MEADOW. 7 



The surface of any particular area of Meadow is usually deeply 

 incised by old abandoned channels of the depositing stream which it 

 has occupied temporarily at times of previous overflows. These 

 swales, sloughs, or bayous are frequently steep-sided, crooked 

 trenches which hold a part of the most recent flood waters or remain 

 swampy through the infiltration of seepage waters from other portions 

 of the meadow area or from adjacent uplands. There are also raised 

 ridges and bars of deposits of coarser sediment usually accumulated 

 where the stream has, at some time, left its usual channel and crossed 

 its flood plain. The sudden checking of the velocity of the water 

 causes the deposition of the coarser sediments, carried in suspension, 

 forming banks and bars of gravel, sand, sandy loam, or even of silt. All 

 of these variations in the altitude of any particular area of Meadow 

 range within narrow limits, the general impression created by the 

 surface features being that of low-lying, nearly level land, interrupted 

 by sloughs, swales, or bayous. 



In consequence of the constant formation of areas of meadowland 

 along the courses of most of the larger streams of the Eastern States 

 and even along many of their tributaries areas of this type occur 

 at all altitudes from near tide level to more than 4,000 feet. The 

 larger areas and the most numerous instances of meadowland forma- 

 tion undoubtedly occur at elevations less than 1,200 feet, for it is 

 within this zone that the greater part of the landward deposition of 

 the streams takes place. Above that altitude the stream courses are 

 usually too torrential to permit of the accumulation of any large areas 

 of the finer sediments which constitute the greater proportion of the 

 meadowland deposits. The coarser materials temporarily dropped 

 by the flood waters of the mountain streams are so large grained and 

 so rough and even so temporary that they should be classed as River- 

 wash rather than Meadow. 



Meadowlands in their natural condition are always poorly drained. 

 This arises from their presence near the normal water level of the 

 parent streams, from the fact that they are periodically subject to 

 overflow by those streams, and that hi many instances they accumu- 

 late the seepage from adjacent higher lying lands. At a depth rang- 

 ing from almost the surface to a maximum of a few feet the perma- 

 nent water table is encountered in the soil or subsoil, even in periods 

 of the greatest drought upon the uplands, and at every overflow both 

 soil and subsoil are again saturated by flood waters. Between inun- 

 dations, the springs and minor brooks of the upland pour their drain- 

 age water into the meadowland areas, providing a constant excess of 

 moisture in such soils. 



Except along the immediate banks of the streams the meadowland 

 areas are not usually subject to any severe stream erosion. At every 

 freshet such areas are liable to bodily removal through the cutting of 



