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Rapids

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Rapids 

the part of a river channel where the river drops sharply and the current moves swiftly. Rapids usually form where the river surface is broken by rocky ridges or outcrops, rocks not easily erodible, boulder conglomerates, or rockfall. They sometimes form where there once was a waterfall. Hydroelectric power plants are frequently built on rivers that have rapids and a significant steepening in the stream gradient. Two such plants are the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Plant, built at the rapids of the Dnieper, and Volkhov Hydroelectric Power Plant, built at the rapids of the Volkhov. Rapids usually make navigation and timber flotation very difficult and require the construction of bypass canals.
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The falls or rapids of the Columbia are situated about one hundred and eighty miles above the mouth of the river.
Astoria or Anecdotes of an enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains by Irving, Washington View in context
He got a new effect of airships altogether, as vast things coming down upon him, growing swiftly larger and larger and more overwhelming, until the houses over the way seemed small, the American rapids narrow, the bridge flimsy, the combatants infinitesimal.
The War in the Air by Wells, H.G. View in context
They had to raise enormous stones, massive pieces of wrought iron, heavy corner-clamps and huge portions of cylinder, with an object-glass weighing nearly 30,000 pounds, above the line of perpetual snow for more than 10,000 feet in height, after crossing desert prairies, impenetrable forests, fearful rapids, far from all centers of population, and in the midst of savage regions, in which every detail of life becomes an almost insoluble problem.
From The Earth To The Moon by Verne, Jules View in context
 
 
 
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