306 THE BIOLOGY OF THE SEASONS 



of it, and the leap of the salmon is a function of the velocity 

 of the water and the metabolism of the fish. 



This is true in a way, but it is hardly the whole truth. 

 Unless p be taken to mean more than is usually granted, 

 it is a dull, one-sided fact. One misses in the formula any 

 recognition of the fact that the fish is also a spirit a water- 

 sprite. It has a consciousness, an experience, some sort of 

 mental life, strong desires, and that byplay of activity 

 which we call emotion. It is a personality of a fishly sort. 

 We must admit that it cannot reason, this Salmo solar ; 

 its intelligence is of a low order ; but if it thinks little, it 

 feels much ; it is a water-baby. What surmounts the fall 

 is no torpedo, no automatic machine that idol which 

 modern man projects upon Nature ; it is a creature with a 

 history a unified history remembering its cradle, liking, 

 in a cold-blooded way, its mate, enjoying its struggle against 

 the angry strength of the river. 



There is no excuse for the naturalist who forgets to-day 

 what was said so long ago " All flesh is not the same 

 flesh : but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh 

 of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds " ; and we 

 do not forget. But there is more than one touch of flesh 

 which makes the whole world kin. To name one, phrase it 

 as you please, it is the genetic impulse that calls the salmon, 

 as it calls us. The melody is personal, varying with each 

 grade of being, but the motif is universal. 



Phenomena are all very well, but why not see them also 

 as noumena sub specie ceternitatis ? Then the salmon 

 pressing up the stream, careless and thoughtless if you will, 

 but feeling the living hand of the past upon them, feeling 

 the promptings of the present vague analogues of what we 

 call "love" dimly perceiving the waters far ahead where 



