202 LINES IN PLEASANT PLACES 



doings of a wet week, of which most travellers in the 

 country get more or less experience. 



When you read in your guide-book " The climate of 

 the west coast is usually mild, being influenced by the 

 Atlantic and the Gulf Stream, which impinges upon it," 

 you will, having the ordinary experiences of this vale 

 of tears, not omit the mackintoshes from your baggage. 

 It may be, as is set forth a little farther down, that 

 July and August are the best months for this part of 

 Norway ; but there is never any trusting that Atlantic 

 and Gulf Stream. Yet here we are at the end of a 

 solid week of rain, with every promise of more to follow. 

 This morning the rushing sound which greeted my 

 waking moments was, nevertheless, different from that 

 of previous mornings. It was merely the steady but 

 strong flow of the river, not fifty yards from my bed- 

 room window, speeding from the wooden bridge to 

 the mouth at the fiord, half a mile below. Previously 

 there had been variations upon this unceasing mono- 

 tone, and they were caused by the rain pattering upon 

 the leaves of an old ash outside, upon the shrubs and 

 trees of the little orchard, and at times upon the 

 veranda and even window panes. 



There is no mistake about rain in Norway when it IB 

 in earnest, and a week of it is more than enough. It 

 is true the nights have not this time been so wet as the 

 days, but what consolation is that when the effect is 

 to keep the river in perpetual flood ? No ; there is a 

 vast difference between three and seven days, on a 

 salmon river. The lesser infliction moves the fish and 

 improves sport. In the days that are left you may 

 find ample compensation in superior bags. Now there 

 have been seven days' downpour, the river getting 

 worse every day, and leaving a tolerable certainty of 

 three days' additional patience for running down and 



