178 HAPPY HUNTING-GROUNDS 



art, and is certainly in my view the most successful 

 and attractive of all the fishing quarters belonging 

 to Lort Phillips. The absence of salmon lengthens 

 the fishing season by ten days, and is therefore 

 to some extent an advantage. In most rivers 

 in August and September, when sea-trout fishing 

 is at its best, the salmon left in the pools are 

 out of condition, and scarcely look at a fly ; 

 but the lower reaches of the Sundal are quite 

 close to the house at Lilledal, and a tenant who 

 required salmon fishing might, if he desired it, rent 

 a beat and work it from the house. But the fisher- 

 man who could not be satisfied with the splendid 

 sea-trout fishing in the little river would be hard 

 to please. 



At the head of the valley, some five miles distant, 

 lies a chain of lakes four in number, full of excellent 

 brown trout. Two great waterfalls dash down into 

 the third lake from the watershed above. On these, 

 alas ! industrialism has laid its profane hand, as a 

 scheme has now been authorised by the Storthing for 

 constructing a huge reservoir above, and bringing 

 the water by a tube to the bottom near the fjord, 

 where an immense power-station is to be constructed, 

 with large works for smelting ore, on or near the 

 flat at the bottom by the mouth of the Sundal River. 

 When I last left the valley (29th August 1913) the 

 engineer's red and white flags, planted everywhere, 

 reminded one of a suburban golf course ; much of the 

 necessary land had been bought, and it was rumoured 

 that an army of 20,000 workmen would shortly 

 descend upon the spot. Norway is a poor country, 

 and one must not, I suppose, look upon such questions 



