SALMON-FISHING. 9 



on each side of the entrance to this fiord, but 

 the passage is wide and clear, and being 

 plainly laid down in the excellent Norwegian 

 Government chart, we had no difficulty about 

 finding our way in. I set the crew to gather 

 firewood and fill the water tanks, while we 

 took a walk to the top of a neighbouring pine- 

 clad mountain. The Norwegian summer was 

 just commencing, and everything looked ex- 

 tremely fresh and beautiful. 



The celebrated Namsen Biver runs into the 

 head of this fiord. This queen of rivers is well 

 known to anglers as being the finest salmon 

 stream in Norway, or perhaps in the world. 

 In bygone days I had myself passed two 

 summers (one of them in company with a dear 

 friend now gathered to his fathers) in salmon 

 fishing in that splendid river, and recollections 

 came thick upon me now of the pleasant hours 

 passed in his society, and of the thirty and 

 forty pounders which we hooked and cap- 

 tured in the gigantic pools and the magni- 

 ' ficent rushing streams of the Namsen.* The 



* To show tlie wonderful sport to be met with on this 

 river, I may state, that in the summer of 1854 I killed to 

 my own rod, in thirty days' fishing, 83 salmon, weighing in 

 all 1350 lbs.; and the best sixty averaging 20 lbs. each. 



