156 A RIVER OF NORWAY 



these new-comers ; and being foreigners, and 

 sportsmen rather than men of business, they 

 were quite unable to meet effectively the 

 methods of their rivals. The result was that 

 many lost their water; others had to choose 

 between losing it, or accepting the restricted 

 terms which were offered to them, and a 

 great deal of ill-feeling was engendered. And 

 so the modern system of dividing rivers into 

 beats, and letting those beats by the season, 

 or the month, came into being. 



These speculators in rivers were much 

 assisted by the Norwegian law which pro- 

 vides that an alien may not acquire land 

 without the consent of the Crown, and may 

 not lease property for a longer period than 

 ten years. The Norwegians have a perfect 

 right to make such a law, but its effect has 

 been bad for the landowners, acting as a re- 

 striction on their market, and in practice 

 throwing them into the arms of these middle- 

 men not always to their advantage, as many 

 now realise. 



In the early days of this business there was 

 doubtless much chicanery, and even downright 

 fraud. I once rented a small river from a person 



