144 VERTEBRATA. PISCES. 



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 themselves 

 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 Lovat, who are lords of the manor, used to 

 shew their guests, was a voluntarily cooked Salmon, 

 at the Falls of Kilmorac. For this purpose, a kettle 

 was placed upon the flat rock on the south side of 

 the fall, close by the edge of the water, and kept 

 full and boiling. There is a considerable extent of 

 the rock where tents were erected, and the whole 

 was under a canopy of overshadowing trees. There 

 the company are said to have waited until a Salmon 

 fell into the kettle, and was boiled in their pre- 

 sence."* 



The shallow beds of gravel near the sources of 

 the streams having been at length reached, the 

 Salmon proceeds to deposit its spawn, which is done 

 in the end of summer or autumn. The male and fe- 

 male unite their efforts to make a trench, by working 

 in the loose gravel with their noses, always against 

 the stream; into this furrow, when completed, the 

 female deposits her spawn, which is afterwards co- 

 vered up again. The fish are now unfit for food, 

 and are called unclean. At the end of winter, they 

 gradually descend the rivers, and soon regain the 



* Brit. Naturalist, vol. i. p. 191. 



