23* LINES IN PLEASANT PLACES 



proceeding up the valley, and all the natives are in a 

 state of agitation, if such sober-minded people ever are 

 agitated. 'The Midnight Sun is in the fiord, and these 

 ladies and gentlemen are ashore for the day bound for the 

 glacier. We dine on board at night with the captain, who 

 is a brother angler, and who makes light of a sea trout of 

 10 lb., which he has caught in the afternoon. Well ; 

 I have met many anglers in Norway who feel disgusted 

 at such game ; they want salmon, and think themselves 

 hardly used if sea trout intrude. But I thank the 

 gods (when I suppose I ought to sit in sackcloth for 

 perverted taste) that up to this present Salmo trutta, 

 great or small, evokes my fervent gratitude, and I can 

 only say that, while I paid my five gaffed salmon the 

 highest respect, I recall with no less satisfaction my 

 seventeen sea trout ; and, while serving this week on 

 the grand jury at the Old Bailey, sketched the best 

 of them one after another on the margin of the prisoners' 

 calendar, and found a true bill for at least the fine 

 fellows of II lb., 9 lb., 8 lb., and j\ lb., which headed 

 the list. They are good enough prisoners for me, 

 anyhow. However, I really believe our captain was 

 after all secretly proud of his ten-pounder, as he sat 

 at the head of the table in the palatial saloon of the 

 magnificent steam yacht of oceanic size. The pas- 

 sengers seemed entranced with their luxurious life and 

 the charms of the fiords they were visiting, and we 

 heard a concert on board that was really first-rate. 

 A fortnight of this sort of yachting for twelve or fifteen 

 guineas is, verily, one of the privileges of this age of 

 enterprise. 



On my way south I broke the journey to spend a 

 couple of days upon another river, but only added a 

 few sea trout to my achievements. The salmon were 

 plentiful enough, but they were waiting, sullenly yet 



