rse wondering.

At last they came to where the Cowlitz and the Columbia join, and they
were almost lost for a time; for they could find no shores, and the
bottom and the top of the water were so far apart. Here they saw other
and far larger salmon in the deepest part of the current, turning
neither to the right nor to the left, but swimming right on up-stream,
just as rapidly as they could. And these great salmon would not stop for
them, and would not lie and float with the current. They had no time to
talk, even in the simple sign language by which fishes express their
ideas, and no time to eat. They had important work before them, and the
time was short. So they went on up the river, keeping their great
purposes to themselves; and our little salmon and his friends from the
Cowlitz drifted down the stream.

By-and-by the water began to change. It grew denser, and no longer
flowed rapidly along; and twice a day it used to turn about and flow the
other way. Then the shores disappeared, and the water began to have a
different and peculiar flavor,--a flavor which seemed to the salmon much
richer and more inspiring than the glacier-water of their native
Cowlitz. There were many curious things to see,--crabs with hard shells
and savage faces, but so good when crushed and swallowed! Then there
were luscious squid swimming about; and, to a salmon, squid are like
ripe peaches and cream. There were great companies of delicate sardines
and herring, green and silvery, and it was such fun to chase and capture
them! Those who eat sardines packed in oil by greasy fingers, and
herrings dried in the smoke, can have little idea how satisfying it is
to have a meal of them, plump and sleek and silvery, fresh from the sea.

Thus the salmon chased the herrings about, and had a merry time. Then
they were chased about in turn by great sea-lions,--swimming monsters
with huge half-human faces, long thin whiskers, and blundering ways. The
sea-lions liked to bite out the throat of a salmon, with its precious
stomach full of luscious sardines, and then to leave the rest of the
fish to shift for itself. And the seals and the herrings scattered the
salmon about, till at last the hero of our story found himself quite
alone, with none of his own kind near him. But that did not trouble him
much, and he went on his own way, getting his dinner when he was hungry,
which was all the time, and then eating a little between meals for his
stomach's sake.