River

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

a considerable stream of water flowing through the land. Rivers are surface drains carrying the water from rain and snow downward to sea level. The current is due to gravity. Owing to the spheroidal shape of the earth, the mouth of the Mississippi River is farther from the center of the earth than is its source. The same statement holds true for any large river flowing southward in the northern hemisphere . In thus flowing farther from the center of the earth, the action is due to centrifugal force, the same force that gives the earth its spheroid shape. The general pathway of a river is called its course. The groove through which it flows is its channel or bed. The area drained by a river is its basin. The volume of water carried to the sea depends, generally speaking, on the amount of water falling in its basin; but this is not always the case. The Nile, the Ganges, the Rio Grande , and other rivers that might be mentioned, flowing through arid districts, lose a considerable part of their water by evaporation. In physical geography, a river that has reduced its basin to a comparative level is called an old river, regardless of its age. A river that still flows through gorges is called a new river, although geologically speaking, it may be of ancient origin. When a river is formed by the union of several large streams, the name of the largest and longest is written usually below the point of junction. The Missouri-Mississippi is a marked exception to this rule. The Missouri is far longer than the Mississippi above the point of junction. The St. Lawrence forms another marked exception. The St. Louis River, the Sault Ste. Marie, the Detroit, and the Niagara are all parts of the same waterway. It is customary in Great Britain to prefix the word river to the name. Thus they say the River Mersey and the River Clyde; but in America the position is reversed. We speak of the St. Lawrence River, the Saskatchewan River, the Arkansas River, the Hudson River , etc. Of well known rivers, the Amazon is the largest. It contains the most water. The Missouri-Mississippi is the longest; the Thames is the most frequented; the Rhone is the most rapid; the Rhine is the most celebrated; the Volga is the largest inland stream; the Colorado has the most wonderful canon; the Columbia is the most noted for fisheries; the Danube has witnessed the greatest struggles for its possession. In proportion to its volume, the St. Lawrence has the smallest tributaries. The Yukon is the most surprising, the least known, of great rivers. IMPORTANT RIVERS. NORTH AMERICA . Length, Area of Basin Miles. Sq. M. Colorado . . . . .1,750 230,000 Columbia . . . . .1,200 265,000 Mackenzie . . . . .2,300 600,000 Mississippi (Missouri) . . . . .4,650 1,300,000 Rio Grande . . . . .1,800 245,000 Saskatchewan . . . . .1,600 432,000 St. Lawrence . . . . .2,200 410,000 Yukon . . . . . 2,000 200,000 SOUTH AMERICA . Amazon . . . . .4,000 2,500,000 Orinoco . . . . .1,570 366,000 Rio de la Plata and Parana . . . . .2,500 1,240,000 San Francisco . . . . .1,600 254,000 EUROPE. Danube . . . . .1,725 310,000 Dnieper . . . . .1,230 200,000 Don . . . . .1,300 205,000 Dwina . . . . .1,000 142,000 Elbe . . . . .780 57,000 Loire . . . . .600 48,000 Neva . . . . .40 91,000 Oder . . . . .550 53,000 Petchora . . . . .900 100,000 Rhine . . . . .600 66,800 Rhone . . . . .580 38,000 Seine . . . . .497 30,000 Tagus . . . . .550 34,000 Thames . . . . .220 6,160 Ural . . . . .1,000 106,000 Vistula . . . . .530 76,000 Volga . . . . .2,400 400,000 ASIA. Amur . . . . .2,739 786,000 Euphrates 1,750 127,000 Ganges . . . . .1,600 432,480 Hoang-ho 2,700 200,000 Indus . . . . .2,000 328,400 Irawaddy 1,200 100,000 Kolima . . . . .700 107,000 Lena . . . . .2,400 960,000 Mekong . . . . .1,500 400,000 Obi . . . . .3,000 1,250,000 Yang-tse-Kiang . . . . .3,302 950,000 Yenisei and Angara 3,500 1,100,000 AFRICA. Kongo . . . . .2,900 1,300,000 Niger . . . . .3,000 800,000 Nile . . . . .4,100 1,425,000 Orange . . . . .1,000 446,000 Senegal . . . . .1,000 1,300,000 Zambesi . . . . .1,800 900,000 AUSTRALIA. Murray . . . . .1,120 270,000 There's no music like a little river's. It plays the same tune (and that's the favorite) over and over again, and yet does not weary of it like men fiddlers. It takes the mind out of doors; and though we should be grateful for good houses, there is, after all, no house like God's out-of-doors. And lastly, sir, it quiets a man down like saying his prayers.--Robert Louis Stevenson. A river is the most human and companionable of all inanimate things. It has a life, a character, a voice of its own, and is as full of good fellowship as a sugar-maple is of sap. It can talk in various tones, loud or low, and of many subjects, grave and gay. . . . For real company and friendship, there is nothing outside of the animal kingdom that is comparable to a river.--Henry Van Dyke.