12 THE SALMON. 



This assertion has been long, and still continues a 

 vulgar error. There is, however, a more remarkable 

 fall than this, called the Keith, upon the river Erich, 

 in the county of Perth. That rock is about 13 feet 

 high, and the whole river, which is a very consi- 

 derable one, bursts through a cleft of only a few 

 feet in breadth. From a long continuance of dry 

 weather, and consequently when there is little water 

 in the river, these fish lie in the pools and holes im- 

 mediately below this cascade. It is at that time 

 an amusing sight to survey them from the banks 

 above, all regularly disposed tire above tire, resting 

 upon their fins, and waiting with anxious and eager 

 expectation for a coming flood, to assist them in 

 their passage upwards. When this happens, they 

 then all prepare to take the leap. In their first 

 efforts they sometimes fail, and tumble down stupi- 

 fied ; but undismayed, and with an unremitting ar- 

 dour, renew their attempts, until they prevail in 

 gaining the summit of this fearful gap. On the 

 river Liffy, in Ireland, there is a cataract about 19 

 feet high ; here, in the salmon season, many of the 

 inhabitants amuse themselves in observing the fish 

 spring up the torrent. They frequently fall back 

 many times before they surmount it ; and baskets 

 made of twigs are placed near the edge of the stream 

 to catch them in their fall. At the falls of Kil- 

 morack, in Scotland, where the salmon are very 

 numerous, it is a common practice with the country 

 people to lay branches of trees on the edges of the 

 rocks: by this means they sometimes catch such of 



