For ages I assumed that the water going over Niagara Falls was flowing from north to south--from the Canadian side to the American side--and that Horseshoe Falls faced south. Thanks to GoogleMap, I discovered that I had been dead wrong about it (and so many other things).

Now what's really interesting about all this is that the water of the Great Lakes flows west to east, then through the St. Lawrence River where it eventually drains into the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Atlantic Ocean which is over 3500 kilometers away from Lake (Mother) Superior.

A lot of the great rivers of the world flow south to north--The Nile, being the most famous, but also the Rhine, the Elbe, and parts of the Danube. Then there are the Deschutes and Willamette ("Will lam it"), which were closer to home when I was growing up not knowing shit from Shinola.

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私は長い間、ナイアガラの滝を流れる水は北から南へ--カナダ側からアメリカ側へ--流れていて、ホースシュー・フォールズは南に面していると思い込んでいた。GoogleMapのおかげで、私はそれについて大間違いをしていたことがわかった（そして他の多くのことについても）。

五大湖の水は西から東に流れ、セントローレンス川を経てセントローレンス湾と大西洋に注ぐ。

ナイル川は最も有名だが、ライン川、エルベ川、ドナウ川の一部もそうだ。デシューツ川やウィラメット川は、私が何もを知らずに育った頃、もっと身近な存在のオレゴン州にあった。