River-bed studies: still water and a waterfall with eddies
Leaves settle where the water is still; falling water swells and breaks the bed
In red chalk Leonardo studies the beds of rivers. Where the water lies without motion, he notes, the leaves that had drifted heavy with water along the bottom come to rest. A second sketch of a waterfall with eddies (retrosi) explains that the falling water swells through its intersections and, entering the air, weighs more, so that it drops and breaks the bed beneath.
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Leaves settle in still water
Leonardo observes that in water without motion the leaves stop — the same leaves that, heavy with water, had been drifting along the river bed. The remark marks still water by the debris it lets fall.
A waterfall's eddies break the bed
At a fall of water with eddies, Leonardo writes that the water swells through its intersections and, entering the air, weighs the more, whence it drops and breaks the bottom. The note links the churning fall to the scouring of the bed.