1888-89.] ^ Sportmg Tour in Norway. 215 



My shoulder was so painful that we thought it prudent to go 

 ashore at Molde, in order to have it properly attended to at 

 the hospital. The two doctors there only corroborated the 

 opinion of the first, that it would be several weeks before I 

 would be able to shoot or fish. During our sojourn at 

 Molde, news came in to the village that sixteen sheep had 

 been killed, and a bear with two cubs had been seen a few 

 miles distant. A party went off in pursuit, and it was with 

 feelings of the deepest regret I was unable to accompany 

 them. Bruin, however, was too wide-awake, and had evidently 

 left the district. 



Molde is a beautiful place, its environs being among the 

 most picturesque in Norway. What interested me most at 

 this place was the leper hospital, which stood in close proxim- 

 ity to the one I attended. This most terrible of all diseases 

 was at one time very common in our own country. Thanks, 

 however, to medical science and sanitary laws, this dreadful 

 malady has been almost eradicated in Britain ; and even 

 in !N"orway it is disappearing, there not being half the 

 number of cases that there were thirty years ago. Through 

 the courtesy of the doctor, I was permitted to see through the 

 leper hospital, and a more repulsive or distressing spectacle 

 I never witnessed. I was informed that when persons are 

 first seized the pain is acute, but after the disease is fully 

 developed the patient suffers very little, and could have his 

 leg or arm taken off almost without feeling it. Leprosy is 

 quite incurable, but in no way contagious if proper precautions 

 are taken. Some persons assert it is only prevalent on the 

 west coast of Norway, in consequence of the peasants living 

 almost exclusively on fish. Be that as it may, it is at Bergen, 

 Throndhjem, and Molde, on the west coast, that the leper 

 hospitals are. 



As I was quite able to walk about with my arm in a sling, 

 we set saD. for the island of Hitteren. Reaching Havn, we 

 staid over night, and the following day drove across the island. 

 It took us seven hours to drive twenty-one miles, the road 

 reminding me of a switchback railway. Arriving at our des- 

 tination, where we were kindly and hospitably entertained, 

 we spent the night there, a messenger having been despatched 

 some miles for a hunter to pioneer us over the mountains, my 



