OUR NEIGHBOURS 111 



good deal of amusement can be got out of 

 fishing at that time, and there are numbers of 

 Englishmen to whom it is a convenient month 

 for a holiday. 



How to deal with these poachers is some- 

 thing of a problem. A year or two ago, 

 being elsewhere in Norway at the time, I 

 received a list of the names of men who had 

 been observed fishing in my absence. I con- 

 sulted a lawyer in Bergen. He deprecated 

 prosecution as troublesome and expensive ; " I 

 will put up a notice," he said. I suggested 

 that it did not seem very useful to put up a 

 notice on ten miles of water. " Oh no," he 

 said, " I shall not put it up on the river ; I 

 shall fix it on the church-door." Whether 

 this brought the marauders under the ban 

 of mother church I cannot say, but there has 

 been less cause for complaint since. Perhaps 

 the improvement has been assisted by my 

 notifying to the priest that I should stop 

 subscribing to the local charities, unless his 

 people showed more respect for my rights. 



The names of these people are sometimes a 

 puzzle to strangers. The peasants as a rule 

 have no surnames proper. It is usual for 



