THE LAND OF FJELD AND FJORD. 
9 
both of skill and of resource are required to attain 
the “best possible/’ The sport, indeed, with such 
fish, need hardly rank second to any other, and a fair 
average performer may easily find himself outclassed. 
I refer here to angling in rivers amply large enough 
for salmon, but which, through some fosse or obstruc¬ 
tion below, are not accessible to sea-going fish. Such 
waters can only be commanded by a double-handed 
rod, and are at present “ free; ” though of late years 
I have had offers of exclusive rights on lease. Even 
the owners of lakes now begin to dream of “ rents ; ” 
but it is not difficult to foresee danger ahead in any 
attempt to close such waters. 
Salmon-fishing is commonly supposed to yield abun¬ 
dant sport; and so it truly does, with these two all- 
important provisos, namely, that you hit off the right 
season on a first-rate river. Unless the happy com¬ 
bination can be relied upon (and no exact prediction 
of the first is possible), the only certainty is that there 
will be a stiff rent to pay. Norsk salmon-rents already 
stand far beyond the intrinsic value of the rights 
secured, while each year new men are found willing 
to pay whatever may be asked ; until one may fairly 
ask intending lessees to pause before rushing to ex¬ 
change a pound sterling for a pound avoirdupois. 
Of small game, there are five kinds of grouse; 
nevertheless, owing to their scarcity and the steep and 
rugged nature of the fjelds, with their trailing horizontal 
herbage tripping one’s step, grouse-shooting is quite 
three times as hard work as it is at home, while the 
bag diminishes in inverse ratio. The most abundant 
grouse-shooting is in Nordland and its islands; the 
