| OCR Text |
Show 180 Special Master were the average depths as be found them. R. 409. He saw the river every year during the forty years he lived at Bluff and he lived right near the river. R. 409- 410. " Q. How would you say that the appearance of the river on the occasions when you forded it and formed this judgment as to depths, compares with the appearance of the river in other years as to the volume of water? " A. Well, the river varies so, some places it is scattered out wide and other places it is confined in a narrow channel, and you couldn't hardly take a guess at it, but wherever I have ford-ed it and the river is fairly well confined, it has been from two to four feet". R. 410. During the forty years he lived there he has forded the river many times during low water some years. He doesn't suppose there was a year that he lived there that he did not for the river. He has gone over the river on horse back where there were wide stretches up and down for a mile or two near Bluff where the river spreads out. Some places it is five hundred feet wide and has occurred since he went to Bluff. At these wide places he has forded the river there were times when he did not go through water that was two or three feet deep. " It has been spread out wide enough so that it wouldn't be that deep, but it would be on a ford". R. 411- 412. The ford wasn't on the shallowest place as it is shallower where it spreads out and they usually didn't try to ford there on account of the quick sand. He couldn't tell what is the shallowest water he has ever forded when he has gone across the San Juan. R. 413. He has forded it sometimes when |
