Arno River

“ As great rivers go, the Arno is neither grand nor magnificent, but, though its proportions are not great, its banks are lined with historic and artistic ruins, from the old fortress at Marina di Pisa to Poppi, the ancient capital of the Casentino, perched so quaintly upon its river-washed rock. ”

“ The busiest part of the town is the Lung 'Arno (Street along the Arno) , a broad, handsome quay extending down both banks of the river. The houses here are very imposing; one, in particular, is fronted with marble so exquisitely smooth and pure it might serve as a looking-glass.
Fortunately for visitors, most of the objects of interest are concentrated in one spot—a large square some ten minutes' walk from our hotel. The streets we passed through on our way thither were very quaint, the overhanging shops and cloistered pavements reminding us much of Chester. ”

“ Various schemes were suggested at this time for drawing off the stagnant waters, as well as for the future regular drainage of the valley, and small operations for those purposes were undertaken with partial success; but it was feared that the discharge of the accumulated waters into the Tiber would produce a dangerous inundation, while the diversion of the drainage into the Arno would increase the violence of the floods to which that river was very subject, and no decisive steps were taken. ”

“ The great alluvial plain lies north of the river; the three streams whose silt contributes to form it flow into the main channel from Pistoja and Prato. To live across the river on the south bank would have been absolutely impossible for the owners of the plain. But Fiesole occupies a central spur of the northern heights, overlooking the valley to east and west, and must therefore have been always the natural place from which to command the plain of Arno. A little above and a little below Florence gorges once more hem the river in. ”

“ They do not know why the Arno will never remain in a channel. It is because the rivers which flow into it deposit earth where they enter, and wear it away on the opposite side, bending the river in that direction. The Arno flows for 6 miles between la Caprona and Leghorn; and for 12 through the marshes, which extend 32 miles, and 16 from La Caprona up the river, which makes 48; by the Arno from Florence beyond 16 miles; to Vico 16 miles, and the canal is 5; from Florence to Fucechio it is 40 miles by the river Arno. ”

“ But the truth is that it forms a watercourse dependent at present upon floods, admitting of navigation for hundreds of miles at certain seasons, and at others being as dry as the Arno at Florence or the Manzanares at Madrid. By a series of dams and canals this river might be navigable all the year round. The same remark applies to several of its tributaries, and to rivers generally running toward the inland centres [Pg 236] and flowing into the Murray. The governments of the several colonies have long realized the importance and the necessity of a grand and comprehensive system of irrigation. ”

“ THE River Arun has its source on the eastern side of the High Downs, called Hind Head, a range of mountains, having an elevation of 923 feet above the sea, at low water, and at a short distance north of the town of Haslemere, in the county of Surrey; when, after taking an easterly course for some miles, it enters Sussex at Aldfold: whence it takes a southerly direction to New Bridge, near Billinghurst, where this navigation commences. In its course from Aldfold, to the last mentioned place, it is crossed several times by the Wey and Arun Canal. ”

“ The Arkansa, below the great bend, becomes more serpentine than it is above, and very much obstructed by sand-bars and islands, either naked or clothed with a recent vegetation; they are but little elevated above the water, and are covered to some depth during the prevalence of floods in the river. At Belle Point, and some distance above, these islands almost wholly disappear, but the sandy shores still continue, and are, as above, alternately situated on either side of the river, as the stream approaches or recedes from the opposite river bottoms. The colour of the water was now olive green. ”

“ It rises in Central Colorado, flows east into Kansas, and out again east of the middle of the south boundary of the same State, southeast across Oklahoma and Indian Territories, and diagonally across Arkansas, bisecting it into nearly equal parts, and emptying into the Mississippi. The river is about 2000 miles long, navigable for 650 miles, and drains an area of 188,000 square miles. Much of the water in its upper course is used for irrigation purposes. In Fremont County, in Central Colorado, it flows through the Royal Gorge, one of the deepest cañons in the United States. ”

“ Along the bottom of this great chasm runs a limpid brook, winding through beautiful groves of oleanders and beside fertile patches of land, which are in marked contrast to the utterly barren and desolate cliffs above.
The Arnon. Farther south the Arnon, the chief river of Moab, rises on the border of the desert. ”

“ On the march we perceived for the first time, to our left, at a distance of about 10 miles, the low sandy bluffs of the Arkansas river, partly wooded with cotton trees. The Little Arkansas, its tributary, was now a small, very fordable creek; but when swelled by rains it becomes a wild torrent, overflowing its steep banks, and the whole valley. The soil is sandy; grass rather indifferent. ”

“ Beautiful for situation; the joy of the whole earth! It has a beauty that grows upon the heart. The Arno is the sweetest of rivers, its valley the loveliest of vales; luxuriant meadows; rich vineyards; groves of olive, of orange, and of chestnut; forests of cypress; long lines of mulberry; the dark purple of the distant Apennines; innumerable white villas peeping through the surrounding groves; the mysterious haze of the sunset, which throws a softer charm over the scene; the magnificent cattle; the fine horses; the bewitching girls, with their broad hats of Tuscan straw ”

“ At the present day the value of land in the neighbourhood of Arles that is subject to periodic inundation is three times that of the land guarded by costly embankments against the bounties of the river.
On descending the sinuous course of the lesser Rhone the hills disappear, the horizon is level as the sea, and all around is desert. Then the current of the Rhone seems to fail wholly, the waters of the river and of the lagoons on both sides of its bed mingle, and become confounded in one sheet. All nature is dead. ”

“ Winding through a deep defile of rocks, which cut off the neighbouring view and throw a dark shadow over the river, the stream suddenly turns a projecting point of its shores, and a landscape of unequalled beauty opens on the sight. Rich wooded valleys, with soft green slopy sides, broken with crags, and diversified with hamlets, are seen diverging in every direction, with the Rance winding forward in the midst of them; while high in air, lording it over all around, rises the stately rock on which the town is placed, with wall and battlement and tower hanging over its extreme verge. ”

“ Anne's is a small village, and the rapids being impassable in low water they have built a lock to enable steamers to ascend; but fortunately, when we passed, there was sufficient water, and we steamed up the song-famed rapids, above which the river spreads out into the Lake of the Two Mountains. It is proposed to build a railway bridge for the main trunk line, just above the rapids. How utterly the whizzing, whistling kettle spoils the poetry of scenery, undeniable though its utility be! There is no doubt that the Lake of the Two Mountains has many great beauties ”

“ As you approach the Arkansaw on this route within 15 or 20 miles, the country appears to be low and swampy; or the land is covered with ponds extending out from the river some distance. The river at the place where I struck it is nearly 500 yards wide, from bank to bank, those banks not more than four feet high, thinly covered with cottonwood. The north side is a swampy low prairie [Cheyenne Bottoms] , and the south a sandy sterile desert. Thence, about halfway to the mountains, the country continued with low prairie hills, and scarcely any streams putting into the river ”

“ The alluvial matter deposited by the Rhone at its entrance into the Lake of Geneva suffers perhaps no change when it once reaches the bottom. Layer after layer accumulates tranquilly, without disturbance from surface currents or other causes, so that the renovating effects of the stream have here every advantage. It is otherwise, however, where a delta gathers at the mouth of a river upon the sea-margin. There tides and currents are ever demolishing what the stream has piled up. ”

“ The Arkansas River once a mighty stream, has held out with more success than the Republican against the winds and drifting sands, but it is slowly and certainly disappearing, burying itself in the sand and earth it carries down at flood times—a work in which it is assisted by the strong, persistent prairie winds. ”

“ The Nile never flows over the top of the dam, but always through the gates and the canal at one side. When the gates are closed during the dry season, enough water is held back by this structure of steel and granite to form a [133] lake over one hundred miles long, and this is let out as needed to supplement the ordinary flow of the river and give the crops plenty of water all summer through. There is water enough in the reservoir to give all the families of the United States all they could use for four or five months, and enough to supply Great Britain and Ireland the entire year. ”

“ They had passed four portages, assisted by oxen and sleds where the situation of the ground would permit. So rapid was the stream, that on an average the men waded more than half the way, forcing the batteaux against the current. Arnold wrote, in a letter to General Washington, "You would have taken the men for amphibious animals, as they were great part of the time under water." He had now twenty-five days' provisions for the whole detachment, and expressed a sanguine hope of reaching the Chaudière River in eight or ten days. ”

“ The soil and climate seem to be so favorable, that less labor is wanted than in most other countries. A great deal, if not most of the fertility in the valley must be ascribed to the ingenious system of irrigation, which they have introduced by a dam constructed in the river above Paso, and turning a considerable quantity of water into a canal. ”

“ Each torrent which rent these rocky barriers brought down with it an immense quantity of stones and pebbles, that encumbered the river-bed with shoals and banks, and pent up the waters in foaming rapids. M. Garnier was bound for Lin-ngan, but these numerous obstacles greatly impeded his progress. But by degrees the river-bed broadened, the heights receded on either hand, and the stream flowed with a full and tranquil current through a gently undulating country, well cultivated, and studded with populous villages. ”

“ To hold that high level the main ditch, which is first taken out to serve the west side, crosses the Rio Grande on a high flume to Derry; curves high and winding about the wide farm lands of Garfield valley; is siphoned under the river for Hatch and Rodey, and then is siphoned once again to the east side, to break out in the sunlight for the use of Rincon Valley. Rough and crooked is made smooth and straight; safe bridge and easy grade, a modern highway follows up the valley, with a brave firefly twinkling by night, to join the great National Trail [Pg 76] at Engle Dam. ”

“ Because of this spreading habit of the stream, the few villages along the way are planted on the higher land at the base of the bluffs, or on an occasional sandy pocket-plateau 245 which the river, as in ages past it has worn its bed to lower levels, has left high and dry above present overflows. Some of these towns, in their fear of floods, are situated two or three miles back from the water highway; others, where the channel chances to closely hug a line of bluffs, are directly abutting the river, which is crossed at such points by either a ferry or a toll-bridge. ”

“ A few miles to the east the plain is rounded with mountains, between whose interlocking bases we can see the brown current of the Arno. Some of their peaks, as well as the mountain of Vallombrosa, along the eastern sky, are tipped with snow. Imagine the air filled with a thick blue mist, like a semi-transparent veil, which softens every thing into dreamy indistinctness, the sunshine falling slantingly through this in spots, touching the landscape here and there as with a sudden blaze of fire, and you will complete the picture. ”

“ Of the valleys of the rivers last enumerated, viz. those north of the Arkansa and tributary to the Mississippi, it is observable that they are uniformly possessed of a rich soil, but owing to the excessive floods occasionally brought down through them from {217} the hills and mountains, their cultivation is very precarious. The valley of White river, and those of some few others, are in many places elevated above the reach of the highest freshets, and are not altogether subject to this inconvenience. ”

“ We had scarcely advanced three paces, when we stuck fast on the sand, because the crew wanted to let themselves be drifted at their ease. We therefore row out of the lake-like bay to N.N.E. Men and women stand smoking on the shore, and offer their pipes and other effects, but all their signs and calling are in vain, and the fear is general that the river may be too shallow. The stream issues broadly from the left side behind an island, to which a smaller one joins itself. ”

“ In the north-easterly part where the river narrowed again there stood a range of hills 300 ft. high, extending from west to east, and parallel to the rocky barrier across the basin. A streamlet 3 m. wide coming from the south-west entered the Arinos from the left bank. The hill range which stood along the right bank of the river showed a rocky formation of a greyish colour right up to its summit, and was, in fact, a mere great rocky barrier with only a few trees growing in interstices which had been filled with earth and sand. ”