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From “Poly-Olbion”
WHEN as the salmon seeks a fresher stream to find | |
| (Which hither from the sea comes yearly by his kind, | |
| As he in season grows), and stems the watery tract | |
| Where Tivy, falling down, doth make a cataract, | |
| Forced by the rising rocks that there her course oppose, | 5 |
| As though within their bounds they meant her to inclose; | |
| Here, when the laboring fish doth at the foot arrive, | |
| And finds that by his strength but vainly he doth strive, | |
| His tail takes in his teeth; and bending like a bow, | |
| That ’s to the compass drawn, aloft himself doth throw: | 10 |
| Then springing at his height, as doth a little wand, | |
| That bended end to end, and flerted from the hand, | |
| Far off itself doth cast; so doth the salmon vaut. | |
| And if at first he fail, his second summersaut | |
| He instantly assays; and from his nimble ring, | 15 |
| Still yarking, never leaves, until himself he fling | |
| Above the streamful top of the surrounded heap. | |
| More famous long agone than for the salmons’ leap, | |
| For beavers Tivy was, in her strong banks that bred, | |
| Which else no other brook of Britain nourished: | 20 |
| Where Nature, in the shape of this now-perished beast, | |
| His property did seem to have wondrously exprest; | |
| Being bodied like a boat, with such a mighty tail | |
| As served him for a bridge, a helm, or for a sail, | |
| When kind did him command the architect to play, | 25 |
| That his strong castle built of branched twigs and clay | |
| Which, set upon the deep, but yet not fixed there, | |
| He eas’ly could remove as it he pleased to steer | |
| To this side or to that; the workmanship so rare, | |
| His stuff wherewith to build, first being to prepare, | 30 |
| A foraging he goes, to groves or bushes nigh, | |
| And with his teeth cuts down his timber: which laid by, | |
| He turns him on his back, his belly laid abroad, | |
| When with what he hath got, the other do him load, | |
| Till lastly by the weight his burthen he have found. | 35 |
| Then, with his mighty tail his carriage having bound | |
| As carters do with ropes, in his sharp teeth he gript; | |
| Some stronger stick: from which the lesser branches stript, | |
| He takes it in the midst; at both the ends, the rest, | |
| Hard holding with their fangs, unto the labor prest, | 40 |
| Going backward, towards their home their loaded carriage led, | |
| From whom those first here born were taught the useful sled. | |
| Then builded he his fort with strong and several fights | |
| His passages contrived with such unusual sleights, | |
| That from the hunter oft he issued undiscerned, | 45 |
| As if men from this beast to fortify had learned; | |
| Whose kind, in her decayed, is to this Isle unknown. | |
| Thus Tivy boasts this beast peculiarly her own. | |
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