Clashing currents and the hollowed embankment
Water meeting at an acute angle deepens the bed; preserving the fall of an embankment
The leaf treats how converging currents shape a riverbed and how to let water fall while sparing the bank. Leonardo notes that when two waters meet at a strongly acute angle the more powerful one scours its own side of the bed deeper, producing a sudden depth. A second note gives what he calls the true way to give a fall to water descending from an embankment while preserving that embankment. A drawing shows an arched bank with water pouring over and eddying below, and a curved hatched form of scoured ground.
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Clash of two water currents
When two waters meet at a strongly acute angle, the stronger current hollows out its own side of the bed more than the other, and so makes a sudden depth at the meeting point.
Hollowed embankment
Leonardo presents what he calls the true way of giving a fall to the water that descends from an embankment while still conserving the embankment itself, so that the bank is not destroyed by the water it discharges.
