OCR Text |
Show Record During the time of the floods there is a great deal of sand and sediment that comes down the river. I have seen it when it choked the river off entirely at Cottonwood, between Montezuma and Bluff on the south side of the river. I do not know what effect this discharge of sand has on the river bed. It will take 621 the river some 5 or 6 days to clean it up and wash it out. Mud balls are formed where a small clay bank caves in and the water in a flood will start it rolling and it will pick up other pieces of clay, and it will get as big as the front wheel of a wagon. They are sometimes composed of cobble rock, clay and sand, and they last longer than the loose sand; but in time the river cleans that all out and gets back to its natural channel. There are a good many sand bars in that section of the San Juan River. They are not stable. They often change in an hour. There are some rapids in the San Juan River below Bluff. There is a rapid in the upper canyon below the mouth of the Chinle 622 and at the mouth of Gypsum Creek, and there are rapids at intervals all down the river. The only rapid I have crossed was on horseback 623 at the mouth of Gypsum Creek, that is one of our regular fords. I have never taken a boat through a rapid. I was never through the river anywhere in a boat. I am describing the rapids from what I saw from the rim of the canyon. It is very sparsely populated. Three years ago the population of Blanding was estimated at 900 and Monticello 300. The rest of 624 the population is around on the ranches. I would say there are 625 20 families living East of Monticello. During the time I have lived there no families have lived west of Mexican Hat. It is not the character of country that will support a population. I have had experience with sand storms on the San Juan River. That section of the country is a drift sand country. The sand 626 storms come up suddenly. A large quantity of the sand is deposited in the San Juan River. I have had trouble with quick sand in the San Juan. My experience has been that very often our stock will get bogged down in the quick sand on the upper bars in approaching the |