270 SPORT AND TRAVEL PAPERS 



We evidently had got hold of a salmon this time, for the fish 

 ran out a lot of line, then turned and came back towards the 

 boat, so suddenly, indeed, that when the line hung slack I 

 had a terrible misgiving that fish and fly had parted. What 

 a relief it was on reeling rapidly in to feel the weight once more ! 

 The fish now made straight for a huge boulder, and there he 

 apparently intended to remain. No tugging would move him, 

 and having already had a cast cut against a rock, I began to 

 get nervous as to the results. There was no movement what- 

 ever, the line seemed immovably fixed, and it seemed only too 

 probable that it was tightly wound round the rock, possibly 

 without a fish at the end. We put the canoe alongside the 

 boulder, a Lapp took hold of the line to free it, when all doubts 

 vanished, and to my great delight the fish, turned out of his 

 lair, made a splendid rush down-stream. After tiring him out 

 thoroughly he was at last landed on a rocky bank, scaling 20 Ibs. 

 exactly. There is nothing more glorious than the first whirr 

 of the reel, and nothing more heartbreaking than when after- 

 wards the hook comes away for no apparent reason or fault on 

 the part of the fisherman. We fished all the pools homewards, 

 but resultless, still the day, or rather night, had not been, as 

 now so very often happened, blank. 



In spite of our very poor success with the salmon, the place 

 decidedly came up to the Frenchman's idea of an Englishman's 

 paradise; when you were not busy killing salmon, trout, or 

 grayling, you were fully employed in despatching mosquitoes 

 to their last happy home. These tormentors, thanks to the 

 remarkably dry season, were not at their worst. 



The grayling fishing was really good, and afforded excellent 

 sport, especially near the mouth of and in a lonely pool a short 

 way up the mountain stream which entered the river a little 

 below our house. The pool, among huge rocks, was very deep 

 and as clear as crystal, but coloured by reflection by the green 

 birches, the greys, reds, and yellows of the rocks, and the blue 

 sky and brilliant sun above like the inside of a pearl mussel. 

 Here the grayling could be plainly seen ; they could as plainly 

 see the fisherman, and yet they took the fly greedily, and only 

 after a really good fight allowed themselves to be landed. 

 Grand fish they were, lovely in colouring, affording excellent 

 sport and eating. They were very numerous also at the mouth 



