rive (riv)

[ME. rive, shore. Now bringeth me atte rive Schip and other thing. Sir Tristrem , p. 34. (Jamie son.) L. riparius, of or belonging to a bank, basins," or regions in which the surplus water does not find its way to the sea, for the reason that there evaporation is in exce of precipitation, so that the water cannot accu mulate to a height sufficient to allow it to run over at the lowest point in the edge of the basin, and thus reach the sea. The water carried by rivers is rain or melted snow, a part of which runs on the surface to the nearest rivulet while the rain is falling, or immediately after it has fallen, while a larger part consists of that rain-water which, falling upon a permeable material, such as sand and gravel, sinks beneath the surface for a certain distance, and then makes its way to the nearest available river, more or le slowly according to the permeability of the superficial material, the extent to which it is saturated with water, and the nature and position of the impermeable beds, as of clay or crystalline rocks, which may underlie it. Were the surface everywhere entirely impermeable, the rainfall would be carried at once to the nearest rivers, and -disastrous freshets would be the rule rather than the exception in regions of large rainfall. It is a matter of great im MS. Laud. 108, f. 220. ( Hall i well.) portance that many of the largest rivers head in high