Photo by Kolb Brothers 

 AT rut MOUTH OF THE COLORADO RIVER, IN MEXICO 



flated and close at hand. We preferred 

 this type of preserver to the cork on ac- 

 count of its light weight. For the same 

 reason we had inflated mattresses with 

 our sleeping bags. They saved carrying 

 a lot of extra bed clothing, and could be 

 thrown on the wet sand or rocky, uneven 

 ground, and we could enjoy a comfort- 

 able night's rest. Even in their protect- 

 ing sacks of rubber and canvas they 

 looked very small when compared with 

 the beds usually carried by the cattlemen 

 and other men of the open. 



We always kept a change of dry cloth- 

 ing and sometimes the films from the 

 motion-picture camera in the bed, and as 

 soon as the camp-fire was started a quick 

 change was made, and the wet clothing 

 was scattered on rocks or hung on lines 

 close to the fire. They seldom dried en- 



tirely, and it was anything but pleasant 

 to crawl into them the next morning. 



When choosing a camp, the first thing 

 to be considered was driftwood, as noth- 

 ing but a little mesquite grew in these 

 lower canyons. A flood which had come 

 down when we were in Lodore had car- 

 ried most of the wood out with it, and it 

 sometimes was very difficult to find all 

 we needed. For this reason, if we found 

 a good camp after 4 p. m., we usually 

 took it. The second consideration was a 

 quiet place to tie our boats. Both boats 

 had been rubbed against rocks in one or 

 two places until they were nearly worn 

 through. The last thing we thought of 

 was a place to throw our beds. A ledge 

 in the rocks, an overhanging wall, an oc- 

 casional cave, but usually a bed in the 

 sand, shoveled out to fit our beds, were 



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