212 A Sporting Tour in Norway. [Sess. 



panions, I commenced to fish, and tried for a time without 

 the slightest shadow of success. Coming to a splendid pool 

 close to the road, I cast in, and at once svicceeded in hooking 

 a fish of enormous size. I distinctly saw his tail, which was 

 nine or ten inches across, indicating a thirty- or forty-pounder. 

 Here was a predicament, as I had neither gaff nor assistance, 

 and at a most difficult place to land a fish. Knowing, how- 

 ever, that my tackle was good, and having abundance of line 

 iipon my reel, I felt I was on equal terms with my adversary. 

 With rod bent almost double, I hung on to him till my 

 shoulders ached, and the perspiration flowed from every pore. 

 Three-quarters of an hour passed without making any per- 

 ceptible progress, when a stolkjcerre, containing two of our 

 fellow-passengers from the steamer, came forward. It turned 

 out that all the passengers, as well as those from other 

 two steamers, left the ships at Bergen, took the train to 

 Vossevangen, and then drove to join the steamers at Gud- 

 vangen in carrioles, stolkjasrres, and vehicles of a nondescript 

 character, some of them being of a crude and primitive de- 

 scription. As each party drove up, they were obliged to stop, 

 the road not being wide enough at the place to admit of 

 passing, till a train of fifty or sixty vehicles accumulated, 

 those coming up in the rear thinking some accident had oc- 

 curred. Very soon I was surrounded by an excited crowd, 

 which, in spite of remonstrances, packed so closely around me 

 that I scarcely could get elbow-room. Among the passengers 

 were tourists from England, Scotland, Ireland, and France, 

 with their ISTorwegian drivers, and very soon well-meant but 

 stupid suggestions were shouted in different languages from 

 dozens of different throats, till the " Ime-and-cry " would have 

 rivalled the builders of Babel. By this time another half-hour 

 had passed, and the fish for some time having coursed up and 

 down the pool, went into deep water and " sulked." For 

 about ten minutes I pulled at him as hard as I could without 

 breaking my tackle, changing my hands alternately in order 

 to give them a rest, but could not induce him to move. I 

 eventually asked one of the onlookers to throw in a stone a 

 little below the fish, and in response fifty stones were thrown 

 below, above, and all around him, fortunately without breaking 

 the line. This, however, had the desired effect, as off he 



