OSSEOUS PISHES. 
557 
The salmon only ascends the rivers to spawn. They eagerly return 
afterwards to salt water. When enjoying themselves in the water 
they swim slowly, floating near the surface ; hut in pursuit of any 
object, or if threatened with danger, they dart out of the wator with 
extraordinary promptitude. The tail is, in fact, a true oar moved by 
powerful muscles ; a waterfall, or lofty cataract, 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 four or 
five yards, clearing waterfalls of considerable height. It it falls with- 
out accomplishing its object, it repeats the manoeuvre until it is at last 
successful. It is especially when the leader of the band makes a 
successful leap that the others, ac- 
quiring 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, Argylesliire, and at 
Ballyshannon, in county Donegal, 
and at Leixlip. The cataract of 
Leixlip is upwards of 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 un- 
usual for the people to place 
osier baskets to trap them in their 
fall. At the cataract of Kilmorack, in Inverness-shire (Fig. 379), 
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 sportsmen have been known to kill them 
Fig. 379. Salmon tap at Kilrnoraclc. 
