4 TEJE ADVENTURES 



letting it take me a few yards down the river and 

 then, -just as the edge of the grey gravel bed 

 seemed sinking away into unknown depths, 

 putting forth my little strength and returning to 

 the safe shallows, where no destructive monsters 

 were lurking to destroy me. Not that I had 

 any idea of danger ; oh no ! that has come with 

 after years of experience. I was then in happy 

 ignorance. I did not even know the dangers 

 from which I had already escaped. I viewed with 

 an admiration in which fear was not unmingled, 

 some beings whom I regarded as leviathans, who, 

 with immense scales glittering in the sunshine, 

 came wandering in parties of six, or twelve, 

 or even twenty, through the very shallows in 

 which my brothers and myself were rejoicing, 

 apparently eager in the pursuit of prey of which 

 we formed no part. I knew not then that these 

 fish, whom I have since learned to look down 

 upon with some contempt, were seeking the very 

 eggs, the spawn, of which I and others were 

 the produce ; and that had not the powerful rays 

 of the sun brought me into existence before I 

 was disturbed from the loose gravel which pro- 

 tected me, I should certainly have served for 

 food to these ravenous creatures. I was now, 

 however, beyond the range of food for Chub 

 or Dace. 



