SALMON. 
169 
behind her are two others ; and in this order they proceed with 
all the others following, without being turned aside by any 
ordinary obstacle. Tliis author says that the females go first, 
and next to them the stoutest males; so that if the fishermen 
begin by catching only small males, they conclude that the chief 
body has already passed on. 
These fish give a preference to the middle current of rivers 
where they are not deep, unless when the weather is cold 
and boisterous; and a rapid river with a clean bottom is a 
favourite resort. Fishermen notice that they do not at this 
time swim deeper in the water than about six feet, and as 
they go up an estuary it is with the flowing tide, which 
carries them free from many obstructions; but if the current 
turns before they have made a satisfactory progress they turn 
backward with it, by which it may happen that they fixll into 
danger, more especially from fixed nets planted there to inter- 
cept them, and within which they are left at the ebb tide to 
be taken up at leisure. This turning back of the Salmon at 
the ebbing of the tide is the more remarkable as when advanced 
beyond it the downward current of fresh water has not the 
same influence, nor even the violence of a cataract, against 
the force of which they seem to delight in leaping with a 
perseverance that is wonderful, and commonly with success. 
In this progress upward, however, their energy is not without 
intervals of rest, during which they continue in some deejjer 
pool for two or three days, as if to recruit strength for another 
effort. The number of fish sometimes comprised in the host we 
have described may be guessed from the quantity that has been 
taken at a single haul of a net, and that even when the net 
has been of the ordinary moveable sort. Dr. Bathurst says, 
in his ‘‘Notes on Nets,” that fourteen hundred and fifty-two 
were thus caught; and this amount has been far exceeded in 
some instances, when what we believe to be the more effectual 
or destructive nets have been employed. We are thus told 
that two thousand five hundred were secured at one time in 
the Fiver Thurso; and in the Kibble, in the year 1750, three 
thousand five hundred of good size were taken at one catch, 
but it is not said in a single net, although it is probable 
they formed only one assemblage. 
We cannot vouch for the constant occurrence of such a 
vou IV. z 
