RAFT FISHING IN NORWAY .sx IF one does not cling to smart clothes or ask for big hotels or much society , if one is prepared to take things as they are , it is still possible to find districts in Norway unchanged since the times of Thor and Odin , the people unaltered , and good sport of many kinds to be had even now for the asking .sx The only wonder is that with such a charming country so near at hand more sportsmen do not go to Scandinavia every season .sx When I first went in search of char and salmon against the glaciers , many years ago , the journey from England was comparatively tedious , the voyage across the North Sea had to be made by indifferent boats , and means of getting up country were slow and out of date .sx Now you may dine in loam and sleep two or three nights afterwards in a Norwegian farm house .sx Railways have been made which immensely shorten routes to the freer fishing grounds , and posting arrangements through-out the kingdom greatly improved .sx For the real Norway begins above Bergen , beyond that town one is not , and does not expect to be , pampered by civilisation .sx Thus two days in a little coasting steamer took me lately well out of reach of convention and into the untroubled wonders of the north .sx We came abreast of our destination on the second morning , and turning shorewards from a black sea crested with foam at sunrise , saw before us broken grey cliffs and green pine trees coming down to the very edge of salt water .sx Here and there behind this iron barrier showed a peep of sunny inlands , of flower-sprinkled meadows and scattered homesteads , a vision of colour in a sombre frame such as does not readily fade from the memory .sx Hardly had we dropped anchor in the quiet little harbour when Canute , faithful lest of henchmen , came out to me in a boat high turned up at stem and stern , great vermillion eyes painted on the prow,the bearer of an ancient Viking name in a real Viking craft and welcomed me enthusiastically back to " Gamel Norge .sx " Then I breakfasted gloriously in the village inn overlooking the quay , while " K'nute , " as his friends called him , saw to my luggage , guns and rod cases , and an hour later we were spinning away on the north road in two carrioles , black pine woods on either side and through each opening in them glimpses of great mysterious fjelds far away , rising step above step till their furthest ranges were crowned with dazzling eternal snows .sx Eight miles brought us to the first stage-house where K'nute had ordered horses to be waiting , and still another eight to the next stopping-place .sx There , as no ponies were ready , the proprietor hung his Sunday shirt on a pole on the roof as a signal to all the valley that travellers had arrived , and , according to Norwegian law , must be supplied even if farmers had to take their beasts from plough or shafts .sx We were soon ready again , still one more stage bringing us to a log-built homestead on the remotest waters of a fjord which was to be my headquarters for the next month or two .sx Supper that night consisted of salmon cutlets , roast willow grouse , goat's milk cheese and butter , flanked by a great dish of cream with wild strawberries no bigger than sparrow eggs but ambrosial in flavour , and I slept afterwards the sleep of the just between the roughest but cleanest sheets any one could wish for .sx Summer was now at its height , the meadows infinitely lovely and the snow retreated to higher regions .sx So , after seven days of good fishing here , my henchman suggested a move to a Lap farm ten miles northward , where there was a lake in a crater of the hills , said to contain some of the biggest trout in the country .sx We forthwith hired a pony capable of carrying anything which could be stacked on his back , and scrambled up those ten miles by an ever-mounting goat track through the wildest region of stunted willows , moss , and russet-red bogs it was ever my fortune to see .sx The hospitality of my merry little Lap host and his family at this new camp was as splendid as the accommodation he had to offer proved moderate .sx Their food consisted mostly of .sx " fladbrod , " thin oat .sx cakes as hard and dry as the bottom of a hat box , .sx and sour milk , but K'nute had some know- .sx ledge of cookery amongst .sx other accomplishments , and as we never came back empty handed .sx from a clay's foraging , .sx things were not so bad .sx after all .sx We slept on .sx the floor of the log cabin , .sx the Lap and his family- .sx turning in " all standing , looking , as they .sx went to bed in the light of the oil lanterns , like .sx a pack of good-natured bear cubs , and getting up whenever they thought they had slept enough .sx None of them had ever seen a time- .sx piece of any kind , and , .sx as the midnight sun now .sx shone molten from twilight to twilight on the distant snows , going .sx bed and turning out .sx was purely matters of individual fancy .sx Their lake proved an .sx awe-inspiring concern !sx It lay , black and deep , in a circular hollow .sx of mountains dropping sheer down 300 feet to its face all round save for a single place in the wall where the surplus water discharged into a rocky hole one hundred feet below .sx No boat existed on the tarn , so we set to work the morning after arrival , on a narrow beach by the outlet , to make a raft of spruce and larch logs bound together with osiers .sx Thereat the little northern savage with whom we lodged showed himself to best advantage , and , with our help and his axe , turned out a float both dry and safe .sx K'nute , I , and the eldest Lap boy went out on it as soon as ready , and thereafter had much fine sport in a pantomime of colour , the mid-days hot as Africa in that sheltered basin , the evenings purple , and the northern nights nothing but a rosy twilight , with the waving blue curtains of aurora borealis to remind us of bed-time .sx The silence of the eternal brooded over the place , broken only by the cry of a circling osprey or bark of hill foxes .sx We cultivated royal appetites and slept like princes on beds of juniper and rush .sx That mid-day heat , by the way , was once the cause of nearly ending all our adventures .sx We had had good fishing during the morning , we had lunched very well , and the trout having apparently done the same they shut down about the time we did .sx There was nothing for it but to coil up lines and siesta until it got cooler .sx We were some half mile from the lake's outfall and dozed blissfully until presently I dreamed I was in bed in the top flat of a New York hotel , the noise of the great city roaring far below me .sx Louder and louder grew the confused murmur ; at last it fairly awoke me .sx I sat and glanced at the water alongside .sx It was flowing like a mill-race .sx I turned round , and imagine my sensations !sx The lakes outfall was only a hundred yards away now ; we had drifted silently down upon it and were going forward quickly to certain destruction below .sx Never sleepers woke quicker than my two companions in answer to my shout .sx The Lap gave one look at the disappearing waters right ahead and seized his long ash pole ; K'nute and I did the same Fortunately we were near the left-hand shore .sx but the water began to boil all around us .sx a thousand acres of lake pressed into a passage only thirty yards wide .sx We spun clean round once , then came a heavy crash , a shower of white pine splinters and we were jammed .sx tight between two rocks with foaming flood up to our waists .sx We did not stop to admire the scenery , but holding to each other's belts after a desperate struggle fought our way ashore .sx Not one of us had even a scratch , though it had been a narrow escape .sx We lost all our fish , our supper , and the raft , which the fall pulled to pieces at its leisure , but were thankful to get off with our lives .sx In an up-country Scandinavian farm , such as the one I made my quarters , the food is all that can be reasonably desired .sx Beef is not to be had , but this is no great loss , as Norway beef is not good at the best .sx Mutton is procurable by arrangement , while fowls , eggs , cheese and butter are excellent and cheap .sx The bread is wholesome , the peasant women being experts at all sorts of simple country cooking .sx A very mild beer is drunk everywhere , and claret wherever there is any pretence of a town , but tobacco and tea the fisherman had better take with him in tightly-lidded tins should he be at all fastidious in these things .sx If content with simple fare , supplemented by the product of rod and gun , one may live excellently for three or four shillings a day .sx There will be no luxuries , but what a healthy life it is !sx The lovely breath of the morning coming in at the pine log casement , tinctured with the odours of forest and moorland ; the long day of boundless freedom and sport ; the northern twilight which outlasts even the enthusiasm of the angler , and then the heaven-sent sleep it brings , none the less delightful if the mattress he but pulled heather blossoms instead of eiderdown .sx The traveller who is not content with these things , who does not desire to go to Norway again and again after having once sampled her delights must , indeed , be difficult to please .sx Edwin L. Arnold .sx A VISIT TO LOUDOUN CASTLE .sx IT is not long since I had the gratification of visiting for the first time Loudoun Castle , one of the most famous places of which Ayrshire can boast .sx After revisiting Paisley Abbey , which I had not seen for thirty years , and adequately realising the sublimating effects , in many instances , of its reverentially artistic restoration ( with the magnificent stained-glass windows shedding unspeakable glory through its ancient gloom ) , I repaired , on the invitation of my very kind friends , Mr. and Mrs. Lennox , of Newmilns , to Loudoun Castle , of which I had often heard as resembling that of Windsor in its architectural aspect .sx It certainly reminded me , to some extent , of that historic edifice , though it has nothing so massively commanding as the great Norman tower , which dates backwards to the days of William the Conqueror , who will still continue to conquer the human imagination so long as it remains .sx The ancient abode of the Earls of Loudoun seems to be so much endowed with the aspect and freshness of perennial youth that it would be regarded as a great misfortune if it were not only uninhabited and closed up , as it has been for some time ( thus preventing any description of its interior and its pictures ) , but also relegated to premature decay .sx It is situated quite near to the famous battlefield of Drumclog , so memorably described by Sir Walter Scott in " Old Mortality , " in which Claverhouse was defeated by the heroic Covenanters .sx Apart from its historical fascination , Loudoun Castle has the inestimable advantage of possessing a highly artistic environment , including a large number of venerable trees .sx It may truly be said to have been immortalised by Boswell towards the end of his famous publication , on Dr. Johnson's visit to the Hebrides .sx Auchinleck House , where resided Boswell's father , a judge of the Court of Session , and Loudoun Castle were the two chief places of supreme attractiveness to the great essayist and lexicographer on his way from the Hebrides to the Modern Babylon .sx But Dr. Johnson was much less attracted by the Laird of Auchinleck than subsequently by the Dowager Countess of Loudoun , who was in marvellous possession of her powers and fascinations at an extremely advanced age .sx While he received inspiration and ineffable charm from the one individual , he had nothing save constant altercations with the other .sx