San Juan River

“ There's a big flatboat at the Durango crossing. I'll go down the San Juan in that—into the big river. I'll drift down by day, tie up by night, and watch for you at the mouth of every canyon till I come to Nonnezoshe Boco.”
Shefford could not believe the evidence of his ears. He knew the treacherous San Juan River. He had heard of the great, sweeping, terrible red Colorado and its roaring rapids.
“Oh, it seems impossible!” he gasped. “You'll just lose your life for nothing.”
“The Indian will turn the trick, I tell you. Take my hunch. It's nothing for me to drift down a swift river. ”

“ The San Juan district is remarkably situated in its geographical relations. This river, rising in the crests of the high mountains forming the water-shed or divide between the Atlantic and Pacific, flows southward until it enters the table-land formation, through which it flows in a southwesterly and then northwesterly direction, making a long, sweeping curve in New Mexico and Arizona, after which it runs westerly to its confluence with the Colorado. ”

“ Here we found that the river forks,--the principal branch, however, which retains the name of Goascoran, still preserving its general course north and south. The smaller branch, called Rio de San Juan, descends from high mountains to the westward, having its rise, we were told, near the secluded Indian pueblos of Similaton and Opotoro. We found the elevation of San Juan to be nine hundred feet above the sea,--an altitude sufficiently great, combined with the proximity of the Cordilleras, to give it a generally cool and delightful climate. ”

“ The San Juan has built a large delta at its mouth, and is navigable for a distance of 140 m. inland, the river flowing parallel with the coast for a long distance instead of crossing the coastal plain. It rises in the angle between the Western Cordillera and a low transverse ridge connecting it with the Baudo coast range, and flows westward down to the valley between the two ranges, and then southward through this valley to about lat. 4° 15′ N., where it turns sharply westward and crosses a narrow belt of lowland to the coast. ”

“ Next morning, an hour after sunrise, through the blaze of light striking the Pacific across the far-off Californlan coast, San Juan showed like a flake of spar on the horizon to southward.
The sea all there is of an impossible blueness, the Pacific blue deepened by the Kuro Shiwo current, that mysterious river of the sea which floods up the coast of Japan, crosses the Pacific towards Alaska, and sweeps down the West American seaboard to fan out and lose itself away down somewhere off Chile. ”

“ A single dam across the San Juan River, 1,250 feet long and averaging 61 feet high, between two steep hills, will insure navigable water, of sufficient depth and width for the commerce of the world, to a length of 120 miles. ”

“ The principal tributaries to these streams from the east are the White, the Grand, and the San Juan Rivers—all rising in the high mountains east of the Territory and flowing in a general westerly course—the White entering the Green River, the Grand uniting with the Green to form the Colorado, and the San Juan entering the latter about 125 miles below the junction of the Grand and the Green. The Virgin, the Kanab, the Paria, the Escalante, the Fremont, the San Rafael, the Price, the Minnie Maud, the Uinta, and Ashley Fork are the principal tributaries from the west. ”

“ At what possible expense could the absolute security of these great dikes be assured?
To continue: we enter the San Juan River, kept in bounds by a large dam, which, however, is not enough to assure everywhere sufficient depth of water in the shallowest parts; where there is not depth enough it would be necessary to blow up or excavate by dredges a channel one hundred metres wide by eight and a half metres deep. To make this channel would be difficult, to maintain it against what would constantly come in to fill it up might be still more so. ”

“ We were soon on board, and passing around a point, were floating down the San Juan river at the rate of five knots. After a two hour’s run our boatmen unshipped their oars, and commenced gambling; we were borne along by the current, at the rate of two miles an hour, until toward evening, when the oars were again manned. At nine in the evening, the roar of the water admonished us that we were approaching the Castilian rapids, and we came to anchor. The natives have a dread of this rapid, and in passing it feel that their lives are in imminent peril ”

“ The heaviest piece of work on the canal is a rock cut through the “divide” on the eastern portion of the summit level, commencing about four miles to the west of lock No. 3. This cut is about 2·9 miles long and the average depth is about 150 feet, involving a removal of about 2,150,000 cubic yards of earth, and 7,500,000 cubic yards of rock.
Lake Nicaragua has a watershed of 8000 miles. The only outlet of the lake is the San Juan river, which discharges, at its lowest stage, near the close of the dry season, 11,390 cubic feet of water per second. ”

“ There were six days of desert travelling to the port of San Juan, without a house on the road, but mountains to cross and rivers to ford. The whole party was to go on foot except myself; four extra men would be needed to pass my mule over some difficult places, and there was always more or less rain. San Juan was a collection of miserable huts, and from that place it was necessary to embark in a bungo for ten or fifteen days on an unhealthy river. ”

“ At San Juan, as in all other pueblos, the old adobe church, with its absurdly barbaric furniture and uncouth appearance, is a center of interest. Climbing the rickety ladder to its little gallery, and thence ascending to the roof, one gets the best idea of how valuable a garden spot this district is. As far as the eye can reach, up and down the river, stretch farms and orchards and plazitas. ”

“ In the interior of Choco, the ravine of the Raspadura unites the sources of the river Noanama (or San Juan) with the river Quito, which forms, with the Andegada and the Zitara, the considerable river Atrato. The river San Juan flows into the South Sea, and a monk of the village of Zitara, caused his flock to dig a small canal in the ravine above mentioned, by which, when the rains are abundant and the rivers overflow, canoes loaded with cacao, pass from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. ”

“ The bed of the Colorado river above the mouth of the San Juan is found to be more gravelly than that of the Green and Grand rivers. There are, however, long high side bars of sand and gravel on which placer mining has been done and also a few sandbars or bottoms which have been cultivated. Crossing bars, occur, but not as frequently as on the Green and Grand rivers, and they cause less trouble. After the recession of the water at the end of the high-water season, the channel remains more or less stable during the rest of the year, although there are temporary changes. ”

“ It flows through the Lake of Izabal, and, as the Rio Dulce, empties into the Gulf of Amatique over a bar of sand. The Motagua is nearly parallel to the Polochic, and rises near Santa Cruz del Quiché. From Gualan it is navigable in canoes. Smaller streams are the Ulúa, Aguan, and Segovia in Spanish Honduras, which are navigable for pitpans. Finally we have the San Juan, known as one of the elements of the “Nicaragua Canal” route, but not at present navigable for boats of any size.
All the rivers of Central America that can be used for commerce require a special river service ”

“ Unfortunately, the Animas is one of the river valleys in the San Juan drainage which has not been particularly well surveyed or investigated archeologically. Accounts by early settlers, and passing references in some of Morris’ reports, indicate that in aboriginal times (certainly during Pueblo times) , the valley was no doubt heavily populated. It should have been. Good water is readily available in the river and the climate is healthful; prehistorically, game must have abounded in the nearby foothills and mountains. ”

“ The travellers, towing the bearskin boat behind the Buchanan, passed the mouth of Cañon Bonito, and soon afterward beheld the San Juan swallowed up in the Grand River, a far larger stream which rises in the Rocky Mountains east of Utah. They swept by the horrible country of the Utes and Payoches, without holding intercourse with its squalid and savage inhabitants. ”

“ The largest river on the Pacific side is the San Juan, being navigable for 150 of its 200 or more miles. The rivers emptying into the Amazon are navigable for canoes and lighters, but are so remote and in such a sparsely populated region as to be negligible quantities in this connection.
Agricultural experts estimate that only one-third of Colombia is susceptible of cultivation, the eastern part being swampy and the high mountain lands incapable of sustaining any growth, especially at an elevation of 13,000 feet. The belt of coast lands with the plateau regions can be made highly productive. ”

“ Beyond these Indians there are other lands inhabited by warlike tribes, and the river of San Juan, which is marvellously rich, flows through them. These people have their houses fastened in trees. There are many other rivers, all rich in gold, the banks of which are inhabited by Indians, but they cannot be conquered because the land is covered with forests which are impenetrable, nor can the rivers be crossed without boats. The houses are very large, for each one contains twenty or thirty inhabitants. ”

“ To go from San Fernando to the villages of San Juan de Payara, San Rafael de Atamaica, or San Francisco de Capanaparo, they direct their course due south, as if they were crossing a single river of twenty leagues broad. The junctions of the Guarico, the Apure, the Cabullare, and the Arauca with the Orinoco, form, at a hundred and sixty leagues from the coast of Guiana, a kind of interior delta, of which hydrography furnishes few examples in the Old World. ”

“ Hollenbeck, of Greytown, had placed on the lake to convey passengers and goods between Granada and San Carlos, at the head of the river San Juan. We arrived at San Ubaldo at two o'clock, and found our mules safe but foot-sore, through travelling over the rocky hills from Santo Claro. The San Jose plains were in a dreadfully muddy state, and for five miles we went plunging through the swamps. Most of the mules fell several times, and we had great difficulty in getting them up again. ”

“ At the outlet of the cañon the river turns westward, flowing for a time nearly parallel with the San Juan, which it joins very nearly at the corner of the four territories. Many groups of walls and heaps were visible in the distance down the valley, but the explorers left the river at this point and bore away to 726 the right along the foot of the mesa until they reached Aztec Spring, very near the boundary line. "Immediately adjoining the spring, on the right, as we face it from below, is the ruin of a great massive structure of some kind, about one hundred feet square in exterior dimensions ”

“ We were glad of the opportunity to examine this singular place, and hauling the boat up, and making her well fast, took different directions up and down the beach, to explore it.
San Juan is the only romantic spot on the coast. The country here for several miles is high table-land, running boldly to the shore, and breaking off in a steep cliff, at the foot of which the waters of the Pacific are constantly dashing. For several miles the water washes the very base of the hill, or breaks upon ledges and fragments of rocks which run out into the sea. ”

“ San Juan, where we passed a miserable week, is, even after seeing San Carlos, one of the most uninteresting places that can be imagined. The land is even flatter than the sea. It is a low sandy plain, just rising above the water, agreeably diversified with stagnant marshes, and hemmed in by unwholesome-looking forests. A few mushroom houses seem to have sprung up out of the sand, and among them three or four hotels, of the same board and shingle pattern that is so odious even in its native New England. ”

“ The robbers are of their complexion, but not of their nature. These are getting less and less. They were created by poverty and politics, and with the cessation of pronunciamentos and the coming in of railroads they will die. The Valley of San Juan is one of the loveliest I have ever seen. Irrigated by the rivers that come from the hills in the edge of Tierras Calientes, it glows in green as perfect as Cortez's emeralds. For more than twenty miles its enchantments lie under the eye. ”

“ During the remaining months the ports on this coast are safe and commodious, unless when visited by a hurricane, against whose fury no port can offer a shelter, nor any vessel be secure. The excellent port of San Juan is perfectly sheltered from the effects of the north wind. The hill, upon which the town of that name and the fortifications which defend it are built, protects the vessels anchored in the harbor. ”

“ The harbor of San Juan is the chief in Puerto Rico, and one of the best of its size in the Caribbean sea. It is safe and sheltered, large and land-locked, and though the entrance is somewhat "foul," ships drawing three fathoms can enter and find anchorage within, good holding ground being had at any depth up to six fathoms. The bay is broad as well as beautiful, and opens toward the north, so that a vessel laying her course from New York could, if there were no obstructions en route, sail directly into the harbor. ”

“ From my log-book I take the following: This is slow and easy sailing—a kind of jog-trot over the smoothest possible sea, with the paddles audibly working every foot of the way. We run down among the San Juan Islands, where the passages are so narrow and so intricate they make a kind of watery monogram among the fir-lined shores. A dense smoke still obscures the sun,—a rich haze that softens the distance and lends a picturesqueness that is perhaps not wholly natural to the locality, though the San Juan Islands are unquestionably beautiful. ”