100 SALMONID.E. 



in making these leaps, the muscular efforts of the animal do 

 really impart to it a curvilinear form. 



It is believed that the utmost limit of perpendicular height 

 which they can attain is fourteen feet ; but their perseverance 

 is as remarkable as their strength, and though they fail time 

 after time, and fall back into the stream below, they remain 

 but a few moments quiescent, to recruit their strength, before 

 they renew their efforts ; and they generally succeed in the end, 

 although they are said sometimes to kill themselves by the 

 A-iolence of their own efforts to ascend, and are frequently 

 captured in consequence of falling on the rocks. 



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 was of great height, 

 thirteen or fourteen feet at least, and was formed with a sort of 

 step midway, on which the water fell, making a double cascade. 

 While I was watching him, the fish, which was, I suppose, of 

 some seven or eight pounds, made above twenty leaps, con- 

 stantly alighting from his spring about midway the upper shoot 

 of the water, and being 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 was his vigour and endurance, that he 

 at last succeeded in surmounting the formidable obstacle ; and 

 to my great pleasure — for I liad become really interested in his 

 success — went on his way rejoicing. 



The ^K)racity of the Salmon is excessive ; and yet, from the 

 singular fact that their stomachs are invariably, or almost inva- 

 riably, found entirely empty, none of the numerous examiners 

 have been able to satisfy themselves what constitutes its prin- 



