St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1902-10-18
A PER1LoUS RIVER TRIP.
journey Down the Euphratcs ON
Inflated Skins.

1
journey Down the Euphratcs ON
Inflated Skins.
At the recent meeting of the Amer
lean Association for the Advance
ment of Science in Pittsburg, Els
worth Huntington described the re
markable trip he had recently com
pleted down the Euphrates on raft
constructed of inflated skins, being
the second trip of the kind ever
made, states an exchange of that
city.
Certain parts of the Enphrates
along its upper course, are still al
most unexplored. One of the least
known sections is where the river
after the junction of its two largest
branches, flows over great rapids
through the Taurus mountains in an
immense canyon.
In 1888 the great German general,
Won Moltke, foated down this part
of the stream on raft of inflated
sheepskins manned by Kurds, but the
rapids are SO formidable that for
over 60 years no other European Wis
tied the region.
I'm the spring of 1901" said MT
Huntington, with Prof. T. Il. Nor
ton, United States consul at Harput,
Turkey, I made the same journey
using q raft of inflated sheepsklns
manned by Armenian fishermen. For
the first 100 miles no great difficult
ties were met, although at one place
the Kurds threatened the party be-
cause the strangers foated past the
place where a Kurdish lord had the
right of ferriage. In another place
a crowd of Turkish villagers stoned
the raft because the Armenian fish
ermen had no fish to sell. In both
cases the natives refrained from fur
Their violence out of respect for the
fact that the travellers wore hats and
SO must be men of consequence.
1.-Two small canyons were ira
versed, the second of which, nearly
1000 feet deep, was the picturesque
home Of large herds of ibex. Below
this is holy mountain, with several
shrines, at one of which rises an i'm
mense square altar of rough stone
all covered with the gore of the
goats and sheep which are here Of
fered in sacrifice by both Christian
Armenians and Mohammedan Turks.
The main canyon is cleft through
the mountains to a depth of from
5000 to 5000 feet, and the contract
ed stream Numbered over rapid and
rapid between towering walls OF
frowning basalt or castellated buff
limestone.
1.-THE difficulties became greater
andgreateras the party foated swift
ly into the wilder parts of the. can
yon, where rapids were shot far
larger than those around whose port
ages had been made day or two
earlier. The raftsmen's nerves were
80 completely unstrung one night
that they dared neither shoot
the rapids nor climb the mountain
side to get help from the Kurds in
making portage.
''Next day the widest of all the rap
ids was reached. The raftsmen dared
not shoot it, and portage was out
of the question, so the Americans
decided to shoot it alone, in spite Of
the entreaties of the servants, who
fell on their knees and with tears in
their eyes begged them not to go to
certain death.
The raft shot into the rapids over
. long, smooth, fitting sheet Of
water; there was wild, exhilarating
slide, and the great waves broke over
the explorers, drenching than to the
skin; the raft whirled round and
round. Soon the danger was passed,
and the raft safely moored.
That night was spent on tiny
ledge between an overhanging preci-
pice and the water. The raftsmen
were still determined to be afraid of
something. If we sleep here said
one, the bears will come to the top
of the precipice and throw stones at
u.s.
''The next day was the last of the
journey. More rapids were shot and
in one of them a raftsman was
washed overheard, but his compan-
ions caught him. The journey lasted
seven days, because of the numerous
portages, although the actual time
occupied in floating on the river was
but 81 hours.'