318 SPORT AND TRAVEL PAPERS 



barley, potatoes, and grass ; there, with a southerly aspect, the 

 sun can thoroughly exert its beneficent influence. Here, on 

 the clearings also, hanging on the steep slopes apparently, are 

 the saeters, built of logs, some coloured dark brown by age and 

 weather, others painted in staring ochre or scarlet, the local 

 favourite colours ; near the living-houses are the store buildings, 

 raised high off the ground on pillars of stone or wood. 



The ground towards the south rises more slowly, with birch, 

 winter cherry, and pine on grass land, and the mountains 

 overlooking all are thickly covered with forest, the northerly 

 aspect not favouring so many farmyard clearings. When we 

 came, snow still lay on many of the lower hills, but the con- 

 tinuous almost tropical weather caused it rapidly to find its way 

 into our river, swelling it greatly ; still we hoped that a reserve 

 would be left on the higher ranges. The spate cleared the river 

 of logs, which now with but little assistance could be got down, 

 and we thought that it would further be useful to us in helping 

 many a good fish to reach our pools. Possibly, however, the 

 large mass of snow-water for so long a time in the river put 

 off the fish from ascending; at all events, salmon were " met " 

 but rarely, the usual excuses on such occasions : cold water, 

 " dusty" water, as the old ghillie called it (dirty), too high a 

 river, too much rain-water in it, thunder in the air, mist on the 

 hills, too bright a sun, the constant rise in the afternoon, the 

 sun's effect on snow all these reasons and several more were 

 given, yet possibly the first was the real one. Last year, also a 

 bad season, there was no water, now everything was right but 

 there were no fish. A few, very few indeed, did reach our 

 section during June, probably belonging to the Salmon Quarter- 

 master-General's department, sent to arrange quarters for the 

 main body, and five, apparently all, were promptly captured by 

 the skilful rod of my companion, who was well acquainted with 

 all that was worth knowing about the river. Was it because 

 no report could reach the fjords, the intended messengers 

 being dead, that the " run" told off for the river never came? 

 During the first fortnight, fishing regularly, I, a stranger on this 

 beat, had only one interview, and that of the shortest, with a 

 fish who would have nothing further to do with me. Bad luck 

 certainly was mine, and wretched frauds all those vaunted 

 harbingers of good fortune proved, for the constant wading in 



