134 HAPPY HUNTING-GROUNDS 



The deep water just below the place where the 

 glacier stream ran in was the scene of more than one 

 curious adventure. Several times I hooked, and occa- 

 sionally secured, big cannibal brown trout which had 

 seized and attempted to swallow the silvery half-pound 

 sea-trout which had taken my fly. Once on the same 

 day I secured in this way two great ugly big-headed 

 fish weighing between three and four pounds each, and 

 only just failed to land a third, although he took the 

 small fish I had hooked three several times, each time 

 only relinquishing his hold with reluctance just as the 

 landing-net was pushed towards him. Instances of 

 such cannibal ferocity on the part of trout are not very 

 unusual, but I was astonished to find the same thing 

 happening so often, and always in the same place. A 

 little reflection told me the reason. The river was 

 wholly unsuited for brown trout of any size, as it ran 

 over a stony and rocky bed which furnished little food 

 for non-migratory fish. The big brown trout were no 

 doubt bred in some of the lakes or streams on the high 

 fjeld, and washed down by the glacier stream into an 

 environment unsuited for their ravenous appetites, 

 from which they had no means of escape. Half starved 

 and ferocious they clustered round the mouth of the 

 torrent which had wrought their downfall, waiting for 

 the food, worms, small fish, slugs and other delicacies, 

 which came down with the debris, preying upon parr 

 and undersized sea-trout when able to catch them, and 

 looking upon the hooked, and apparently wounded 

 and slow moving fish as a 



" Gift the gods provide you." 

 In order to test the accuracy of my theory I re- 



