This chapter consists of several illustrations of the power of accelerated water. The examples explore how moving water decides its own course, regardless of what rocks, trees, or houses have to say about it. A major Italian river arising from a multitude of mountain tributariess. As early as the middle ages, people constructed banks to control the river and keep it from changing its course. Explain how this has led to the present situation, where in some places now the river is higher than the roofs of houses, much like old Roman aqueducts.
Natural levees are ridges of silt and sand naturally deposited along a river's banks during a flood.
With each flood, they are raised up higher above the backswamp or lowland beyond, and sediment raises the riverbed higher as well. Eventually, the river will jump its banks and find a new way through the lowland to the sea. Describe the formation of many Louisiana lakes from Red River overflow in the spring. Near the Grand Tetons, occasioned by Gros Ventre river lateral cutting. Turtle Mountain rockslide, Alberta, 1903.