174 THE DREF-GARN. 



used to advantage in the day-time. Dark nights are the 

 best for the purpose, as the fish are then unable to perceive 

 it ; and when they feel the pressure of its folds, instead of 

 retracing their course they rush bodily into it. 



If the current be pretty strong, and the bottom of the 

 river at all even, I know few things of the kind more 

 amusing or exciting than this method of fishing. But if, 

 on the contrary, the current is sluggish, and the bottom foul 

 or ragged, and the net constantly getting fast (the labour 

 of disengaging it being often enormous), it is far from the 

 most agreeable of occupations ; more especially should the 

 night be cold and wet, for what with the rain from above 

 and the dripping of the net upon one's clothes, a man's 

 plight, at such times, is anything but enviable. 



In my neighbourhood little comparatively was to be done 

 with the Dref-Garn. We now and then, it is true, killed six 

 or seven huge trout of a night ; but this was the exception, 

 not the rule, for two or three was considered fair work, 

 and on the average we certainly did not much exceed that 

 number. At Lilla Edet, however, distant about twenty 

 miles from Ronnum, salmon are captured in great quantities 

 by its means. 



Though the water in some places was favourable enough 

 for the Casting-net, which with us in England is in such 

 common use, strange to say, with the exception of my 

 own, I never saw or heard of it in Sweden. 



Contrivances called Mjdrdar some of them nets in their 

 way are also in general use throughout Sweden. These 

 devices are of very ancient origin, mention being made of 

 them in the " Upland Laws," which date back eight to nine 

 hundred years. 



