LIMITING WIDTH OF MEANDER BELTS 



By Prof. Mark S. W. Jefferson, 



State Normal College, Ypsilanti, Michigan 



" One of the most characteristic features of streams, whether large or small, is the ten- 

 dency to wind in serpentine curves when the angle of declivity is low, and the general surface 

 of the country tolerably level." — Seikie : Text Book of Geology, 3d ed., p 387. 



"The Meander, a serpentine river of Asiatic Turkey, has given its name to this river 

 habit. . . . The size of the meanders increases with the volume of the stream. A meadow 

 brook may swing around curves measuring only 40 or 50 feet across. The curves of the lower 

 Mississippi are from 3 to 6 miles across." — Davis : Physical Geography, pp. 243-244. 



THE present paper seeks to estab- 

 lish a limit for the width of the 

 belt of meanders of any given 

 stream and finds that limit to be eighteen 

 times the mean width of the stream at 

 the place, the depth of water and the 

 volume of stream discharge being neg- 

 ligible in the present state of geographic 

 knowledge. 



If we examine the course of any well- 

 mapped meandering river, as the Mis- 

 sissippi at Greenville, Miss., we shall 

 observe that it is very irregular. 



Stretches of wide-swinging meanders 

 alternate with stretches of wavering 

 course, where the river trends along a 

 straight line, but with tremulous lean- 



ings to one side or the other. These 

 wavering stretches are further embar- 

 rassed by sand bars and islands flung 

 into the river's path in disorder. The 

 meandering stretches are distinguished 

 by a more positive, self-assertive char- 

 acter, the sand bars are pushed mostly 

 to the inner bank, while the channel 

 hugs the outer at each curve. But here, 

 too, is a certain hesitancy in the sweep 

 of lines, suggestive of numerous factors 

 of control. Even disregarding these 

 minor waverings, the meanders display 

 great variety of type and dimension 

 within short distances. Along the Mis- 

 sissippi may be observed circles of dif- 

 fering radius, ovals and ellipses distorted 



The Mississippi at Greenville 



