If we had some little minnows for bait, and could stand on the bank
there to the left, and throw our lines down into the race, we ought to
be able to hook a chub, if there are any there, and I think it is very
likely that there are. A chub, if he is a good-sized fellow, is a fish
worth catching, even for people who have been fishing for trout. One
big chub will make a meal for a small family.

But let us follow the creek and see what new developments we shall
discover. To be sure, you may say that following up a stream from its
very source involves a great deal of walking; but I can answer with
certainty that a great deal of walking is a very easy thing--in books!

So on we go, and it is not long before we find that our watery friend
has ceased to be a creek, and is quite worthy of being called a fine
young river. But still it is scarcely fit yet for navigation. There
are rocks in the very middle of the stream, and every now and then we
come to a waterfall. But how beautiful some of those cascades are!

What a delightful thing it would be, on a warm summer evening, to
bathe in that deliciously cool water. It is deep enough for a good
swim, and, if any of us want a shower-bath, it would be a splendid
thing to sit on the rocks and let the spray from the fall dash over
us! And there are fish here, I am sure. It is possible that, if we
were to sit quietly on the bank and fish, we might soon get a string
of very nice perch, and there is no knowing what else. This stream is
now just about big enough and little enough to make the character of
its fish doubtful. I have known pike--fellows two feet long--caught in
such streams as this; and then again, in other small rivers, very much
like it, you can catch nothing but cat-fish, roach, and eels.

If we were to follow up our river, we would soon find that it grew
larger and larger, until row-boats and sloops, and then schooners and
perhaps large ships, sailed upon its surface. And at last we might
follow it down to its mouth, and, if it happened to flow into the sea,
we would probably behold a grand scene. Some rivers widen so greatly
near their mouths that it is difficult to believe that they are rivers
at all.

[Illustration]

On the next page we see a river which, at its junction with the ocean,
seems almost like a little sea itself.

[Illustration]

We can hardly credit the fact that such a great river as the Amazon
arose from a little spring, where you might span