SALMON-FISHING 237 



helped to drain the Norway fjelds into Throndhjem 

 fjord. 



4 Here,' said my companion, as we looked on the 

 river Orkla with all the pleasure of anticipation, 4 is 

 some water worth fishing.' And so we fished it for a 

 fortnight, and were quite content. 



We caught nothing very large, it is true. Mac- 

 Gregor hooked an eighteen-pound salmon fresh from 

 the sea the first evening we tried it. I gaffed the fish 

 for him, and we agreed that this was more exciting 

 than the trout-fishing we had just experienced in the 

 streams of the Hevne fjord. But the Quaale water 

 of the Orkla, to which our fate had directed us, was 

 then freely netted by the natives, and from a Scan- 

 dinavian standpoint was not first-class fishing for the 

 angler. 



Next morning my turn came. So far I had never 

 killed anything larger than a three-pound sea-trout. 

 But in a pool below the farmhouse where we lodged, 

 fishing out of a boat with a native, I felt for 

 the first time the drag of a fresh-run salmon ; then 

 came the bending rod, the tight line, and the scream- 

 ing reel ; and after ten minutes or so of breathless 

 excitement the gaff was safely tucked into the gleam- 

 ing side of a bright ten-pound fish. And so I became 

 a keen salmon-fisher for life. 



During the next fortnight we killed about twenty 

 salmon and grilse ; waded up to our necks in the 

 rushing waters of the Orkla ; fell even deeper in love 

 than before with the bracing northern air, the people, 

 and the sports of Throndhjem Amt ; and concluded 

 by taking a lease of the Quaale beat, including a 

 purchase of some of the nets that had formerly 

 played havoc with the salmon therein. 



