64 WAITING IN THE WILDERNESS . 



of its nicknames is "Old Muddy." It is so 

 charged with liquid mud that it gives colour to 

 the Mississippi after joining forces with it at 

 St. Louis. Most months of the year the lower 

 thousand miles of the Missouri-Mississippi chan- 

 nel are badly clogged with sand bars made up of 

 stuff washed off mountains, plains, and the 

 river banks. The water carries more than a 

 pint of mud sediment to each gallon. 



In going through a rapid in the Grand Canon 

 of the Colorado my boat struck a rock and 

 turned turtle. So did I, more than I wanted. 

 There are two or more pounds of sediment in 

 each gallon of the Colorado River and my 

 clothes seemed to take on many pounds of this 

 in addition to the usual quantity of water 

 which is taken up when one tumbles in with 

 clothes on. I was lucky to strike shallow water, 

 for, although I could swim, I could hardly keep 

 my nose above the surface because of the weight 

 of sediment. 



The Grand Canon of the Colorado is from six 

 to twelve miles across and in places a mile deep. 

 All this vast canon was washed out by running 

 water. And much other sediment was washed 

 through it. The mud which I scraped from my 

 clothes was in part from off plateaus and peaks 

 hundreds of miles upstream. 



Climbing upon a boulder I took off my clothes 



