CONTINUED FROM

LAST WEEK

With the exception of some stretches of the Yellowstone, most of the rivers of the high plains are mellow - no whitewater excitement, just serenity, solitude, beauty and a sense of the past. The water moves at an easy pace past islands, sandbars and groves of cottonwoods interspersed with a carpet of grasses and other riparian vegetation providing a home to river wildlife. The landscape along the rivers has changed little with time. A modern day floater can imagine sharing the same place with nineteenth-century trappers and explorers.

Not enough can be said about fi...