diff --git a/client/tests/test_step_canvas_annotation_layer.gd b/client/tests/test_step_canvas_annotation_layer.gd
index e5cc635fb..b19f9aede 100644
--- a/client/tests/test_step_canvas_annotation_layer.gd
+++ b/client/tests/test_step_canvas_annotation_layer.gd
@@ -448,23 +448,53 @@ func _canvas_with_courses(courses: Array) -> Dictionary:
 	return {"width": 4, "height": 4, "courses": courses}
 
 
-## A server "course" is an EDGE of the river network — the stretch between two
-## confluences — not a river. Culling per course therefore culls per SEGMENT,
-## and a long river assembled from many short edges vanishes entirely. Measured
-## on Ferrath's Global canvas before chaining: 375 courses, 180 surviving the
-## water clip, ZERO surviving the length cull. After chaining: 5 rivers.
-func test_edges_chain_into_one_river_before_the_length_cull() -> void:
+## The cull measures a WHOLE river, not its segments.
+##
+## A server course used to be one D8 hop, so culling per course culled per hop
+## and a long river assembled from short pieces vanished entirely — measured on
+## Ferrath's Global canvas: 375 courses, 180 surviving the water clip, ZERO
+## surviving the length cull. The client briefly compensated by chaining runs
+## end-to-end; that was the wrong layer and only half-worked (375 hops rejoined
+## into 260 pieces, because each hop was warped independently so shared
+## confluence points no longer coincided). The join moved to the server, which
+## now emits one course per river (`river_course::build_paths`).
+##
+## So the property to hold here is no longer "chain the pieces" but "measure the
+## arriving polyline as a whole": a course whose individual segments are each
+## under the cull must still be kept when its total length clears it.
+func test_a_rivers_length_is_measured_whole_not_per_segment() -> void:
 	var layer: StepCanvasAnnotationLayer = auto_free(StepCanvasAnnotationLayer.new())
 	add_child(layer)
-	# Three collinear edges, each meeting the next end-to-end. Sized so each
-	# is individually UNDER the cull and the chain is comfortably over it.
-	# At District with a 4x4 canvas the pitch is 512 m/gridunit and 2 px per
-	# gridunit, i.e. 256 m per screen px — so the 15 px floor is 3,840 m.
-	# 1,500 m per edge: 5.9 px alone (culled), 17.6 px chained (kept).
+	# ONE course of four collinear points. At District with a 4x4 canvas the
+	# pitch is 512 m/gridunit at 2 px per gridunit, i.e. 256 m per screen px, so
+	# the 15 px floor is 3,840 m. Each 1,500 m segment is 5.9 px on its own —
+	# under the floor — while the whole 4,500 m course is 17.6 px and must be
+	# kept. A per-segment cull would drop it entirely.
 	var step: float = 1500.0
-	var edges: Array = []
+	var points: Array = []
+	for i in range(4):
+		points.append([float(i) * step, 0.0])
+	var river: Array = [{"class": 2, "points": points}]
+	layer.set_frame(_canvas_with_courses(river), Vector2.ZERO, "District", Vector2i(4, 4), 0.0)
+	assert_int(layer.get_drawn_course_count()).override_failure_message(
+		"a river whose segments are each under the cull must survive on its TOTAL length"
+	).is_equal(1)
+
+
+## Separate courses must NOT be rejoined, even when they meet end-to-end.
+##
+## This is the deleted chaining's headstone. Water splits a course, and D-261 is
+## explicit that a river crossing a lake is genuinely two visible strokes — so a
+## client that helpfully reconnected them would erase the lake. Three short
+## collinear courses that touch are three sub-threshold rivers, and all three
+## are culled; a resurrected chaining pass would report 1.
+func test_separate_courses_meeting_end_to_end_are_not_rejoined() -> void:
+	var layer: StepCanvasAnnotationLayer = auto_free(StepCanvasAnnotationLayer.new())
+	add_child(layer)
+	var step: float = 1500.0
+	var courses: Array = []
 	for i in range(3):
-		edges.append(
+		courses.append(
 			{
 				"class": 2,
 				"points": [
@@ -473,10 +503,11 @@ func test_edges_chain_into_one_river_before_the_length_cull() -> void:
 				],
 			}
 		)
-	layer.set_frame(_canvas_with_courses(edges), Vector2.ZERO, "District", Vector2i(4, 4), 0.0)
+	layer.set_frame(_canvas_with_courses(courses), Vector2.ZERO, "District", Vector2i(4, 4), 0.0)
 	assert_int(layer.get_drawn_course_count()).override_failure_message(
-		"three end-to-end edges must chain into ONE river, not be culled as three segments"
-	).is_equal(1)
+		"three touching courses are three rivers, each under the cull — rejoining them "
+		+ "would draw one stroke straight across the water that separates them"
+	).is_equal(0)
 
 
 ## The cull itself: a river too short to read as a line is not drawn at all,