156 



NATURE FOR ITS OWN SAKE 



muddy banks and goes a long way out of its 

 course to get around a piece of hard ground. 

 It is deep in places, too, and has a lazy fashion 

 of sleeping in flat pools under the shade of 

 some great oak or elm. It is in no hurry to 

 be gone, and yet it always keeps moving, drift' 



We meet with quite a change in river char- 

 acter when what is called the Valley Track is 

 reached. It seems as though the great plain 

 had been narrowed, as though the distant hills 

 had grown almost to mountains and stood 

 closer to the water's edge, and the flat farms 

 had been converted into side-hills or foot-hills. 

 How different now is the river ! It has a rocky 

 or stony bed, there are sharp, confining banks ; 

 sometimes there are cliffs, about the bases of 

 which the clear water laps and gurgles. The 

 stream is now running swiftly and turns in 

 bends and angles, flashing light and color 

 from its rippling surface. There are also 

 rapids at different places, and where the bank 

 bends sharply we meet with racing water on one 

 side, and the deep pool with its back-water on 

 the other side. Clumps of saplings or dank 

 masses of bushes fringe the sides and droop into 

 the water, and occasionally in the centre of the 



