41 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 1915 
by keeping open a channel on its own side which the river 
falls into and adopts for itself, tends to bring the river to that 
side ; authority, on the other hand, teaches that the effect 
of a tributary stream is to drive the river towards the opposite 
bankd This was said by Mr Vernon Harcourt and other 
engineers to be the effect of the Damuda. I say that the main 
channel is against the left bank because of the influence of the 
Fulta Creek, the Ninan Creek and others. This much is 
certain : if the Damuda were bringing down much water there 
must be a channel by which it could pass on. The mouth of 
the Damuda is, on the chart, shown to be very much choked 
by a shoal — at two places it is four feet above low water. 
Between this and the eastern channel, there is a mile of shallow 
water nowhere more than four feet deep at low water, and in 
one place a shoal is three feet above it. I cannot believe that 
the deep channel close to the left bank has been caused by 
“ the influence of the Damuda in pushing ” it over from the 
other side. The low-water channels are made at low water, 
an elementary fact which is either unknown or ignored. 
The line of the low- water channel of a river is determined by 
the stream : the early tide follows it as the line of least resistance, 
and may, to some extent, modify the line of it. If the two be 
not completely in accord there is the greater need for having 
fixed points. In Fig. 8 the estuary of the Exe shows the same 
tendency to swing from side to side as is seen in rivers. From 
Topsham on the left, the channel goes over to the right and 
meets the stream coming in by the canal, then it returns and 
receives the Clyst, afterwards going over to receive the Ken. 
Lower down there is the usual result of having tributary streams 
on both sides, shoals in the middle. The tide, however, shows 
a marked disposition to go straight up the line of the estuary ; 
Powderham Pool, a tongue of the early tide, with other similar 
features, shows this clearly. The importance of having gentle 
curves is, from this point of view, obvious. 
The Chester Dee^ gives another instance of an estuary 
where the channel shows a disposition to swing from side to 
side, a circumstance which, as I think, ought not to be 
1 Marr, Scientific Study of Scenery, p. 137. 
2 Ordnance Map, one incli scale, large sheet 43, price is fid. 
