198 A¥ILD LIFE IN HARD WEATHER 



river floods. During long-continued hard weather 

 every fish in the river apparently vanishes. The 

 trout are there, however, though not visible. 

 They have forsaken the streams for the still 

 pools, where the temperature beneath the ice is 

 not so variable as in the open Y\^ater among the 

 rapids. The otter, unable, because of the ice, to 

 drive the trout from their hiding-places at the 

 bottom of the deep pits they frequent, is forced 

 to feed on anything it may find in the streams 

 — an occasional " kelt '' salmon, or salmon 

 " pink,'' or a stray morsel from the cottagers' 

 kitchens — and finds the bill of fare well-nigh a 

 blank. Yet fortune sometimes favours it. A 

 half-pound fish, chased by a cannibal of its own 

 tribe, will now and then drop down from the 

 hollow of the pool to the shallows, where the ice 

 becomes thin and at last disappears on the edge 

 of the rapids. Here, if anywhere, a stray " blue 

 dun " is to be found loitering at the surface in 

 the brief sunhght of the winter noon. The trout 

 know this, and lurk among the ripples for half 

 an hour in the warmest time of the day. The 

 otter, learned in all the ways of its prey, has 

 forsaken its nocturnal habits, and spends most 

 of its time on the look-out for roving fish by 

 the fringe of the ice. 



Around the trunks of the willows that grow 

 by the river are cleared spaces where the water- 



