Maumee River

“ The city of Toledo stretches along its banks for four miles from its mouth, and the river is navigable for 12 miles to the Maumee Rapids, above which its course is followed as far as Defiance by the Miami and Erie Canal, connecting Lake Erie with the Ohio River. ”

“ Having procured a guide, we crossed the river, and, at the mouth of Logan's creek, exchanged our boat for a large canoe, in which we followed the windings of the deep and narrow inlet for nearly two miles. This brought us to a village of six huts. Without ceremony, we entered the dwelling of the old Queen (who was busied about her household affairs) , and looked around for her grand-daughter, to see whom was the principal object of our excursion. On my former visit to Maumee's town, four or five months ago, this girl excited a great deal of admiration by her beauty and charming simplicity. ”

“ The east and west forks of White river, and their tributaries, water the interior counties for 100 miles in extent. They are [Pg 227] both navigable streams for flat boats during the spring and autumn floods. The Wabash river has several heads, which interlock with the waters of the St. Joseph and St. Mary's, which form the Maumee of lake Erie. It runs a south-westwardly course across the State to Warren county,—thence southwardly to Vigo county, where it becomes the boundary between Indiana and Illinois, along which it meanders to the Ohio, which it enters 12 miles above Shawneetown. ”

“ Lawrence. The east branch is about one hundred and twenty miles long, and the west nearly one hundred; they are very crooked streams. The Oswego issues from Oneida Lake, and runs north-westerly into Lake Ontario; it is about forty miles long and is a rapid stream; its navigation is assisted by locks and canals. The Maumee rises in the north-eastern part of Indiana, and flows through the north-western part of Ohio into Lake Erie; it is broad and deep, but has an obstruction from shoals and rapids thirty-three miles above its mouth. ”

“ The opening stage began when the ice abandoned the high ground south of the lakes, leaving depressions bounded on the south by the hills and on the north by the ice. The earliest of these in the basins of Lakes Erie and Huron are known as the first and second Lake Maumee. These gradually grew in size and coalesced, forming several series of connected lakes, to which various names have been given; thus Lake Warren extended well outside the present limits of Lake Erie and southern Huron, and was held up by ice over Lake Ontario and northern Huron. ”

“ When the winds of the south, east, and north blow furiously it is because the rocks have been removed by the stupid people who could not learn the lessons taught by Maui. At other times Maui allows these winds to blow in hurricanes to punish that people, and also that he may ride on these furious winds in search of the west wind."
In the Hawaiian legends Maui is represented as greatly interested in making and flying kites. His favorite place for the sport was by the boiling pools of the Wailuku river near Hilo. ”

“ I seized the chain and tensed my muscles in a desperate effort. The anchor held firm. I sat down again, exhausted.
The river had slowly become enveloped in a thick white fog which lay close to the water, so that when I stood up I could see neither the river, nor my feet, nor my boat; but could perceive only the tops of the reeds, and farther off in the distance the plain, lying white in the moonlight, with big black patches rising up from it towards the sky, which were formed by groups of Italian poplars. ”

“ Nothing, indeed, can be imagined more arduous than this tracking up a swift river, against constant head winds in bad weather. Much of it is in the water, wading up "snies," or tortuous shallow channels, plunging into numberless creeks, clambering up slimy banks, creeping under or passing the line over fallen trees, wading out in the stream to round long spits of sand or boulders, floundering in gumbo slides, tripping, crawling, plunging, and, finally, tottering to the camping-place sweating like horses, and mud to the eyes—but never grumbling. ”

“ Dreamers maintain that the sea hides in its bosom vast tracts of blue where those who are drowned roam among the big fishes, amid strange forests and crystal grottoes. The river has only black depths where one rots in the slime. It is beautiful, however, when it sparkles in the light of the rising sun and gently laps its banks covered with whispering reeds. ”

“ On this part of the river, boats are much exposed to danger from the falling banks, which are called “tierras disbarrancandas.” The Mamoré, and indeed all the rivers of the Beni valley, are for ever shifting their courses in many parts of the forests through which they flow. They undermine the banks on one side, which, falling away, form the numerous curves on the convex side of which the mud and sand brought down by the current is deposited, and playas and banks are formed, on which a forest grows in course of time. ”

“ The principal timber being bauhinia, suggested the name of "Bauhinia Plains." Their width back from the river extended to an average of six miles, when they were bounded by low well-grassed iron-bark ridges. The river was broad and sandy, running in two or three channels, and occasionally spreading into long reaches. Large ana-branches, plentifully watered, left the main channel running back from it from 1 to 3 miles. A great many fishing weirs were observed in the channels of the river, from which it would appear that the blacks live much, if not principally, on fish. ”

“ It represents to Hawaiian thought the magic canoe with which Maui always sailed over the ocean more swiftly than any winds could carry him. Leaving his canoe, Maui seized the magic club with which he had conquered the sun after lassoing him, and rushed along the dry bed of the river to the place of danger. Swinging the club swiftly around his head, he struck the dam holding back the water of the rapidly-rising river.
Wailuku River, the Home of Kuna.
"Ah! Nothing can withstand the magic club. The bank around one end of the dam gives way. ”

“ Maui was always good to his mother, and he resolved to take this matter in hand and see what he could do about it. So Maui go into his canoe and sailed far out, till he had reached the horizon, and found the place where the Sun came up from beneath the ocean. The moment the Sun rose, Maui seized him, and broke off some of the rays which stood out from his body, as do the sharp spines from the body of the sea-urchin. Blood poured from the wounds thus made, so that the Sun has looked red ever since. ”

“ Our route lay partly along the line of the Mohawk, on the banks of which is situated the lovely village of Rockton, or Little Falls, where the gushing stream is compressed between two beautifully wooded cliffs, affording a water-power which has been turned to good account by the establishment of mills. At this point the Erie canal is cut for two miles through the solid rock, and its unruffled waters, contrasting with the boiling river struggling through the narrow gorge, look like streams of Peace and Passion flowing and struggling side by side. ”

“ A river, or rather a big stream, runs by the side, and every hundred yards or so, cuts through the ravine, floods it, wanders away a little, returns, loses itself again, quits its bed and drowns the track, then falls into a ditch, strays through a field of stones, appears suddenly to calm down into wisdom, and for a while follows its due course; but seized all at once by some wild fancy, it precipitates itself again into the road, and changes it into a marsh, in which the horse sinks up to the breast-plate, and the high vehicle up to the driving seat. ”

“ Canoes ascending the Mamoré from Trinidad do not have to return by the river Ybari, as there is a lagoon, about a league from the town, from which a creek, or “curiche,” gives egress to the principal river, which above Trinidad still preserves a bold and wide course, with free facilities for navigation, and has many plantations and sugar estates on its banks.
The first night we bivouacked on the Mamoré, a short distance only above the junction of the creek just mentioned, and on the 20th we made good progress, as the light canoes, or “montarias,” travel rapidly. ”

“ The country about Maués is described as a great grazing plain, intersected and cut up with streams and canals, all navigable for the largest class of vessels that now navigate the Amazon. The soil is very rich:, and adapted to the cultivation of cotton, coffee, and cocoa. The rivers give abundance of fish; any number of cattle may be pastured upon the plains; and the neighboring woods yield cloves, cocoa, castanbas, India-rubber, guaraná, sarsaparilla, and copaiba. ”

“ At the head of the plain is a pretty little waterfall, and farther up the river, in a rather secluded corner, is one of nature's softer scenes—the union of two lovely winding glens, through which the rivers Kirkbeck and Greensburn pursue their whimpling course—now straying round a rocky scaur, now hiding underneath the grassy brows, and now playing o'er the white freestone linns, till at last they unite their murmuring waters. ”

“ The deepest valley on Maui is that of the Iao River. The sides, nearly vertical in places, have an elevation of about 3,000 feet. About 2 miles above the town of Wailuku, well within the mountain, are walls made of stones of varying sizes up to half a ton or more. They extend over several acres of land and their structure is quite complicated. Mostly, they are borders of taro patches, though some of them mark house sites or garden inclosures. One wall, supporting a terrace, is 8 to 10 feet high and contains very heavy stones. ”

“ The foundations show it to have been a place about twelve yards long and eleven yards broad. They are now covered with turf, and not more than four feet in the highest part. It seems to have been protected by an outer rampart on the east, west, and north sides, with a pistrina adjoining the outer rampart on the north side. The river Kirkbeck, a purely pastoral stream, flows close to the east and north sides, and must have been crossed here by the Maiden Way, but there are no traces of a bridge. ”

“ Pursuing its way through some small enclosures, at 3190 yards, it arrives at the rapid river King, rattling along down its rocky ravine, and crosses it a short way above the Slittery ford. The north bank of the river is very steep at the point of crossing, and would afford ample scope for the engineering powers of the Romans. There is an immense quantity of stones lying on the north bank, but it is difficult to say whether they have formed part of a bridge or not, as a large bed of freestone rock crosses the river at the same place. ”

“ Therefore, if the present major streams reach the sea, it may also be concluded that those of an earlier period reached the sea, provided the topography indicates the perfect adjustment of streams to structure. Lacustrine sediments are absent throughout the Tertiary section. Such through-flowing streams, discharging on a stable coast, would also have mature valleys as a consequence of long uninterrupted erosion at a fixed level. The Majes river must have cut through the Coast Range at Camaná then as now. Likewise the Vitor at Quilca must have cut straight across the Coast Range. ”

“ A few miles below the junction with the latter a low range of hills almost bars its course, and for a short distance the water with its surface slowly twisted in great oily-looking swirls, swings through a narrow pass between cliffs not more than forty feet apart. During the heavy autumn rains the flood-water rises rapidly above this narrow passage and tears through it with tremendous force. When I descended the river in a canoe from the Paso Real to the ruins of Menché Tinamit in 1884 I saw huge mahogany logs lying stranded thirty or forty feet up the banks, and my companion Mr. ”

“ It was a magnificent night, the moon shone brightly, the river gleamed, the air was calm and soft. This peacefulness tempted me. I thought to myself that it would be pleasant to smoke a pipe in this spot. I took up my anchor and cast it into the river.
The boat floated downstream with the current, to the end of the chain, and then stopped, and I seated myself in the stern on my sheepskin and made myself as comfortable as possible. ”

“ The instant a beaver-dam is completed, it has a decided influence on the flow of the water, and especially on the quantity of sediment which the passing water carries. The sediment, instead of going down to fill the channel below, or to clog the river's mouth, fill the harbor, and do damage a thousand miles away, is accumulated in the pond behind the dam, and a level deposit is formed over the entire area of the lake. ”

“ The chief tributary is the Abai, which enters the lake at its south-west corner through a large papyrus swamp. This river, and the Abai or Blue Nile which issues from the lake, are regarded as one and the same stream and a current is observable from the inlet to the outlet. Next in importance of the affluents are the Reb and Gumara, which run in parallel courses and enter the lake on its eastern side. The outlet of the lake is marked by openings in a rocky ledge, through which the water pours into a lagoon-like expanse. Thence it issues by two or three channels, with a fall of about 5 ft. ”

“ It was only on May 1 that the Nautilus openly resumed its northbound course, after raising the Bahamas at the mouth of Old Bahama Channel. We then went with the current of the sea’s greatest river, which has its own banks, fish, and temperature. I mean the Gulf Stream.
It is indeed a river that runs independently through the middle of the Atlantic, its waters never mixing with the ocean’s waters. It’s a salty river, saltier than the sea surrounding it. Its average depth is 3,000 feet, its average width sixty miles. In certain localities its current moves at a speed of four kilometers per hour. ”