NORWAY AND ITS SEA TROUT 215 



but it always seemed more advantageous to me, as a 

 student of fish movement, to watch the progress of the 

 fly. Never in the world could there be a better place 

 to note the movements of a sea trout, and so you 

 began the day with faculties all awake. The small 

 Bulldog (after the point had been duly touched up by 

 the file) was first put up, and at the third cast I beheld 

 a brown streak and a silver flash, followed by an abrupt 

 disappearance of the object. A sea trout had showed 

 himself without nearing the fly, and had retired immedi- 

 ately to quarters. Ten minutes as a rule was ample 

 for this island casting, but as, on this occasion, there 

 was no other sign than that I have mentioned, I could 

 not but spare a few extra minutes to my friend who had 

 falsely made overtures to the Bulldog ; the least to be 

 done was another trial with a fly of a different 

 pattern. But he remained sulky or scared. 



Then we took to the boat, and began to fish the 

 well-known water with careful assiduity. And my 

 heart sank as time sped along, and resting-place after 

 resting-place for fish was deliberately worked without 

 result. Low clouds, in horizontal strata of white 

 masses, shrouded the mountain sides, there was a 

 miserable shiver of wind upon the water, and for any 

 token to eye or hand there might not have been a fish 

 in the river. By and by we came to the conclusion 

 that, for the time being, the game was not worth the 

 candle ; and we went ashore to snatch a hasty luncheon 

 under the dripping eaves of a boat-house. In the 

 bows of the boat there were two fish, so insignificant 

 that we would not weigh them, though we afterwards 

 found that they were each about 2 Ib. We shrugged 

 our shoulders on the surmise that either there had been 

 no run of sea trout during these propitious moonlight 

 nights, or that they were by one consent in one of their 



