Tributary

“ It is wonderful how well watered this country is. As you paddle across a lake, bays will be pointed out to you, by following up which, and perhaps the tributary stream which empties in, you may, after a short portage, or possibly, at some seasons, none at all, get into another river, which empties far away from the one you are on. Generally, you may go in any direction in a canoe, by making frequent but not very long portages. ”

“ Again referring to the map, it will be seen that the marsh-lands on each side are intersected by tributary streams and creeks, and a moment’s consideration will elicit the reflection that every one of these must also be banked on each side throughout the whole of its course through the flat country, and until land of a higher elevation than the highest spring tides is attained, or of course the water would, as the tide rose, steal round the back of the principal embankment by the channels of these creeks and tributaries, and render them simply useless. ”

“ In the centre of these wild countries, where there will long be no other road than the rivers, every project of civilization should be founded on an intimate knowledge of the hydraulic features of the country, and the relative importance of the tributary streams. ”

“ Tributary streams and rivulets discharging themselves into lakes, rivers, or ponds, usually supply a considerable quantity of food suitable for fish, and form gravel beds on which spawn can be deposited. ”

“ If we follow a stream from its mouth upward and pass successively the mouths of its tributaries, we find its volume gradually less and less and its grade steeper and steeper, until finally at its head we reach the steepest grade of all. If we draw the profile of the river on paper, we produce a curve concave upward and with the greatest curvature at the upper end. The same law applies to every tributary and even to the slopes over which the freshly fallen rain flows in a sheet before it is gathered into rills. The nearer the watershed or divide the steeper the slope ”

“ Every stream has its own water-shed system, and this system is the real boundary of its basin. If we trace this [148] basin to its very limits on the highlands, we may find, not a mile away, the beginnings of another river, which shall flow in just the contrary direction, as for example in the case of the Rhine and Rhone, the Volga and the Dwina. The sources of the Missouri and of the Columbia lie close together, not a quarter of an hour’s walk apart; yet the waters of one flow into the Atlantic, of the other into the Pacific, and their mouths are almost 2500 miles apart. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Whether a river begins its life on a lake plain, as in the example just cited, or upon a coastal plain lifted from beneath the sea or on a spread of glacial drift left by the retreat of continental ice sheets, such as covers much of Canada and the northeastern parts of the United States, its infantile stage presents the same characteristic features,—a narrow and shallow valley, with undeveloped tributaries and undrained interstream areas. Ground water stands high, and, exuding in the undrained initial depressions, forms marshes and lakes. ”

“ Then, if we leave the bank at what is called high-water mark, as not given by any reasonable interpretation of the grant, on what principle or rule of construction is an intermediate line to be drawn short of the ordinary and permanent bed of the river. It would be a boundary wholly undefinable, and designated neither by high water nor low water, nor by the usual stage, but left to vibrate between what is called high water and the accustomed bed of the river.
The term high water, when applied to the sea, or to a river where the tide ebbs and flows, has a definite meaning. ”

“ For about two hundred miles from its mouth, it has many long and narrow lakes, of about the width of the river itself; and probably they were formerly its channel. These lakes generally have an outlet into the river, [Pg 87] and these so much resemble it, that a person not well acquainted with the stream, would be puzzled to know what channel to take. The river occupies too much ground for its quantity of water, and for about half of the year, it is a difficult stream to navigate. ”

“ A river, they say, or a stream, is most productive of fine and coarse grains of gold when it comes from the east and flows to the west, and when it washes against the foot of mountains which are situated in the north, and when it has a level plain toward the south or west. In the second place, they esteem a river or a stream which flows in the opposite course from the west toward the east, and which has the mountains to the north and the level plain to the south. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Low, flat, sea-coast land, pierced by rivers, presents a very similar appearance the world over, where river current and sea-tide are not hemmed in by lofty barriers. Over the low land the sea washes, and in channels down to the sea from the higher levels the river “rives” its way. Gradually, as it approaches the sea, the bed becomes more horizontal, and the earth suspended in the water is as gradually deposited in the bed of the channel. ”

“ How a valley gets a stream.—Valleys may become somewhat deep and long and wide without possessing permanent streams, though from their inception they have temporary streams, the water for which is furnished by showers or melting snow. Yet [Pg 41] sooner or later, valleys come to have permanent streams. How are they acquired? Does the valley find the stream or the stream the valley? For the answer to these questions, a brief digression will be helpful.
Fig. 12. -- A typical river system of the Coastal type.
See larger image
In cultivated regions, wells are of frequent occurrence. ”

“ River basins vary in extent according to the configuration of the country, ranging from the insignificant drainage-areas of streams rising on high ground very near the coast and flowing straight down into the sea, up to immense tracts of great continents, when rivers, rising on the slopes of mountain ranges far inland, have to traverse vast stretches of valleys and plains before reaching the ocean. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A stream may acquire the name of a river, in the channel of which, at some seasons of extreme drought, no water flows. For a great portion of the year parts of a stream may flow in great abundance, in which, during a very dry season, we may find only standing pools. It would be against all usage to say that the general source of the river was at that point in its channel from which the water always flows. ”

“ I had the honour of informing your Lordship, that a settlement was intended to be made at a place I named Rose-hill. At the head of this harbour there is a creek, which, at half flood, has water for large boats to go three miles up; and one mile higher the water is fresh, and the soil good. A very industrious man, whom I brought from England, is employed there at present and has under his direction one hundred convicts who are employed in clearing and cultivating the ground. ”

“ If the stream receives no water of another kind, or scarcely any, not only the rivers, but likewise the lakes which receive these waters, are of the same nature as the springs, and serve the same uses ”

“ Ditches, canals, ponds, rivers, and lakes are every-where to be seen. High, but not dry, they shine in the sunlight, catching nearly all the bustle and the business, quite scorning the tame fields, stretching damply beside them. ”

“ Thus a small rapid stream with abundance of loose transportable material within its reach may fill up an extensive basin in a few centuries, while a large perennial trunk stream, flowing over clean, enduring pavements, though ordinarily a hundred times larger, may not fill a smaller basin in thousands of years. ”

“ It is undoubtedly the rule of the common law that the title of owners of land bordering on rivers above the ebb and flow of the tide extends to the middle of the stream, but that, where the waters of the river are affected by the tides, the title of such owners is limited to ordinary high-water mark. ”

“ Between the watersheds are hundreds2 of little streams and rivers. To get from the basin of one stream to that of another is so difficult, except along the coast, that each basin forms, as it were, a little world in itself. ”

“ Restricting ourselves to the vast plain west and south-west of the Wash, the silted-up estuary, rather than the river delta of the Welland, Nen, and Ouse, it may suffice to say that, while works were executed so far back as Roman times, the first great effort for the reclamation of the land dates from the seventeenth century. ”

“ Whatever the nature of the interest of a riparian owner in the submerged lands in front of his upland bordering on a public navigable river, his title is not as full and complete as his title to fast land which has no direct connection with the navigation of such water. ”

“ There is nothing more striking in geography than the perfection of the adjustment of a great river system to its valleys when the land has remained stable for a very lengthened period. Before full adjustment has been attained the river bed may be broken in places by waterfalls or interrupted by lakes; after adjustment the bed assumes a permanent outline, the slope diminishing more and more gradually, without a break in its symmetrical descent. ”

“ We quote as follows: 'It is equally well settled that grants of land bounded by streams or rivers above tide-water carry the exclusive right and title of the grantee to the center of the stream, usque ad filum aquae, subject to the easement of navigation in streams navigable in fact, unless the terms of the grant clearly denote the intention to stop at the edge or margin of the stream. ”

“ The slope of the river bed diminishes until the plain compels the river to move slowly, swinging in meanders proportioned to its size, and gradually, controlled by the flattening land, ceasing to transport material, but raising its banks and silting up its bed by the dropped sediment, until, split up and shoaled, its distributaries struggle across its delta to the sea. ”

“ The wide flats of our river valleys, the broad plains that occupy the sites of silted-up lakes, the extensive deltas of such rivers as the Nile and the Po, the narrow and wide belts of low-lying land which within a recent period have been gained from the sea, are all made up of various kinds of sediment arranged in approximately horizontal layers. ”

“ It takes one-fourth the rainfall of its valley down to the Gulf, or water equalling a depth of seven or eight inches over its whole drainage area, and the solid matter annually carried along and deposited there is equal to a body a mile square and three hundred and sixty feet high. The flow of the river is from one to six miles an hour in different stages and sections. ”

“ Rivers which have the widest mouths or the most practicable entrances, are, in Europe or America, usually of impetuous current, or else contain such a body of water as to bear down all opposition to their free course; whilst on the other hand, rivers whose force is expended ere they reach the sea, have almost invariably a bar at their embouchure, or where they mingle their waters with those of the ocean. ”

“ Lands under tide waters are incapable of cultivation or improvement in the manner of lands above high-water mark. They are of great value to the public for the purposes of commerce, navigation, and fishery. ”

“ And a river is a navigable water of the United States when it forms by itself, or by its connection with other waters, a continued highway over which commerce is, or may be, carried with other States or foreign countries in the customary modes in which such commerce is conducted by water. ”

“ Rivers which are forced by artificial barriers to flow in one channel, across a flat alluvial tract, to the sea, ever tend to raise their own beds, and the embankments, rising with them for the protection of the marshes, exhibit in the Po and the numerous rivers of Holland, and the English fens, the singular spectacle of vase volumes of water, flowing on levels many feet or yards above the cultivated fields, and even higher than the houses, which are often placed below the shelter of the dangerous bank. ”