250 MY SPORTING HOLIDAYS 



two after I put a bullet through the head of one of 

 his relations in the fjord below. He sank in deep 

 water, and we never recovered him. 



It is now many years since I fished the Orkla 

 River. But it has been my later fortune to get out to 

 the Gula Valley, where we hunt the elk, occasionally 

 in time for some late salmon-fishing in the Gula 

 River, which is a parallel and sister river to the 

 Orkla, rising in the same great f jeld and flowing into 

 the same fjord. 



One day in 1902 my friend Alexander Henderson, 

 and co-lessee of our elk-forest, had gone up to our 

 Laerdal hut, as elsewhere related. That same day I 

 was journeying to Aasen farm to stalk the bead of 

 our elk-forest, which is above the Gula Foss, and 

 Ole Rennan, our chef de cuisine, who was with me, 

 called attention to the fact that fresh fish was 

 required for supper. It was about the middle of 

 September, and Gula River then contains many a 

 fine, fairly-fresh-run salmon in the streams below the 

 fall, where the river debouches from a narrow, pine- 

 clad mountain gorge into the wider valley below. 

 Our road took us along the river-side, and so, the 

 necessity for fresh salmon steaks for supper being 

 clearly present in my mind, I presently alighted from 

 the carriole, sent Ole, the chef, and Hans Aasen, my 

 hunter, on to the farm, and remained behind alone, 

 with a favourite nine-foot split cane trout-rod in my 

 hand, and an old salmon- cast and some Irish Erne 

 salmon-flies in my pocket. I did not know the water, 

 but 200 yards below the deep foss pool was an 

 ideal-looking stream for salmon, to all appearance in 

 excellent order. 



Here the river ran fairly deep and swirly but not 



