LEAP OF THE SALMON. 99 



it seems to me that in migratory animals of all kinds, and indeed, 

 in some instances, in domestic animals likewise, that there is 

 some sort of sixth sense, or at least some entirely distinct 

 power, not acquired by means of any of the senses of which 

 we are cognizant, nor acting like reason, by means of deduction, 

 which enables them to steer their course through countless 

 leagues of air or water, or over miles of uncultivated land, to 

 the places where they were bred, or to which their instincts 

 compel them to resort for the purpose of wintering, obtaining 

 food, or the like. 



And I no more believe that Salmon are guided back to their 

 native rivers by the flavour of the waters, than I do that the 

 swallow finds his way from Africa to Europe, or from Southern 

 to Northern America, by the scent of the tainted atmosphere. 



I am disposed, therefore, to believe with Yarrel, that this 

 occasional variation from their ordinary custom is caused by 

 their having strayed to such a distance from their native 

 estuaries, that when the time comes for returning, they prefer 

 taking the first suitable river, to make longer delay. 



The female fish, it is observed, are the first to enter the 

 rivers, and the Grilse, or young fish, which have not yet spawned, 

 come in earlier than the full-grown Salmon. They swim with 

 great rapidity, shoot up the most oblique and glancing rapids 

 with the velocity of an arrow, and frequently leap falls of ten 

 or twelve feet in perpendicular height. 



It was formerly believed that, in making their prodigious 

 springs, the fish takes its tail in its mouth, and shoots itself like 

 a pliant stick, the ends of which are forcibly brought together 

 and then allowed to spring. This, however, is a fable; although, 



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