lively brooks, tumbling in from either shore, kept the surface flecked
with whirling foam. Here the invigorating coolness of the water speedily
refreshed him, and he fell to feeding on the various insects brought
down by the meeting currents. The pool was thronged with grilse and
full-grown salmon, with here and there a school of graceful whitefish or
a group of sluggish suckers, whom he ignored. When the moon rose white
over the black, serried masses of the fir woods, silvering the pool, the
big grilse, obeying a sudden caprice, shot upwards with a mighty surge
of fins and tail, and hurled himself high into the still air. Falling
back with a resounding splash, he repeated the feat again and again. He
had discovered the fascination of diving upward into the unknown and
alien element of the air. Others of his kindred, large and small, had
made the same discovery, and the wilderness silence was broken with
splash after splash, as the tense, silver shapes shot up, gleamed for an
instant, and fell back. As the noise of the mysterious play echoed on
the night air, a black bear crept down to the water's edge on one side
of the stream, and a lynx stole out to the end of a log on the other
side, each hoping that some unwary player might come within reach of
his paw. But all the salmon kept out in the safe deeps; and the
keen-eyed watchers watched in vain as the round moon climbed the clean
heights of sky.

After a few days in this pool, he was surprised one early morning by the
sight of a long, dark shape gliding over the surface. From its side,
near the hinder end, a strange-looking, narrow fin thrust downward from
time to time, and with heavy swirls propelled the dark shape. The
strange apparition disturbed him, and he grew restless and watchful. A
few minutes after it had passed there came a faint splash on the surface
above him, and a big, curious-looking fly appeared. It sank an inch or
two, moved against the current, and was then withdrawn. He eyed it with
scorn, remembering his former experience with such. But when, a moment
later, the strange fly appeared again, he was amazed to see one of the
biggest salmon in the pool rise lazily and suck it down. The next
instant there was a terrific commotion. He saw the great fish rush
hither and thither up and down and around the pool, now scattering the
whitefish on the bottom, now splashing upon the surface and leaping
half his length into the air. Very clearly the cunning gril