River water

“ Then, as he staggered toward this green-bordered pond and that crystal-blue lake, already drinking and laving in his mind, he began to hear the beautiful sounds of falling rain, of gurgling brooks, of lapping waves, of roaring rapids, of gentle river currents, of water—water—water sweetly tinkling and babbling, of wind-laden murmur of a mountain stream. ”

“ Yet tumbling down from that great eminence, where the gray spires of the peaks are dwarfed by distance until they grow thin as needles, is a stream of water, fed by springs that lie in the lap of still taller mountains in the rear, rushing in tumultuous flow until it breaks into seven waterfalls, and then checks its pace as it joins the river that runs on to the sea. ”

“ We are rowed on the beautiful river every day that it is warm enough—a very winding river not much broader than your favourite creek—flowing sometimes through level meadows, sometimes round rocky promontories & steep wooded hills which, with their wonderful autumn tints, are like a gay flower border mirrored in the water. ”

“ So our rivers are doing to-day what they have always done—they are tearing down rocks, grinding and sifting the fragments, and letting them fall where the current of fresh water meets a great body of water that is still, or has currents contrary to that of the river.
Do you see a little dead fish in the water? It is on the way to become a fossil, and the mud that sifts over it, to become a layer of slate. Every seashore buries its dead in layers of sand and mud. ”

“ At our feet a stream was struggling with the multitude of rude rocks, which Nature, in one of her primeval convulsions, had flung here and there in masses into its current; sometimes uniting into irregular ledges, over which the water swept with impetuosity;—sometimes standing insulated in the stream, and increasing the energies of the river by their resistance;—sometimes breaking forward from the bank, and giving a bolder effect to its romantic outline. ”

“ You come to a river—it is a broad, waterless bed of cobble-stones and gravel, only differing from the dry land in being less mixed with dirt, and wholly, instead of partly, destitute of vegetation. But your eye falls at last on a sheet of water—there is surely a placid lake giving beauty and fertility to its neighborhood. ”

“ On they ride, for rest and refreshment to themselves was not to be thought of till they have it for the animals. The river is gained! a broad, deep current of water, muddy like that of the Platte, supplies the moisture to the trees, whose tops ascend only a few feet above the desert level, and whose trunks rise from green meadows but little above the surface of the water. ”

“ The water at the mouth of a muddy stream is the clearest. When river water meets the heavy salt water of the ocean, the river current comes to a stand, and it is there, while standing still, that dirt settles from water the quickest; there 214 careful navigators look out for the bar across the mouth of the river as they come in from the sea. ”

“ There is a good depth of water in all the streams, and yet the weed and slime of summer and autumn have not begun to appear; nor will the overarching boughs from the trees hinder progress as they do when clad in their summer bravery. I love the river in the early spring, and if I do but follow the course of the stream I cannot miss my way, as I might well do upon the road in the great forest tracks. ”

“ It is the sea water mingling here into the river—
at least so it seems—perhaps it is something else—but what matter?
The sea water! It is quiet and smooth here!
How slowly they move, little by little trying
the hawsers that drop and groan with their agony. ”

“ Two or three hundred yards has been the limit of the view ahead, as the stream swerves gracefully from the slightest rise of land, and flows now east, now north, now east, now south again. So long a stretch of navigable water is not common on the Delectable River, and we make the most of it, moving leisurely, and prisoning the everchanging picture with the imperfect camera of the eyes. ”

“ If you travel up the river, leaving the city far behind, you will see some fine scenery. Perhaps you will pass beautiful woods. Some of the trees bend over the river as if they were looking at their reflections in the clear water. At places there are broad fields where the cows come down to drink the cool water. Farther up there are hills or mountains rising far above the banks. You will notice that the river is growing narrower and narrower until it is but a small stream. If you go down the river again, you will see that it gradually widens as it flows on to the mouth. ”

“ A river that spreads out into the indeterminate earthform of a marsh is an effective barrier; but one that gathers waters into a natural basin and forms a lake retains the uniting power of a navigable stream and also, by the extension of its area and elimination of its current, approaches the nature of an enclosed sea. Mountain rivers, characterized by small volume and turbulent flow, first become navigable when they check their impetuosity and gather their store of water in some lake basin. ”

“ In the hearts of the river people—the shanty-boater, the riverside dwellers, and the people of the lonely bends—one finds clear manifestations of the spirit of the river. The old river man takes his moods from the river. When the river is ugly and rising—when, for instance, there are about 750 grains of sediment to the cubic foot of water, and the river is at a 45-foot stage—the face of the river man clouds and his tongue becomes tart and surly. ”

“ Again, when they come to our large rivers, which run almost dry before the summer storms fall, the thirsty creatures stream over the steep banks into the bed of the river, and drink themselves heavy with water. ”

“ Even richer, if that be possible, than the fauna of the river, and at any rate more diverse, is that to be found at the proper season on the shores and surface of all the lakes and larger water-pools which lie within the forest and are filled either by the spring rains or by the full floods of the river. ”

“ Other rills meet this, and form a larger stream, which is called a brook or creek.
As the brook flows on, it is joined by other streams, until, little by little, it becomes a wide and deep river on which large boats may float. At last, it finds its way into the ocean.
Where a river begins is its source. The place where it flows into another body of water is called its mouth. The land over which it flows is its bed.
A river has two banks. As we go toward its mouth, the right bank is on our right hand, and the left bank is on our left. ”

“ As the river varies much with regard to the quantity of water in its channel,—frequently rising or falling from 6 to 12 feet in a few hours,—these snags are sometimes so deep in the water that they can be passed over with safety ”

“ RIVER, a current or stream of fresh water, which flows in a bed or channel, from its spring or source, and empties itself into the sea.
Rivers form one of the chief ornaments of the globe: while they serve not only to carry off superfluous rains and springs; but, from the great numbers and varieties of fish they contain, likewise afford a grateful food to mankind. They also greatly tend to fertilize the soils through which they flow; and the Mud, that subsides at the bottom, as well as the weeds which vegetate on their banks, form a valuable fertilizing Manure. ”

“ Now, the power of this moving water is a mighty wide-spread agent of change in the physical condition of the globe. For wherever water is in motion over the surface of the land, whether it be a rippling stream, or a mountain torrent, or a majestic river, it is surely wearing away the channel through which it flows, and carrying along in its course particles of clay, or sand, or gravel. ”

“ They flow between low, rounded hills, and are joined by quiet streams, that occupy the separating grooves between the hills. This is the oldest type of river. It has done its work. Rainfall and stream-flow have brought the level of the land nearly to the level of the stream. Very little more is left to be ground down and carried away. The landscape is beautiful, but it is no longer picturesque. Wind and water have smoothed away unevennesses. Trees and grass and other vegetation check erosion, and the river has little to do but to carry away the surface water that falls as rain. ”

“ A small lake in the cooler time of the year, before the thirsty sun comes and drinks up every scrap of moisture except the river, spreads in the centre of the grove, dotted with little islands, that multiply as the season advances. A close greensward, from which thousands of palms spring at regular intervals, creeps down on all sides after the receding water * * * immense numbers of aquatic birds make it their resort. ”

“ Thus, by tracing a river backwards, from its end to its real beginning, we come at length to the sun; for it is the sun that produces aqueous vapour, from which, as we have seen, clouds are formed, and it is from clouds that water falls to the earth to become the sources of rivers. [Pg 268]
There are, however, rivers which have sources somewhat different from those just mentioned. They do not begin by driblets on a hillside, nor can they be traced to a spring. Go, for example, to the mouth of the river Rhone, and trace it backwards. ”

“ If you would know what makes the great river as it nears the sea, you must travel up the stream. You must go up into the hills and back into the forests and see the little rivulets, the little streams, all gathering in hidden places to swell the great body of water in the channel. ”

“ The chief work of a river is to drain the land; to bear superfluous waters into the great deep. Water lying stagnant on land becomes harmful. Immense supplies are perpetually needed; but it must be fresh water, clear water, running water, water newly fallen from the skies, [p. 90] or newly received from ever fresh because ever renewed springs. ”

“ At the farther extremity of these low lands, which, continue for ten leagues, there is a river of fresh water which runs with such rapidity into the sea that the water is quite fresh a league from its mouth. Entering this river with our boats, we had about a fathom and half water at its mouth. In this river we found many fishes resembling horses, which our savages told us lay all day in the water and went on shore at night. ”

“ The main object they have in staying the progress of the current of the river is to afford a deep place where, having fallen numbers of trees, the deep water will preserve tender and fresh the limbs and shrubs on which to subsist during, not only time present, but also time to come. ”

“ The river has taught me to listen, from it you will learn it as well. It knows everything, the river, everything can be learned from it. See, you've already learned this from the water too, that it is good to strive downwards, to sink, to seek depth. ”

“ This is the typical river of which there are infinite varieties, yet every variety would, if time were given, and the land remained unchanged in level relatively to the sea, ultimately approach to the type.Adjustment of rivers to land. Movements of the land either of subsidence or elevation, changes in the land by the action of erosion in cutting back an escarpment or cutting through a col, changes in climate by affecting the rainfall and the volume of water, all tend to throw the river valley out of harmony with the actual condition of its stream. ”

“ Now when I had mastered the language of this water and had come to know every trifling feature that bordered the great river as familiarly as I knew the letters of the alphabet, I had made a valuable acquisition. But I had lost something, too. I had lost something which could never be restored to me while I lived. All the grace, the beauty, the poetry had gone out of the majestic river! ”

“ Stately and slow that river moves down to the bay, into which it empties its load. The rain that falls on hundreds of square miles of territory flows into the streams that feed this trunk. The little spring that is the headwater of the system is but one of many pockets in the hillsides that hold the water that soaks into the ground and give it out by slow degrees. Surface water after a rain flows quickly into the streams. It is the springs that hold back their supply and keep the rivers from running dry in hot weather. ”

“ The water of an artesian well on an elevated plane may flow into the earth from a creek, pond, or river, that is lower than the mouth of the well it feeds, and still it may spout into the air from either a near or distant elevation that is higher than its source. ”

“ But, frequently, a very large marsh is traversed by a tortuous stream which occupies a large area, and which, although the tidal water which it contains gives it the appearance of a river, is only the outlet of an insignificant stream, which might be carried along the edge of the upland in an ordinary mill-race. ”

“ The river itself portrays humanity precisely, with its tortuous windings, its accumulation of driftwood, its unsuspected depths, and its crystalline shallows, singing in the Summer sun. Barriers may be built across its path, but they bring only power, as the conquering of an obstacle is always sure to do. Sometimes when the rocks and stone-clad hills loom large ahead, and eternity itself would be needed to carve a passage, there is an easy way around. The discovery of it makes the river sing with gladness and turns the murmurous deeps to living water, bright with ripples and foam. ”

“ Every brook and every creek is made up of water that falls near it, and rivers are made of the water poured into them by brooks and creeks. A river and all the streams that carry their water into it make a river system, and the land from which they drain the water is called the river basin. ”