236 MY SPORTING HOLIDAYS 



anticipation is always there. 4 Once a fisherman, 

 always a fisherman/ is doubtless a true saying, and 

 will always, I believe, remain good, though I ques- 

 tion if it can be so accurately applied to any other 

 sport. Hunting and shooting men may tire in time 

 of what once may have been their favourite relaxa- 

 tion, or perchance the day arrives when they get too 

 busy or too old for the game. But no true disciple 

 of Isaac Walton is ever too old or too busy, while 

 sufficient health remains, to go a-fishing if oppor- 

 tunity, ever so brief, shall serve. 



It is also certain that the fascination of fishing, 

 when once it has taken hold, grows upon one with 

 the lapse of time and the growth of years ; and I fancy 

 that this, again, is more than can be said for any other 

 form of sport. This apart from golf, which, after 

 all, is not a sport, but a game. 



In the heyday of youthful manhood one is naturally 

 inclined to pursuits more strenuous than fishing. 

 Also the fascination of the rod and line, already 

 mentioned, has, perchance, not then had time or 

 opportunity to be felt. But when once it has been 

 experienced, and has fairly taken root, then it is there 

 to stay. And if this be true of angling in general, it 

 is certainly true of salmon-fishing in particular. 



But a truce to these moralizings and generalities. 

 Let us come to some narrative and incident. 



In July of 1872 Alexander Mac Greg or and I, 

 having concluded the lease of our first Hitteren 

 deer-forest, so called, went across the fjord to the 

 mainland of the Throndhjem Amt, a-fishing for trout, 

 and even for salmon if we could haply catch them. 



One day we found ourselves, after divers wan- 

 derings, on the banks of a fine rushing river that 



