CHAP. VII.] THE FOURTH DAT. 179 



and summer-houses the fresh rivers for summer, and the 

 salt water for winter, to spend his life in ; which is not, as 

 Sir Francis Bacon hath observed in his " History of Life 

 and Death," above ten years. And it is to be observed, 

 that though the salmon does grow big in the sea, yet he 

 grows not fat but in fresh rivers ; and it is observed, that 

 the farther they get from the sea, they be both the fatter 

 and better. 1 



Next, I shall tell you, that though they make very hard 

 shift to get out of the fresh rivers into the sea ; yet they 

 will make harder shift to get out of the salt into the fresh 

 rivers, to spawn, or possess the pleasures that they have 

 formerly found in them : to which end, they will force them- 

 selves through flood-gates, or over weirs, or hedges, or stops 

 in the water, e^en to a height beyond common belief. 2 

 Gesner speaks of such places as are known to be above eight 

 feet high above water. And our Camden mentions in his 

 " Britannia," the like wonder to be in Pembrokeshire, 

 where the river Tivy falls into the sea ; and that the fall is 

 so downright, and so high that the people stand and wonder 

 at the strength, and slight, by which they see the salmon use 

 to get out of the sea into the said river ; and the manner 

 and height of the place is so notable, that it is known, far, 

 by the name of the salmon-leap. Concerning which, take 



1 Later researches have established that it is in the sea and not in the 

 fresh water that salmon fatten. They are in their primest condition 

 immediately after their return from the sea, and then gradually lose their 

 brightness, and become comparatively lean. ED. 



2 Mudie, in the ' ' British Naturalist, " describes, from personal observa- 

 tion, some of the situations of extraordinary salmon-leaps. Of the fall of 

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

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

 finest salmon rivers in Scotland, and only a few miles distant from 'the 

 sea, it is literally thronged with salmon, which are continually attempting 

 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 themselves by the violence of their exertions to ascend." 

 We are told that by the side of the leap, on a flat piece of rock, a kettle 

 was kept boiling, and the salmon frequently, on missing their spring, fell 

 into this kettle and were boiled alive. The Frasers of Lovat, who were 

 lords of the manor of Beauly, used to entertain their friends on such 

 occasions, under a canopy erected near the stream. YARRKLL. 



N 2 



