TODAL AND LILLEDAL 175 



killing them and salting the carcases for winter use. 

 A single labourer sufficed to guard the entrance, and 

 feed and look after the herd. 



The drive up the valley was very beautiful, but 

 not one to be undertaken with a shying horse. Where 

 it skirted the first foss it was merely a narrow 

 track through the soft sandy surface of a steep slope, 

 and then after a short interval of comparatively flat 

 and easy gradient, where it ran through cultivated 

 land, it once more turned into a wood of pine and 

 birch, where it climbed over rock and boulder above 

 a steep incline, below which the river dashed over 

 great rocks in a succession of rapids and cascades. 

 A false step or a shy would have precipitated the 

 little cart and its occupants into this rocky gorge ; but 

 familiarity breeds contempt, and I never found any of 

 my family or guests too nervous to enjoy the lovely 

 drive, where the ferns, mosses, berries, and flowers 

 carpeted the moist slopes in the richest luxuriance. 

 There were many pools among the rapids which must 

 have held big trout, and looked ideal places for the 

 angler to explore with the fly or minnow ; but there 

 was so much good trout -water quite easy of access 

 that I seldom troubled to scramble down the brae to 

 stumble over the big boulders at the bottom. The 

 overhanging trees and rocks which hemmed in the 

 stream on both sides would have made it almost im- 

 possible to cast a fly properly. 



The mile or two above and below Kaarvand farm 

 furnished the most productive water, and if only the fish 

 had been a little larger I could not imagine a more ideal 

 trout river. Clear as crystal, it meandered through 

 fields and woods, presenting an endless succession of 



