SALMON. 9 



tliat the female fish ascend before the males ; and the young 

 fish of the year, called Grilse till they have spawned once, 

 ascend earlier than those of more adult age. As the season 

 advances, the Salmon ascend higher up the river beyond the 

 influence of the tide : they are observed to be getting full 

 of roe, and are more or less out of condition according to 

 their forward state as breeding fish. Their progress forwards 

 is not easily stopped ; they shoot up rapids with the velocity 

 of arrows, and make wonderful efforts to surmount cascades 

 and other impediments by leaping, frequently clearing an 

 elevation of eight or ten feet, and gaining the water above, 

 pursue their course. If they fail in their attempt and fall 

 back into the stream, it is only to remain a short time qui- 

 escent, and thus recruit their strength to enable them to 

 make new efforts. 



These feats of the Salmon are frequently watched with 

 all the curiosity such proceedings are likely to excite. Mr. 

 Mudie, in the British Naturalist, describes from personal 

 observation some of the situations from which these extra- 

 ordinary efforts can be witnessed. Of the fall of Kilmorac, 

 on the Beauly, in Invernesshire, it is said, " The pool below 

 that fall is very large ; and as it is the head of the run in one 

 of the finest Salmon rivers in the North, and only a few 

 miles distant from the sea, it is literally thronged with 

 Salmon, which are continually attemping to pass the fall, 

 but without success, as the limit of their perpendicular spring 

 does not appear to exceed twelve or fourteen feet : at least, 

 if they leap higher than that they are aimless and exhausted, 

 and the force of the current dashes them down again before 

 they have recovered their energy. They often kill them- 

 selves by the violence of their exertions to ascend ; and 

 sometimes they fall upon the rocks and are captured. It 

 is indeed said that one of the wonders which the Erasers of 



VOL. IT. c 



