COMPLETING MY EDUCATION.

97

* Very good. Is the river rising or falling ?'
' Rising/

< No it ain't/

* I guess 1 am right, sir. Yonder is some driffc-wood floating down
the stream/

* A rise starts the drift-wood, but then it keeps on floating a while
after the river is done rising. Now the bank will tell you about this.
"Wait till you come

to a place where it
shelves a little. Now
here; do you see this
narrow belt of fine
sediment ? That was
deposited while the
water was higher.
You see the drift-
wood begins to strand,
too. The bank
helps in other ways.
Do you see that
stump on the false
point ?'

6 Ay, ay, sir/

'Well, the water
is just up to the roots
of it. You must make
a note of that/

e Why ? ' « DO YOU SEJB5 THAT STUMP ? '

'Because that
means that there's seven feet in the chute of 103/

* But 103 is a long way up the river yet/

* That's where the benefit of the bank comes in. There is water
enough in 103 now, yet there may not be by the time we get there;
but the bank will keep us posted all along. You don't run close
chutes on a falling river, up-stream, and there are precious few of them
that you are allowed to run at all down-stream. There's a law of the
"Dnited States against it. The river may be rising by the time we