Tim SAD RIVER Ours is not an early salmon river,
like some in the far north. Salmon are not caught until well into spring and those in the river now are sickly fish falling back to the sea to return again only if they survive the attacks of their enemies. The kelt is an unlovely fish and, immediately after spawning, a poor shadow of the salmon that battled the flood. and fought through the waterfall in autumn Along with the debris shed by a thousand trees and bushes, the flotsam washed through half a score of villages, the kelt goes downstream while fresh floods scour the path soon to be taken by a new season's run. The miserable kelt is perhaps only the concern of the river keeper, who hopes that they will all safely make the sea and return in time, just as much as he hopes for the first springers in the lower pools. Until then the river is a sad place with a burden in the shape of these spent and emaciated fish
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