Show r i TRICKY RIO EIO GRANDE GEANDE MINING MANS MAN'S EXPERIENCE WITH THE RIVER RIVER Narrow Escape From Loss of Working Working Work Work- ing Materials and Life Taught HIm Two Lessons Lessons Advice Advice of Timer Old Timer Old Saved the Situation To give you an idea of ot what sort of river the Rio Grande Is Ill I'll tell teW an experience that I 1 ha haI in getting across It with a derrick said Raymond Raymond Raymond Ray Ray- mond McDougall a mining man from New Mexico I was a contractor In rock work in those days and was taking taking tak tak- iI ing g my derrick from the east side of the river to the Magdalenas The derrIck derrick derrick der der- rick was on four wagon wheels and four mules were hauling it I had my two helpers along and one of them drove two mules He was an old- old timer which was lucky and if I had trusted to my own judgment I might have made a mistake that would have cost me my mules and derrick if not I my life We reached the Rio Grande an hour before sundown and I saw a a. wide river bed but no water water only only dry sand from one bank to the theother other It was a a. new kind of river to me but my driver said that it was all right right right- that it was-a was way the Rio llio Grande had The fhe water was there only it was flowing flowing flow flow- ing through the sands under the Channel hannel instead d of in it I being a a. tenderfoot was for for- camping on the nearer bank where the grass was good but McCartney the driver said that would never do unless I was willIng willing willing will will- ing to take my chances of staying there a week or two that water sometimes sometimes sometimes some some- times came down the channel a good deal of it and It would be well to get across while we were sure that we we could We started across over the dry sands and I was thinking what an easy way it was of fording a river when of a sudden the two lead mules mule's were floundering in a quicksand and the wh whole le outfit came near being dr drawn wn in We got the two leaders clear of the harness and the other two mules drew them out one at a time We Wee hitched them up up again and by making a long circuit got past the quicksand and to the other bank By that time it was 10 o'clock and the moon had risen The mules had just begun to climb the bank when we heard a roaring noise up the chan chan- nel It came from tram a wall of water that stretched f from m bank to bank and was traveling toward us fast It looked in the moonlight to be four feet high and there thera was high water behind sending it on We didn't need to to holler to the mules They heard what was coming and clawed up the bank like cats We got out all right derrick and andall all and all and there was not three minutes to spare Before we had finished our supper the river r was full bank high with a torrent that eddied and roared as it rushed past our camping place placa as if It bad had been sorry to miss us and would like to get up where we were There was not a cloud in the sky or a a. sign of rain anywhere and the flood may mar have come from a cloudburst in Colorado miles away But it came near getting usI usI usI us I hr hC he learned one lesson and that was in traveling by wagon always to camp amp on the farther side of a stream And I had learned to put no trust In Inthe Inthe inthe the Rio Grande |