SHOOTING THE RAPIDS 13 



and over like a water-logged ball in a current. 

 All at once, and frequently whilst immersed, 

 they would break up, land, and make the circuit 

 of the banks, passing one another as though they 

 were utter strangers, and then suddenly, as if by 

 signal, take to the water again and resume their 

 mimic warfare. Once whilst they were thus 

 engaged the whistle of an otter reached them 

 from the river. In a twinkling they stayed their 

 gambols, and, floating side by side, listened until 

 the call grew faint as the traveller passed up the 

 valley ; then they fell again to their romps. 



Wonderful ease and grace marked their 

 movements in the pool, and still more in the 

 streams and eddies of the river, to which the 

 otter lost no time in taking them. They spent 

 hours shooting the rapids below the salmon 

 pool, landing at the end of the long run where 

 the rush of water loses its force, and regaining 

 the head of the current by climbing the rocky 

 bank. So attractive did this diversion prove 

 that but for their mother's restraint the eager 

 creatures would have left the nest for the river 

 long before it was safe to be abroad. Once, 

 indeed, overborne by their importunities, she so 

 far yielded as to lead them out before the after- 

 glow had paled ; but this concession only made 



