12 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED 



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 catar- 

 acts 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 

 formerly attempted to spring over this low cauld, 

 but none could ever achieve the leap ; so that a 

 salmon in the Leader-water was formerly a thing 

 unheard of. The proprietors of the upper water 

 have made an opening in this cauld of late years, 

 giving the owner of the mill some recompense, so 

 that salmon now ascend freely. Large fish can 

 spring much higher than small ones ; but their 



