down the stream. The river, nearly
a mile wide, still ran with a powerful current; I ceased rowing and
drifted down, over waves much like those one would find on a lake
driven by a heavy wind. I saw some high poles and a heavy electric
cable stretched across the stream, and concluded that this was the
beginning of the dam. I began to look ahead for some sign of a barrier
across the stream, far below, but I could see nothing of the kind;
then as I neared the poles it suddenly dawned on me that there was no
raised barrier which diverted all the water through a sluice, but a
submerged dam, over which the flood poured, and that the poles were on
that dam.

My sail-like sunshade was dropped as quickly as I could do it, and,
grabbing the oars, I began to pull for the California shore.

It was fortunate for me that I happened to be comparatively near the
shore when I began rowing. As it was, I landed below the diverting
canal, and about a hundred yards above the dam. On examination the dam
proved to be a slope about fifty feet long. A man in charge of the
machinery controlling the gates told me that the dam lacked seven feet
of being a mile wide, and that approximately seven feet of water was
going over the entire dam.

Great cement blocks and rocks had been dropped promiscuously below the
dam to prevent it from being undermined. Even without the rocks it was
doubtful if an uncovered boat could go through without upsetting. The
great force of the water made a trough four or five feet lower than
the river level, all water coming down the slope shooting underneath,
while the river rolled back upstream. On two occasions boatmen had
been carried over the dam. In each case the boat was wrecked, but the
occupants were thrown out and escaped uninjured. I could not help but
be amused, and feel a little uncomfortable too, when I saw how nearly
I came to being wrecked here, after having escaped that fate in the
rapids of the canyons.

I ran my boat back to the diverting canal, then rowed down to the
massive cement gates, which looked to me like a small replica of some
of the locks on the Panama Canal. With the help of an Indian who was
ready for a job my boat was taken out, rolled around the buildings on
some sections of pipe, and slid over the bank into the canal below the
gates.

In spite of a desire to spend some time inspecting the machinery of
this great work,--which, with the canal and other improvements, had
cost the gover