FISHES. 583 
“female pair off, as it were ; seeming to choose, by a common accord, 
a retired place in which to spawn. Here both male and female 
employ themselves in hollowing out a nest in the sand some eight or 
nine inches deep, wherein the female deposits her eggs, which the 
male fertilises by shedding a milky fluid over them, sheltering the eggs 
afterwards by a covering of sand. 
The salmon only.ascends. the 
rivers to-spawn. They eagerly re- 
turn afterwards to salt~ water. 
When étijoying themselves in the 
water they swim slowly, floating 
near the surface ; but in-pursuit of 
any object, or if threatened with 
danger, they dart out of the water 
with extraordinary promptitude. 
The tail is, in fact, a true oar 
moved by powerful muscles. A 
low waterfall is to the salmon no 
serious obstacle when it is impelled 
to ascend to its breeding-place ; 
curving its vertebral column, it 
forms itself into a sort of elastic 
spring; the arc of which being 
suddenly unbent, strikes the water 
with great force with the tail, and 
in the rebound it leaps to the 
height of several yards, clearing 
waterfalls of considerable height. 
If it falls without accomplishing < 
its object, it repeats the manceuvre Fig. 381.—Salmon Leap at Kilmorack. 
until it is at last successful. It is 
especially when the leader of the band makes a successful leap that 
the others, acquiring new spirit from its example, throw themselves 
upwards until their emulation is rewarded by success. 
Some of the British waterfalls are celebrated for their salmon 
leaps. Wales, Scotland, and Ireland have each their celebrated leaps ; 
in Pembrokeshire, Argyleshire, and at Ballyshannon in county 
Donegal, and at Leixlip near Dublin. This latter cataract is about 
twenty feet high, and the country people make a holiday in order to 
see the salmon clear its height. These acrobat fishes frequently fall 
before they finally succeed, and it is not unusual for the people to 
place osier baskets to trap them in their fall. At the cataract of 
