The sport generally begins on the 1st April, and ends at Waala on 15th September, and at Kajana a few days later.

Practically all the fishing is free, and when not so, the charge is merely nominal. Near Waala salmon up to 50 lbs., grayling 5½ lbs., or trout 18 lbs. are not uncommon.

There is no netting except at two points on the Uleå river, and there is a great move nowadays to take the nets off from Saturday to Monday to let the fish free.

Herman Renfors was then the best fisherman in Finland. He told us that during five days, in September 1885,—things are not nearly so good as this nowadays—he caught the following:—

Sept.9. 18Grayling weighing 19lbs.
8Salmon, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 9, 24, 31 = 93 "
112 lbs.
" 10.18Grayling weighing 21lbs.
7Salmon, 4, 5, 6, 16, 27, 30, 40 =128 "
149 lbs.
" 11.18Grayling weighing 16lbs.
5Salmon, 7, 18, 26, 36, 52 =139 "
155 lbs.
" 12. 6Grayling weighing 6lbs.
8Salmon, 5, 5, 6, 7, 14, 29, 30, 43 =139 "
145 lbs.
" 13. 6Grayling weighing 6lbs.
6Salmon, 4, 2, 5, 31, 32, 33 =107 "
113 lbs.
class="center">Total in five days674 lbs.

Verily a record. His sister made his flies; and the salmon which weighed 52 lbs. he got with a salmon-spoon of his own make. He uses a spinning-rod 11 feet long, or a fly-rod 14 feet long. We saw him fishing in the famous rapids, and never shall we forget the dexterity of his throw, or the art of his "play." He once caught 1600 lbs. of fish in three weeks. Masters of the piscatorial art, does not envy enter your souls?

But this is digression, and our narrative demands that we proceed to tell how a twopenny fare in a little steamboat from Uleåborg brought us to the tar stores. On a Finnish steamboat one often requires change, so much paper money being in use, and the plan for procuring it is somewhat original. In neat little paper bags change for half a mark or a whole mark is securely fastened down, the colour of the bag indicating the amount of money it contains, therefore there can be no cheating. If one wants a mark changed the ticket-collector immediately produces a little sealed envelope containing a mark in pence, and having opened it one pays him whatever may be due.

From fifty thousand to seventy thousand barrels of tar are deposited every summer by the boats which shoot the Uleå rapids upon the quay near the town. What a sight! There they were piled two and three high like pipes of wine in the great London vaults, but in this case the barrels were not under cover, but simply lay on a quay that was railed in. Every barrel had to be tested before final shipment, and when we arrived a man was going round for this purpose trying each cask after the bung had been extracted. He wore high boots, and carried his ink-bottle in his boot leg as the London brewer carries his ink in his coat pocket. Then a helper, who followed behind, thumped in the bung while the foreman made his notes in a book, and in a few minutes a man or a woman came and rolled the barrel away. Those employed in the task wore strong leather gloves with no fingers—only a thumb, and so tarred they were absolutely hard, as also their boots from walking over the tarry ground. And yet all the faces were beautifully clean, and the clothes almost spotless.

The ground at these stores is literally sodden with tar, though here and there little drains are cut in order to collect it; the air being permeated by its wholesome smell.

Fancy if such a quay caught fire. Fancy those thousands of barrels in flames—and yet a famous admiral once set fire to this very tar store in the name of England; a little act of destruction that Finland has never quite forgiven Great Britain.