CHAP, vi.] SALMON-SPEARING BY TORCHLIGHT. 57 



rapid succession, looking like pieces of silver as they (lashed up 

 the falls with rapid leaps. The fish appear to bend their head 

 to their tail, and then to fling themselves forward and upwards, 

 much as a bit of whalebone whose two ends are pinched together 

 springs forward on being released. I have often watched them 

 leaping, and this has always seemed the way in which they ac- 

 complish their extraordinary task. Both salmon and sea-trout, 

 soon after they enter the fresh water, from the sea, make won- 

 derful leaps into the air, shooting perpendicularly upwards, to 

 the height of some feet, with a quivering motion, which is often 

 quite audible. This is most likely to get rid of a kind of para- 

 sitical insect which adheres to them when they first leave the sea. 

 The fishermen call this creature the sea-louse : it appears to 

 cause a great deal of irritation to the fish. It is a sure sign that 

 the salmon is in good condition, and fresh from the sea, when 

 these insects are found adhering to him. 



Though the natural history of the salmon is daily being searched 

 into, and curious facts connected with it are constantly ascertained, 

 I fancy that there is much still to be learnt on the subject, as some 

 of the statements advanced seem so much at variance with my own 

 frequent though unscientific observations, that I cannot give in to 

 all that is asserted. But as I have not opportunities of proving 

 many points, I will leave the whole subject in the abler hands of 

 those who have already written on it, and whose accounts, though 

 they may err here and there, are probably in the main correct. 

 As long as the salmon are in the river water they seem to lose 

 condition, and become lean and dark coloured. By the time that 

 they have ascended to within a dozen miles or so of the source of 

 the river they are scarcely fit to eat. Nevertheless vast numbers 

 are killed by poachers and shepherds in the autumn, even after 

 the legal season is over. I once fell in with a band of Highlanders, 

 who were employed busily in the amusing but illegal pursuit of 

 spearing salmon by torchlight. And a most exciting and inte- 

 resting proceeding it was. The night was calm and dark. The 

 steep and broken rocks were illuminated in the most brilliant 

 manner by fifteen or sixteen torches, which were carried by as 

 many active Highlanders, and glanced merrily on the water, 

 throwing the most fantastic light and shade on all around as they 

 moved about. Sometimes one of them would remain motionless 



