146 THE RIVER. 



by means of which the whole city and suburbs are 

 ventilated. 



Thus we see that, setting aside all its natural beauty, 

 all the direct fertility that it produces, all the living 

 creatures that without it could not exist, all the uses to 

 which it is applied in the arts, and all the facilities which 

 it gives to intercourse and trade, that, setting all these 

 aside, and looking upon a river as merely a physical 

 part of the creation, it is one of the most important 

 that can engage our attention. But when, to the ab- 

 stract consideration of the river itself, we unite that of 

 those adjuncts, they pour in and swell the utility, just 

 as the tributary streams roll in and augment the parent 

 tide. Occupying the most sheltered part of the dis- 

 trict, and the part toward which the rains and torrents 

 wash all the more fertile mould of the uplands, the 

 river possesses on its banks the most rich and abundant 

 food for vegetation ; and, by doing so, it affords both 

 the best shelter and the most plentiful subsistence for 

 animals. Hence quadrupeds, birds, and insects, flock 

 to it, to drink its waters, to browse the herbage upon 

 its banks, to walk in its groves, to sport over its surface, 

 or to commit their young to its tide. Nor is it the 

 favourite only of the tenants of the earth and the air ; 

 for there is a charm about the aquatic tenants of a 

 river, that is not found in those either of sea or of lake. 

 They seem to partake of the wholesome freshness of 

 the living water, and to show the effects in the beauty 

 of their colours, the briskness of their motions, and 

 probably in the delicacy of their flesh as food. Those 

 who carry sentiment into nature, condemn angling as a 

 cruel sport, though anglers, from the time of Izaac 



