A BAD SEASON IN NORWAY 319 



the cold water brought on a very severe attack of sciatica, which 

 laid me up altogether for some time and put a stop to any 

 further wading, and therefore fishing, on this "wading" river. 

 This then was doubly annoying, for only the evening before I 

 was taken ill a report had come up from the house below that 

 five fish had been killed there that day, thus raising hopes that 

 the long-desired run had at last commenced. Again, however, 

 it proved a false alarm. The continued tropical weather was 

 succeeded by three weeks of steady rain, the river rose again, 

 and another small batch of fish, a second billeting party perhaps, 

 came up and three were taken by my partner on that record- 

 making afternoon. But this was the end ; the people below left 

 in disgust, and so did we after another blank fortnight, for it was 

 hopeless; the nets even on the fjords had been taken off and 

 stored, the absence of fish made these useless ; never was there 

 so bad or so disappointing a season. 



We packed up our traps and moved down to the lowest reach 

 of the river, which had been lent to us for ten days and was 

 supposed to be good for sea trout ; salmon rarely stopped there 

 but passed rapidly through to the upper waters. Here, where 

 there was no wading, a pleasant surprise awaited me, whether 

 thanks to one, or other, or all of the supposed but discredited 

 heralds of good luck I know not, in any case it made up in 

 a very great measure for all the disappointments which had up 

 to then been dealt out to me. 



On this water was a long, deep pool where on very rare 

 occasions a salmon had been known to halt on its way up, 

 but which my friend and I had always drawn blank on our 

 daily visits. When on this very great day my turn came 

 to fish the water, I, hoping to change the luck, put on a 

 minnow and harled about half of the upper part of the pool, 

 with the unsatisfactory result of adding one J Ib. sea-trout 

 to the bag. Disgusted, the minnow was changed for a small 

 Childer's sea-trout fly and the harling continued, when suddenly 

 the whole apparatus was nearly jerked out of my unsuspecting 

 hand by a big fish which, showing half its massive form, 

 had made a most determined attack on the fly. That it was 

 a heavy fish soon became very evident, and keenly I felt 

 the danger to my light tackle and small grilse rod. As soon 

 as it seemed safe, I left the boat for the shingle, and followed 



