Running water

“ Running water can support and carry along sand and earth, which in still water would quickly sink to the bottom; and the more rapid the movement of the water, the greater is the weight it is able to bear. ”

“ The running water is no more an independent and living agent than is the machinery which it turns. Beyond both is the one grand determining influence—the attractive energy inherent in the substance of the vast earth. ”

“ Running at a speed of twelve or fifteen miles an hour, we hit the water with a tremendous shock, bounded thirty or forty feet into the air, descended again and literally skipped in great leaps along the surface of the water, precisely like a well-thrown "skipping stone." ”

“ No doubt the erosive action of running water appears to have but small effect in a short time, and we are apt, therefore, to underestimate its power. But when our observations extend, we see it is quite otherwise, and that, so far from being unimportant, running water is really one of the most powerful of all the geological agencies that are employed in modifying the earth's crust. ”

“ This day was only the first of many similar ones for the emancipated Mole, each of them longer and full of interest as the ripening summer moved onward. He learnt to swim and to row, and entered into the joy of running water; and with his ear to the reed-stems he caught, at intervals, something of what the wind went whispering so constantly among them. ”

“ 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. ”

“ There are the mountains and the rains fall upon them, running off uselessly to the ocean with their purpose unaccomplished. When we want to store the rain water from our roof for domestic uses we construct pipes and tanks and keep the blessing by us so as to have it when we want it. ”

“ In treading water you maintain an upright position as in walking. Some one says: "To tread water is like running up-stairs rapidly." Try running up-stairs and you will get the leg movement. While the water is up to your neck, bend your elbows and bring your hands to the surface, then keep the palms pressing down the water. ”

“ Returning to the river, I plunged into the current to relieve me from the pinching frost, that gnawed every part of my skin that had become wet; and rushing forward as fast as the weight of the water, that pressed me downward, would permit, was soon up to my chin in melted ice, when rising to the surface, I exerted my utmost strength and skill to gain the opposite shore by swimming in the shortest space of time. At every stroke of my arms and legs, they were cut and bruised by cakes of solid ice, or weighed down by floating masses of congealed snow. ”

“ One buoyant bound—the right arm is thrown aloft, knees brought up, and at the instant of striking the water the head falls back, feet dashed straight out—when they enter the pools with the velocity and clearness of a javelin, shooting far away, just beneath the surface, like a salmon. ”

“ It was no place for the canoist, however expert with pole and paddle, unless he knew how to read the water unerringly for many yards ahead. It is this reading of the water, this instantaneous solving of the hieroglyphics of foam and surge and swirl and glassy lunge, that makes the skilled runner of the rapids. ”

“ Progress through water is always slow. If you have ever tried to run while wading in a millpond or at the stream adjacent to the "old swimming hole," you realize what I mean. It is easier to swim than to run through water, even where it is not very deep. The same holds true for horses. And to attempt to swim was out of the question, for the Greasers, as they must keep their guns out of water. ”

“ Next it increases in its volume and its power, now rushing rapidly, now moving along in deep and tranquil water, until it swells into a bold stream, coursing its way over the shallows, dashing through the impeding rocks, descending in rapids swift as thought, or pouring its boiling water over the cataract. ”

“ Now mingling and now scattering, crossing and recrossing one another, they clamber up against little currents of wind, and poise themselves, then dive, and skim the surface of the water, daintily picking therefrom fly after fly, and rarely making that slight fault which breaks the deep tones in the distance of the river's reach, with a small fan-shaped flash of silver spray! ”

“ The vast volume of pent-in water meeting all manner of submerged obstacles dashes in zigzag from shore to shore, cannoning off walls of rock until the whole gorge becomes one rushing, gyrating mass of angry water. ”

“ Directing the men, therefore, how to row, and continually bumping against points of rock and sand, we jogged on until, just as we rounded a long belt of reef, along which we had been running, the rush of a current of the young flood tide, which had just began to set in, sheered the shallop’s bows violently round, bore us some yards away out of our course, and then tossing us into a sort of boiling caldron, or rather slight whirlpool, we were swung round and round until our heads were giddy, and every idea of our proper course gone. ”

“ You see how the water, rebounding from its second plunge, shoots in a broken mass of foam into the brown pool below, and therein swirls and swashes for a while, and then escapes by an outlet that you might leap across, talking to thousands of stones as it spreads itself out in the shallow bed. Standing with your back to the fall, and looking down the stream, the view, shut in by the trees on one side, by a rough grassy acclivity on the other, is one that lures you to explore it, striding along the rugged margin, or from one lump of rock to another. ”

“ In this attempt you will find that the water buoys you up against your inclination; that it is not so easy to sink as you imagine, and that you cannot, but by active force, get down to the egg. Thus you feel the power of water to support you, and learn to confide in that power, while your endeavours to overcome it, and reach the egg, teach you the manner of acting on the water with your feet and hands, which action is afterwards used in swimming to support your head higher above the water, or to go forward through it. ”

“ This is because water, in flowing from place to place, expends force in overcoming the friction of the pipes and the resistance of the air. The greater the distance traversed by the water in its journey from reservoir to faucet, the greater the waste force and the less the final flow. ”

“ When you swim you force the water back with your hands and feet and so send your body forward. When you tread water you force the water down with your hands and feet and so send your body, or keep it, up. ”

“ The water dashing violently against these rocks, is beaten back, and rebounds the contrary way, by which are made wonderful whirlpools, and by the repeated influx, the whole place is covered with froth and foam, to the no small amazement of the beholders: for the river there runs down with as quick and violent a current, as an arrow out of a bow. ”

“ A continuous drought had reduced the lake from its original size of twenty-two miles in circumference to a mere pool of about four miles in circuit; this was all that remained of the noble sheet of water around which I had formerly enjoyed so much sport. ”

“ In swimming waste no strength unnecessarily in trying to stem a current; yield partly, and land obliquely lower down; if exhausted, float: the slightest motion of the hands will ordinarily keep the face above water ”

“ Let us only have a little patience, and with patience perseverance, which, 'dear my Lord, keeps honour bright.' The water-jet will soon clear away the bush, washing down the tallest trees; it will level the ground and will warp up the swamp till the surface assumes regular raised lines. We run no risk of covering the face of earth with unproductive clay. Here the ground is wanted only as a base for vegetation; sun and rain do all the rest. ”

“ The tide flows up the river many miles past the waterworks, carrying up with it the filth from the sewers. The supply of water was, to be sure, obtained when the tide was down, but as the banks of the river are clothed with sedges in many parts, and its bottom deep with mud, the water can never be free from sewage. ”

“ The production of water ripples and their properties, and a beautiful illustration of wave properties in general, can be made by allowing a steady stream of water from a very small jet to fall on the surface of still water in a tank. ”

“ These waves are raised by the rapidity of the water's descent, which, rushing downward at a rate of twenty-five miles an hour, is lashed to fury by the air, just as a rushing air raises the still waters of a lake or ocean. And the very swiftness of the descent is indicated by, and makes inevitable, the violence of the resisting waves, as we shoot down to the calm waters below the rapids. ”

“ I had twice tried the same water without success; nothing would admire my charming bait; when, just as it had reached the favorite turning-point at the extremity of a rock, away dashed the line, with the tremendous rush that follows the attack of a heavy fish. Trusting to the soundness of my tackle, I struck hard and fixed my new acquaintance thoroughly, but off he dashed down the stream for about fifty yards at one rush, making for a narrow channel between two rocks, through which the stream ran like a mill-race. ”

“ On crossing the first stream of a journey he must touch his lips with the end of his wetted bow, wade across, drop a stone on the far side, and then drink. If he cuts his nails, he must throw the parings into a thicket. If he drink from a stream, and also cross it, he must eject a mouthful of water back into the stream. ”

“ But it is observable that the waters of lakes and ponds stand immovable, because the air about them stagnates immovable and admits of no vacuity. For the water on the surface of lakes and seas is troubled and fluctuates as the air is moved, it following the motion of the air, and moving as it is moved. ”

“ When immersed and inflated, they remove a quantity of water adequate to the air which they contain, and, if fixed to a ponderous body, give it a degree of buoyancy proportionate to the water they displace. ”

“ Waters flow incessantly, they flow day and night until they merge together in a large ocean. Similarly, the true teaching of our fathers, grand-fathers, and grand-grand-fathers from the beginning of the world was flowing without stop for us. ”

“ Though the labour of navigating this river in times of fresh is very inconsiderable to what it is during low water, when continual rowing is necessary, it is always best to keep a good look out, and be strong handed.—The wind will sometimes drive you too near the points of the islands, or on projecting parts of the main shore, when considerable extra exertion is necessary to surmount the difficulty. ”

“ Next is a wet race. Now look out. Let's see what the program says: “Run seventy-five yards to structure, on top of which an empty barrel has been placed with spout outlet near top. Barrel to be filled with water by means of buckets from reservoir”—That big tin-lined box opposite is the reservoir. They are filling it now with a hose attached to the water-plug yonder—“until water issues from spout.” What are they all laughing at? Which one? Oh, but isn't she mad? Talk about a wet hen. Why, Charley, the hose got away from the man that was filling the reservoir and the lady was splashed. ”

“ That will be the difficult point, for the great rush of water will be there, and you will have to do it quickly—to heave in the logs and stones and rubbish, not forgetting the branches and the turf, which will keep all together—as if your very lives depended on your speed. ”

“ In the morning, before starting, we climbed the mountain and looked down on the wild beauty of the Water Gap. From that height the fall in the river was imperceptible; and the rapid that had astonished us the day before looked like a mere shallow brawl.
Few people are aware of the force and danger of rapid broken water. To the person who drives or walks along a river, the rapid seems the safest spot, because it is obviously the shallowest. ”

“ For only a fish can exist in a hose or pipe completely filled with water, and that is what the tunnel would become if the water rose to the roof—merely a great, underground rocky pipe for the conveying of the liquid from Pocut River.
So you can easily imagine with what anxiety Bud, Nort and Dick watched the rising water. Every now and again one of them would lean over the ledge, swinging the lantern to and fro, so its gleams would be reflected in the hurrying, foaming stream, and indicate how fast it was rising. ”

“ All the tanks are constantly receiving water from the clear and cool reservoir below, in which there are no animals, so that the motion of the water in the tanks, like that of the ocean, is incessant. ”

“ Water is a yielding fluid, but all who have tried know what tremendous exertion is required to make speed through it when in above the knees. When I was close enough I swung my sinker over my head and sent it whizzing straight and true towards the old man, who was now out to the first line of breakers, and swimming, though steadily moving outward.
“I flung the lead towards him, and he would have caught the line, but at that instant a huge sea broke right over him and he disappeared in the smothering foam. When he reappeared he was beyond reach and going steadily seaward. ”

“ But at the last there would be a racing start and a sprint that always brought them to the float with brown bodies glistening and foreheads bedewed and chests heaving—so that the two buckets of water allowed each man seemed utterly inadequate, and they longed tremendously for the debilitating and forbidden swim! ”