NORWAY IN 1865 121 



might be induced to grant me permission for a short 

 time to wet my maiden line there. With trembling 

 hands I indited a humble petition which I despatched 

 by messenger, and feverishly awaited the reply. It 

 was favourable, and gave me the run of about a mile 

 of water for three days. 



The earliest dawn of the following morning of 

 course found me by the stream, accompanied by my 

 fisherman, a wiry old boy of about fifty. I walked by 

 faith and not by sight, put on the fly he selected, cast 

 where he told me, and let out the exact proportion of 

 line which he suggested. After about half an hour 

 of fruitless efforts, during which I only succeeded in 

 catching my fly pretty often in grass or bushes behind 

 me, and knocking off the barb of more than one hook 

 against rocks, fortune favoured my efforts. A sharp 

 stream was running just below me pretty deep near 

 the bank, and as the fly came round in the strong 

 water at the third or fourth cast, I felt the electric 

 shock of a rise and the line began to run merrily through 

 the rings. I was into my first salmon ! I cannot 

 recall the incidents of the fight, perhaps because my 

 longing for success was so great, and I was so intent 

 obeying the directions of my mentor, that everything 

 except the glorious consummation has faded from my 

 memory. In about a quarter of an hour I saw my gillie 

 plunge his gaff into the water, and withdraw it with 

 a beautiful silvery fish impaled upon its point. It 

 weighed only nine pounds, but it was a salmon my 

 first salmon ! and if my readers do not know what 

 those words mean to an enthusiastic angler no words 

 of mine can stimulate his torpid imagination. It is 

 always the first triumph that counts the first century 



