Down the Yellowstone

In the heat of midsummer many strange notions pop into people's heads. Last week one Clarence Giles, a 220-lb., 41-year-old Montana livestock auctioneer, took a notion to swim nonstop down the Yellowstone River from Billings to Glendive--288 miles--for no apparent reason except to see his name in the papers and put his hometown of Glendive on the map.

With an outboard motorboat as convoy, Auctioneer Giles splashed into the swift-running yellow river one afternoon last week, splashed into print three days later when he drifted into Glendive between solid banks of cheering townsmen. Taken home on a stretcher, bleeding & bruised Hero Giles, eleven pounds lighter than when he started, entertained his neighbors with details of his 77 1/2-hour swim.

The current between Billings and Glendive flows at 5 m.p.h. in some places, 2 m.p.h. in others. But Auctioneer Giles had floated only two miles out of the 288 because it was too difficult to keep his body stiff. He was fed sugar cubes, fruit juices and lettuce sandwiches every four hours, had managed to steer clear of hazards until he reached Buffalo Rapids, 50 miles from home, where he was catapulted into the air, bounced off rocks and tree stumps and landed in a terrifying whirlpool. But as he crawled out at Glendive he had crawled into the record books. The longest fresh-water swim on record up to last week was 281 miles, accomplished on Argentina's Parana River in 1935.

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