sation, although their forms were diminished by distance to the
size of a rook.

At five o'clock we were at Boom again, and our friend the
Anglo-Norwegian was shaking us by the hand. His eyes sparkled with
delight at the renewal of our acquaintance; and promising us the best of
sport, he led us towards the cottage in which we had lodged on our first
visit. The peasant, our landlord, came forth to the cottage door, pipe
in hand, to salute us; while his wife gazed at us through a small
window; and, when she caught our glance, smiled, with a sunnier language
on her face than she could have uttered with her tongue, the sincerity
of her joy to see us once more. I felt as if I had been a long time a
wanderer, and had returned home. The three beds in the cottage were
ordered to be got ready for us, and a lodging in a neighbouring
farm-house was secured for the four men who had rowed the gig.

The fish did not take the fly willingly, for only one or two were caught
between R---- and P----; but the amazing number of salmon that kept
leaping out of the water, during the whole afternoon, bade us not
despair of being more prosperous on the morrow. The Toptdal River is
the property of a celebrated merchant resident at Christiansand, and he
derives a considerable income from the sale of fish caught in it. It is
one of the most famous salmon streams in the south of Norway; and its
celebrity may in some way be tested when I state, that, two and three
hundred salmon have been taken in the nets in the course of one day at
Boom, and the same quantity has been continued through several
successive days. Great numbers are still caught, but not in such
multitudes as formerly; and the diminution is ascribed to the
circumstance of no law existing in Norway to protect, or rather,
preserve the salmon at certain seasons; and poaching has been, of late
years, so extensive, that unless the Government take a little more care
of a fish that has become almost a staple commodity of the country, and
arrest the nefarious system at present without bounds, the extinction of
salmon in the southern rivers of Norway must be immediate and complete.
Indeed, we visited some places which a few years ago were famous for the
beauty, size, and multiplicity of their salmon; but we were told on our
arrival, that, not a fish was now to be caught or seen, from the mouths
to the sources of these rivers.

Early in the morning, by daylight, I heard R---- and P---- pulling