HVILESTED, 1901 133 



opposite shore the water runs more swiftly, and there 

 are more pebbles and fewer rocks, so one can wade in 

 further with safety. When I first knew this place it 

 used to be an almost certain cast both for grilse and 

 sea-trout, and I remember one occasion when I landed 

 four silvery fellows of between five and eight pounds 

 in about forty minutes. A native shepherd sat dang- 

 ling his legs over the edge of the high moraine from 

 which the pool takes its name, watching the sport with 

 interest. In later years the fish for some reason, prob- 

 ably a change in the bed of the river, quite deserted 

 that side and it became not worth fishing. 



The next rapid took the boat down to Leding, 

 where the river swept round in a great horse-shoe, 

 under a wooded bank through which a glacier stream 

 discharged its turbid waters into the lower part of a 

 deep pool. It was not possible to do much here, either 

 wading or from the bank, but the water required and 

 rewarded careful fishing, for it always held big fish. 

 Here it was that I found myself one day with a twenty- 

 pounder running down stream at the end of a hundred 

 yards of line, and the handle of my reel dropped off, 

 rendering it impossible to wind up. For nearly half 

 an hour I played the fish, drawing the slack through 

 the rings as I brought him nearer, and so always 

 keeping the line taut, but expecting at every rush 

 that the line lying in coils at the bottom of the boat 

 would kink and refuse to run through the rings, with 

 the certain result of a break. Fortune favoured me 

 in the end, and I got him, although I would not have 

 given a penny piece for my chance when the accident 

 happened. The days on which such difficulties and 

 dangers are overcome are the red-letter days of sport. 



