THE SALMON. 447 



arrow ; they gave no warning of their intentions, l)ut up they came, and 

 darted out of the surface of the water with a sudden rush like rockets let 

 loose from the darkness of the night into the space abo\e. When they 

 first appeared their tails were going with the velocity of a watch-spring 

 just broken, and the whole body, sparkling as though they had been en- 

 ameled, was quivering with the exertion. They looked as much like flying 

 fish as ever I saw anything in my life." 



Observations have recently been made by Dr. A. Landmark, of Nor- 

 way, on the extent of Salmon leaps. He thinks that the jump depends as 

 much on the height of the fall as on the currents below it. If there be a 

 deep pool right under the fall, where the water is comparatively quiet, a 

 Salmon may jump 16 feet perpendicularly: but such jumps are rare, and 

 he can only state that it has taken place at the Hellefos, in the Drams 

 River, at Haugsend, where two great masts have been placed across the 

 river for the study of the habits of the Salmon, so that exact measure- 

 ments may be effected. The height of the water in the river of course 

 varies, but it is, as a rule, when the Salmon is running up stream, 16 feet 

 below these masts. The distance between the two is 3^4 feet, and the 

 professor states that he has seen Salmon jump from the river below across 

 both masts. Landmark states that when a Salmon jumps a fall nearly per- 

 pendicular, it is sometimes able to remain in the fall, even if the jump is a 

 foot or two short of the actual height. This has been proved by over- 

 whelming evidence. The fish may be seen trembling, and then rest 

 for a minute or two a foot or so below the edge or the fall, with a smart 

 twitch of its tail, the rest of the fall is cleared. Only fish which strike 

 straight with the snout are able to remain in the falling mass of water ; if 

 they strike obliquely, they are carried back into the stream below. This, 

 Landmark believes to be the explanation of Salmon passing falls with a 

 clear descent of 16 feet. 



Although, like trout, and unlike shad, Salmon spawn with a falling 

 temperature, not depositing their eggs until the water is at least as cold as 

 50°, yet they seem to enter the rivers on a rising temperature. Yarrell 

 remarked that English rivers issuing from large lakes afford early Salmon, 

 while rivers swollen by melting snows in the spring months are later in 

 their season of producing fish, and yield their supply when the lake rivers 

 are beginning to fail. In America the Southern streams seem to yield the 

 earliest fish. In the Connecticut they appear in April and May, in the 



