160 



NATURE FOE ITS OWN SAKE 



sequent friction, that washes away the banks, 

 and though nature has a way of protecting the 

 loose earth by growing vegetation upon it close 

 down to the water's edge, yet this does not en- 

 tirely save it from wear, nor the bed of the 

 river from shifting place. 



It is the cutting away of the banks, the 

 making of crescent curves and long serpentine 

 bends that give the river some of its most 

 picturesque features. The lines of the shores 

 are but repetitions of the water itself, and for 

 every high cliff that breaks the flow of the 

 shore there is a dash and a turmoil of water 

 that break the downward sweep of the stream. 

 These river-lines are never seen so distinctly 

 under the foliage of summer as under the snow 

 of winter. The snow muffles and covers 

 everything to the water's edge. Hill and val- 

 ley, bush and tree, bowlder and beach, the 

 overhang of the bank, the abruptness of the 

 river island, are all smoothed into graceful con- 

 tours. Upon this white background the dark- 

 looking water dances and flashes, swirls and 

 ripples ; and the unbroken harmony of the 

 lines, the continuity of the movement are things 

 of beauty unsurpassed by nature in any of her 

 creations. 



