446 T. 8. Ellis — LoW' Water Chamiels in Rivers and Estuaries. 



vol. i, of Sir A. Geikie's Text Book of Geology, ed. 1903.^ The one 

 is entitled " Meandering course of a Brook," and resembles that which, 

 is often seen in meadows. The other represents the " Winding of the 

 Gorge of the Mozelle above Cochem." There is no essential difference 

 between them. Without knowledge of the scale I could not say that 

 either had been formed in alluvium and not in hard rock. Both are 

 based on the same principle ; each is an adaptation, evolved from 

 a more extended network of streams, formed to meet the requirements 

 of the area to be drained. Lateral streams, even though they do not 

 now exist — the growth of turf or of timber may have rendered them 

 unnecessary — have united with that line in the network best adapted 

 both for the longitudinal and the lateral drainage. In detail this 

 msLj differ ; in principle it is always the same. 



A great geographer, E. Reclus, wrote that " most streams, however 

 winding their course may have been, straighten as they approach the 

 sea and descend towards the shore by the shortest line possible, so as 

 to form a right angle with the coast." ' The difference is more apparent 

 than real. Estuaries are regarded and shown on maps as they are 

 seen at high water ; rivers in their ordinary channels, not as they are 

 at flood-time, when they extend to the sides of the valley, which may 

 be as straight as the margin of the estuary. A river winding in 

 a meadow really corresponds to a low- water channel winding between 

 banks of sand and mud. The purpose of this paper is to show that 

 the course of the low- water channel in the bed of a river, and that 

 of the low-water channels in an estuary, are decided on the same 

 principle. 



I have found that a firm faith in the soundness of these views, 

 extended from, but in principle the same as, those recorded more than 

 a quarter of a century ago,-' sometimes enables me to predict that 

 conditions would, on enquiry, be found to exist although, not i-epre- 

 sented on a map. In a discussion on a paper bj' the late Mr. Yernon- 

 Harcourt, read before the Institution of Civil Engineers and entitled 

 " The River Hooghly," he states, in his reply to written comments, 

 that " Mr. Ellis had to assume the existence of tributaries which, did 

 not appear on the charts." * I had assumed this, and large-scale maps 

 of the Hooghly district, afterwards consulted, have justified the 

 assumption. An Admiralty chart, since published,* is partly shown 

 in Figs. 1 and 2. On this I rely to support my case. 1 may remark 

 that the draughtsmen were simply directed to copy the tributaries 

 shown on the chart. The names of streams, when not given there, 

 are indicated by letters ; they have been obtained from the large- 

 scale maps. 



Fig. 1 commences just below the Botanical Gardens, opposite the 

 docks at Kidderpur, about three miles below Calcutta. At first it 

 shows the river taking a straight course in a narrow but well-defined 

 channel, and, as may be noted, no side-stream enters. Then, opposite 



1 pp. 108, 109 in edition of 1882. 



2 "The Earth," p. 287. 



' " On some features in the Formation of the Severn Valley" ; Gloucester, 1882. 



* Proc. Inst. Civil Engineers, vol. clx (1904-5), pt. 2, pp. 168, 202. 



* John Smith, The Minories, London. 



