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Show Record ways. I think we went an eighth of a mile before we got so it was absolutely clear and could go on down the river. The channel of the river shifts sometimes. As a general thing the shift occurs in high water or immediately after high water, when it begins to go down. If there is some obstruc-tion a kind of a corner of the river coming down, it causes the current to cross. Perhaps it will shift over one- third or half 3219 of the distance of the river. I know two or three islands that had oaks and willows on them that disappeared. These shifts of the channel would work pretty fast. In one night the current will go back a good many feet and stuff will cave in, and this will go on until bed rock is struck. The current causes whirls, which go against the bank. In making my trips up and downstream to which I have referred, I did not always find the channel in the same place; I have known it to change from one side to the other, and I have known it to make such changes between the times I was there. 3220 I have been on the San Juan River; I have been up to Bluff a number of times, but only along the San Juan River in the neighborhood of Bluff and at its mouth and up from the mouth about twelve miles. In response to a question propounded by the Special Master, Frank Bennett testified that he has been on the water up the San Juan River to a point about twelve miles above its mouth. Resuming his direct examination Frank Bennett continued: I was first on the San Juan River I believe in 1900, October, going to Bluff City and thence down to Barrett Station, about twelve miles below Bluff City, where there used to be a 3221 trading post; I went with a pack outfit, leaving the river at Barrett Station. At Barrett Station there was quite a little stream of water; it was small; at Bluff there was quite a little stream and also below Barrett. I went down to the bed of the 438 |
