OCR Text |
Show 987 meant two. We had three boats from the mouth of the San Juan on, but not through the San Juan." R. 2340. From Lees Ferry he returned in a motor boat, equipped with a stern wheel, with a Sterling engine, and with a Ford differential. The boat was about twenty- five feet long, and six feet wide. The boat was a square nose scow boat. It carried six or seven persons, and while it could have probably carried ten or twelve altogether, the number that went on the trip was all that it would hold comfortably. In going down the river with the row boats the difficulties consisted principally of the sand bars, as the water was very low at the time, " and we ran on to a few sandbars; that is about all". R. 2341. The greatest difficulty with sand was above the mouth of Navajo Creek, which is just over the Utah line in Arizona. R. 2341- 2342. Mr. Marrs was in charge of the motor boat coming up the river from Lees Ferry and the trip up consumed about four days. " Q Did you encounter any difficulties coming up? " A Yes; at the Last Chance creek was our most serious problem, just above Last Chance creek, at the channel crossing; I think there was six of us besides the engineer or the pilot, and the six of us got out in the river and waded back and forth trying to find a channel, and we would get in knee deep, or a little over, we would shout, ' I have got it', then we would start up the river and walk out of the water. " That continued that way until we couldn't find a channel big enough, but they got three men on each side of that boat, and the boat running, and we finally worked it over that sandbar. " And there was two rapids, not bad rapids, just rock |