We give this name to collections of water in the interior country, which are fed by springs, and from which issues a small stream. These ponds are often a mile or two or even more in length, and the current issuing from them is used to drive the wheels of mills and furnaces.--Webster.
There were streams meandering along hills and valleys; little lakes or as they were erroneously called in the language of the country, dotted the surface.--Cooper, Satanstoe, Vol. I. p. 144.