DCHP-1 Online
read North 
v. especially in read (the) water, scan the surface (of a stream, river, etc.) from a canoe or boat for signs of shoals, sandbars, snags, and other sources of danger.
See also: river sense
- 1921 As Brennan had lost one eye and could not see any too well out of the other, he was glad to have one of us ride in his canoe and read water for him.
- 1944 The skeptics did not know that my Indian canoeman . . . had few peers in "reading bad water".
- 1964 "How do you get to be a pilot, Jerry?" The reply is soft-voiced. "Takes a long time, maybe 30 years; got to learn to read the water."
- 1965 The swift opaque glacial waters present a problem for the bowman to read the river properly and avoid the shallow rocks and snags lying ahead.
- 1921 As Brennan had lost one eye and could not see any too well out of the other, he was glad to have one of us ride in his canoe and read water for him.