Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 November 1882 — The Current of Rivers. [ARTICLE]

The Current of Rivers.

A very slight declivity suffices to give the running motion to water. Three inches per mile in a smooth, straight channel gives a velocity of about three miles an hour. The Ganges, which gathers the waters of the Himalaya mountains, the loftiest in the world, is at 100 miles from’ its mouth only 300 feet above the level of the sea, and to fall 300 feet in its long course the water requires more - than a mouth. The great river Magdalena, in South America, running for 1,000 miles between two ridges of the Andes, falls only 500 feet in all that distance. Above the distance of 1,000 miles it is seen descending in rapids and cataracts from the mountains. The gigantic Rio de la Plata has so gentle a descent to the ocean that in Paraguay, 1,500 miles from its mouth, large ships are seen which have sailed against the current all the way by the force of the wind alone—that is to say which, on the beautifully inclined plane of the stream, have been gradually lifted by th‘e soft wind, and even against the current, to an elevation greater than our loftiest spires. Mr. R. V. Murphy, of Falmouth, Ky., '•■'rites: “I would sooner do without my tobacco than dispense with Dr. Guysott’s Yellow Dock and Sarsaparilla. Myself, wife and little ones use it for colds, coughs, headaches, indigestion, eta Whenever we don’t iust feel well, we use it, and it always does good. ” Thebe are nine ambulances constituting New York’s ambulance system. Each one is accompanied by a driver and surgeon, and by law is given the right of way throughout the city. A clanging gong tells you that one of these judicipusly-arranged vehicles is hurrying to the scene of an accident. They are summoned from the stationhouses. In the event of any serious calajnitv the call for ambulances is sent out without waiting to learn if any persons are injured. In the Madras Presidency, during 1881, £2,025 was paid as rewards for destroying 136 tigers, 750 panthers and leopards and 543 other animals. One thousand three hundred and two persons and 8,938 animals were killed by wild animals and snakes, tigers killing 135 people and 3,328 cattle. The cattle killed by wild animals in the Presidency during the year are valued at £17,876.