CHAPTER VIII 
RUNNING WATERS 
It is seldom that a river empties itself into 
the sea from between high banks of earth or 
rock. Long before tide-water is reached, the 
banks have usually fallen back and away from 
the stream, the course is through undulating 
country, flat plain, meadow, or marsh, and 
the stream itself in the last few miles of its run 
usually flattens out and becomes shallow. About 
the mouth or mouths, for there are often several 
of them, are heavy deposits of mud and sand 
which year by year the stream has been carry- 
ing down ; and these choke and raise the exit, 
causing the water to move slower. As it nears 
sea-level its velocity and its wash are perceptibly 
lessened, its course is tortuous like that of a| - 
wounded snake, and its very slowness is favor- 
able to the settling of its sedimental mud and 
sand. At last, when the stream reaches the sea, 
its final leap of mad freedom into its ocean bed 
is less apparent in the reality than in the imag- 
153 
Lhe river at 
the sea. 
