258 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 1909 
Going onwards down the river, we see it swing from 
side to side, fig. 6, receiving tributaries always on the 
convex side and at the edge of the alluvium, except 
in the case of a small one which does not extend so far. 
It does receive a small tributary on its concavity and 
another on coming back to the left bank. This small 
curve compared with the greater one just above is a 
commentary on the statement by Mr Mackinder’ that 
“ The greater the volume of a stream the wider will tend 
to be the curves of its meanderings.” I do not find this 
rule to be borne out in Nature. 
We read of “Oxbows,” on the Mississipi, where a 
short cut has been made and the longer course has been 
abandoned. Very often, we may see that a short course 
has been abandoned and a much longer one maintained. 
This is shown in the great curve at Newnham. Herea 
short arm across the isthmus has clearly existed—the 
Hock ditch fs a relic of it—but only the long course has 
been retained. ‘This was necessary for the requirements 
of the large streams flowing in along the line, and it also 
serves the needs of the river. 
The first part of the estuary is The Nooze, a wide 
expanse of mud with tributaries on either side forming at 
low water an island. It is really a relic of an old lake 
formed above the barrier caused by the high ground near 
Sharpness. Of the two outlets of which traces remain 
the one on the right has become the permanent one, that 
near Berkeley being effaced. In this case, as at Newnham 
and lower down the river, the preponderance of the 
drainage from the Forest of Dean had an influence in 
deciding. The details of the many interesting features 
in the Nooze would require another paper. Nowhere, I 
think, could we better study the bearing of the Natural 
1 “ Britain and the British Seas,” p. 120. 
