160 
NATURE FOR ITS OWN SAKE 
Lines of 
bank and 
stream. 
sequent friction, that washes away the banks, 
and though nature has a way of protecting the 
loose earth by growing vegetation upon it close 
down to the water's edge, yet this does not en- 
tirely save it from wear, nor the bed of the 
river from shifting place. 
It is the cutting away of the banks, the 
making of crescent curves and long serpentine 
bends that give the river some of its most 
picturesque features. The lines of the shores 
are but repetitions of the water itself, and for 
every high cliff that breaks the flow of the 
shore there is a dash and a turmoil of water 
that break the downward sweep of the stream. 
These river-lines are never seen so distinctly 
under the foliage of summer as under the snow 
of winter. The snow mufiles and covers 
everything to the water’s edge. Hill and val- 
ley, bush and tree, bowlder and beach, the 
overhang of the bank, the abruptness of the 
river island, are all smoothed into graceful con- 
tours. Upon this white background the dark- 
looking water dances and flashes, swirls and 
ripples; and the unbroken harmony of the 
lines, the continuity of the movement are things 
of beauty unsurpassed by nature in any of her 
creations. 
