LILLA EDET. 227 



to the right or left, the pressure of the current on the curve 

 of the line is such as leads one to suppose he is on the way 

 down the rapid. This happened to me on one occasion ; but 

 when I reached the back water below, conceiving all the time 

 the fish was in company, I found, to my mortification, I had 

 left him behind me; and as to ascend the rapid again, ex- 

 cepting by the neighbouring sluice, was an impossibility, 

 the line, as may be supposed, quickly separated. 



I have not fished often at Akerstrom, and never had 

 much sport, my largest salmon not exceeding twenty-five 

 pounds. But other fishermen have been much more fortu- 

 nate, as well in respect to numbers, as to the size of the 

 fish. Last summer a peasant took a salmon by spinning, 

 that weighed, it was said, thirty-eight pounds. 



Twelve or fourteen miles lower down the Gotha, at the 

 hamlet of Lilla Edet, are other rapids, or rather cascades, 

 where salmon in the season are very plentiful. But owing 

 to the nature of the water, and to the Dref-garn being 

 constantly at work during the day as well as the night, 

 I do not imagine much is to be done either with fly or 

 bait. 



Three or four years ago a curious circumstance occurred 

 at Lilla Edet. A man was rowing quietly across the stream , 

 when of a sudden an immense salmon, that had been 

 disporting himself in the air, fell headlong into the boat, 

 where he was quickly secured. The prize was valuable, for 

 the fish which afterwards found its way to Gothenburg 

 weighed no less than forty pounds. 



Q 2 



