74 TRAVELS IN THE EIGHTIES. 



stomach. How insensible, then, must fishes be to 

 pain ! 



But these Slagnas trout were not so entirely un- 

 sophisticated as their easy capture would lead one to 

 believe. 



Carl Forsham, who took the boat down the rapids 

 for us the next day, possesses an extraordinary bait, 

 with which he sometimes takes a fish. It consists of 

 an enormous, heavy, double salmon fly made of scarlet 

 feathers tied to a piece of glittering metal, and 

 fastened by thick twine to a short, pliant birch stick. 

 With this ungainly implement he rows to and fro 

 across the current, and when once the great hooks 

 have been driven firmly into the jaw of a trout, the 

 birch stick yields sufficiently to insure its capture. 



The following morning we resumed our journey 

 down the Shellefteo Eiver. The roar of the rapid 

 below sounded like distant thunder, or 



Lifted its voice, a muffled, tremulous roar, 



Borne on the breeze an instant, and then gone 



Back to the regions of the middle air ; 



The voice as of a nation overthrown, 



With beat of drums, when hosts have marched to war. 



To avoid the large rocks, and at the same time to 

 prevent the boat getting broadside to the current, 

 constitutes the difficulty generally experienced in 

 descending a rapid. 



Below Slagnas a succession of them was encountered, 

 down which we were carried at tremendous speed. 

 Wet weather would have made things very uncomfort- 



