it is hopeless to try to teach the Norwegians such a novel practice, and to import Irishmen might bring discord into this peaceful valley. Not only has the boatman to struggle with the stream, but he must avoid the backwater; once sucked into the raging white water below the Fos, the boat and its occupants would be no more seen. Of boatmen we have two, of different generations and types. Lars, the elder, is a very old man, considerably over eighty years of age. He lives in a little hut by the Lower Stream, and has acted as fisherman on this water for forty years. How he contrives to hold a boat in Lervik stream is a marvel; probably it is more by skill than by strength, as he knows and takes advantage of every little eddy and backwash. He is a cheerful old man, fond of his jest, but if sport is adverse quickly yielding to the pessimism of age. If you don't hook a fish in the first ten minutes he is inclined to think it is no good going on. Last year he was obviously beginning to fail, and it is no surprise, and in some ways a relief, to find on arriving this year that he has decided to retire. He has finished game; he tried to row for a Norwegian who was fishing here in

May, but had to give up through sheer inability. He does not appear to have had any medical attendance, and probably old age is his chief complaint. He can stroll about on the banks, and will no doubt beguile his leisure by criticising freely the performances of his

successors.

Our other man, Anders, is not much more than half Lars' age. He is a typical example of the Norwegian peasant, brusque in manner, resourceful in difficulty, untiring when he sees the smallest chance of success. He knew little of fishing, other than harling a minnow, when I first engaged him; but he rapidly mastered our methods, and with his assistance I have created pools, built piers to fish from, cut down obnoxious trees, and otherwise improved the angling of the upper waters. His own property of Furenaes lies a couple of miles up the valley, above the pool of "Second Fos," hereafter to be described; and, like most of these peasant proprietors, he can turn his hand to almost anything; he could probably build one a house, or a boat, or a pair of boots-all moderately well.

As a substitute for Lars, he engages for us

the services of another Anders, Anders Osen; a colourless individual of no special merits, but with some slight experience of angling. We suspect the original Anders of unwillingness that any one of striking ability should stand too near the throne.