CHAPTER XII 



NORWEGIAN FISHING, OLD AND NEW 



tc We were the first that ever burst 

 Into that silent sea." 



COLERIDGE, The Ancient Mariner. 



THE fisherman who is also bookish (and since 

 the time of Izaak Walton your angler has ever 

 been held to have at least a nodding acquaint- 

 ance with Literature), will turn with interest 

 to those books which give any account of the 

 adventures of the early pioneers of salmon 

 fishing in Norway. The printed records of 

 their sport are few ; and it would interest many 

 of the present generation if the owners of any 

 old fishing diaries would publish the pith of 

 them in the Field or elsewhere. 



The first English anglers of whom there is 

 any record visited Norway seventy or eighty 

 years ago. These early adventurers must have 

 had something of the Elizabethan heroes in 

 their blood. An expedition nowadays to fish 

 the great African lakes would be a less arduous 



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