TROUTING IN THE TELEMARK. 
167 
At five o’clock we dined on precisely the same lines 
as we had breakfasted, plus a dish of delicious wild 
strawberries, whose bouquet resembled that of old 
Bourgoyne, and on happy days ol replaced coffee ; then, 
as soon as the shadow touched the lowest pines on the 
fjeld behind, we proceeded to despoil the pools. The 
trouting on this lovely Telemarken river almost equalled 
the best enjoyed in western Norway ; but, on the whole, 
the fish averaged less—chiefly because “ monsters ” were 
here relatively scarcer. There was no difficulty in filling a 
sixteen-pound basket twice a day, morning and evening, 
leaving off at ten o’clock; and as the numbers ran from 
five to six dozen, the average weight was half-a-pound 
apiece. But we found it necessary to limit the takes ; 
otherwise (the bulk of the villagers being away at this 
season at their saeters on the fjelds) there would, after 
feeding ourselves and the rest of the hamlet, have 
remained a surplus of waste—albeit the old women 
salted the fish down in tubs. But by ten o’clock it was 
dark enough, and we returned to our hut to enjoy a 
deep draught of milk and a final pipe on the portico, 
watching the flickering flight of bats and nightjars, till 
the vicious mosquitoes fairly drove us to bed. 
here. In this valley very many of onr British summer-migrants 
were breeding, including whitethroat, garden-warbler and blackcap, 
Icterine, chiff chaff, and willow-wren, wheatear, whinchat, and white 
wagtail, redstart and pied flycatcher, the black and white plumage of 
the latter harmonizing prettily with the variegated bark of the silver- 
birches they frequented. Corn-buntings and larks (as usual) absent, 
but yellow-hammer and ortolan not uncommon : found nest of latter 
with four eggs on June 28th, and one of woodlark (at 2200 feet), a 
day or two before. Among common birds may be named : chaffinch 
and greenfinch, the usual tits, night-jar, dipper, blackbird, wood¬ 
peckers (green and lesser spotted), corncrake, magpie, Siberian jay, 
raven, grey crow, and buzzard. On the high fjeld above, a pair of 
golden eagles, and several of the red-throated diver, etc. 
