Is there some River trope I am missing?

[The Neuromancer]

From what I know about rivers flow out of the mountains and down into the lake or ocean;
Mountain Water/Snow --> Gullies --> Streams --> Rivers --> Lake or Ocean.

But it seems in many fantasy series that all rivers start at the ocean and flow into the land. For example, George R. R. Martin's novel 'Game of Thrones' has a map in it. The map shows the rivers starting from the ocean. I have noticed this in a few other books as well.

Perhaps I am misreading the map but It looks this way to me.
Am I just missing something?

[meg_evonne]

can't imagine that you're reading it backwards and I haven't read the novel, nor seen the map, but where does it end up then? I mean, the Mississippi is the end with Itaska at the top. If you flip it over, it still flows to the Gulf. I think the Red River flows north through Canada, but again ends up in ocean.

Any funny smokes at the time?  LOL  I'll be interested to see what others say. You know though the Yellowstone River starts from the huge Yellowstone Lake right? Is it similar to that maybe?

[The Neuromancer]

Here is a link to the map online.
http://img222.imageshack.us/f/immapnorthdb9.gif/

[Nickeris86]

what gives you the idea that the river is flowing inland, and which river do you think is doing it?

[The Neuromancer]

Look at the river that is above and slightly-to-the-right of the of the body of water called 'The Bite'. I see nothing there but a river that sorta looks like it is flowing inward.
On other maps the river flows out of the mountains and becomes a fork. This river looks like it is flowing from the ocean and becoming a fork inland.
Am I just misunderstanding this?

[Kali]

Sorry, to me it just looks like two small rivers that come together to form a larger river, and that flows into the Bite.  Not every river has to start in the mountains.  The Mississippi, for instance (as Meg pointed out), starts at a lake.  It could be that if you could zoom into that fork, you'd find a network of smaller feeder rivers that all happen to flow into those two smaller rivers.  Or maybe there's a huge underground lake that happens to surface there.

[jeno]

Or it's a mistake. 

[Starbeam]

My guess is that it looks like it's going inland because there's no terrain drawn in that area, kinda like the one in the upper left corner.  But unless it's stated otherwise in the text, which I don't remember ever being the case, I'm pretty sure the rivers follow the normal course of flowing toward the larger body of water.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Perhaps I am misreading the map but It looks this way to me.

You're misreading the map.  I've just been rereading that series, and it's very clear in the text that the rivers flow down to the sea.

[The Neuromancer]

You're misreading the map.  I've just been rereading that series, and it's very clear in the text that the rivers flow down to the sea.

Good to know. It has been bugging me for a while which way it was flowing.

[comprex]

Good to know. It has been bugging me for a while which way it was flowing.

I think I see what you're getting at, though:  Assuming normal flow, it looks weird for the river to have picked its way *through* the mountain range like that as if it knew that the ocean was on the other side, and to have _not_ picked its way going the other way where it doesn't have such a mountainous barrier to cross.   

How could it happen that way, if mountains are created by large scale geologic upthrust and not lifted up point-by-point at their peaks?   How could it happen that way, if passes and valleys between mountains are generally higher up than plateaus, especially plateaus that do not seem to have a cliff on the side where they meet the ocean?


One way for it to happen is to have a breakthrough-type event where a large historical lake finds an underground seep of soft rock to tunnel through, and then the high speed water flow simply eats through the sides and top of the tunnel until there is no top to the tunnel.     Happens all the time when old sea beds are turned into mountains, like in southern Europe for example.    This, of course, begs the question: what is on the other side of the western sea jamming those mountains up, like Europe has Africa slamming into it?

[daranthered]

Could be a flood plain.  Not all rivers flow out of mountains.  Sometimes you can have rivers that flow through plains or marshy areas that get a lot of precipitation.