SPEARING SALMOK OR BURNING THE WATER 



CHAPTER VI 



Salmon-fishing — Salmon ascending Fords — Fishers — Cruives — Right of Fishing — 

 Anecdote — Salmon-leaps — Historj' of the Salmon — Spearing Salmon — River 

 Poaching — Angling — Fly-making— Eels — Lampreys. 



During the spring and summer it is an amusing sight to watch 

 the salmon making their way up the river. Every high tide 

 brings up a number of these fish, whose whole object seems to 

 be to ascend the stream. At the shallow fords, where the 

 river spreading over a wide surface has but a small depth of 

 water, they are frequently obliged to swim, or tather wade (if 

 such an expression can be used), for perhaps twenty yards in 

 water of two inches in depth, which leaves more than half the 

 fish exposed to view. On they go, however, scrambling up the 

 fords, and making the water fly to the right and left, like ducks 

 at play. When the fish are numerous, I sometimes see a 

 dozen or more at once. They might be killed in these places 

 by spears, or even a stick, and indeed many a salmon does 



