Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/595

Rh tions from his under the titles Geschichte der Erdkunde, Allgemeine Erdkunde, and Europa. Several of his works (e.g., the “Palestine” volumes of his Erdkunde) have been translated into.

See Kramer, Carl Ritter, ein Lebensbild ( and, 2d ed. ); Gage, The Life of Carl Ritter ; Guyot, Carl Ritter, an address to the American Geogr. and Stat. Soc. ; F. Marthe, "Was bedeutet Carl Ritter für die Geographie," in Zeitsch. der Ges. f. Erdk., ,.

 RIVAROL, (–), was born at  in  on the 26th , and died at  on the 13th. It seems to be undisputed that his father was an, but no researches have thrown any certain light on the question of his origin; later he assumed the title of de Rivarol, and attributed himself to a family of  origin. His enemies declared that the family name was really Riverot, and that, whether or not, it had nothing whatever to do with. It is certain that he bore several names, and that when he was among the foremost defenders of his claim to share in it was by no means allowed by his associates. He was well, and is said to have been admitted by the of  to a  , then to have held a  at  under the name of Longchamps, then to have appeared in  under the further travesty of de Parcieux with no better reason than that his mother was related to a man of  of that name. All this, however, is of very little consequence; it is sufficient that he appeared in in  (just when the operation of  was throwing  most freely open to men of letters), with youth, good address, fair knowledge, and a very unusual stock of wit and. After competing for and sometimes winning several of the academic prizes then in greatest vogue, Rivarol distinguished himself in the  by a treatise Sur l’universalité de la langue Française (which shows, if not much learning, the utmost critical acumen and a very happy faculty of expression), and by a translation of the Inferno, very free but of no small merit. the broke out he, with some assistance from a man of similar but lesser talent, Champeenetz, compiled a  entitled Petit Almanach de nos grands Hommes pour 1788, in which some writers of actual or future talent and a great many nobodies were ridiculed in the most pitiless manner. It made him many enemies, but scarcely more than his speeches in society had made. When the developed the importance of the, Rivarol at once took up arms on the royalist side. The Journal Politique of Sabatier de Castres and the Actes des Apôtres of Peltier were the chief in which he wrote. But he emigrated early in, and established himself at , whence he removed successively to , , and. For ten s he occupied himself not too strenuously with political pamphlets and literary projects, receiving s for his services to the royalist cause. He had an, but had quarrelled with her, and during his later s had for his companion a pretty but totally uneducated girl named Manette, to whom he addressed certain often-quoted verses which are nearly. Rivarol’s genius, however, was essentially a genius of, though not a prosaic genius. No single work of his of any length has very great merit, and he is accordingly only known to posterity by volumes of “beauties” and selections, composed of matic remarks, short passages of criticism, and the like. Rivarol could not tell an anecdote with quite the point of his contemporary and rival ; but he has had no rival in except, and none in  except , in sharp isolated conversational sayings. These were mostly ill-natured, and in some cases the full appreciation of them demands a more considerable acquaintance with the facts and men of the time than most readers possess. The brilliancy of Rivarol’s phrase, however, can escape no one. was hyperbolical, and not altogether happily hyperbolical, in calling him the of the, because the description suggests a power of   which Rivarol did not possess. But the expression no doubt really referred to the detached phrases which are so striking in, and which Rivarol did in truth sometimes equal.

The works of Rivarol were published in five volumes by his friend Chênedollé (who has reported much remarkable conversation of his in his last ) and Fayolle ; but their perusal as a whole can only be recommended to the student of. Selections are frequent: that published by De la Hays, with introductory matter by Sainte-Beuve and others, and that edited in by M. de Lescure, may be specified. The last-named editor published, in, a study on Rivarol et la Société Française, which is the fullest treatment of the subject.

 RIVE DE GIER, a of, in the of, situated 13 s to the east-north-east of , on the   at the head of the  of  on the. The, which is constantly enveloped in a dense cloud of smoke, and presents a dirty and unattractive appearance, is principally dependent on the , there being fifty pits in the basin of the , with an  output of over 19,000,000 s. There are twenty-two  and  s, and five  works, the products of which—coloured  and so-called  s—are celebrated, on account of the fineness and purity of the  found on the  of the  and the. , plant, and coarse  are also d, and there are  and  works. A large number of persons are also employed in winding and spinning and in -. The in  was 15,760. Rive de Gier is a place of some antiquity, as appears from remains of, and s and found at various times. In the the  of  were its superiors. At a later period the was surrounded by a  and protected by a, of which, however, but few traces are visible. In the time of the working of the  had already given to the locality a measure of importance which has steadily increased. At one time it was feared that the basin, which was considered distinct from that of, would soon be exhausted, but it has now been proved that the two are in reality one, and that they have a long future before them.

 RIVER. See,.

  RIVER ENGINEERING. The improvement of may be considered under two aspects, for form the natural channels for conveying the surplus  from the districts through which they pass to the, and they can also be utilized for the purposes of inland. If a, owing to the small section of its channel, or the slight inclination of its , is incapable of discharging the whole of  which drains into it in y seasons, the lands along its  become flooded, frequently to the great detriment of the , and sometimes with disastrous results to  and. If, on the other hand, a is impeded by, by , or by a  at its mouth, it is prevented from serving as a natural highway for the  of the district through which it flows. Accordingly the mitigation of floods and the regulation of are the problems which have to be grappled with in the  of. The first aims at remedying an existing evil, and the second deals with the development of the resources and of a country by the improvement of its.

Floods.—Floods are of two kinds, according to the nature of the country traversed by the producing them. Torrential rivers, flowing over impermeable and having a rapid fall, rise rapidly after a heavy, and produce a high flood which quickly subsides. Gently flowing on the contrary rise slowly, and do not attain the same height as torrential rivers; but their floods subside slowly, and consequently, though less high, remain longer 