vt SALMON LEAPING 65 



Highland master that they should not be fed on salmon above 

 a certain number of days in the week. But to continue my 

 st ry. The permission was granted ; and, to save all dispute 

 about the matter, even a legal written document was given over 

 to the wily laird, granting him exclusive right of fishing and 

 netting the river, " until his house was finished." The building 

 was immediately stopped, and the right of fishing still belongs 

 to the proprietor of the little islet, who will probably never 

 finish his building, as doing so would put an end to his valuable 

 rights on the river. So runs the tale, which does more credit 

 to the acuteness than to the honesty of the inventor of the ruse. 

 The jumping of the salmon up a fall is a curious and beautiful 

 sight, and the height they leap, and the perseverance which 

 they show in returning again and again to the charge, after 

 making vain efforts to surmount the fall, are quite wonderful. 

 Often on a summer evening, when the river is full of fish, all 

 eager to make their way up, have I watched them for hours 

 together, as they sprang in rapid succession,looking like pieces 

 of silver as they dashed up the falls with rapid leaps. The 

 fish appear to bend their head to their tail, and then to fling 

 themselves forward and upwards, much as a bit of whalebone 

 whose two ends are pinched together springs forward on being 

 released.- I have often watched them leaping, and this has 

 always seemed the way in which they accomplish their extra- 

 ordinary task. Both salmon and sea -trout, soon after they 

 enter the fresh water, from the sea, make wonderful leaps into 

 the air, shooting perpendicularly upwards, to the height of some 

 feet, with a quivering motion, which is often quite audible. 

 This is most likely to get rid. of a kind of parasitical insect 

 which adheres to them when they first leave the sea. The 

 fishermen call this creature the sea-louse : it appears to cause 

 a great deal of irritation to the fish. It is a sure sign that the 

 salmon is in good condition, and fresh from the sea, when these 

 insects are found adhering to him. 



Though the natural history of the salmon is daily being 

 searched into, and curious facts connected with it are constantly 

 ascertained, I fancy that there is much still to be learnt on the 

 subject, as some of the statements advanced seem so much at 

 variance with my own frequent though unscientific observations, 

 that I cannot give in to all that is asserted. But as I have 



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