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<br />One of the most striking peculiarities of these rivers is that they rise downward.
<br />In April the Arkansas at Fort Dodge, is asandy bed, a fourth of a mile in width,
<br />and with possibly an average of three or four inches of water. In June, when the
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<br />mountains send forth their floods of melted snow, the river swells, the current
<br />increases in power, and washes out long channels in the sandy bed. When the banks
<br />show a rise of two feet the waters cut channels in the sand five or six feet deep, and
<br />covering probably a full third'of the distance from bank to bank. At these times the
<br />current may be said to be a huge wave of sand surging, rolling, turning; and shifting
<br />with incessant activity. Where there is six feet of water in the morning, there may by
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<br />noon be a bar with but an inch. By night the bar may be gone and a deep channel in
<br />its place. These channels are from ten !to thirty feet wide, with generally
<br />perpendicular sides. Some force will set a current in a particular direction across a
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<br />bar. In a few moments a channel from three to six feet deep is cut, through which the
<br />water pours as in a mill -race. A shift or change above diverts the current to some
<br />other direction, and in almost as few moments the recent channel is filled up to
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<br />within a few inches of the surface of the water. As the currents by turns set in almost
<br />every conceivable direction with reference to the general course of the stream, so the
<br />channels may be parallel, oblique, or even perpendicular to that general course. Even
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<br />leaving out of consideration the danger of quicksands, it can be readily seen that the
<br />crossing of such a stream is no child's -play. A good place of entrance being found,
<br />the horse and rider, stripped of every superfluous article, wade in. For a few paces
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<br />the horse steps along in water but a couple ofinches in depth. Without a moment's
<br />notice or preparatory deepening, his fore feet go down under him, and he plunges
<br />head first into swimming water with a tremendous current. He has hardly recovered
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<br />the shock, and struck out fairly in swimming, !before his chest strikes a wall of sand,
<br />on which, after many struggles and plunges, he finally succeeds in obtaining a
<br />footing. Again he walks on in shallow watet, again to be plunged suddenly into a
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<br />treacherous channel, again to scramble, plunge, and strain to get out of it. Imagine
<br />this done over and over again for twenty or thirty times, and with an infinity of
<br />variations, and an idea can be formed of the crossing of a plains river in high water.
<br />All the streams which come from the mountains are the same in this peculiarity"
<br />(Dodge 1877:22 -23).
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<br />Coues (1895 :435), while documenting Zebulon Pike's expedition of 1805 -1806, gives
<br />another account on river characteristics, from his observations in 1864, saying:
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<br />"Queer river that - -a great ditch, choke full of grassy islets, stretching through the
<br />treeless prairie like a spotted snake, some seasons so dry you can't wet your foot in it
<br />for miles, and have to dig for a drink, sometimes a raging flood 200 yards wide."
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<br />This Coues quote was utilized as testimony as to the; character of the Arkansas River before the
<br />U.S. Supreme Court in October 1904, in the intersta {e controversy of the Kansas — Colorado suit
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<br />(Steinel 1926:215 -217).
<br />Even the earliest reported floods in the Arkansas Valley had impacts on the early
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<br />occupants. In 1866, a spring ice jamb in the river near William Bent's "New Fort" backed
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