MATURITY 



151 



negotiat.no- rocky cataracts, and even the bare breast-work of „„11 

 dams, ,n low water. I have seen them wriggling successfully up the 

 p.tchmg of the apron of a dam when only a trickle of water ran between 

 the stones; and in one river, where a sloping wooden shoot :s placed for 

 the,r convenience, I have seen them throw themselves on to the 

 boardmg when it was no more than wet and scuttle uj> it b^■ huggino the 

 angle at the side. They run, however, in greatest numbers in' a falling, 

 water after a spate, and I think they prefer to run then in sunlight "" 

 I cannot say what is the maximum perpendicular height that a sea- 

 trout w.ll clear in its leap. Probably five feet is an outside limit, but 

 I fancy the powers of leaping of salmon and sea-trout are very similar 

 m this respect that they are both usually over-estimated. 



Many districts have a natural fall or a mill-dam where the fish can 

 be seen leaping in numbers at certain times of the year, and such places 

 are always an attraction to visitors, for there is something intensely 

 interesting in seeing the efforts of the fish to surmount the obstacle 

 I reproduce here a photograph taken of a salmon leaping at a fall 

 (F.g. 50). Sea-trout leap in exactly the same way but the fish are too 

 small to be easily photographed. J think I have to thank Mr H W 

 Johnston (indirectly through Mr. Button) for the photograph which 

 was taken, I understand, on the river Tummel. The Pot of Gartness 

 a pool on the river Endrick, which flows westward through Stirlingshire 

 mto the lower end of Loch Lomond, lies below a natural 'rockv 

 obstruction, and this forms one of the best-known " salmon leaps " in 

 the West of Scotland. Sea-trout and salmon both ascend it, but onh- 

 sea-trout ascend the mill-dam on Luss Water where there is often a 

 remarkable display of the leaping fish, many being in the air at one 

 time along the whole perpendicular face of the dam while the broken 

 water below is seething with others. I have spent many hours watchinc. 

 the fish thus leaping, and have not the least doubt that before making 

 a leap at the obstacle sea-trout carefully take their bearings. If 



