66 TROUT FISHING 



below the bridge from which I had started 

 on the journey northward up the glen, I 

 saw, in places, the submerged ice formed, 

 and in others it seemed actually forming. 

 Large stones at the bottom, stones from 

 a foot to two feet in diameter, were, on 

 the sides of them farthest down the stream, 

 encrusted in ice, which seemed to be 

 gradually adding to itself upwards, as if 

 to envelop the whole ; and shapeless 

 masses of half- solid water, like writhing 

 white jelly-fish, clung to other stones, 

 shivering at the impact of the blue gush 

 as it eddied past. 



Here was an exception to the excep- 

 tional rule by which water when frozen 

 floats. What did it mean ? Had the 

 forces of nature got beyond the control 

 of the creative design ? For a moment 

 one was almost tempted to think that 

 this really might be so, especially when it 

 was considered that seeming disorders in 

 the processes of nature are not uncommon, 

 as when a late snowstorm kUls lambs that 

 were born in their due time, or when 



