OCR Text |
Show 161 , According to ( many inany ) witnesses , whose ( knowledge hnoNvIedge ) of this part of the river reaches back for a long period , the depth of the water at ordinary stages ( lias has ) come to be less than it was from 1850 to 1870 , when they first ( knew Imew ) it . Portions of the banks have been swept away and sand in great ( quanti- quanti ) ties has been brought downstream , ( making malchig ) the river wider and shallower than at the time of the navigation just mentioned . Additional information as to the kind , character , and purpose of boats actually used on the Red River have been digested from the abstract of the record and are set forth in pages 205-219 of ( appeil- appeil ) dix to this brief . It also appears from the opinion that Congress had from ( time thne ) to time appropriated large sums of money to improve the river . A practical ( commer- commer ) cial use for ( navigation iiavigation ) as distinguished from a ( the- the ) oretical or an exceptional use , ( impressed hiipressed ) the court as a test of navigability ( page 591 ) . While the evidence relating to the part of the river in the eastern half of the State is not so conclusive against navigability as that ( relating relathig ) to the western section , we think it establishes that trade and travel neither do nor can move over that part of the river , in its natural ( and aild ) ordinary c ( 'ondition ondition ) , ( accord accord- accord ) ing to the modes of trade and travel ( custom cuo-tom- cuotom ) ary on water ; in other ( words ivords ) , that it is neither used , nor susceptible of being used , , in its natural and ordinary condition as a highway for commerce . Its characteristics |