The Diving Cows of Plumas 155 



" I reckon some dam has broken and swept 

 out the river," remarked his companion. 



" Dam ! " repeated the first angler, " cows, I 

 vow ! " 



They had suddenly made a turn around some 

 large willows, and came upon a long shallow 

 reach in the river. In midstream, ranging up 

 several hundred yards, were ten or more cows, 

 and sitting on the bank, fishing with a willow 

 branch, was a man who doubtless belonged to 

 them. 



There was nothing remarkable in the fact that 

 the cows were in the water, though it was as 

 cold as the glacier on Lassen could make it, 

 but there was something queer about these cows, 

 and the two anglers were not nature fakirs, 

 either just plain anglers. The cows were up 

 to their shoulders in the stream, and five had 

 their heads completely under water, while one 

 in a pool was almost out of sight. One of the 

 anglers took out his watch to time her. 



" Are these cows yours? " he asked the man 

 on the bank, unloading his heavy creel. 



" They will be when the old man dies," re- 

 plied the man, who was young, jerking at a 

 trout and flinging it twenty feet back into the 

 grass. 



" What are they doing? " again tried the 

 angler. 



"Jest divin' for eel grass," was the reply, and 



