738 



RIVER 



RIVERS 



A, of 



account of numerous mountain-torrent*. In hot 

 countries rivers are of the utmost service in irrigat- 

 ing agricultural land ; the Zerafshan and Murghah 

 are entirely consumed in that service, and since the 

 completion in 1890 of the liarrage on the Nile no 

 water escapes to the Mediterranean in the low Nile 

 months except along irrigation canals. 



THE LARGEST RIVER-SYSTEMS. 



Annual Mui 

 Lrnfth. K.mf.11 Annual 

 IIMa. of Bauii. !>! liam*. 

 cm. nifW ra. niltoa. 



2,280000 8400 2834 628-0 



Congo... ..........I..... ..1,610,000 2800 1213 4HH) 



Nile ...1,290,000 8700 02 243 



Miiuiaalppi 1,290.000 4100 678 120-0 



1.000,000 2600 



Ob 1,190,000 8'JOO 



U Plata 996.000 2300 906 189-0 



Lena 942,000 2900 



Yenisei 880,000 8400 



YanK-Uir.kiang 8,000 3200 409 126-0 



Mackenzie 607.000 2300 



Volga 692,000 2200 152 437 



UanKrs and Brahmaputra.. 648,000 1800 649 43-3 



Zaiilbeil 670.000 MOO 



8t Lawrence 666,000 2400 889 87 -3 



Wirmipeg-Neuwn 604,000 l&OO 



Yukon 433,000 2200 



Orinoco 430,000 1400 603 122-2 



Amur 403,000 2800 



Haang-ho. 887,000 2600 118 28-8 



Indus 380,000 1900 104 26O 



Danube 820,000 1700 199 675 



Murrey 800,000 1600 



The statistics of this table, in which account is taken 

 of rainfall and discharge, are taken from Dr John 

 Murray's paper in Scot. Grog. May. iii. ( 1887) p. 66. 

 The lengths in all cages and the areas of basins in those 

 for which no rainfall statistics are available are according 

 to the statistical tables in Justus Pcrthes' Taxchcn-AUat. 



Rivers in Laic. A distinction is made between 

 public navigable rivers and private fresh-water 

 rivers. Where the tide ebbs and flows, the owner- 

 ship of the bed is in the crown for behoof of the 

 public, and, consequently, the crown is entitled to 

 deepen the channel or perform any other operation 

 on the alveus that may improve the navigation. 

 The banks, however, lieyond the foreshore are the 

 private property of the riparian owner. It is settled 

 in England and an opinion to the same effect has 

 been delivered in Scotland that the public have 

 no common law right to set up even a towing-path 

 along the bank of a navigable river ; but, of course, 

 such a privilege of roadway along a public water- 

 way may he established by prescriptive possession. 

 Aliove the flow and reflow of the tide all rivers 

 and streams are prim/I fnrie private, although, 

 either by immemorial uses or by act of parliament, 

 many have become subject to public rights of navi- 

 gation. In the case of private rivers the alveus 

 Udongs to the proprietor through whose ground the 

 river runs ; or, if the river separates the lands of 

 two owners, each is owner of tne soil of the bed to 

 the middle of the stream. The waters of a stream 

 l>.i ing through or Iwtween the lands of different 

 proprietors may be subject to two kinds of rights, 

 natural and acquired. Natural or proprietary 

 rights are those possessed by every riparian pro- 

 prietor: they consist principally of a right to a 

 reasonable use of the water, while it is flowing 

 ]>:i-t his la in I, and a right to have the water flow- 

 in it* accustomed manner, without sensible dis- 

 turbance or diminution by the superior or interior 

 riparian proprietors. Tim-, alt hough each proprietor 

 may employ the water while it is within Ins own 

 grounds, he must allow it to pass onwards to the 

 inferior proprietors in its original channel, and 

 cannot alter it- level, either where it enters or 

 leaves his pro|>ertv. The riparian proprietor, either 

 in a public or private river, may protect his side of 

 the stream by emliankments ; but such embank 

 uieiii must be cons'.ructed only for defence, and not 



in such a manner as to throw the force of the 

 current upon the op|Mite bank. Acquired rights, 

 on the other hand, are those easement* which 

 entitle a riparian proprietor to interfere with a 

 natural stream of water to an extent not justified 

 by his natural or proprietary right- by diminish- 

 ing or obstructing the How of water, by polluting 

 it. \c. Such acquired righto in respect of water 

 may exist in the inhabitant- of a district by virtue 

 of immemorial custom, am), liotli as to kind and 

 extent, are regulated wholly by prescriptive use. 



The pollution of rivers has of late years, in con- 

 sequence of the extension of manufactures, caused 

 serious concern. No person has a right to poi-on 

 or pollute a stream, and if he do BO any of the 

 pel sons whose lands abut on the stream lower 

 down may bring an action to recover darn.: 

 While, however, this right to object to an existing 

 nuisance may be excluded by acquiescence or by pre- 

 scription, it 18 so excluded only to the extent of the 

 actual use or possession, and any material increase- 

 of the pollution or annoyance may lie challenged 

 and interdicted by the injured parties. At com- 

 mon law, indeed, in every question of river-pollu- 

 tion, the real question of fact is whether there has 

 l"-en any material increase of pollution lieyond that 

 which is natural to the particular stream, or l-\ ,.nd 

 that which has existed there for the prescriptive 

 period. Questions of river-pollution are eminently 

 titled for submission to a jury, and are generally dis- 

 posed of in that way. The whole circumstances must 

 be considered ; for example, the size and character 

 of the stream, the uses to which it can be and is 

 applied, the nature and importance of the use 

 claimed and exercised by one party, as well as the 

 inconvenience or injury to the other party. In 

 England, where the pollution of a stream amounts 

 to a public nuisance, the party causing it may be 

 prosecuted by indictment, or proceeded against by 

 information at the suit of tne A itorney -general. 

 All the chief modern sanitary acts have provisions 

 regarding the pollution of water ; but most of them 

 are local or deal with the pollution of water used 

 for special purposes. In 1868 a Royal Commission 

 was appointed to consider the question of river- 



iiollut ion. and its recommendations were followed in 

 876 by the Rivers Pollution Act (39 and 40 Viet. 

 chap. 75), which is applicable to both Scotland and 

 England. See Higgins, On the Obstruction and 

 Pollution of Water-course* (1877). For fishing 

 rights, see SALMON, and TROUT. 



In the United States the common law of England 

 was at first followed ; but in some of the states it 

 is expressly declared that the common law is in- 

 applicable. Mining rights have been specially 

 determined in some districts ; and the laws as to 

 irrigation rights have been elaborately defined in 

 Colorado and elsewhere. 



Rivera, a department in the north-east of 

 Uruguay, separated by a mountain-chain from 

 Hnt/il. ' Area, 3790 sq. in. ; pop. 17,OS7. 



Ith crina. a name given to the extensive graz- 

 ing districts in the western part of New South 

 Wales, Australasia. 



Rivers UICHARD WOODVILLE, or WIDVII.K, 

 EARL, was esquire to Henry V., and during his 

 son's reign was made Governor of the Tower 

 ( 1424) and knighted ( 1425). He fought in France 

 and in England, in the Ware of the Hoses for 

 the I-ancastrians. He took to wife Jaquetta of 

 Luxemliourg, widow of the Duke of Bedford, and 

 it was their daughter Elizabeth whom Kdwaid IV. 

 married. This led Sir Richard Woodville to change 

 over to the Yorkist side, and his royal father-in- 

 law made him sucees-iveh Con-table of Kngland, 

 Baron Rivers ( 1448), and Earl Rivers ( 1463). Hut 

 the favour shown to the Rivers family offended 



