SALMON FLIES 



be sure to kill. The artist undertook to do so, and next morning handed 

 him a brand-new pattern, which proved so successful in the hands of 

 these fishers that it was dubbed the "Durham Ranger," and has long held 

 a place in the standard list. I cannot say that it is a favourite with me, 

 though I have killed several fish with it in spring, especially with the 

 variety " Black Ranger," which has a jet black body. The characteristic 

 Ranger wing sits too stiffly to please my fancy; but I have honoured the 

 *• Red Ranger " with a portrait, because it is reputed to be the surest 

 killer on the Sundal £lv, a fine river that flows into the fjord upon which 

 Ghristiansund is situated. The late Lord Leicester used to fish the Sundal 

 many years ago, and is commemorated in the name given to a certain 

 cast thereon. He lost his pipe there one day: nothing strange in that, 

 for the whole pass is filled at that place with a wild jumble of enormous 

 boulders fallen from the mountain above. What was remarkable was 

 that he found the said pipe some days later, whence the cast has been 

 called Piba Pool ever since. 



Something similar that happened to myself on this river seems to show 

 that the nymph of Sundal is indulgent to careless folk. One evening about 

 10 o'clock I hooked a fish (on a '* Red Ranger," of course) in Lethen. It 

 set off down stream at a great pace, clean out of the pool, so that I had 

 to leave the boat and race after it. It so happened that I had landed on an 

 island, where I managed to kill my fish, 25| lb. It was now getting as 

 near dark as it can get in a Norwegian June, so I made tracks for home, 

 carelessly leaving a favourite knife on the shingle. During the night, 

 the river rose considerably, so that when I returned to look for my pro- 

 perty next day, the island was nearly all under water. Two or three days 

 later, the river having subsided, I recovered the knife, none the worse 

 for its immersion. 



Fishing the Sundal Elv has impressed itself on my memory owing to the 

 daring of its boatmen. Every river in Norway, at least every one that I 

 have fished, has its peculiar build of boat. I came to Sundal straight from 

 fishing the Rauma. Now in Romsdal the boats are built on very pretty 

 lines, the prow saucily cocked and the sides gracefully moulded. The 

 boatmen are very careful, taking no risks in rapids, nor hanging in peril- 

 ous proximity over a roaring foss. One may fish a whole season in the 

 Rauma and never once have his heart in his mouth or ship a pint of water. 

 Very different are both boats and boatmen on the Sundal. The boats are 

 like crazy packing cases with the lid gone; any lines they possess suggest 

 H 49 



