Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-05-20
STORY or A SALMON.

In the realm of the Northwest Wind, on
the boundary line between the dark Hr-for-
ests and the sunny plains, there stands a
mountain, great white cone two miles and
a half in perpendicular height On its lower
mile, the dense fir-woods cover il with never
changing green on its next half-mile, light
er green Of grass and bushes gives place in
winter to white and, on its uppermost mile,
the SHOWS Of the great ice age still linger in
unspotted purity. The people of Washing
ton territory say that this mountain is the
great "King-pin of the Universe" which
shows that, even in its own country, Mount
Rainer is not without honor.
Flowing down from the southwest slope Of
Mount Rainier is a cold, clear river fed by
the melting SHOWS of the mountain. Madly
beds Of shining sands, through birch woods
and belts Of dark frs to mingle its waters at
last with those Of the great Columbia.
This river is the Cowlitz, and on its bot
tom, not many years ago, there lay half-bur-
led in the sand a number Of little Orange-col-
ored globules, each about as large as a pea
These were not much in themselves, but like
the philosophers monads, each one had in il
the promise aud potency Of an active life. In
the water above them, little suckers and
chubs and prickly sculpins were straining
their mouths to draw these globules from the
sand, and vicious.looking craw-fshes picked
them up with their laundering hands and ex-
Rmined them with their telescope eyes. But
one, at least, of the globules escaped their
scientific curiosity, else this story would not
be worth telling.
The sun shone down on it through the clear
water, and the ripples of the Cowlitz said
overittheir incantations, and in il at last awoke
a living being. Ii was q fish q curious little
fellow, only half an inch long, with great,
staring eyes which made almost half his
length, and a body so transparent that he
could not cast shadow. He was n little
salmon, and a very little salmon, but the wa
ter was good, aud there were flies, and worms
and little living creatures in abundance for
him to eat, and he soon became larger
salmon. And there were many more little
salmon with him, some larger and some
smaller, and they all had a merry time.
Those who had been born soonest and had
grown largest used to chase the others around
and bite of their tails, or, still better, take
them by the heads and swallow them whole,
for, said they, Even young salmon are good
eating" Heads l win, tails you lose, was
their motto. Thus, what was once two small
salmon became united into one large one,
and the process Of addition, division and ST.
lence," still went on.
By-and-by, when all the salmon were too
small to swallow the Others and too large to
be swallowed, they began to grow restless
and to sigh for change. They saw that the
water rushing by seemed to be in great hur-
ny to get somewhere, and one Of them sug-
gested that its hurry was caused by some
thing good TO eat at the other end Of its
course Then they all started down the
stream, salmon fashion, which fashion is to
get into the current, head upstream, and so
to drift backward as the river sweeps along.
Down the Cowlitz river they went for a
day and a night, finding much to interest
them which We need not know. At last, they
began 10 grow hungry, and, coming near the
shore, they saw an angle-worm of rare size
and beauty floating in AN eddy of the stream.
Quick as thought one of the boys opened his
mouth, which was well filled with teeth of
different sizes, and put il around that angle
worm. Quicker still he felt sharp pain in
his gills, followed by a smothering sensation,
and in an instant his comrades saw him rise
straight into the air. This was nothing new
to them, for they often leaped out of the wa
ter in their games of hide-and-seek, but only
to come down again with loud splash not
far from where they went out. But this one
never came back, and the others went on
their course wondering.
At last they came TO where the Cowlitz and
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,
turningneither Dto the right or to the left, but
swimming straight on up just as rapidly as
they could. And these great salmon could
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 10 eat,
They had an important work before them,
and the time was short. So they went on up
the river, keeping their great purpose to
themselves, and our little salmon and his
friends from the Cowlitz drifted down the
stream.
By.and-by the water began to change 1t
grew denser, and no longer flowed rapidly
along, and twice a day it used to turn about
and flow the other way. And the shores dis
appeared, and the water began to have diff
ferent and peculiar favor-a flavor which
seemed to the salmon much richer and more
inspiring than the glacier-water of their ma
tive Oowlitz And there wers many curious
things to see crabs with hard shells and
savage faces, but 30 good when crushed aud
swallowed Then there were luscious
squid swimming about, and, TO salmon,
squid are like ripe peaches and cream for
dinner. There were great companies of deli
cate sardines and herring, green and silvery,
and II was such fun to chase them and to cap
ture them
Those who eat only sardines packed in oil
by greasy fingers, and herrings dried in the
smoke, can have little idea how satisfying it
is to have ones stomach full of them, plump
and sleek, and silvery, fresh from the sea.
Thus they chased the herrings about and
had merry time. Then they were chased
about in turn by great sea-lions, swimming
monsters with huge, half-human faces, long
thin whiskers, aud laundering ways. The
sea-lions liked 10 bite out the throats of the
salmon, with their precious stomachs full of
sardines, and then to leave the rest of the fish
10 shift for itself.
And the seals and the herrings' scattered
the salmon about and 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 way,
getting his dinner when he was hungry,
which was all the time, and then eating lit
tie between-meals for his stomaoh's sake.
So it went on for three long years; and at
the end of this time our little fish had grown
TO be great, fine salmon of forty pounds
weight, shining and silyery as a new tin pan,
and with rows of the loveliest round black
spots on his head and back, and tail. One