It was much pleasanter than the dark and silent beaver stream.

It seemed possessed of life, and the rush and tumult of it--the song and thunder of the water--gave to Baree entirely new sensations.
He made his way along it slowly and cautiously, and it was because of this slowness and caution that he came suddenly and unobserved upon Wakayoo, the big black bear, hard at work fishing.
Wakayoo stood knee-deep in a pool that had formed behind a sand bar, and he was having tremendously good luck.

Even as Baree shrank back, his eyes popping at sight of this monster he had seen but once before, in the gloom of night, one of Wakayoo's big paws sent a great splash of water high in the air, and a fish landed on the pebbly shore.

A little while before, the suckers had run up the creek in thousands to spawn, and the rapid lowering of the water had caught many of them in these prison pools.

Wakayoo's fat, sleek body was evidence of the prosperity this circumstance had brought him.