30 A RIVER OF NORWAY 



darting to and fro over their heads. Such a 

 picture is Mr. Abel Chapman's inimitable 

 account (in his "Wild Norway") of a salmon 

 rising to a Jock Scot. But all anglers are 

 familiar with occasions on which a fish has 

 snapped at the fly the instant it was presented 

 to him ; and it is difficult to avoid the con- 

 clusion that such fish are on the look-out for 

 something to eat, and mean to have anything 

 which looks tasty. 



The excellent Pontoppidan, Bishop of Bergen, 

 who wrote in 1751 " The Natural History of 

 Norway," has some remarks on the salmon, 

 which show that 150 years ago men were 

 already perplexed as to the salmon's food. I 

 quote from the English translation of his work, 

 a fine old folio published in London in 1755. 



" The Lax, Salmon, Salme, a well-known, con- 

 siderably large, and excellent Fish, has bright 

 silver scales, but the flesh is red. It is allowed 

 by all to be one of the most delicious and best- 

 tasted Fish ; however, the physicians do not 

 reckon it wholesom, when it is eaten fresh, in 

 too great a quantity. 



"As the Salmon is not fond of biting at a 

 bait, and there is seldom any Fish found in its 



