78 THE SALMON FISHEK. 



foam and sparkle there is oxygen and energy. In 

 dead water fish are sluggish. Rivers are as different 

 as horses. Some are wild, impetuous and untam- 

 able ; others restive as an Arabian courser. Some 

 plod like a plow-horse, and others buck like a 

 broncho or kick like a mule. Some dash to the sea 

 in a straight-away course with scarcely a break, and 

 others wind with a sinuous and solemn monotony 

 like blind cobs in a treadmill. Some are like circus 

 horses, cavorting in many an eddy and flying leap, 

 and others tumble and plunge like colts at the hur- 

 dles. Some have breadth and depth and sweep, 

 while others are pent-up, curbed and narrow ; 

 churned into constant lather and foam. In some 

 rivers the pools are frequent and spacious, open to 

 the sunlight, and glinting with bright pebbly bot- 

 toms ; in others they are short, angry and broken, 

 filled with debris and boulders. Some are overhung 

 by protruding branches and thickets, while others 

 flow under the gloomy shadows of jutting cliffs. 

 There is no end to the composition and phases of 

 rivers, and consequently no end to the artifices and 

 methods of the angler. 



