62 WAITING IN THE WILDERNESS 



the Union the state geologist may be able to 

 tell in what region to look for pirates. 



In placer and hydraulic mining enormous 

 sections are washed from the mountain sides. 

 This is done both by turning the high-pressure 

 water from hoses against the earth and by carry- 

 ing a quantity of water along ditch and flume, 

 then flooding. This uncovers gold. But so 

 enormous is the quantity of wreckage gravel and 

 sand washed into stream channels that a number 

 of states have laws on their statute books to 

 regulate this kind of mining. 



That pirate rivers and all other rivers were 

 washing off the surface of the earth and carrying 

 it away to the sea seems not until this time to 

 have interested me. 



But one evening while boating down the Mis- 

 souri River the splash from a bank cave-in upset 

 my boat and I took dry clothes and supper with a 

 family who lived near by on the river side. I 

 told the boy at this place that the Missouri had 

 been a pirate. He was all excited, while I went 

 on to say that most of the rain which falls on land 

 runs back into the ocean through rivers. Here 

 the water evaporates, forms clouds which sail 

 back over the land as airships and pour down the 

 rain so frequently that the rivers are kept going 

 day and night. 



Robert Robert Peters was older than I. 



