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77ie Story 

 of Kopseep 



was covered with sancl and yellow pebbles. 

 Where the current rippled evenly over its 

 bed of golden gravel she found the place she 

 was seeking, and like fish-hawks returning in 

 the spring, her first care was to repair the 

 nest that had been used for centuries by 

 other salmon. Her broad tail fanned away 

 the coating of mud that had settled over the 

 pebbles, and the current swept it away down- 

 stream. Bits of rotten wood and twigs and 

 leaves that had jammed among the stones 

 she took up in her mouth and carried to one 

 side, leaving the rest all white and clean. As 

 she worked a great male fish, with a kipper 

 hook on his lower jaw, came surging up and 

 chose her for his mate, and then began cir- 

 cling about her, fighting the other salmon 

 and chasing away the trout that swarmed 

 hungrily about, waiting for the feast of 

 salmon eggs that was to follow. 



When the nest was at last ready, the 

 big male fish came and plowed long fur- 

 rows through it with the beak that had been 

 growing on the point of his lower jaw for 

 this purpose ever since he entered fresh 



