TOO LATE LAPPLAND 269 



morn till late at night, stopping only now and then to cook their 

 coffee. 



But it is time to make a start, for we are going to fish the 

 pools over again on the way back to the hut, first trying the 

 adjoining one, into which the mountain stream, now but a 

 brook, empties itself close to our resting-place. The method of 

 fishing here for salmon is " harling " from a canoe; these are 

 all alike on this river, about 25 feet long by 3 feet wide, made 

 of pine planks, and excellently well adapted to the work 

 required of them, especially in the rapids. The canoe is poled 

 up-stream by a man at each end, and rowed down by means 

 of short paddles from the bow, being steered by a very broad 

 one in the stern. When fishing a pool, the canoe is rowed 

 from one side of the river to the other in zigzag fashion and 

 very narrow beats, more or less against the current always, so 

 as to make the flies try every part of the water. The fisherman 

 sits on the floor of the canoe, near the middle ; a rod lying in 

 a forked stick fixed to the boat projects outward on each side, 

 while the butts rest on the floor between the angler's legs. 

 About 40 feet of line is out, and the skilful working of the 

 boat never allows it to be slack. A little line drawn from the 

 reel is coiled up and placed under a flat stone close to the butt, 

 to be jerked out should happily a fish take the fly ; the noise 

 wakes up the patient fisherman, and the jerk more firmly fixes 

 the hook in the salmon's mouth. Just where the bubbling 

 stream ran wedgelike into the river, one of the flies were taken 

 and the reel went merrily round. The Lapp in the bows 

 quickly took up the other rod, reeling in the line as fast as 

 possible so as to get it out of the way. But, alas ! it was only 

 a trout when salmon were scarce a great disappointment; a 

 very dark fish with big red spots, in bad condition, but weighing 

 about 2J Ibs. Well, we tried that pool from top to bottom 

 without another rise, and then a second and a third with the 

 same results, poling up afterwards through some rapids to a 

 fourth. The river being very low allowed the larger rocks to 

 stand out clear, and the water rushed and swirled among them 

 as if angry at the many obstacles put in the way of its peaceful 

 flow. When near the upper part of the pool the coil of one 

 of the lines was suddenly jerked out from below the stone, and 

 away the line went to the glorious music of the whirring wheel. 



