584 THE OCEAN WORLD. 
Kilmorack, in Inverness-shire (Fig. 381), the inhabitants living near 
the river have a practice of fixing branches of trees on the edge of 
the rocks. By means of these branches they contrive to catch the 
fishes which have failed in their leap; it is even asserted that sports- 
men have been known to kill them on the wing, as it were, in their 
leap. But the exploit attributed to Lord Lovat by Dr. Franklin is 
perhaps the nearest approach to the fabulous which we have met 
with. Having remarked that great numbers of salmon failed in their 
efforts to surmount the Falls of Kilmorack, and that they generally 
fell on the banks at the foot of the fall, Lord Lovat conceived the 
idea of placing a furnace and a frying-pan on a point of rock over- 
hanging the river. After their unsuccessful effort some of the un- 
happy salmon would fall accidentally into the frying-pan. The noble 
lord could thus boast that the resources of his country were so 
abundant, that on placing a furnace and frying-pan on the banks 
of its rivers, the salmon would leap into it of their own accord, 
without troubling the sportsmen to catch them. It is more pro- 
bable, however, that Lord Lovat knew that the way to enjoy salmon 
in perfection is to cook it when fresh from the water, and before 
the richer parts cf the fish have ceased to curd. 
The principal salmon found in the market are from the Tweed, 
Tay, North Esk, Spey, Skye, and Norwegian rivers, and above all 
from the Severn and the rivers of Ireland, which latter are said to be 
the best which come to market. None of these must be confounded 
with the imported American variety —the origin of the prevalent cheap 
London kipper—and the Cape, or red mouthed variety. Cape and 
Americans are at once distinguished by their flesh boiling a blanched 
white. Tweed salmon are more varied ; and this river, famous in song, 
is also noted for its production of the greatest proportion of bull-trout. 
The Tay yields the largest grilse and salmon, but the Spey follows 
fast in her wake; Tay fish sometimes weigh sixty pounds. The 
‘minor Scotch rivers produce smaller but superior fish. Skye and 
West-coast grilse are short, thick, and small-headed, and proportion- 
ally more abundant. Trout are numerous; sea-bull, burn, or loch, 
and the so-called herring-trout, are the varieties usually met with. 
The whitling of the Tweed, grayling of Tay, and tinnock of North 
and South Esk, are young sea and bull-trout, abounding in March 
and April, when a sportsman will land fifty or sixty daily weighing 
from four ounces to a pound each. Trout flesh varies in colour 
from a clear white to a dark red; the North Esk red trout is most 
esteemed. The best run from a pound and a half to three pounds. 
The burn-trout is always red, and has been killed as heavy as thirty 
