VIII. 



THE stretch of river between Virgin Falls 

 and Miners' Rapids to Canal Rapids, like 

 many another length of the stream, is charm- 

 ingly vagrant. More than that and perhaps 

 worse, it is delightfully tipsy. It hurries and 

 loiters, dawdles and whirls; it is quiet and 

 boisterous, and with many a merry ripple 

 rushes into whirlpools of disorder, and out 

 into the sunshine, then staggers back into the 

 shadows of great rocks and tall trees, babbling 

 in a maelstrom of unrest, "springing over 

 obstacles, frequently going astray, but always 

 coming out right further along, in spite of 

 everything" ; and while perplexing cross-cur- 

 rents, backsets and rapids impede its progress, 

 it manages, like a thing of life, to stutter 

 th-th-th river is fu-fu-full of trout; they only 

 need ca-ca-catching. Surely it classes with the 

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