132 HAPPY HUNTING-GROUNDS 



danced through the white water guided by the strong 

 and well-timed strokes of Ole's practised arms. The 

 first rapids were just below the iron bridge ; then 

 after the lower bridge pool had been fished from the 

 shore came a stretch of broken water, not very deep, 

 down which we floated, Ole holding the boat now and 

 then where it was worth while to make a cast on the 

 chance of a sea-trout, till the next rapid carried us 

 into Loken, a pool over a quarter of a mile in length, 

 fringed on the right side going down stream by a fir 

 wood above a long shelving bank of loose rounded 

 pebbles with deep water running close to the shore. It 

 was not difficult to fish somehow from the bank, but 

 when making long casts it was advisable to look pretty 

 often at the fly, as it was not an uncommon experience 

 to break the barb off against a stone ; and I know few 

 things more provoking, when fish are scarce and rises 

 few, than to see or feel a good one for just a second 

 or two, and when the line loosens to discover that 

 your Jock Scott or Silver Doctor was pointless and 

 innocuous through your own fault. 



On the opposite side of Loken the stream is shallow 

 and the bottom shelves very gradually, so that one 

 can wade far out and fish without risk of hitting any- 

 thing harder than water behind ; but only sea-trout 

 lie there, and these, though plentiful, are not large. 

 Next the boat shoots down round a bend and over 

 another rapid, and stops at Leding high bank. Here 

 the stream is not nearly so wide, and the deep water is 

 on the left. Fish here carefully, wading cautiously over 

 or between the great boulders, for the green depths 

 are a favourite haunt of great fish, and it will be well 

 to try a large fly to attract their attention. On the 



