NORWAY AND ITS SEA TROUT 229 



not answer to a pull. A consultation followed, and 

 the man went back round the corner, and discovered 

 that the line would slip from below. The angler there- 

 upon cut it at the winch and the line was recovered. 

 This is the kind of adventure, demanding resource 

 upon the spot, and experience in every move on the 

 board, that so piquantly spices angling in Norwegian 

 rivers of this kind, where the ordinary methods of 

 fishing with the fly are practised. 



On the morning when the breechloaders are cracking 

 amongst the coveys there is incipient frost, followed 

 by a blazing sun, which finishes off the remnant of new 

 snow which did not melt yesterday ; and there is a 

 violet hue upon the shallower water which ought to 

 look brown. Beautiful to look at, but fatal, they tell 

 me, is this reflected tint. The shade of the alders and 

 the velvet pile of the mosses induce a fit of idleness ; 

 it is only the flycatchers, in great numbers, that are 

 busy in the heat and glare, twittering as they hawk 

 for insects, in notes that suggest robin redbreast on a 

 winter day. By and by the clouds obscure the sun 

 and we tackle our pools, with the result, for myself, of 

 sea trout of 7^ Ib. and 3^ lb., and a miscellaneous lot 

 of a dozen and a half of brown trout whipped out on a 

 small cast in the evening hour. Before this happens, 

 however, I sit me down for a spell, and, in pursuance of 

 a determination to make these notes as practical as 

 can be consistently done, jot down the following sketches 

 of pool types as they present themselves to my friendly 

 vision. They will answer, I dare believe, for many a 

 river in Scandinavia. 



i. This is a true boiler, a torrential pool never at 

 rest. It charges down amongst huge masses of rock, 

 and just where the descent is comparatively easy the 

 inevitable salmon trap is fixed. Sometimes the salmon 



