posely came down the last of August or first week of September be- 2836 cause we usually struck the low water stage at that time. I don't remember whether I went down from Moab in a big or little boat of 376 |