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Show Record Bluff. I crossed the river at Mexican Hat probably a dozen times. The water there was about two feet deep. At Mexican Hat I did not ford the river at all. I crossed on the bridge near there. It was above Mexican Hat, between there and Bluff, where I used to 585 cross it. I crossed the river near Moonlight Creek twice, going over and then back, on horseback. It was the first part of May. It was during low water. The water was about up to a horse's belly. We had no difficulty with sudden rises of the San Juan River along the river itself. We observed some sudden rises along Moonlight Creek during the month of August we had quite heavy rains. At times it would come up in an hour or so and be running bank full after a heavy rain or cloud- burst and then go down in a few hours. When running bank full I would say the width of the creek was close 586 to 100 feet. At Bluff, Utah, the San Juan River spreads out over quite an area. The channel itself must be a quarter of a mile or more. The water varies back and forth, from one side to the other, on the flat. In the canyon below Chinle Creek the river is 50 to 100 feet wide. It is quite a steep, narrow canyon from Goodrich on down for quite a ways. The depth of the canyon would be 500 feet or more in 587 places. The distance from rim to rim is probably 1000 feet. rode along the rim of the canyon some. I did not see any boats while I was down there. I did not take any of my supplies in there by boat. Guy s. Newkirk testified on cross examination as follows: I reached Chinle Creek, at the time I was working there, the first part of July, 1923. I just passed through there in May. 588 My work continued until the first week in September. My expedition started from Shiprock, New Mexico, and in order to survey the ten mile strip on both sides of the river we had to have horses. I do not know whether all of that country we went over in making the survey had been winter ranged before my advent there. - 90- |