1.   It quickly develops into a major river flowing within a deep, wooded valley.

2.   Three major rivers have already flooded, and two more are on red alert.

3.   The Rivers almond and Avon are the two major rivers in West Lothian which carry sewage effluent to the Forth Estuary.

4.   Major rivers that have suffered include the Thames, the Thame, the Avon, the Derwent and the Wear.

5.   The forest still encroached to the shoreline, falling back only when meeting occasional inlets where smaller streams joined the major river.

6.   The major rivers have already flooded.

7.   As a California-based conservation group, the Sierra Club fought efforts to dam major western rivers.

8.   After widespread heavy rain, crests on major rivers, whose drainage basin spans many thousands of square miles, can take days, sometimes weeks.

9.   All three sites are near major rivers that could spread the contamination.

10.   But the Li, like other major Chinese rivers, for years was treated as an open sewer.