CHAPTER IX 



A MOUNTAIN STREAM FOLLOWED TO ITS SOURCE 



Geology of the stream The making of a valley The roving Otter 

 Water Voles and Water Shrew Mole-hills in the meadow 

 The Dipper Small fry in the stream Eels and Niners Glow 

 Worms An Ant hill A waterfall The source. 



IT is a delightful experience to follow a stream to its 

 source, and we do not wish to interfere with the 

 pleasure by insisting on "what one ought to see." 

 But if one has time to rest and peer into things, 

 " scrutinising," as the great French naturalist, Henri 

 Fabre, called it, the appreciation of the beauty will be 

 increased, not diminished. As we followed a rather 

 steep mountain stream one day we came upon a 

 waterfall of twenty feet or so, and as we diverged a 

 little to circumvent it we suddenly saw a magnificent 

 Royal Fern (Osmunda regalis), growing in thick 

 shade and plentifully sprinkled with spray from the 

 fall 



Plant lovelier in its own recess 

 Than Grecian naiad seen at earliest dawn 

 Tending her font, or lady of the lake 

 Sole sitting by the shores of old romance. 



Now beauty is a peculiar quality in things and 

 creatures and works of art, that calls forth a peculiar 

 joy in those who perceive it, and, frankly, we do not 

 think that our aesthetic delight was in any way 

 lessened by our knowing a little about the Royal Fern 

 that it is a scion of an ancient stock, that it is the 



