Modern GeographyNewbigin, Marion I. (Marion Isabel)
Science
Modern Geography
Newbigin, Marion I. (Marion Isabel)
Geography
A very simple example of this widespread phenomenon may be taken in
illustration. The accompanying sketch-map, drawn by Mr. Lionel Hinxman,
shows part of the course of the River Feshie, one of the tributaries of
the Spey, and part of the Geldie Burn, one of the tributaries of the
Aberdeenshire Dee. It will be noted that the Feshie shows a very curious
bend, or elbow. Mr. Hinxman points out that this curious condition can
be explained on the supposition that the River Eidart, shown on the map
to the north of the bend, once formed the headwaters of the Feshie,
which cut its valley back until it captured the headwaters of the
Geldie, and thus brought water which formerly flowed into the Dee into
the Spey valley. The boundary between the two counties of Aberdeen and
Inverness is shown on the map by a dotted line, and it is seen that the
march follows the watershed, which between the present Geldie and the
bend on the Feshie is very low. Formerly, however, this watershed lay
much further to the west, and its shifting is due to the capture.
A careful study of large scale maps will show many examples of similar
river-capture, some old and some recent. A sharp bend, the so-called
elbow of capture, on a river in close proximity to another stream
affords in itself a certain presumption that capture has taken place,
though this presumption can only be verified by study on the spot.
It may be noted that before the capture is finally accomplished there
may be an intermediate stage when the water has the choice of two
channels, both of which may be utilised in a time of flood. A very
curious case is that of the Casiquiare, a river in South America which
connects together the two systems of the Amazon and the Orinoco, while
another is the connection recently discovered by Captain Lenfant, a
French explorer, between the systems of the Shari and the Niger in
Africa. Such conditions are obviously unstable, for one stream must
sooner or later predominate over the other, and deprive it even of flood
water.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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