272 A Sportsman at Large 



head is a fall of about forty feet, over which the waters 

 surge and boil into the depths below. 



The whole of it is rock-bound and rock-bottomed, and of 

 great depth. It emerges therefrom between two great walls of 

 stone, close set together, that are known as " Scylla " and 

 " Charybdis." 



Then there is a run of about fifty yards before the Aasen 

 Pool is reached ; therein there are certain casts where, when 

 the water is at the right height, a " pull " may be looked for. 



The spring had been a cold one ; consequently, our arrival 

 proved to be somewhat premature, for our first fish was not 

 registered until we had been in residence ten days. This 

 was about June 20th, when I was the lucky one to open the 

 score with a nineteen-pounder, which was a small fish as the 

 Sand salmon go at this time of the year. 



I must tell you that, as regards my first visit to the Sand, 

 the same party that had foregathered at Harang was again 

 assembled at Archer's Hiis : namely, my C.O., her brother 

 Marcus, my versatile valet Bedford, and his wife Flora, the 

 cook ; not forgetting the irresponsible fox-terrier Billy, who 

 again had been the cause of endless correspondence and 

 official documents ere we were permitted to lead him, by a 

 chain, on to the sacred shores of Norway. 



Two natives were told off as our boatmen ; both thor- 

 oughly efficient, reliable chaps of the best Norsk pattern. 

 Lars Petersen, heftier of the two, was a long, limber fellow, 

 with a deeply tanned skin and a black beard. Somewhat 

 gruff and abrupt, though obviously well-meaning and as keen 

 as mustard. The other, Tolle Svensen, was of a different 

 type, being very fair, with deep blue eyes and of much lesser 

 stature than his colleague. He also sported " face fungus " ; 

 which, according to the playfulness of 1922, would have 

 elicited the exclamation " Beaver ! " from any of the gallant 

 hunters devoted to the ridiculous but mildly exciting stunt. 



I was much struck by the quiet, unobtrusive manner of 

 the last-mentioned descendant of the Vikings. Therefore I 

 attached him to my person in preference to the rougher 

 Lars. I may say at once that Tolle proved to be a priceless 

 attendant a waterman of the first order and primed with 



