12 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SALMON FISHING 



which is well acquainted with water, needs little 

 assistance ; but there are not many such nice 

 observers. 



At every swell of the river, unless a very trifling 

 one, the fish move upwards nearer the spawning 

 places : so that no one can reckon upon preserving 

 his particular part of the river, which is the chief 

 reason of the universal destruction of these valuable 

 animals. Previous to a flood, the fish frequently 

 leap out of the water, either for the purpose of filling 

 their air-bladder to make them more buoyant for 

 travelling, or from excitement, or, perhaps, to 

 exercise their powers of ascending heights and 

 cataracts in the course of their journey upwards. Of 

 the nature of these spates, or floods, I will speak 

 hereafter. 



That Salmon will leap a great height I have read, 

 and heard asserted continually ; but even the sub- 

 dued account which Mr. Yarrell has mentioned, 

 placing their powers of leaping ten or twelve feet 

 perpendicularly, I hold to be beyond the mark. I 

 have frequently watched their endeavours to sur- 

 mount falls, and I do not think I ever saw a Salmon 

 spring out of the water above five feet perpendicu- 

 larly. There is a cauld at the mouth of the Leader- 

 water, where it falls into the Tweed, which Salmon 

 never could spring over ; this cauld I have lately 

 had measured most carefully by a mason, and its 

 height varies from five feet and a half to six feet 

 from the level above to the level below it, according 

 as the Tweed, into which the Leader falls, is more 

 or less affected by the rains. Hundreds of Salmon 



