OF A SALMON. 63 



the open attack of the fisherman nor the mid- 

 night pursuit of the poacher are to be feared in 

 this part of the river; its "bed and its banks 

 being so deep and inaccessible, as to afford ample 

 protection against any art, save that of the honest 

 angler. 



Is it in joyous consciousness and triumph, 

 then, that Salmo and his fair companion occa- 

 sionally make such sudden and vigorous leaps 

 from the water ? springing sometimes their 

 whole length out of the river, and alighting 

 again with a splash that alarms all the small fry 

 in the neighbourhood ! Partly, perhaps, it may 

 be attributed to the exhilaration produced by a 

 return to fresh water, and the reminiscences 

 thereby awakened ; but there is also a physical 

 cause for these repeated essays.* They are 

 troubled by numbers of insects adhering to their 

 otherwise glittering scales which have attacked 

 them during their sojourn in salt water and to 

 which icthyologists have given a name, which 

 politeness prevents our repeating ! Should their 

 persecutions be as annoying to the salmon as 

 those of their synonyms are supposed to be to 



* The writer once found a very fine salmon, laying 

 dead in the bottom of a boat, moored just above the 

 Causeway ; having no doubt fallen into it after making 

 one of these somersaults. 



