22 A RIVER OF NORWAY 



Many such "Days and Nights of Salmon 

 Fishing" live in the memory. It is strange 

 how occasionally fish will have the fly, regard- 

 less of their brethren having been hooked and 

 escaped, or been hooked and killed, before their 

 eyes. On a June night in the great fishing 

 season of 1900, I stood beside C., as he fished 

 from The Bank, and for a time a fish rose every 

 cast he made. Some merely gave a "pull," 

 others were hooked and lost, others were played 

 and killed ; but still as the fly came round a 

 fish came at it. It was at 4 A.M. and the sun 

 was coming over the hill, and the ebb-tide had 

 fallen almost to low water. The fish were 

 lying in only three or four feet of water, and for 

 some unknown reason were madly on the take. 

 C. was dropping from fatigue, and could hardly 

 hold his rod up to play the last, an 18-pounder, 

 which ran wildly for the Fos. But such occa- 

 sions, to be marked with a white stone, are few 

 and far between. 



In the long run, our best sport has been had 

 at night. Major Traherne's theory that fish do 

 not take well in the small hours of the morning 

 does not hold good here. But fish will fre- 

 quently take in the daytime, especially before 



