1884.] AN OCTOBER WALK IiY NORWAY. lU 



foaming along ou our left, and here and there amongst the breaking 

 waves we sight a salmon trap. It must be somewhat amusing to 

 riparian proprietors in Norway to hear the sweeping condemna- 

 tion passed by English anglers on those who obtain their fish by 

 this metliod. The said proprietors, however, are, as a rule, poor 

 peasants, who are dependent for much of their living on the salmon 

 they thus procure, and their life is one of toil so laborious and con- 

 stant that they have no time for I'od-fishing. Netting and trapping, 

 however, cannot be considered as otherwise than unsportsman-Hke by 

 an angler, and rouse his ire accordingly. Two years ago I was one of 

 a small party of English anglers enjoying the excellent sport afforded 

 by the waters of Lake Saima and the Vuoksa river in Finland, and 

 shall not easily forget the disgust with whicli we watched, morning 

 and evening, a wily Finlander paddle his boat across the river to his 

 trap, and take out three or four splendid trout, from five to perhaps 

 twenty pounds weight apiece. The man was a riparian owner, and 

 had a perfect right to capture fish in any way he chose ; but his 

 method gave the fish no chance, and could not be otherwise than 

 obnoxious to those who trusted to fly or minnow alone wherewith 

 to lure the big trout from the blue depths of lake or river. 



A picturesque pass leads northward from the head of the valley, 

 emerging; from which a beautiful lake, four miles long antl a mile 

 across, opens out before us. On its western side it is shut in by 

 steep slopes of forest, above which towers Nasheim Horg, a peak of 

 grey rock of some 3000 feet in height. To the north a sheer cliff 

 rises from the lake to a height of 1800 feet, and its mighty blue-black 

 precipices impart an air of stern grandeur to the landscape. Retracing 

 onr steps, and striking across the head of the vale to the eastward, 

 we pass several small farms on smiling slopes, and, skirting a fine 

 grove of larches, come abruptly on the prettiest waterfall of some 

 fourteen. It would be thought much of in England or Scotland ; 

 but in Norway, the land of waterfalls, it is not even honoured with 

 a name. It is merely the plunge of a mountain stream, some fifty 

 feet in height and twenty in bi'eadth ; but instead of tumbling down 

 the face of a black cliff, like most Norwegian falls, its white column 

 is framed in by the pendulous trailers of feathery birch, the graceful 

 tassels of larch and fir, and masses of ferns, luxuriant mosses, lichens, 

 and creeping plants of every hue, whose leaves and petals are ever 

 tremulous in the veil of mist which drifts outwards from tlie fairy- 

 like ravine to meet the sun.shine. 



A forest path leads up the mountain-side closely skirting the 

 waterfall. The ascent is steep, and so dense is the growth of timber 

 that it is only here and there that it is possible to obtain a glimpse 

 of the valley we are leaving. The soil is so shallow that the trees 



