258 Life in Autumn Storm 



nities by remaining to hibernate in England ; 

 among all the tribes of the summer insect-eaters 

 and their prey, only the birds follow the sun to 

 the south, though for many centuries they were 

 believed to hibernate like the rest. While the 

 creatures of summer slumber, or are far away, the 

 mists and rain-storms revive the fountains of life 

 and provide the needs of the coming year. 



While these creatures are compelled by the storms 

 of autumn to seek refuge in flight or torpor, in the 

 bosom of the rivers themselves there is a quickening 

 of kindred life. Unlike the coarse fish, which 

 spawn in summer, the mating time of the trout and 

 salmon begins with the autumn floods. When the 

 water laps higher at the mossy wall, and the birch 

 sheds its yellow leaves, the rising stream becomes 

 the pathway of the strong fish pressing upward, 

 from the sea or the lower waters, to the gravel-beds 

 on the distant shallows. Even in small mountain 

 streams, the trout in wet Septembers may be found 

 pushing up the flooded tributary torrents in their 

 passion for travel against the stream. They can 

 often be recognized as migrants by their greater 

 silveriness, or darkness, than the general hue of 

 the stream in which they are found, and of the native 

 troutlets which accord with it. Even the smallest 

 trout of the hill-streams has the spirit of a fighting- 

 cock under its scarlet spots that mimic the hanging 

 rowan-berries. The freshness of the rains and the 

 tumult of the autumn waters seem to have passed 

 into the game blood of the trout and its greater 

 brother, and to kindle a response in them each year. 



