82 WATERSIDE MEMORIES 



fish. As I did not witness the performance, I can only 

 recount what followed in outline, though it is easy to 

 imagine that a new hand at the game soon lost control 

 over a heavy Norwegian salmon. Anyhow, the fish 

 took out as much line as it had a mind for, bolting 

 straight down the whole length of Aasen pool and out 

 into the fjord. There was nothing unusual in this, for- 

 asmuch as salmon hooked below the forss sometimes 

 make their way back into the sea, and are as readily 

 killed in salt water as in fresh. But this fish had 

 travelled rather faster than the boat could follow, and 



B 's line was nearly all run out. A little later, it 



was all out, and as unluckily it had not been knotted 



to the drum of the reel, B was left with a rod and 



a reel, minus 150 yards of line. His next adventure 

 in that pool began in the same way. He had fitted up 

 another line as long and strong as the lost one, and 

 hooked another heavy fish which took him out to sea 

 like the first. There it lay down, or appeared to do so, 



for the united efforts of B and the boatman failed 



to budge it. They spent, I daresay, half an hour trying 

 every conceivable device, but all in vain. It must 

 surely, they thought, be a resolute monster to resist the 



pressure which B , a powerful fellow, brought to 



bear ; and the thought made him very keen to bring 

 the fish to land, for forty-pounders were not uncommon 

 in Aasen. At last, determined either to move the fish 

 or break the tackle, he began to wind in the line with 

 a firm hand. Ha ! the salmon at last gave a kick ; 

 another, and another. The fjord was deep, but the line 

 was shortening steadily, and presently the fish must 



