$2 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
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[Aue 98, 1884. 
Che Sportsman Courist. 
SALMON FISHING 
HE king of fish is the salmon. The most royal of sport 
is his pursuit. That is when you pursue him as a frue 
sportsman—with rod like steel spring, with taper line, leader 
of single gut and feathered hook that darts like an arrow 
through the summer air and drops as a snow flake on the 
swirling pool beneath the rapids. 
So being in Sweden I was bound to -have some salmon 
fishing. I made a study of it all through the winter, and 
big isthe package of letters Ihave on file answering my 
questions on the taking of this silvery fish. 
I found that although the salmon are fairly plenty in 
nearly all the rivers of Sweden, yei no salmon will take the 
fly in any river flowing into the Baltic Sea or the Gulf of 
Bothnia. That is the whole cast coast of Sweden. On the 
west coast of Sweden and on the whole west coast of Nor- 
way the salmon have a much keener appreciation of the de- 
Sires of the sportsman and rise freely to the fly in every suit- 
able stream, 
River after river 1 wrote about, only to get the unvarying 
reply: ‘“The fishing in this river ts let for a term of years to 
some English gentleman,” etc. At last a ray of light 
broke in, and fishing could be had on the Laga River in 
Sweden. It was described to me in a letter as “the right to 
fish with rod, line and hook from Kasafors to Hofmiille, as 
far as the Uddekulla estate extended,” and was represented 
as abounding with salmon. The bait took. I immediately 
secured the lease of the riyer, and one fine summer's day 
found me on its banks. 
Ti was a river of fair size, with plenty of rapids and some 
good pools. It looked well. I put together my split bamboo 
rod, placed a tempting “Jack Scott” on the leader, and cast 
faithfully over the first pool. Norise. On approaching the 
next pool, what should I see but a stalwart Viking, with 
rolled-up breeches, standing knee-deep in the stream, fishing 
with a mighty pine of the forest and a red fly the size of a 
partridge. hese, 
“What does this mean?” said L. 
the waters I have leased,” 
“Oh,” said my lessor, ‘itis all correct. This man has also 
the right to fish here. If you will read your lease carefully 
you will see that it gives you the right to fish, but not the 
exclusive right. 
“Ah! Isee. And.are there any more?” 
“Only one moré, and I hope you three will get along nicely 
together.” ; 
About this time there appeaied on the top of the hillside 
IN SWEDEN. 
“This man is fishing in 
opposite a band of men, each armed with a pole that seemed - 
to reach the heavens. I counted them—the men, not the 
heavens—they numbered seventeen, and made a most im- 
posing appearance as, with their mighty poles on high, they 
began to execnte 4 movement, single file, down the hillside 
toward the river. , 
“What army is this?” quoth I. 
“Oh, these are only the farmers that have the right of fish- 
ing on the opposite bank of the river. If you will read your 
lease carefully you will see that your right goes only as far as 
the Uddekulla estate ¢xtends, and the Uddekulla estate does 
not extend across stream. You see?” 
“Ves I see too late.” And I reeled in my line, wiped my 
brow, sat me down on a stone and meditated upon the power 
of language if adroitly used in a lease. m 
Well, I was in forit. There were salmon in the river, 
and although I had only one-twentieth of the fishing, I still 
had aright to cast afiy, and cast it 1 would, and cast it I 
did. For ten days I swung my rod oyer the stream, with 
one joint proprietor above and another below me, while sey- 
enteen mighty rods brushed the air opposite. What made 
it allthe worse was that these Swedish peasants, with their 
unwieldy twenty-foot rods and home-made tackle, threw an 
excellent fly, and every now and again landed a fish. 
On my fifth day 1 hooked asalmon that flashed down 
stream like an arrow, cut around a jagged rock in the shoal 
rapids, and broke my leader like tow. On the seventh day 
IT hooked another, or perhaps the same fish over again, for 
he went through the same evolution with the same result. 
This sort of salmon fishing began to get monotonous. 
Last summer Dr. Oscar Dickson, of Gothenburg, had cas- 
nally remarked that he should invite me to fish in the Atran. 
What if he were to invite me now! Would not that be 
slorious! I eagerly watched the maiis, but no Jetter of mvi- 
tation came. Ido believe, reasoned I, that if Dr. Dickson 
knew what a fearfully stupid time I am having on this river 
he would invite me now. Why not write and tell him? 
Oh, no, that would be very bad form—begging an invitation. 
And so I fished on, surrounded by my noble army of fisher- 
men, with never arise. On the tenth day I could stand it 
no longer. To the telegraph office, not to the river, I went, 
and dispatched this message: 
“Dr. Oscar Dickson, Gothenburg: Could you kindly telegraph me 
about when I may fish the Atran?” 
And I went back to the villaze hotel, settled myself in a 
chair, cocked up my legs and read a newspaper with great 
determination. In about two hours there was arap at the 
door, the little girl from the telegraph office came in, dropped 
a courtesy, and gave me this message: 
“The Atran is placed at your disposition for a week.—Oscar Dicr- 
gon,” 
I gave a ‘‘whoop,” jumped out of the chair, ordered 
horses and at noon was rattling along the dusty road to the 
north. Fresh horses were harnessed in at Halmstad, and at 
8 o'clock of » bright northern evening we drove over the 
stone bridge across the Atran, and drew up at the door of 
the hotel in the little town of Falkenberg. 
Next morning I was early at the river bank with Nilsson, 
the gaffer. In the second pool I hooked and landed my first 
Swedish salmon, A little further down I landed a second. 
fish. From a boat in the center of the lower rapid I took a 
yery bright salmon, fresh run from the sea, and weighing 13 
ounds, and crossing to the opposite shore landed two more, 
the largest 12 pounds. At o'clock I reeled up and went 
home to breakfast with five salmon. I began to think I 
would sell out my lease on the Laga at a very considerable 
reduction on the original cost, , fA , 
In the evening I whipped the right bank without a rise. 
Grossing the river, I soon landed a twelve-pounder, and then 
hooked the heaviest fish of the day, that shot down stream 
like a rocket, and ended his grand first rush with a leap four 
feet in air. But the hook held fast. I played him gingerly, 
and in a quarter of an hour towed him alongside the rock 
whereou stood Nilsson with his mighty landing net. The 
ola man slid the net under, scooped up the salmon, and held 
‘a merchant prince, 
him some three feet in air, when with one big flop the sal- 
mon broke through the meshes of the rotten net, and tum- 
bled back into the river, The fright gave the fish new life. 
He shof across’ stream like a flash; 1 yelled to Nilsson, he 
held up the landing net as the clown at a circus holds up the 
paper balloon for M’lle Victoria, ‘“‘the champion bareback 
rider of the world,” to jump through, and with line running 
through the torn meshes of this wretched net, I played the 
salmon till he was perfectly quiet and had gone to bottom in 
mid stream. Then slowly reeling in as I advanced the rod, 
T thrust the tip into the rent in the net, passed the whole rod 
quietly through, and breathed easy again. When Nilsson 
had mended the net, I towed in the salmon, now entirely 
spent and lying on his side, Again Nilsson scooped him up. 
Again he flopped, and horrors! again he broke through that 
infamous net and tumbled into the river, Immediately the 
air grew hot and heayy with the admonitions I could not re- 
frain from administering to the old mau upon the enormity 
of his using a net of such an exasperating degree of rotten- 
ness. Wonderful to relate, the hook still held—I shall al- 
ways swear by double hooks, hereafter, if not at rotten nets. 
Again old Nilsson assumed the role of -the circus clown. 
Again I played the salmon through the upheld balloon, and 
again I passed the rod clean through the rotten meshes. 
Now I dragged the salmon through the rapids till the life 
seemed drowned out of him. Not till he turned up his 
pearly breast did I bring him into the rocks, when old Nils- 
sou, having thrown away his worthless net, grabbed master 
salmon by the gills with his sure talons, and lugged him 
flopping ashore—a sixteen-pounder, 
IT immediately sent Nilsson to the hotel for my gaff. Re- 
clining on the grassy bank J watched the fast flowing river, 
Between tree-embowered banks the Atran ripples and rushes, 
surges and swirls in its rocky bed. These rapids are about a 
quarter of a mile in extent and furnish six or eight good 
pools on either side the river. Five minutes’ walk down 
stream brings you to the stone bridge; five minutes further 
is the salt water of the open Kattegat. In these rapids you 
greet the silver-sided, pearly-throated salmon, fresh from 
the sea. The world may furnish a better salmon river, I de 
nof know of one. 
On the left bank of the river a tree-shaded way follows 
the meanderings of the stream—the Doctor’s Walk, Twenty- 
one years ago this very summer—a light-hearted boy—I had 
lounged along this Doctor’s Walk and gazed upon the self- 
same river, and now came running through my mind: 
‘*'The husbandman sits on the banks of the river, 
And waits for the stream to flow by, 
But the swift-flowing river flows onward forever, 
And will flow eternally.” 
A light langh behind me wakes me from my reverie. 
Turning my head, I see three pretty Swedish maidens saun- 
tering along the Doctor's Way. Each has a flower in her 
hand; but the flowers were not sunflowers nor lilies, and 
the maids were not esthetic, only three blue-eyed, golden- 
haired, pretty girls of the South of Sweden. 
Smiling, twirling their flowers, they seat themselves on a 
bench close to me and wait to see me fish. It was 9 o'clock 
and the shades of evening were slowly falling, eyen in this 
sunny north, but I felt the honor of America was at stake. 
Slipping on a silver doctor 1 commenced casting over the 
stream. Gradually lengthening my casts, 1 at last, under 
the inspiration of my pleasant company, threw my fly toa 
spot I had made at least a half a dozen failures to reach dur- 
ing the day. Swift and true asa lance, the feathered, glitter-' 
ing hook flew to the swirling edge of that far sunken rock. 
A silver flash, and a leaping salmon catches the hook in air 
and dives into the fiord. The maidens clap their hands. 
Now he darts across stream. Again he leaps, now here, 
now there, and almost at the same instant, way yonder, 
so quickly the leaps flash one upon the other, you can 
scarcely believe it is the same fish, Slowly his strength is 
spent, and as I draw him near the strand, a young man with 
a quick jerk of the gaif fings the salmon quivering upon the 
green sward, 
I turn and take off my hat to the maidens three. They 
rise and all drop a courtesy. Then waving their flowers 
they slowly pass down the Doctor’s Way toward the town. 
The young man that so opportunely appeared with my 
gait was Nilsson’s son. He remained with me as guide and 
gaffer during the rest of my stay. The old man never reap- 
peared. Can it be that he was a strict constructionist, and 
took exception to certain language addressed to him, as our 
statesmen say, “in the heat of debate?” 
Casting out again I landed another salmon, and reeled up 
at 10 o’clock with nine as my score for the first day. But 
my host, though leasing the fishing, does not own the salmon 
caught, These are all sold according to ancient custom, and 
the proceeds go one-half to the town of Falkenberg, one- 
fourth to the mayor and one-fourth to the aldermen. 
L attended the sale next morning at 9 o’clock, My catch 
was laid in a row on the floor. The fish were first weighed 
and the weight of each carefully written in a book by the 
chairman of the board of aldermen. Then each fish was put 
up separately and sold at auction. There were some twenty 
persons present, and the bidding was lively. Theauctioneer 
was the chairman of the board, and he knocked down each 
fish with a blow of his ivory mallet on the table. Prices 
took a largerange. I bid off the first fish I landed at 75 Gre a 
pound, while one lean racer that must have been in the river 
a month and had got reduced to six pounds was knocked off 
to a buxom woman from the country, with a big basket, for 
30 OFe, 
The second day I caught six salmon. The third, fourth 
and fifth days I took it very Icisurely and landed four fish 
each day. 
The sixth day I arose at 3 o’clock and landed four salmon 
before breakfast. In the forenoon I caught seven fine fish, 
one of them weighing 16 pounds, and wound up in the even- 
ing with three more, making fourteen salmon for the day, 
and forty-one for my six consecutive days’ fishing, 
As bounteous as the river is its honored proprietor, Oscar 
Dickson, He is the Vanderbilt of Sweden, but he is not only 
He is the benefactor of every good and 
ereat work that commends itself to his judgment, or enlists 
his sympathies, Whenever his heart goes out toward an 
object, be it in the interest of science or humanity, his great 
eae flows forth as freely as the rushing waters of the 
ian. ; 
Jt was the princely generosity and signal executive ability 
of Oscar Dickson that enabled the great Arctic explorer WNor- 
denskjéld to circumnavigate, for the first time in history, 
ihe continent of Asia. The merchant philanthropist of the 
Northland! Jong may he live to swing the salmon rod or | 
fit out expeditions to the North Pole! MARSTRAND, 
SrockHoim, Sweden, August, 1834. 
“PODGERS” CRUISES BACK AGAIN. 
E THERE is any hole or corner of the earth where a tele- 
gram can’t reach a man out on a pleasure trip, I want to 
go there. Telegraphs may be useful things to the community 
at large, but they are the bane of the man who seeks a little 
rest. To attempt to evade them is useless; they will follow 
a fellow if he should climb the north pole. They are worse 
than a draft at sight, and who ever heard of one of those things 
miscarrying,; they come straight as an arrow. If a remittance 
is made to meet them the money will linger and lag behind 
for days. There is not much to choose between drafts and 
telegrams, both equally disagreeable. It’s no use to attempt 
to dodge them, and here comes a Western Union nuisance 
saying, ““You must be in the city to-morrow to meet Smith,” 
The impulse to say cuss words is uncontrollable, and you ejac- 
ulate an objurgation upon Smith; youcan’t help it, it’s human 
natur’. Thus was I cut short of my promised holiday. Gloom- 
ily I packed my valise, and saw no escape; and just to azgra- 
vate me here came a beautiful morning and a splendid breeze 
for the yacht race to Oak Bluffs. One by one I saw the 
yachts fill away and run out of the harbor preparatory to a 
start, and I could not go. There are circumstances under 
which a man is justifiable in swearing, When he just 
misses the train or boat, when the third and last match fails, 
and lastly and worse than all, when he is about to partici- 
pate in a regatta and is ‘‘called back” by a telegram. He 
don’t feel friendly to the man that invented them. He wants 
to hit the boy that brings it, or anybody else, even his 
respected grandfather. 
1 can’t tell you all about that race to the Vineyard for the 
reasons aforesaid. They say it was a “Lully” race and that the 
cutters did wonders. That’s what they are always doing 
when lam not there. They neyer do when I am—but are 
always out of luck. Something happens to them, generally 
happens that they get beaten. I don’t call the race the day 
before anything because there was not enough wind to blow 
a candle ont. I hope I may live long enough to see the 
cutter have her play, which they claim isa heavy breeze, and 
that is the day they always get their sugar weighed by the 
“skimming dishes.” Very good boats are such skimming 
dishes as the Gracie, Fanny, Mischief, etc., they generally 
warm the ‘‘lead mines” and *‘pig troughs,”’ 
When all the yachts had left the harbor I shouldered my 
fishing rods, and valise in hand slowly sauntered down to the 
Eolus to depart. A young gamin followed me two blocks 
singing out ‘‘Shine, sir? shine boss?” J hit him over the 
head-with my fishing rods. I was ready to hit anything I 
saw. Anythingin reach. A friend stopped me and pro- 
posed a parting “‘smile.” Irefused even that. Evidence 
positive of my condition of mind. Getting on board a 
darky wanted to seize my yalise. He dodged the pass I made 
at him. The next trouble was with “the gentlemanly 
purser;” he tried to pass a quarter on me with a hole in it. 
I could not reach him, but I kicked a dog that ran between 
my legs. Iwasin lovely humor. <A pretty girl silting near 
laughed, and I felt a little ashamed as she gathered in her 
pug. Now I like dogs, and a feeling of remorse came over 
me. I madeit up with the purp, and gaye him a cracker 
I had in my pocket. He accepted the apology and the 
cracker, The young lady looked approvingly, and my 
stock evidently went up a little with her; but she kept a 
close hold on her pug. I went on deck; splendid breeze, 
and in my mind’s eye I saw those yachts laying down to it, — 
and going like mad. Life seemed a failure and the world a 
hollow mockery stuffed with sawdust. Got to thinking 
about a model Thad in my mind that would beat every- 
thing. Sat down on a stool and began an outline of her on 
the leaf of amemorandum book. <A person near me watched 
me, and finally said, ‘‘An artist, 1 presume; sketching the 
shore, eh?” I put up my book. What a compliment to my 
skill with the pencil. 
In due time we arrived at Wickford, celebrated for its 
clams. The people there all live on clams. I knew a 
preacher once that lived there who dug clams all the week 
and preached on the Sabbath; he waded in the water week 
days and waded into theology on Sunday. When I left the 
boat the CBee Poy and ‘‘sentlemanly purser” gave mé a 
wide berth. ade the junction all right and procured a seat 
all to myself and settled down to read. Ata way station a 
fat woman came in and took the seat opposite, which was 
turned down facing. She had numerous bundles and pack- 
ages, She set a basket down on my toes and laid a heavy 
package on the seat by her side. Presently it jarred off and 
came down on the floor with a crash. Immediately a liquid 
stream meandered across the floor of the car, and a suffo- 
cating odor of gin was wafted through the car. People 
looked at me. Itried to look innocent. It was no use; my 
face got ved, The woman looked out of the window. The 
young woman with the pug laughed again; but the pug, 
without her noticing it, jumped down and began lapping 
the gin bitters. He got a good dose before she saw what he 
was about, and then she grabbed him, but too late; that dog 
had got a dose, and when she took him up he smelled hor- 
ribly of gin. Meantime the liquid had run all over the car, 
and the ladies gathered up their skirts. I got up and sought 
another seat. That left the poor woman to shoulder the 
expose. If she had been young and good-looking I would 
haye staid and seen her through; but she was neither and 
she had to take the consequences of nature’s meanness in de- 
frauding her of her rights, 
We arrived at Groton and ran on to the ferryboat. Went 
up into the refreshment room and liad a mild debauch on a 
piece of pie and a glass of beer. A stunning young woman 
does duty as cashier, but was so taken up with her own good 
looks and mashing some young dudes that she was very 
slow about making change. She kept a hand-glass at her 
side and was absorbed in a contemplation of her face, and 
proceeded to plaster down her spit curls instead of giving me 
the change. I said, ‘““‘Young woman, when you have fin- 
ished admiring yourself, will you give me my change?” She 
gave me a crushing look and handed it out, five cents short. 
I dared not remind her of her mistake, and got aboard the 
train again, and after afew moments’ delay we went on. 
happened to sit next seat to the young lady with the pug, 
which by this time began to feel the effects of his bitters, 
and if ever there was a sick dog it was that same pug. It 
was my turn to laugh then, but she was good-looking; 1 
came to the rescue, and held the purp up by the tail to let 
him drain. Somebody had to give that girl a new dress, I 
know, for the one she had on was spoiled. 
Nothing more of importance occurred until we arrived at 
Forty-second street depot, except that I felt as if I had eaten 
a quarter section of lead. That piece of pie fixed me, and 1 
was as sick as the dog, but did not dare betray my agony 
for fear the young woman would offer to reciprocate by 
holding me up by the heels. Two days of horrible dyspepsia 
—— —— 
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