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Show Record working. I have not seen men go very far up the river by boats be-cause it was too hard work and they would rather go out by trail. I can't say how far I have seen other men go up the river in boats, but we went up the river two or three times a distance of probably 3519 four or five miles. I have never gone up the river to Bluff. I rather think that Mr. Raplee was working claims on the San Juan River in 1893 and 1894. I was acquainted with Charles bullock, who was one of his partners. I recall having no personal contact with Mr. Raplee during that time. When we went down the river the first time Mr. Bullock and his partner were working in the river. 3520 They probably had a boat, but I wouldn't be sure and don't know personally. I recall some miners working in there who didn't have boats, but most of them had boats. While we were there we obtained our supplies overland from Bluff. Resuming his cross examination Mr. Mendenhall testified: 3521 In August 1894 I took a scow boat down from Bluff with some supplies. When we started down the river with our four boats they were fairly well loaded with supplies and we had our machinery and equipment. We figured that the material we had on the larger boat would weigh about a ton: the machine equipment would probably weigh eight or nine hundred pounds. The small boats had a less load than the large boat. When I was on the Colorado River in August or September, 3522 1907, there was some rapid water at and above Castle Creek. There was also some rapid water at a point below Cantle Creek. We had no trouble getting over that in our boat. From my knowledge of that stretch of stream between Castle Creek and Moab, I would say that you could take a reasonable load of supplies down that stretch of river. You could do that with a boat fourteen or fifteen feet long 3523 and three and a half or four feet wide. There might sometimes be difficulty in rafting over that stretch of stream, but there wouldn't be any difficulty if they always got into the current. There is always difficulty in going over any river that I have been on. |