NATURES CRAFTSMEN 



gathered. What are they doing? Really, one might 

 fancy they were playing ' dare ' like a lot of venturesome 

 boys! Secmida^ ventures to the very verge of the fall. 

 Surely, she cannot resist the suction of the riffles? Yes, 

 by hard rowing and a final long leap above the surface 

 she has reached port behind a bunch of grasses. . . . 

 Now Tertia tries. She gradually glitles along from her 

 anchorage on the edge of the central current, which 

 here runs strong but smooth. She seems unconscious 

 of danger, holding herself steady and still, as one who 

 shoots a rapid in a canoe, until she has touched the 

 crest of the cataract. Then begins a struggle to return. 

 Too late! Over she goes, and is lost to view in the 

 whirlpool beyond. I do not see her emerge; but she 

 may be one of the bunch of striders rocking in the 

 harbor just against the bank in the lee of a big bowlder, 

 along with several whirligig beetles, riding there at 

 anchor like miniature torpedo-boats. . . . Quarta glides 

 to the verge of the fall; and I thought she was over; 

 but by hardest pulling she gets back. Again she vent- 

 ures, and slides down fully one-third the water slope, 

 and reascends it, to my great surprise and admiration. 

 She takes a third dare — gets even farther down — then 

 turns and by tremendous exertion climbs up the face 

 of the fall and gets back to her harbor! Wonderful 

 vigor! And now our plucky Quarta takes a fourth 

 risk — she is caught in the rapids, leaps up from the 

 lashing wavelets several inches, but alights just inside 

 the rush and is swept down and under the boiling 

 waters. Four feet below, the whirlpool casts her up; 

 she struggles to the bank, clasps a bunch of grasses 



* In my field notes, successive individuals were, for clarity of 

 reference, often designated Prima, Secunda, Tertia, etc. 



268 



