THE YACHT UNDER SAIL--JACKO OVERBOARD--FREDRICKSVAERN
--THE UNION JACK--SCENERY ON THE LARVIG RIVER--TRANSIT
OF TIMBER--SALMON FISHING--THE DEFEATED ANGLER--
LUDICROUS ADVENTURE WITH AN EAGLE--RESULT OF THE ANGLING
EXPEDITION--THE BEVY OF LADIES--NORWEGIAN DINNER-PARTY
SINGULAR AND AMUSING CUSTOMS.
At eight o'clock on Tuesday morning, the 6th, we started for Larvig.
About sixty miles from Christiania, at the mouth of the Fiord, a fine,
light air sprung up, and, delighted with the expectation that we should
reach Larvig before set of sun on Wednesday, we amused ourselves by
firing at bottles thrown into the sea, and afterwards by watching the
gambols of Sailor and Jacko. Sailor, stretched at full length on his
back, allowed Jacko to pull his ears, and bite his claws; and mindless
of the monkey's antics, seemed rather to encourage, than object to his
vagaries. Wearied, at last, with his pulling, and jumping, and biting,
Jacko sought a variation to his amusements, by springing on the weather
runner-block, and thence depending by his tail. When Sailor perceived
that Jacko had removed his gymnastics from himself, and transferred them
to the block, he rose from his recumbent attitude on the deck, and,
squatting on his haunches, observed, for some little time, with singular
attention and silence, the extraordinary flexibility of Jacko's limbs;
but at the moment when Jacko suspended his little carcase by his smaller
tail from the runner-block, whether it was the manner in which Sailor
expressed a roar of laughter, or whether it was a shout of applause at
the comical likeness of Jacko's body, swinging in the air, to a bunch of
black grapes, certain it is, that, at that instant, Sailor gave one, but
one, tremendous bark, and, in the twinkling of an eye, Jacko fell souse
into the water. He sank like a boiled plum-pudding to the vessel's keel;
for when he rose again, his little round head could just be seen a
hundred feet astern. Never was there such dismay on board the Iris
before.
"Jacko's overboard!" shouted each man; and echo taking up the cry,
"Jacko's overboard!" must have alarmed Jacko himself by its forlorn
expression. Struggling with the waves, and striking out manfully with
his hands, and not like a monkey, Jacko kept his head above water, and
his eyes turned towards the cap of the top-mast.
"Hard a-port the helm!" bellowed D----, rushing to the tiller himself;
and soon as the cutter shot up in the wind, he added,
"Now, then, two of you, my sons, jump into the dingy."
The command was obeyed quickly as it was given; and Jacko has to thank
his star, whichever it may be, that the boat had not been hoisted on the
davits, but towing in the vessel's wake; or he might, many months ago,
have been a source of entertainment at the Court of Neptune.
If a drowned rat looks sleekly wretched, Jacko looked ten times worse
when taken out of the water. The brightness of his eye had fled,--his
tail, which curled usually like a sucking-pig's, hung now straight down
behind him, relaxed from its ringlet, like a piece of tarred rope,--and
his stomach, vying once with the symmetry of the greyhound's, was
distended and globular as a small barrel of oysters. Half a spoonful of
brandy was poured down his throat, and having been wrapped up in some
odd pieces of flannel, he was put in a soup-plate, and set down before
the fire. This was all that human art could do, and the rest was left to
the control of time, or Jacko's robust constitution.
At twelve o'clock we were off Fredricksvaern, the Norwegian Portsmouth,
which is a small town at the entrance of the Larvig Fiord. Here Jacko
came on deck buoyant as a ball, and with a coat made more glossy by the
chemical action of the salt water.
Looking towards Larvig, we saw, an unusual sight in this country, the
Union-jack flying on a little rock; and were puzzled for some time to
know whether it was a compliment that had reference to us. After a
tedious contention with _dead water_, light puffs of wind that came down
the gulleys on our starboard beam, and shifted to our bows, and then
veering right aft, jibed the main-sheet, we cast anchor about twenty
yards from the rock on whose summit the Union-jack waved.
The Consul sent on board to say, that his house was at our service, as
well as any other kindness he could show us. We understood afterwards,
that the Consul had mistaken the Iris for the Fairy schooner, belonging
to Sir Hyde Parker; and had hoisted the jack in compliment to his old
friend the baronet.
It was not possible for us to fish to-day; but P---- hired a carriole,
and drove about six miles into the country, to obtain leave from the
proprietors on the banks of the Larvig River, to fish on the following
morning. The task of gaining permission to fish for salmon in Norway is
sometimes a tedious one; for every man is his own landlord, and
possesses a few acres of land that he tills himself. All lands on the
banks make the portion of the river flowing by them, the property of the
landowner; and the angler may have to secure the good-will and assent of
fifty persons, before he can fish in any part of a river, which is more
difficult to do, as the Norwegians are jealous of their little
privileges. They rarely deny courtesy to a stranger; but they like to
have it in their power to do so if they please. This, however, was not
P----'s case; for through the hearty assistance and recommendation of
the Consul, no obstruction was made to the attainment of everything we
desired.
As all fishermen are aware, it is necessary to angle for salmon, and
indeed many fish, either very early in the morning, or in the cool of
the afternoon, the heat of noon being perfectly inimical to the sport.
At two o'clock, therefore, on Friday morning, the memorable 9th of June,
we started in the gig, stored with abundant provision, for the first
foss, or fall, of the Larvig River.
The scenery of this river was the most beautiful we had yet seen, though
not the grandest, the banks being thickly wooded, and the diversity of
the foliage more striking than at Krokleven, or in the Christiania
Fiord. Nearly four hours elapsed before we reached the spot selected for
fishing; but our passage up the river had been obstructed occasionally
by bars across the water. These bars are large stakes or piles driven,
about twenty feet apart, into the bed of the river, and carried from one
bank to the other, to which the trunks of trees are chained to prevent
the timber from escaping to the sea; and it is no uncommon thing to meet
with an immense field of timber, covering the whole surface of the river
as far as the eye can see. A passage is kept between two of these
stakes, distinguished from the others by a mark, for the ordinary
traffic of the river; and is defended by a huge bar of timber, secured
by a chain, on removing which, the boats are, after a good deal of
bumping, pulled through. The interior of the country being so
inaccessible, the Norwegians have no other alternative but to roll the
timber from the tops of the mountains, and casting it on the rivers,
allow it to float to these artificial havens, where it is collected, and
then, being made into immense rafts, guided by some half dozen men to
the town, whence it is shipped to France or Holland.
P---- had made such excellent arrangements, that two prams were in
readiness to receive R---- and himself when we arrived at our
destination. In some of the salmon rivers it is quite impossible to fish
from the banks, but the sportsman hires a boat, and angles in the centre
of the stream, which is generally interrupted by large stones, or pieces
of rock, in the eddy of which the salmon delight to sport.
P---- was the first to get his rod together, and selecting a particular
fly that he had considered as "a certain killer," jumped into his pram.
The men who row these prams are generally Norwegians, born on the banks
of the river, and knowing pretty well under what rocks, or in what eddy,
the salmon abound. The Norwegian who rowed P----'s pram was a fine
young fellow, but as unable to understand the English language as he was
athletic. R---- and P---- divided the river in two parts, so that
neither sportsman should interfere with the amusement of the other.
P---- took the upper part of the stream, and R---- the lower; or, in
other words, or other ideas, P---- was the wolf who came to drink of the
limpid tide, and R---- was the lamb who had to put up with the muddy
water.
Broiling my back in the rising sun, I took my seat on a high rock from
which I had a commanding view of both my friends, and could note the
praiseworthy tact and labour with which they angled. Time flew on; a
quarter of an hour elapsed, and then another quarter; and to these
thirty minutes, twice thirty more were added, when the heat at my back
was relieved by the furious and rapid clicking of P----'s reel. I
started from my seat, and lo! P----'s rod had assumed quite a new
appearance; for instead of its taper, arrowy form, it looked more like a
note of interrogation, and seemed to ask as loudly and plainly as it
could,
"What in heavens, master, has hold of my other end?"
P----, too, no longer retained that upright, soldierly attitude for
which I had always admired him, but leaned so much backwards, that,
should the good rod, I thought, give way, nothing on earth can save him
from falling on the hinder part of his head. R---- wound up his line, and
sat down in his pram to watch P----.
It is the custom, the instant the salmon takes the fly, for the rower to
pull towards the shore with as much celerity and judgment as possible,
neither to drive the boat too swiftly through the water, or loiter too
slowly, both extremes endangering the chance of capturing your salmon.
That part of the stream where P---- fished, was about forty yards below
a rapid, and, indeed, ran with the current of a sluice; and the reader
may imagine, that, a very little impetus given to the pram against this
current, would increase the pressure of a large salmon on a small gut
line. Directly the boatman discovered that P---- had a bite, towards the
bank he commenced to row; but not with that degree of expedition
P---- desired. Although I was some distance from them, I could perceive
the energetic signals of P----'s left hand to the Norwegian to pull
ashore more briskly. Every now and then the rattling of the reel would
keep P----'s excitement alive, and as he gradually wound up the line,
the salmon, making another start, would threaten to run away with every
inch of tackle. Warily the Norwegian rowed, scarcely dipping his sculls
in the water, lest their splash should startle the most timid of fish;
but his cautious conduct made no impression on P----, for I could still
see him motion angrily to the Norwegian to be more speedy.
The bank of the river at last was reached, and stumbling over sculls and
baling ladles, for these prams leak like sponges, and getting his foot
entangled in a landing net, P---- contrived to step on shore; but barely
had he stood on land again, than the line snapped, and the rod flew to
the perpendicular with a short, sharp hiss. Imagination cannot
sympathise with P----'s feelings, when, after travelling over a thousand
miles, or more, for the sake of entrapping salmon, he should break,
through the stupidity or slothfulness of a Norwegian boatman, his best
gut line, and lose the finest salmon in the whole Larvig river. P----'s
eyes wandered to the summit of his rod as it shot, like a poplar,
straight into the air, and saw the remnant of his tackle, not half a
yard long, flowing in every direction to the varying puffs of wind; and
turning his head slowly round towards the astounded Norwegian, gave him
a mingled look of inexpressible contempt and anger; and then, casting
his rod violently to the ground, stamped his foot, and vowed he would
never fish again.
"You stupid ass!" I heard him shout to the Norwegian, perfectly ignorant
whether P---- was addressing him with excess of passion, or a tornado of
praise; "didn't I tell you, as well as I could, to pull faster? Do you
think cat-gut is made of iron?"
"Ja[3]," said the gaping Norwegian, catching a very vague idea of his
meaning.
"But it isn't, you d----d fool!" exclaimed P---- angrily. "Why don't you
do what you're told?"
"Ja----," again began the unhappy boatman.
"But you didn't," shouted P----, cutting him off in the midst of his
reply.
"Ja, ja," interposed the Norwegian, "I pool pram."
"Yes, you did 'pool pram,' and a pretty mess you have made of it;" and
P---- put his hands in his trowsers' pockets, and began to walk up and
down on the bank.
"What's the row?" called out R---- from his pram, floating in the middle
of the river; "Have you lost your fish?"
He had witnessed the whole transaction, as well as I.
"It's hardly credible," answered P----, stopping in his walk, "that
these Norwegian fools can live in a country all their days, and have
salmon under their noses, and not know how to catch them. Curse the
fools! the sooner one leaves them the better."
"So I think," acceded R----, sitting down quietly in the after part of
his pram, and dangling his crossed leg. "For my part, I don't think
there are any salmon at all. _I_ can't get a _rise_. I wouldn't mind
betting an even crown you had hold of a weed!"
"Pooh! stuff!" ejaculated P----, starting off in his see-saw ambulation
again. "I saw the fish;--'twas fifteen pound weight at least."
"Oh! if you saw him, that's another thing," said R----; and taking his
pipe out of his pocket, began to soothe his nerves by blowing off his
disappointment in the substantial form of pure Oronoco tobacco-smoke.
Half an hour afterwards, P---- was hard at work as ever, perfectly
regardless of the solemn attestation he had volunteered to Jupiter.
The four sailors who had rowed the gig from Larvig, had, with the
ingenuity of their class, constructed a tent, lighted a fire, and were
preparing breakfast, both for us and themselves. This was the first time
I had breakfasted in the open air, and it is not so unpleasant as might
be imagined, particularly should the morning be so calm, and clear, and
warm as this one was. Shaded by a high mountain, fresh with the foliage
of fir, birch, and filbert trees, the morning sun reached not our
encampment. The balmy air, the dew and early vapour upon the grass, the
humming sound of the bee, the low of cattle, the lusty salutation of
peasants as they met each other, proceeding to their labour, and, above
all, the murmuring river, were sounds and things as pleasant to hear and
see as always to remember.
R---- and P---- were unwearied; nor did they yield to fatigue until the
sun had risen so high, that its heat sent the fish to respire at the
bottom of the river, and the animals under shelter of the trees. After
we had breakfasted, R---- and P---- exchanged a few remarks on the art
of angling, felt the fatigue of rising at two in the morning, and fell
fast asleep. I possessed the wakefulness of a second Cerberus, and
allowed not Morpheus to approach my eyelids; but loitering, up and down,
under the shady boughs of the trees, listened to the sweet silvery
rippling of the river, as it crept between the rocks, or bubbled over
its shingly bed. Overpowered at last by the fury of the vertical sun, I
entered the tent that had been formed by raising the gig's sail on the
four oars.
R---- and P---- were still slumbering, and I was lying under the tent,
on the ground, reading the Adventures of Peregrine Pickle. The sailors
who had formed the boat's crew were sauntering about along the banks of
the river; and the cockswain, who generally on such excursions as the
present performed the part of cook, was seated on a piece of rock which
projected into the bubbling stream, busily occupied in the preparation
of dinner. Whistling, and humming, by fits, one of the sea-songs of his
country, he wore the time away while peeling some potatoes, which, one
by one, as his large knife, slung from his belt by a piece of yarn,
deprived of their jackets, he threw into an iron pot, having rinsed them
previously in the flowing river. Within his sight, lay, on a white
towel, a leg of lamb, bewitchingly sprinkled with salt, all prepared to
be cooked, but only waiting for the potatoes to bear it company to the
fire. Absorbed in my book, I paid little attention to what was passing
around me, except by an occasional glance, until I heard a loud, shrill
scream, and then a louder rustling of feathers, as if this was the noon
of the last day, and Gabriel having blown his trumpet without my hearing
it, had actually reached the earth. I jumped up, and running out of the
tent, saw the cockswain standing like a nautical statue, motionless,
gazing upwards, and with a stick grasped firmly in his hand. Following
his example, I turned my eyes reverentially to the skies, and
distinguished, from the blaze of day, a most lusty eagle, making the
best of his way towards the residence of Jove with the leg of lamb in
his beak; and, as if conscious of the superiority his position had given
him over us, waving the white towel, grasped with his talons, hither and
thither in the air, like a flag moved exultingly by conquerors after
victory.
"It's gone, sir," said the sailor, lowering the uplifted club, "and,
blow me, if I ever heerd him coming."
I shall not forget the utter disgust of R---- and P----, when, like a
couple of Samsons they awoke, and found that their hair was certainly
untouched, but that the most positive support of their strength had been
cut off irretrievably, and their dinner of lamb gone where all innocence
should go. Some bread and cheese, together with a few eggs which the
boatmen purchased for us at a neighbouring cottage, supplied the loss of
our lamb. The coolness of the afternoon gave R---- and P----, an
opportunity to renew their ardour, and at six o'clock they both might
have been found encouraging the habit of patience in the art of angling.
The rattling of their reels, gave, at almost every half hour, the
announcement of a bite, and hurrying in their prams to the shore, my
friends, after the torture of another half hour, would, with the
assistance of a gaff, place the unhappy salmon among the long grass
growing on the river's brink.
The Norwegians, and I believe, all persons who have the sense of taste
developed to a most extraordinary nicety, say that the fish which are
caught with the hook, are not to be compared in flavour to those taken
in the net. Though I cannot account for the exquisiteness of taste, that
can distinguish between one and the other plan of catching the salmon, I
can very easily suppose that the pain, more or less, given in the
destruction of an animal, may increase or decrease the flavour of the
flesh, when used as food. A fish drawn backwards and forwards through
the water with a hook piercing its gills, or the more tender fibres of
the stomach, till it is almost jaded to death, and then lacerated with
such an instrument as the gaff, must endure such an accumulation of the
most intense pain, that the sweeter juices of the flesh escape during
the throes of a protracted death, and render its taste more stale and
flat. But the fish, taken in the net, suffers no injury; and free from
pain is instantaneously deprived of life, while the muscular parts
retain all the rigour and nutriment requisite for human food.
R---- and P---- caught eight fish between them, varying from fifteen to
twenty-five pounds' weight each; and, striking our tent, we returned in
the twilight of evening to the yacht at Larvig.
Nothing daunted, R---- and P---- rose again the following morning at
two, and collecting their fishing apparatus, began to prepare for
another jaunt up the river. They were very desirous that I should
accompany them; but having had insight enough into the stratagem of
salmon-fishing for the next three days, I declined.
"Well! ain't you going to get up? It's past two," I heard some one say;
but not quite certain whether I was dreaming, or really awake.
"Hollo! sleepy-head!" another voice shouted, and a strong arm shook me.
"Eh? what is it?" I asked, rubbing my eyes, entirely bewildered as to
the cause of such rough usage.
"Come! look alive, if you're coming. The sun's up, and we must be off,"
the last speaker continued. I could not conceive where I had promised to
go; nor could I make out what the sun had to do with my movements. A
second violent shake roused me.
"I am awake!" I said pettishly. "What do you want; who are you?"
"Get up, you great muff!" the loud voice again exclaimed from the centre
of the cabin. I sat up in my bed. From my berth I could see into the
main cabin. R---- and P---- in their short fishing coats, and jack-boots,
were standing round the cabin table, and drinking some preparation of
milk, rum, and egg.
"It's capital, isn't it?" I heard P---- say.
"Splendid!" R---- replied. "Let's have it every morning."
"Ha! many a time," P---- continued, "I have swallowed this just before
going to morning parade. It's the best thing in the world on an empty
stomach. Here's a little more." And he filled R----'s glass.
"Where are you going so early?" I asked, quite forgetful that we were
even in Norway.
"Why, to fish, of course," replied R----.
"What else do you suppose we are going to do? Come along."
"No; not this morning," I said, falling back on my pillow. "I am tired."
"Pooh! what humbug! you've been in bed ever since twelve. What more do
you want?" replied one of them.
"A little more," I answered, making myself as snug as I could; for I had
really not slept an hour.
"That's just like you, always pulling another way," R---- observed.
"What's the good of remaining here all alone, when you might gaff for
me? It's so unsociable!"
"Hang the gaffing!" I answered.
"If you don't like to gaff," suggested R----, "take the little rifle and
shoot an eagle or two. That's better than remaining behind; and we can
go to bed early to-night."
"Why can't you go without me?" I said. "I don't care about fishing, and
I do about comfort; for I feel now as if I had not been to bed at all."
This indifference to a sport, they both deemed the most exciting, caused
them to upbraid me, till half-past two, with such epithets as, "an old
woman," "a shocking cockney," "a fellow only fit to wear white kid
gloves," "a Regent Street swell," "a land lubber," "a milk sop," and a
multitude of other curious idioms, that rather made me merry than
clashed with my pride.
About ten o'clock, I received a note from the Consul, intimating that a
party of ladies desired to see the yacht, and requested he might bring
them on board. I replied that I could, in the absence of R----,
undertake to say how cordially he would have granted his permission, and
flatteringly he would have felt the compliment, had he been present, and
I begged that the Consul would act as if the vessel were his own. Three
hours afterwards, I saw several boats, filled with ladies, shoot out
from a little bay, on the starboard bow of the yacht, and gliding as
swiftly through the smooth water as the two rowers to each boat could
force them, soon clustered round the gangway. Thirteen young ladies, the
Consul being the only gentleman among them, jumped lightly on board; and
as they followed, interminably, one after the other, I never felt the
responsibility of any position so impressively, as I did the present
one. The young ladies, however, were all Norwegian, except one; so that
I had not much trouble in talking to them, their native tongue, or the
German, being the only two languages they could understand, and of both
of which I was almost ignorant.
Although I could not enter into conversation with them, I felt it was my
bounden duty to contribute by some device, or the other, to the
entertainment of these young ladies. Knowing the partiality of my own
countrywomen to music, I hazarded the idea, that the Norwegian ladies
were filled with an equal admiration for waltzes and polkas; and being
fortunately possessed of two very large musical boxes, I wound them up.
When these boxes began to play, my fair visitors were much delighted
with their ingenious mechanism, and for some short time listened to them
with wonder and delight; but at last, in harmonious movement to their
sweet notes, these children put their little arms round each other's
waists and began to dance. The elder girls, catching the mood, clasped
their companions by the hand, and begged them to join the merry group.
In ten minutes not one girl was sitting still; and she who could not get
a partner, placed her arms a-kimbo, and whirled up and down the deck
alone.
A Norwegian gentleman had asked me to dine with him, and as R---- and
P---- would not return much before midnight, I did not decline an
invitation that was not only hospitable, but would give me an
opportunity of seeing more of the habits and character of his
countrymen. The dinner was prepared at an early hour, one, or two,
o'clock. The style of cookery was the same as in England; except the
manner in which the salmon is dressed, for it is cut up into small junks
and fried; but the most ordinary, and esteemed way of eating the salmon
is to smoke it, which is nothing more or less than an excuse for
swallowing the fish raw.
After dinner, the host filled two glasses of wine, one for himself, and
one for me; and sidling close up to my chair, placed himself arm and arm
with me. I could not understand his meaning, and watched with no little
anxiety the next act of familiarity he would commit. My eyes glanced
round the table; but the gravity of every man's face was ecclesiastical
in the extreme. Without unlocking his arm from mine, the Norwegian
raised his glass in the air, and motioned with his hand to me to do the
same. I did so. He then drank off the wine, and bade me drink in like
manner. I did that likewise. I had thus followed my friend's
injunctions, and had scarcely, with a smile, replaced on the table the
glass I had drained, when I received a box on the ear. Starting from my
chair at the unprovoked assault, I was about to break the decanter over
the Norwegian's head, when a gentleman seized hold of my right hand, and
begged me to be pacified, for that it was merely the usage of the
country in pledging to the health of a friend. He said my host would be
highly gratified by my retaliation.
"We have simply then been drinking each other's health?" I asked.
"No more, sir," my mediator replied.
Ashamed of my hasty and most unmannerly conduct, I gave the amicable
cuff, and all was merriment again.
When we rose from table, the whole company commenced shaking hands with
each other, and coming up to me, one after the other, each guest took
my hand, and
"Tak for maden," he said.
This was another mysterious usage I could not unravel. A few days
afterwards, amid the general din of the same ceremony, I asked a young
lady, who spoke French, what it all meant; and she then told me it was
an ancient habit of returning thanks for a good dinner.
"But I have given them no dinner," I said.
"That is true," replied my fair informant; "but they thank you all the
same."
While she spoke, a Norwegian gentleman took possession of her hand, and
exclaimed,
"Tak for maden!" while a second did the same with my hand, and repeating
similar words, passed on all round the table.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] "Ja," pronounced "yar," signifies "yes," in the Norwegian language.