ETCHINGS ON A SALMON STREAM. 3 



And his doughty squires around him ; do they share 

 his misgivings, or are they all royal bloods together, 

 scuis peur sans reproclie, in scaled armiture of blue and 

 silver, eager to attain the land of promise and the ulti- 

 mate degree of revelation ? Ah ! the way is indeed 

 beset with difficulties and crucial tests, but its end is 

 joy and the fulness of knowledge : and "knowledge is 

 the beginning of life." 



Let us go nearer, and with caution. Ha ! what flash 

 was that across the pool, so swift and sudden that it 

 seemed to begin and end at once ? It sped like a silver 

 arrow across the line of sight, bat it was not a silver 

 arrow ; only the salmon on his route up stream, at the 

 rate of 90 miles per hour. Were it not for the obstruc- 

 tions of the cascades and the long rapids, and perchance 

 the wicked set-nets of the fishermen, it would not take 

 him long to accomplish his journey to the head of the 

 stream, and there prepare for the spawning-beds. But 

 were the way to procreation made thus easy, and should 

 all the salmon of a season's hatching survive, they 

 would stock their native rivers so full in a couple of 

 years that there would be no room for them. So the 

 sacrifice of life is necessary that life may continue. 

 Strange the paradox ! 



I love to see the salmon leap in the sunlight on the 

 first flood of a "June rise,*' and I love to hear his 

 splash in the darkness of the still night, when the 

 place where he jumped can be determined only by the 

 sound, unless perchance his break in the water disturbed 



