56 MARVELS OF FISH LIFE 
delicate silvery hues please the man who has an eye for 
beauty, and the fact that his pink flesh goes so well with 
sauce and cucumber undoubtedly adds to his popu- 
larity. But it is the mystery that has long enshrouded 
the life history of the salmon that makes him the centre 
of attraction to those interested in fish ; a mystery that 
is being slowly unravelled. 
The salmon is probably a fish of freshwater origin 
that has acquired the habit of going to the sea in order 
to obtain a more abundant food supply than is possible 
in lakes and rivers. He returns from the sea to spawn 
in fresh water, but there is evidence to show that not 
infrequently salmon come into the rivers and return 
again to the sea without spawning. This may be due 
to a homing instinct on the part of the fish or to the 
fact that, having fed to repletion in the sea, he returns 
to fresh water to rest from his gluttony. 
The fish “ run,” that is, ascend into the rivers, during 
every month in the year, but they mostly go up in 
February and March, June and July, and in the autumn. 
The persistence with which salmon will attempt to 
overcome every obstacle to their ascent into fresh water 
is well known, and given a sufficient volume of water, it 
is extraordinary the raging current they can swim 
against. The height that a salmon can leap has been 
greatly exaggerated, for a clear drop of five or six feet 
is the maximum that the strongest of fish can success- 
fully negotiate. This fish frequently leaps into the air 
at other times than when attempting to overcome an 
