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The Natural History of tlic Salmon, 16- 



but am disposed to believe that in as much as the season is so far advanced 

 before our rivers are free from ice, they seldom, if ever, make a second 

 migi-ation to the sea in the same year. 



It seems that they remain for a time in the brackish waters as a prepa- 

 ratory step to their approaching inland journey. When they first come from 

 the sea, as has been observed, they are fat and heavy, their sides are covered 

 with sea-lice, and their fins are soft from the action of the salt water. By 

 remaining a short time in the fresher water of the Estuaries, they rid them- 

 selves of the sea-lice, gradually lose something in weight and fatness, and 

 their fins becoming hardened, are more capable of sustaining them in their 

 often long and laborious ascent, while the fish themselves become propor- 

 tionablv more active and muscular. 



AlDout the end of July they begin to ascend the rivers, seeking the spot 

 where they were born and where they passed the first year of their life. — 

 With a strength and velocity almost incredible, they stem the most powerful 

 current and shoot up the swiftest rapids ; nor do cascades always present 

 insuperable obstacles ; up these they frequently leap with astonishing vigor, 

 and though they fail in their first attempts by no means are they discouraged, 

 but resting awhile at the foot to recruit their strength, they try again and 

 again, until the feat is accomplished, and they reach the top of their mountain 

 stream. 



The height to which Salmon can leap is stated variously. Scrope 

 (Days and Nights of Salmon Fishing,) says that six feet in height is more 

 thaii the average leap of the Salmon, while very large fish, he thinks, could 

 in deep water leap much higher. Ephemera, in Bell's Life in London, Jan. 

 4, 1854, seems to doubt whether the Salmon can leap much higher than six 

 feet. Moses H. Perley, whose accurate observations have thrown much 

 light upon the Natural History of our Fishes, say they frequently leap falls 

 ten and twelve feet in height, and that " it is believed the utmost limit of 

 perpendicular height which a Salmon can attain in leaping is fourteen feet." 

 Wm. H. Herbert, in his very interesting work on the Fish and Fishing of 

 America, says, " I once watched a Salmon for above an hour endeavouring 

 to pass a mill dam on the river Wharfe, a Salmon river in the West Riding 

 of Yorkshire. The dam w^as of great height, 13 or 14 feet at least, and was 

 formed v/ith a sort of step midway, on which the water fell, making a double 

 cascade. While I was watching him, this fish, which was, I suppose, of 

 some seven or eight pounds, made above twenty leaps, constantly alighting 

 from his spring about midway the upper shoot of the water, and beicg 

 constantly swept back into the eddy at its foot. After a pause of about a 

 couple of minutes, he would try it again, and such were his vigor and 

 endurance, that ho at last succeeded in surmounting the formidable obstacle." 



The old fable, that in making these leaps the Salmon take their tails in 

 their mouths and rise by the force of the spring, like an Elastic bow, has 

 been long exploded, and I was much surprised to find a writer in Putnam's 

 Monthly for March, 1855, gravely repeat the silly tale. Scrope says " they 

 rise very rapidly from the very bottom to the surface of the water by means 



