| OCR Text |
Show Record across the divide between Piute and Nokai Canyons, putting our boat in the heavy brush when we left. The Indian that took us down had gone back with his horses and we had arranged to have him come in when we finished our work and haul our camp out. We reached our camp before the time set for his arrival. 3508 Whenever we were on the San Juan River we would note the sand wave condition, a characteristic feature of that stream. I do not think I ever saw sand waves rise more than three feet, although they might have reached a height of four feet. I have seen similar waves on the Colorado River, but not nearly as pro-nounced. For the most part the sand waves I have observed on the Colorado were below the mouth of the San Juan River. As I recall, 3509 these sand waves break both up and downstream. They get up to a certain height and then break and settle down and the water becomes reasonably clear again; then the process starts over again. The sand waves occur generally whenever floods come down, and after the river has run for a while at normal stage the sand waves subside more or less. It is only in the flood periods that they are most active, either in the summer or spring floods, although they are not as abundant or as marked in the spring floods as in the summer floods. They appear after the floods and follow the subsiding of the water. I have experienced sand storms of about 3510 the same character on the San Juan and Colorado Rivers. Perhaps they are a little more dense in the vicinity of Bluff and Mexican Hat then on the Colorado because the winds blow over a wider expanse of sandy desert; sometimes they will last for two or three days, but those are generally no so severe as the storms that last only a day. I have seen them start at eight or nine o'clock in the morning and by eleven o'clock obscure the sun, and they may continue until four o'clock in the afternoon. They are more common in the spring than at other times, although I have seen them in the late summer or early fall. In response to questions propounded by the Special Master |
