DECEMBER 303 



this impertinence in that same place, I saw two dark objects 

 bobbing like ducks down the rapid between the two pools ; 

 but immediately as they came near [I] distinguished the 

 round, staring, goggle-eyed heads of two otters, floating one 

 after the other, their legs spread out like flying squirrels, 

 steering with their tails, the tips of which showed above 

 the water like the rudder of an Elbe scuite. Down they 

 came, as flat as floating skins upon the water; but their 

 rouhd short heads and black eyes constantly in motion, 

 examining with eager vigilance every neuk and rock which 

 they passed. 



' I looked down into the pool below me ; it was as clear as 

 amber, and behind a large boulder of granite, in about eight 

 feet of water, I saw three salmon — a large one just at the 

 back of the stone, and two smaller holding against the stream 

 in the same line.i They lay sluggish and sleepy in the 

 sunshine, without any motion except the gentle skulling of 

 their tails. The otters were steering down the pool, bobbing 

 and flirting the water with their snouts, and now and then 

 ducking their heads — till they came over the stone. In an 

 instant, like a flash of light, the fish were gone, and where 

 the otters had just floated there was nothing but two un- 

 dulating rings upon the glossy surface. In the next instant 

 there was a rush and a swirl in the deep, under the rock on 

 the west side, and a long shooting line going down the rapid. 

 . . . Near the tail of the pool there was another rush and 

 turn, and two long lines of bubbles showed that the otters 

 were returning. Immediately afterwards the large salmon 



' I have observed that salmon habitually lie in front of an isolated 

 rook in mid-current, where the stream is lifted in an even flow to 

 surmount the obstruction, and not immediately behind it, where the 

 water is swirly. A friend of mine having disputed the accuracy of 

 my observation, I took him to the bridge across the Kvina, just below 

 the village of Liknass in the Flekkef jord. Looking over, we saw five 

 salmon lying in the crystal clear stream, and each one lay just up- 

 stream off a large submerged boulder. Of course, in a rocky stream 

 like the Findhorn the salmon described by Stuart might easily have a 

 boulder above it as well as behind it. 



