Stages in the life history of a stream. A. In the initial stage a stream has lakes, waterfalls and rapids. B. By middle youth the lakes are gone, but falls and rapids persist along the narrow incised gorge. C. Early maturity brings a smoothly graded profile without rapids or falls, but with the beginning of a floodplain. D. Approaching full maturity, the stream has a flood plain alomost wide enough to accommodate its meanders. E. Full maturitymis marked by a broad flood plain and freely developed meanders: levee, oxbow lake, yazoo stream, alluvium, bluffs, flood plain. Strahler, 1960. p. 350.