SALMON. 
173 
of the joints; by which contrivance additional power and 
flexibility of the bones and muscles are provided, together with 
a high degree of complex action in the impulse. 
When the season has been deficient in rain, and the level 
of the water is therefore low, the difficulty in springing to the 
higher level is so much the more increased; and this is especially 
the case, as some considerable depth of water is required to 
serve as a foundation for the impelling power that is to secure 
success. It is then that the full extent of its exertion is called 
for, as it is described in the lines we have placed at the beginning 
of our history of this fish; and forcibly also by Ausonius in 
the description of his favourite river: — 
Nor will I pass the glistening Salmon by, 
With crimson flesh within, of sparkling dye: — 
An hidden impulse first disturbs the stream 
That silent flows; then upward darts the gleam 
At middle water: and the bounding fish 
Strikes with his quivering tail, in earnest wish 
To dart aloft. 
Great has been the admiration of observers as they have 
watched this proceeding of a morning or in the evening, which 
are the principal seasons of exertion, while the repeated efforts 
will sometimes last for a considerable time, in consequence of 
repeated failure. But besides the natural obstructions here 
referred to, there are others which owe their existence to human 
contrivances, with the direct intention indeed of preventing the 
further ascent of the fish, in the selfish hope of making a spoil 
of the whole of these inhabitants of the river, without any 
consideration of the injm-y to be sustained by the brood, or 
the indignation felt by the dwellers on the banks above. 
But in many instances a different spirit has been shewn, 
and wiser claimants of the right of fishing have provided means 
by which the fish may pass upward without the necessity of 
exhausting their energies in vain endeavours to leap above the 
artificial obstruction. This is effected by hewing a path in 
the rock, or building a sloping passage in a zigzag course, 
termed a ladder; with resting places, by means of w'hich these 
active fish may find no difficulty or delay in the ascent; with 
the advantage also that the people who live along the upper 
portions of the river by obtaining a share of the profit, may 
