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Show Record ( Exhibit No. 14) that our descent from Gunnison Crossing to the head of Cataract Canyon was without a rapid worth recording was correct from our point of view. Some one else might think there was a rapid, but we did not, and there was no rapid that bothered us throughout that stretch of the river. Except for sand bars 1576 that stretch of water was quiet and easy sailing. We had no serious difficulty, but occasionally we would strike a sand bar and have to get out and wade along. We had never been over that river before and at times had difficulty in locating the channel, and when we got on a sand bar we would push off and get into deeper water, which at times was a long ways off, but we had no serious delay or mishap. I remember no trouble with sand bars through Still Water 1577 Canyon, but we had considerable trouble in Labyrinth. I do not wish to intimate that we spent most of our time on sand bars in Labyrinth Canyon, or anything of that kind. Every hour or so we 1578 would strike a sand bar there. My present memory would be that on one or two occasions we were compelled to walk as much as a quarter of a mile to reach deeper water. When I wrote my book I was not thinking about sand bars; they didn't hurt the boats and we did not consider them of any particular importance, except that they retarded our progress. It is true, as stated on page 139 of my book ( Exhibit 14) that the stretch of river over which we passed after we got through Cataract Canyon was at low water stage, which caused many shoals, forming small rapids, which would compel us to wade alongside to lighten the boats, but otherwise these places 1580 were easy; and it is also true, as there stated in my book, that a trifle more water would have done away with the sand bars, or at least would have enabled us to ignore them completely. I don't know whether that would have also been true of Labyrinth Canyon, but I think it would have taken considerably more water to fill Laby-rinth Canyon, so that we wouldn't have been bothered by sand bars. 1581 I do not remember any sand bars in the Colorado River after we 206 |
