24 ADVENTURES IN THE NORTHERN SEAS. 



to anglers as being the finest salmon stream in 

 Norway, or perhaps in the world. In by-gone days 

 I had myself passed two summers (one of them in 

 company with a dear friend now gathered to his 

 fathers) in salmon fishing in that splendid river, 

 and recollections came thick upon me now of the 

 pleasant hours passed in his society, and of the 

 thirty and forty pounders which we hooked and 

 captured in the gigantic pools and magnificent 

 rushing streams of the Namsen.* The good fish- 

 ing water is a considerable way up, and only ex- 

 tends for about twelve miles of the river, when the 

 salmon are stopped by one of the finest waterfalls 

 in the world, called by the natives "Fiskum Foss" 

 (Anglice, "the Salmon's Fair'). This twelve miles 

 of water belongs to many small proprietors, and is 

 divided into six fishing-stations, which for several 

 years back have been regularly let on lease to Brit- 

 ish sportsmen. 



While the crew were engaged in wooding and 

 watering, we employed ourselves in trying some 

 breech-loading rifles, known as "Terry's patent;" 

 but, although I shot a "loom" (a large species of 

 diver) at 100 yards 1 distance with one of these, we 



* To show the wonderful sport to be met with on this 

 river, I may state, that in the summer of 1854 I killed to my 

 own rod, in thirty days' fishing, 83 salmon, weighing in all 

 1350 lbs. ; and the best sixty averaging 20 lbs. each. And even 

 this has been far exceeded by others, and particxilarly by the 

 late Sir Charles Blois, who fished this river for many yt 



