Note 3 — Chapter XVII

I have heard it remarked in Shropshire, that the water, when the Severn is flooded from long-continued rain, is much more turbid, than when it proceeds from the snow melting on the Welsh mountains. The floods also, in the former case, are said to be more destructive to the land. D’Orbigny (vol. i., p. 184), in explaining the cause of the various colours of the rivers in South America, remarks that those with blue or clear water, have their source in the Cordillera, where the snow melts.