The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-05-12
SOME TEXAS QUICKSANDS
THE WORK THEY MIKE FOR THE
 COWBOYS INTHE UTHWEST.

A River Bed that Swallows up Men and
 CattIe-A Crossing in Which What
 ever Hesitntes is Lost-RaiIroatl
 Tracks on Piiing That Moves With
 the Shifting Sands.
 Tascosa, Tex, March 23.--The Cana dian River which is one of the worst quicksand streams in the southwest, is for that reason one of the greatest sources of loss and annoyance to the cowmen who have cattle anywhere along the four hundred and odd miles of it's course. Thousands of cattle are lost in it's "bogs" every year, and thousands of dollars are spent in trying to keep the losses down to as few head as possi- ble; and besides annoying the cowmen it is source of danger and expense to the railroad companies that have bridges crossing it's treacherous bed. It is the bugbear and horror, too, of
 
 horseback or in a wagon, and at cer- tain seasons even the men who know it thoroughly fear to attempt crossing at the safest fords
 There are of course certain seasons when it is at it's worst, but as these are rather irregular, and as it is bad enough all the time it may be said that when there is water in it from one bank to the other any man who risks crossing 1t has one chance in ten of getting out to the other bank, for while then the water is not likely to be more than belly deep to his horse it Is so swift that the animal can scarcely keep his feet, and besides the bed of the ford, saturated with the flood rises and falls like the water but sinks under his weight, and sometimes cutting away beneath him, forces him to swim in current that has velocity of twenty miles per hour
 Of course, when it is that way no one goes near it unless he is compelled to do so but 1t is no rare thing for cowboys to be called on to cross it even when the flood is swimming all the way, and many a brave fellow has won himself the respect of all the country for swim ming it when there was need, and again many a brave fellow has been lost in 1t; drowned in the water and swallow ed by the sands Occasionally it is nec- essary to get across with wagon when the flood is running; as where trail outfit has cattle to deliver and cannot wait for the water to run down. In this event the herd is driven across, and if there is 1000 head or more they will pack the sand solid enough to make the passage of the wagon safe, provided, of course, the water is not too deep; but in any event, as soon as the herd Is on the other side the cowboys all hurry back to the wagon, and, tying their ropes either to it or to the teams hitch- ed to it, give the word to the team ster and dash in at a run, yelling and shooting to frighten the horses, while he whoops and whips at his mules and the big wagon bounds along, now nearly upsettng over the uneven places in the channel, now sinking to the bed in the water and swinging downstream with the current, but always moving rapidly over the course the cattle made for it. If a mule goes down in the harness there is no help for him, for it would be folly to stop the wagon. It would sink to the axles in half minute and in another the box would be washed away. If the animal can get to his feet, good enough, but if he cannot there are his three fel- lows to pull him and the wagon, with out counting the dozen or more trained rope horses that are each capable of pulling and are pulling 300 or 600 pounds apiece. If there should be a bad tan gle, so that the wagon has to be aban- doned, the boys will stay with it to the last; they will swing down in their sad dies among the struggling foundering mules and cut and slash to free them from the harness, but finally, when they have to give it up, they try, if there is time, to get their bedding out of the wa gon and, swinging it across the saddles, ride on out to the herd. The teamster. having no horse, catches a rope and is glad to have one of the boys drag him out
 At the same time the bridge gang for the Fort Worth and Denver railroad near this place. and that for the Sante Fe near Canadian City, are working like beavers to clear away the drift that banks up against the bridges and threatens to crush them off the totter- ing billings, for these are merely driven into the sand and rise and fall with the water. No trains cross at such times and even after the water has run down traffic is often held back a day or two to make everything safe.
 These floods, however, are never of l long duration, rarely lasting for more than two or three days, for in that time so great is the fall in the channel of the river, that every bit of it runs off food ing the low lands along the Red River | After the rise" is past the actual chan mel of the river dwindles down to little | creek not more than twenty or thirty | feet wide and a few inches deep winding l back and forth over the haf-mile wide | sands or sinking under them, but al- | ways flowing steadily away, so that | there are no pools or deep places any where.
 The "bogs" or quicksands are every where and there is no way of telling how deep or soft they are until one is | into them. There are some that are shaky but difficult to break through and if crossed quickly are as safe as hard ground. Practically the whole river bed, which is about half a mile wide