n,--their
sides lean and flat, their brilliant colours darkened and
faded,--swimming down languidly with the strenuous current. Hitherto
their movements had been all up-stream,--upward, upward incessantly and
gladly. Now the old energy and joy of life seemed all gone out of them.
Nevertheless, they seemed very anxious to go somewhere, and the way to
that somewhere appeared to be down-stream. Hardly knowing what he did,
and not at all knowing why he did it, the parr found himself slipping
down-stream with them. He had grown vastly in size and strength, while
his vivid and varied hues had begun to soften appreciably. In fact, he
was now no longer a parr, but a "smelt"; and after the ordained custom
of his kind, he was on his way to the sea.

II

Long-finned and full of vigour, the smelt was not dismayed when he came
to heavier water, exchanging the region of the gravelly bars for a space
of broken ledges, where the great current roared hither and thither and
lashed itself into foam. Through these loud chutes and miniature falls
he shot safely, though not at first without some trepidation. The lean,
slab-sided salmon, or "slinks", who were his travelling companions,
served as his involuntary guides. Except to make use of them in this way
once or twice, he paid them little attention; though now and again a big
lantern-jawed fellow would rush at him with a sort of half-hearted
fury, compelling him to make a hurried retreat.

The Great South Branch, soon after the region of the wild ledges was
past, fell into quiet ways, and crept for a few miles with deep,
untroubled current through a land of alders. Here the winter, which had
by this time settled down upon the high Quahdavic country, had its will,
and the river was frozen and snow-covered from shore to shore. The
smelt, as he journeyed beneath the ice, was puzzled and disturbed by the
unusual dimness of the light that filtered down to him.

This was a condition, however, which he soon left behind. Swollen by the
influx of several lesser streams, the Great South now burst its fetters
and thundered along through a series of tumultuous rapids. Then above
the thunder of these rapids came a louder, heavier roar, a trampling
whose vibration carried a warning to the traveller. He paused for a
moment; but seeing that the salmon swam on without hesitation or
apparent misgiving, he dashed forward-confidently into the tumult. A
moment more and he was hurled onward bewilderingly,