5"84 THE OCEAN WORLD. 



Kilmorack, in Inverness-shire (Fig. 381), 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 sports- 

 men 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 banks at the foot of the fall, Lord Lovat conceived the 

 idea ol placing a furnace and a frying-pan on a point of rock over- 

 hanging the river. After their unsuccessful effort some of the un- 

 happy 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 its rivers, the salmon would leap into it of their own accord, 

 without troubling the sportsmen to catch them. It is more pro- 

 bable, 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 from the Tweed, 

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

 from the Severn and the rivers of Ireland, which latter are said to be 

 the best which come to market. None of these 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 proportion- 

 ally more abundant. Trout are numerous ; sea-bull, burn, or loch, 

 and the so-called herring-trout, are the varieties usually met with. 

 The whitling of the Tweed, grayling of Tay, and tinnock of North 

 and South Esk, are young sea and bull-trout, abounding in March 

 and April, when a sportsman will land fifty or sixty daily weighing 

 from four ounces to a pound each. Trout flesh varies in colour 

 from a clear white to a dark red ; the North Esk red trout is most 

 esteemed. The best run from a pound and a half to three pounds. 

 The burn-trout is always red, and has been killed as heavy as thirty 



