THE SALMON FAMILY. 235 



for a residence in fresh water, they ascend the rivers on the 

 first rise, surmounting rapids and leaping falls of less than five 

 or six feet with perfect ease, and resting in the pools above. 

 In the early part of the season they make short stages, some- 

 times occupying a pool for a day or two. As the season 

 advances, those that enter the river travel faster; it is thought 

 making twenty or thirty miles a day. As a general thing, 

 they have an instinctive liking for the part of the river in 

 which they were ushered into being, should any caprice or 

 law of nature, however, impel them to ascend farther, and an 

 impassable fall prevent their doing so ; after fruitless attempts 

 to leap it, they return to the next pool, or deep still water 

 below, and renew their efforts to pass the barrier at every 

 rise in the water. When the time for spawning draws near, 

 they drop down the river to the shallows, or seek some of the 

 smaller tributaries for that purpose. 



"Ephemera" properly ridicules the notion that formerly 

 existed, and still does to some extent amongst ignorant 

 people, that the Salmon in surmounting a fall, puts its tail in 

 its mouth, and so bending itself like a bow, with a sudden 

 spring and letting the tail go, throws itself above the obstruc- 

 tion. It is clear to every thinking mind that in making its 

 leap, the Salmon must have depth of water, to acquire impetus 

 in throwing itself above the fall. The author in question 

 says, he has seen a Grilse leap upward and forward, somewhat 

 obliquely, the length of his fishing-rod, which was seventeen 

 feet long ; and that Mr. Young has known Salmon to clear a 

 fall of sixteen feet. Mr. Scrope, who had been a Salmon- 

 fisher more than a quarter of a century, states that they jump 

 on an average no higher than six feet. 



There is a great difference in the activity and endurance of 

 Salmon ; a young fish of eight pounds, which is as small as 

 they are generally taken, sometimes giving more sport than 



