240 TROUT AND SALMON 



of the animal world. He who catches one with a fifteen-foot 

 rod weighing twenty ounces, with a silver doctor at the end 

 of a five-foot leader, and brings it to the gaff, may well call 

 himself an angler. So far as I know, this is the largest fish 

 that rises to a fly. 



The greatest weight on record for the Atlantic Salmon is 

 83 pounds. The maximum weight of those now taken in 

 Maine is about 25 pounds, and the average is about 10 pounds. 

 In 1900 the catch of the Bangor anglers in Penobscot Pool 

 was 67 fish, weighing 970 pounds. The largest weighed 

 23}/2 pounds, and the average was nearly 14J^ pounds. 



The most wonderful thing about the Atlantic Salmon is 

 its leaping power, in surmounting water-falls that lie in its 

 course to its spawning-grounds. To a fish of this species, a 

 rock-studded cascade three hundred feet long and thirty 

 feet high, down which the water plunges and tears with mur- 

 derous speed and violence, is a fine highway, up which it 

 gayly promenades without pause or accident. 



But a water-fall, with a perpendicular drop of ten or 

 twelve feet, is a more serious proposition, and requires a special 

 effort. To clear such a barrier, the Salmon makes a rush in 

 the pool below it, leaps out of the water, and if possible lands 

 on the edge of the fall. If he falls short by no more than one 

 or two feet, but strikes the descending torrent squarely head 

 on, so that he is not at once swept down, it is said that by a 

 strong flirt of the tail and a wriggle of the body, the gallant 

 fish actually can force itself on up to the edge of the fall, and 

 over it into the coveted waters of the upper level. 



The following graphic description of the leap of the 



