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DESCRIPTION OF A "SALMON LEAP." 213 



admiration of the pleasantly powerful efforts and 

 singularly interesting instincts of that fish. Last 

 season I watched for several evenings salmon sur- 

 mounting the upper Shin-fall. This cataract 

 forms beneath it a deep, foam-bubbling pool or 

 basin of oval shape, except that the round end at 

 the fall is cut off, and so is the thin end at the tail 

 of the constantly fermenting pool. On its left- 

 are high, naked, rocky cliffs ; on its right are high 

 cliffs also, but they are studded with trees and 

 plants, amongst which the eglantine flourishes and 

 flowers generally, and they are crowned with an 

 attractive breadth of soft, springy green sward. 

 Seated on it, with legs dangling from its margin, 

 I used to watch with amusing curiosity salmon 

 springing out of the deep and fermenting eddies 

 ever seething and curhng at the base of the rocky 

 barrier, over which the water rushed with head- 

 long rapidity. The lowest ledge of this barrier 

 had been reduced, as I said before, by blasting, 

 and was not now more than five feet above the 

 eddy's surface. Into the water of this ledge the 

 salmon would easily fling themselves, and then, 

 with dorsal fins perfectly upright, and working 

 them rapidly to and fro, they would plough their 

 way up the sweeping torrent that was rushing 

 over the arched rock, like a flood bursting over 



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