566 THE OCEAN WORLD. 



Leixlip is upwards of twenty feet high, and the country people make 

 a holiday in order to see the salmon clear its height. These acrobat 

 fishes frequently fall before they finally succeed, and it is not un- 

 usual for the people to place osier baskets to trap them in their 

 fall. At the cataract of Kilmorack, in Inverness-shire (Fig. 380), 

 the inhabitants living near the river have a practice of fixing 

 branches of trees on the edge of the rocks. By means of these 

 branches they contrive to catch the fishes which have failed in their 

 leap ; it is even asserted that sportsmen have been known to kill them 

 on the wing, as it were, in their leap. But the exploit, attributed to 

 Lord Lovat by Dr. Franklin, is perhaps the nearest approach to the 

 fabulous which we have met with. 



Having remarked that great numbers of salmon failed in their 

 efforts to surmount the Falls of Kilmorack, and that they generally 

 fell on the bank at the foot of the fall, Lord Lovat conceived the idea 

 of placing a furnace and a frying-pan on a point of rock overhanging 

 the river. After their unsuccessful effort some of the unhappy salmon 

 would fall accidentally into the frying-pan. The noble lord could 

 thus boast that the resources of his country were so abundant, that 

 on placing a furnace and frying-pan on the banks of their rivers, the 

 salmon would leap into it of their own accord, without troubling the 

 sportsman to catch them. It is more probable, however, that Lord 

 Lovat knew that the way to enjoy salmon in perfection is to cook it 

 when fresh from the water, and before the richer parts of the fish 

 have ceased to curd. The principal salmon found in the market are 

 Tweed, Tay, North Esk, Spey, Skye, Norwegian, and above all 

 Severn, said to be the best which comes to market, neither of which 

 must be confounded with the imported American variety the origin 

 of the prevalent cheap London kipper and the Cape, or red -mouthed 

 variety. Cape and Americans are at once distinguished by their flesh 

 boiling a blanched white. Tweed salmon are more varied ; and this 

 river, famous in song, is also noted for its production of the greatest 

 proportion of bull-trout. The Tay yields the largest grilse and 

 salmon, but the Spey follows fast in her wake ; Tay fish sometimes 

 weigh sixty pounds. The minor Scotch rivers produce smaller but 

 superior fish. Skye and West-coast grilse are short, thick, and 

 small-headed, and proportionally more abundant. Trout are numerous ; 

 sea-bull, burn, or loch, and the so-called herring-trout, are the varieties 



