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Show Record and watch the water for our channel; where you had gone the day before you were very liable to be grounded. That condition held generally true. The water level of the river changes up 2993 and down. The most rapid changes seemed to be in July and August, when he had thunder storms and there would be a quick rise of a foot or two and a drop. That is the time when we encountered the greatest trouble with bars. The streams coming in from the side carry more silt and the change in the speed of the current starts the shift of the bottom of the river. I have ridden on horseback from Moab down to a point on the east side of the river from the 2994 Frank Shafer well. I have forded the low water. Our greatest difficulty is at points where bars cross the river completely, mak-ing it shallow all the way; especially in warm weather I would get out and wade the stream with an oar, clear across, and pick out a place where the water might be a little bit deeper and where I might get my boat through without too much trouble. I generally found a place where it was a trifle deeper, but in those places where there was not a channel it was always shallow water and your boat would drag and it was just a question of working your way through. John L. Dugan testified on cross examination as follows: From former experience I knew the spot where the channel would pinch out on us and be shallow all the way across; and we 2995 generally tried to go through a point where we had gone through before. Notwithstanding the fact that I became familiar with the characteristic of which I am speaking, I would get our and walk clear across the river to try to find a place. We practically always found a place where we could get a boat through, but it was very limited and very shallow water all the way across. I only rode from Moab down to the place on the east side of the river 2996 from Frank Shafer well twice. It was approximately twenty- two miles from the Frank Shafer camp to Moab by the river, and from 400 |