Imperial Valley press., 1910-06-18

Nine men went down the Colorado in boat last week to find out for the water users of Imperial Valley-or such of them as are from Missouri just what the river has been doing and what it is likely to do in the delta This week the nine men walked, waded, swan and widowed out through the jungle and came home full of information and vast respect for the power of the Colorado in flood. The boat-three boats, to be exact did not come back. A gasoline launch and two row boats laden with blan kets and grub were abandoned in the Abejos, and if the river does not sink them and cover them with silt they may be useful to someone sometime.
 The party that left Yuma on the morning of June 10 consisted of Engineer c. K. Clarke, or the c. D.. Co.,, J, T. Rice, superintendent of Wa ter company No. 12, Raymond Satter- white, County Surveyor c. N. Perry, Supervisor Sydney McHarg, Engineer Frank Olmstead, Albert Robinson, Allen Kelly and Roy Jernagan. The last named is the owner and pilot of the launch. MT. Robinson is foreman of the C-M. cattle outfit below the line and knows the topography of the delta and the waterways better than any other man. He was persuaded to go as guide for the party. MT. Olmstead is collecting data on the canal system for Chief Engineer Hood, of the Southern Pacific, and joined the party to get an opportu- nifty to study the river conditions.
 From a point two or three miles below the lower heading, the party passed through ten or a dozen bores indicating cutting of the river bed and recession of grade. In some cases the rifle waves were three or four feet high, and occasionally it was necessary to cut loose the skiffs and take them around the rifles in shallow water in order to keep the launch under control while running the rapids and whirlpools. The ve- locity of the current was noticeably greater than it had been before the change in course to the gulf, and it became apparent that the launch which had made previous voyages to the gulf and back, would not be able to buck the current on a return trip until the flood should subside. The river was rising when the party left Yuma, and on Saturday was discharg- ing more than 67,000 second feet
 Camp was made Friday evening or the east bank upon a silt fiat that had been the bed of the old river al point some twenty-five or thirty miles below Yuma and just above the break into the Abejos, and the next morning the boats crossed the old channel and passed into the Abejos At the point of diversion into the new channel the river was found to be 1,7OO feet wide with two channels o swift water and a wide stretch O. shallow water somewhat choked witt snags and drift. The water was bor. ing constantly and the rifles were l
 shifting rapidly. A roaring rapiC would develop suddenly, toss anC foam for an hour or two and theI subside leaving a smooth stretch O swift water, and as the river rose the drift would be loosened and SC sailing down to join the jam below Green trees fell into the river witl caving banks at frequent intervals and some of them came down stream and lodged for a while in the shadows The Abejos cut was through a fores of cottonwoods and willows, and al the timber swept away is in the biz jam down in the delta, holding thu flood waters back from the Pescadol and turning them into Volcano lak' by way of a channel bearing wes by north.
 During Saturday forenoon the engi neers explored the right bank of th'