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Show Record of the party entered the boat and rowed through the Narrows with me. I had no difficulty in operating the boat in that stretch. 885 I did not run onto any sand bars. My next experience with a boat on the river, aside from rowing across the river once in a while, was through the canyon above Clay Hill crossing. The water was not in flood water stage, just a small rise, small sand waves, not of any consequence. At 886 this point our boats were loaded heavily. Prior to that time I had seen sand waves on the San Juan. On this same trip I saw Mr. Loper manipulate the boats in those stretches of water where there were sand waves. On this trip I remember one instance where I took a boat through a small rapid and it struck a rock and split from stem to 887 stern, due to faulty construction of the boat. The boat was re-paired. I operated the boat in crossing at different intervals. In Crossing at Clay Gulch there were heavy sand waves, possibly 3 or 4 feet high. I had ridden the boat through the stretch from Piute farms to Clay Gulch. At the mouth of Piute creek I took the 888 boat through rapids, that is rather swift water. We portaged the boat around a rapid about 11 miles above the mouth of the San Juan, and from there I took the boat to the Colorado River. This one place was the only other rapid, although I did not operate the boats above Clay Hill Crossing, once in a while my glance disclosed a boat was stuck on a sand bar. I don't know the extent, 890 of the difficulties, but there were some. At one place I recall we took our provisions out of the boat, and on that last stretch of the river I remember we struck many sand bars too. For the most part the river bed extends to the foot of the Talus slope. This Talus is strewn in a great many place with huge boulders, interspersed with clay or the finer debris. In some places the river reaches from one sheer wall to the other. In those places, however, we did not encounter any serious rapids. I do not think I saw any other boats on the river from - 125- |