May 20, 1893] 
THE PISHING GAZETTE 
371 
reason does he think such stipulations are made, 
and why does he assent to them and then try to 
go back on his word H 
He complains that I would not enter into 
arbitration except on the condition that our bag 
was not taken into consideration. jMy reason for 
insisting on this condition was that 1 held a man 
who has been guilty of misrepresentation has no 
right to shield himself from the consequences 
behind his tenant’s skill or luck. From the first 
I told him I should not complain of the amount 
of sport. We were at arm’s length before there 
had been any sport at all to speak of. We had 
been induced to come out—three rods, and all we 
asked was the fishing for three rods that he had 
promised. It seems in vain to try to persuade 
jMr. Beyer that fishermen don’t appraise rivers 
like fishmongers. 
The whole gist of the matter is that Mr. Beyer did 
not expect us to catch fish any more than his other 
tenants had, and when he found that, owing to 
the unprecedented rains, we did have fair sport, 
he was very sore at having quarrelled with the 
only men who were ever likely to give his river a 
reputation. How sore he was you may judge by 
whatinow feel compelled to make public, and that 
is, that he threatened me with a prosecution for 
libel, and actually instructed his solicitor to pre¬ 
vent my leaving the country unless I would 
apologise for the alleged libellous words, and he 
further expressly made it a sine qua non that I 
should, at the same time, give him a complete 
diary of our bag on his river. For this statement 
I take the full responsibility, and have his 
solicitor’s own hand to vouch for it. In England, 
sir, when a man, during the progress of civil pro¬ 
ceedings, fears he cannot obtain by them what 
he wants, and endeavours to extort his end by a 
threat of prosecution and arrest, we know what 
to think of him and his case. 
I refused to give him my bag because I knew 
it would only deceive future intending tenants 
as to'the value of his river, even more completely 
than I had been deceived by his use of Sir Ewan 
Macgregor’s testimonial—a testimonial which 
speaks of sport on Mr. Sturdy’s water in a way 
that, without explanation, makes it appear to 
have been enjoyed on Mr. Beyer’s water. In 
face of Sir Ewan Macgregor’s mistake I naturally 
wished to be careful. 
If Mr. Beyer would deny that our bag creates an 
exaggerated impression of the value of the river, 
I challenge him to give the experience of his former 
tenants. He can discover my record approxi¬ 
mately (he never had it from me), and boast about 
it—will he say what Sir Ewan Macgregor caught ? 
Where is his testimonial from the gentlemen who 
paid him FTOO in 1889 and never saw a fish ? 
Where is that of the other well-known sportsman 
who took his river ? What about the tenant of 
last July giving him £80 and a testimonial for one 
fish ? He says nothing of them. It is this sup- 
pressio veri that is the material of the “ Bergen 
system.” 
Mr. Beyer says that few sportsmen would have 
acted as 1 did in this case. He is, unfortunately, 
quite right. It is on their knowledge of the 
English sportsman’s antipathy to “ having a row ” 
that Mr. Beyer and his friends trade.—1 am, sir, 
yours obediently, Julian Corhett. 
REPLY TO MR. EDWARD STURDY’S 
LETTER IN THE FISHING GAZETTE 
OF MAY 13 BE THE EVANGER RIVER. 
Sir, —My attention having been called to Mr. 
Edward Sturdy’s letter in your valued paper of 
the 13th inst. re the Evanger river, I beg to be 
allowed to make the following remarks. 
I see no reason whatever for Mr. Sturdy to be 
displeased with the contents of the few words 
which I said in my letter to Mr. Julian Corbett 
of June 24 last year, about the portions of the 
Evanger river that Mr. Sturdy still retains. I 
said nothing about the qtiality of his fishing, for 
it was “ no business of mine ” to do so, and if I 
had been asked if Mr. Sturdy’s water was good, 
I should have said that it yields very good bags, 
as it to my opinion does. I merely stated the fact 
that of the Evanger river, which runs from the 
Yangs lake into the Evanger lake (and which Mr. 
Sturdy certainly may call the Vosse river if he 
likes to baptize the best part of his own 
fishing by that name) two pools (viz., the 
Skorve and the Ho) are about all that Mr. 
Sturdy retains. Further, I plainly added 
that in addition to these two pools he has 
what I may call the continuation of the Evanger 
river, viz., the Bolstad water. Neither did I say 
that the latter was one kilometre long, but one 
mile in length, which also same description 
printed in the Fishing Gazelle plainly quoted it 
to be. Thus it was from my description quite 
clear that Mr. Sturdy had not only two pools of 
the very Evanger river, but also, in addition 
thereto, the Bolstad water, “ which is the very 
lowest part of the whole water-course,” as I 
expressed myself in same letter to Mr. Corbett. 
Mr. Sturdy should therefore, so as to avoid mis¬ 
leading your readers, quote the whole of my 
letter to Mr. Corbett when he quotes parts of it, 
and also quote it correctly. It may be, however, 
that Mr. Sturdy’s Bolstad river is more than just 
one English mile, in spite of said description in 
the Fishing Gazette, but it matters nothing if it 
be longer than one mile, as the fact nevertheless 
remains that of the river in question, viz., the 
Evanger river, Mr. Sturdy held last year, and 
holds now, only two pools asideof some unfishable 
rapids, and a small pool only fishable after a 
spate * (as I also have explained in my letter to 
you re the Corbett case). How Mr. Sturdy can 
make this out to be ‘‘five named pools asideof 
some detached pools above ” I do not understand, 
unless he means to make each spot where the 
salmon principally take in these large pools a 
pool for itself. If this be the way in which 
he reckons the number of pools in his water, 
I should be entitled to at least double the number 
of pools which I quote intending tenants as 
being the correct one in my own water. I see, 
therefore, no need whatever for Mr. Sturdy to 
protest against the way in which ho was “ disposed 
of ” in my description to Mr. Corbett. 
Be the testimonials which former tenants of my 
Evanger water have given me, Mr. Sturdy 
should consider them closer, and 1 think he would 
then relinquish the idea of making them sus¬ 
picious, as is his deliberate intention in his letter 
to you. When he states that one of them was 
“dated Evanger at the head and Admiralty, 
London, at the tail,” such statement onlj" proves 
the evil object of Mr. Sturdy’s correspondence 
altogether, for he is well aware of the fact that 
the address at the foot was only added on 
copies of this testimonial so as to enable the 
reader of the copies to apply direct (to London) 
to the author of the original for further informa¬ 
tion if such be wished for. The writers of the 
testimonials that I possess have all been gentle¬ 
men in the best sense of the word, and everyone 
of them have written me their opinion of my 
fishing out of their own free will on my 
suggestion, but at the same time without any sort 
of press from me. Surely these gentlemen were 
just as entitled to say what they thought of my 
fishing after having tried it, as sportsmen 
generally are when leaving the river they have 
been fishing, and as to the standing of these 
men, just the one whose testimonial Mr. Sturdy 
in his letter to you has thought it fit to make 
suspicious, not only holds a prominent position, 
but is also respected and loved by all with whom 
he comes into contact. I shall, however, in order 
to save him from similar annoyance as the one 
Mr. Sturdy’s letter to you is sure to cause him, and 
because he has informed me of his wish to avoid 
such, never again make use of his “ testimonial,” 
but only refer to him direct. 
Be former tenants’ wish to come back on my 
water, it is so far from true that they never c.ared 
to come again (as Mr. Sturdy writes), that two of 
the few tenants I have had since I got the water 
I now dispose of, ever have been desirous of 
coming back, and would have come both last 
season and this coming season if they had been 
able to. This I shall be glad to prove by letters 
from them, if desired. Altogether, it is quite 
clear that the sole object of Mr. Sturdy’s corre¬ 
spondence, which was so entirely uncalled for, 
can only be to run down in the eyes of British 
sportsmen the water I have of the Evanger river. 
But therein he shall not succeed, in spite of his 
energetic etforts, as he is himself at this very 
moment (and has been ever since last autumn) 
trying to buy at enormous prices large portions of 
this very fishing of mine, so as to get a hold of it 
* These useless rapids and this little pool make really 
the “ Evanger water proper,” which Mr. Sturdy seems to 
be HO proud of having 1 
when my lease expires. I do not know why he 
takes this hostile position against me, for I have 
done him no harm, and have been on friendly 
terms with him all the time since the river 
was satisfactorily divided between us, until 
he suddenly took the offensive when this (lorbett 
case came on, making discrediting statements 
to the judge about my water, of which he 
simultaneously tried to buy large portions at 
high prices. The aim is clearly to prevent me 
from getting any tenant for my fishing, and his 
hopes are surely too, that I, who cannot afford 
to keep the water for my own pleasure only, 
when left without tenants, shall soon be forced 
to throw up my lease, so that he may secure it 
for himself. 
Be the “ advantage of bringing Mr. Sturdy’s 
water into my description.” I have actually 
never availed myself of any such! All that I 
have done is simply quoting a description written 
by an Englishman in an English sporting paper, 
correcting the false statement that said that the 
Englishman had the whole river, and adding how 
many miles I thought — according to same 
description—were mine. In fact there would be 
no advantage for me in mixing up Mr. Sturdy’s 
water with my own; for, although his water 
certainly gives a heavier bag than mine, it has 
the great drawback of being “ harling ” water ex¬ 
clusively. I, at least, have never yet, in spite of my 
frequent visits to the place, seen either Mr. 
Sturdy or his tenant even once making a single 
cast from the bank or from the boat, whereas the 
tenants on my water, at any rate on several places, 
fnay cast the fly either from the boat or from 
the bank. 
What I have of the Evanger river, I hope I 
shall manage to keep, feeling sure that I shall 
find tenants who will be pleased with it for the 
future, as also most of my former tenants have 
been since I got the extent of water which I now 
have. I took it when it was free, and I have 
still on hand Mr. Sturdy’s own letter of Sept. 14, 
1890, in which he says that 1 had “ a perfect right 
to take it as far as he was concerned.” 
As to the value of my water, the Corbett bag 
of 6351b. (of which were thirty salmon weighing 
5031b.) proves it well worth my regular monthly 
charge of £60. At any rate such bag at 
such price, and partly made from the bank 
too, is superior to Mr. Sturdy’s bag, all 
made by “ harling.” for, according to Mr. 
Sturdy’s own letters to me of Feb. 19 and 
20, 1892, he has for the last ten years 
with two rods and in seven weeks made an 
average bag of 14001b., and paid therefore (his 
tenant’s rent deducted) more than £22<I. I know 
that Mr. Sturdy will oppose to this comparison, 
saying that the Corbett bag was made by four 
rods, whereas his own was made with two rods 
only. I may, thei’efore, as well here premise at 
once that if the four Corbett anglers had fished 
my water in the proper way, by dividing them¬ 
selves into two parties, each fishing my upper 
and lower river contemporarily, they would 
have made a still heavier bag than 6351b. 
By fishing as they generally did (according to 
the gaffer’s statement) sitting three in the boat 
at a time, whilst the fourth one sat idle ashore, 
excepting when there was a bank casting pool in 
the immediate neighbourhood, they could hardly 
do much better than two ordinary rods would 
have done. 
So strongly convinced am I myself of the good 
({uality of my own water, that, if two able sports¬ 
men are willing to take it at a price per pound of 
fish caught corresponding to the price of Mr. 
Sturdy’s bag (or three shillings a pound, accord¬ 
ing to his own above-named statement), I shall be 
glad to let them have it. I shall then, I think— 
(N.B.—If two really able rods are fishing, and the 
weather sets in favourably)—after such trial of 
ray wai.er, just as well as Mr. Sturdy be able to 
“remain without a single testimonial.”—I am, dear 
sir, yours respectfully, 
Thorvald Beyer, 
Owner of the firm, F. Beyer, 
Strandgaden, Bergen. 
UNDRESSED TAPERED SILK LINES 
WANTED. 
Dear Sir, —Do you think any of your numerous 
readers could tell me where I could purchase 
good silk-tapered lines, undressed, as I want to 
dress the same for myself. Aeon Elwy. 
