58 A YEAR OF SPORT AND NATURAL HISTORY. 



five to twenty miles from the sea. In winter and spring, and 

 sometimes even in early summer, these mountains are entirely 

 or partly covered with snow, and every partial melting of their 

 snows brings down torrents of ice-cold water, which rush 

 through the short channels into the sea. But the water of 

 that sea, unlike that of the German Ocean that washes our eastern 

 shores, is warmed by the soft influence of the Gulf Stream, 

 and the salmon therefore prefer remaining in it until the snow- 

 water has run off, and the milder weather of June and July has 

 raised the temperature of the river waters, and then they begin to 

 ascend. 



The case of the Norwegian rivers is different ; from the North 

 Cape southwards, along the whole of the deeply-indented west 

 coast to the Naze of Norway, the rivers, with but few exceptions, 

 are very similar in character, and all enter the same ocean ; it is 

 but natural, therefore, that the more southerly ones should fish 

 first, the salmon in each case being ready to ascend them as soon 

 as the ice breaks up and the worst of the heavy floods consequent 

 thereupon have passed off. 



Rod-fishing on the Thurso commences on the iith of January, 

 but for weeks before that date the salmon have been ascending it ; 

 and should the weather be sufficiently open and the water in decent 

 order, they may be taken with the fly at once. Such, however, is 

 not often the case, and the angler who braves the wintry storms 

 which sweep across the dreary Caithness Flats at that time of the 

 year has generally got to stand a good deal of " freezing out," the 

 pools being frequently sheeted with ice. 



This famous river has a course of twenty miles only from Loch 

 More to the sea ; and although the fish ascend the feeders of that 



