SALMON FLY, SPINNING LURE, ETC. 355 



wait on the river-side if I describe the good luck which 

 attended my enforced stay on the Namsen River at the end 

 of the 1897 season. The late Mr. Merthyr Guest had very 

 kindly placed his house at Gartland, and his stretch of the 

 Namsen River, at my disposal. I had been entertaining 

 a party of my friends, who, owing to previous English 

 engagements had one by one left me, and on the 23rd of 

 August I found myself alone, to settle with the servants, 

 and see that the house was properly closed for the winter. 

 I had arranged to follow two of the party further into 

 the interior and join them in elk shooting. 



On the very night, the 23rd, on which these two visitors 

 left Gartland, a heavy downpour of rain commenced, which 

 made their journey up-country extremely unpleasant, but 

 which brought down the Namsen River in spate. 



On the 26th of August the river was fishable, and I was 

 lucky enough to kill over 200 pounds weight of salmon; 

 on the first day, among a lot of other fine fish, I obtained 

 one which scaled just over 50 pounds. This was a fine old 

 cock fish, which, had he been fresh-run, would probably 

 have scaled 60 pounds. He was killed at 5 p.m. on August 

 26th. 



This splendid salmon measured exactly 4 feet in length, 

 27 inches in girth, and the span of his tail was 13 J 

 inches, and he had the biggest head I have ever seen on 

 a salmon. He was hooked shortly after four on a medium- 

 sized spoon with a 17-feet greenheart rod. He took the 

 lure with a tremendous dash, the reel screaming as the fish 

 went spinning down-stream ; but, luckily for my nerves, 

 he gave me a chance after taking out 100 yards of line, and I 

 was able to turn him towards the bank. After trying a 

 short run up-stream, he made another dash towards the 

 centre of the river, and then another down-stream rush, 

 until he sulked in about ten feet of running water. Pulling 



