96 SPORT IN NORWAY. 
The reindeer is unquestionably the most numerous of 
the large game of Norway, the red deer and elk being 
comparatively few in number. Yet, in proportion to 
their number, the quantity which falls a prey to 
the hunter’s rifle is very unimportant ; for they frequent 
the most inaccessible parts of the country, and nature 
has, moreover, provided them with extremely sensitive 
organs of smell.* It is of course a matter of extreme 
difficulty, and in fact only approximately possible, to 
ascertain with any degree of precision the numbers 
of wild reindeer which are annually slaughtered. But 
when one takes into consideration the quantity of 
venison which is to be found in almost every house 
in those districts which are frequented by these ani- 
mals, bearing in mind that nearly every farmer is a 
hunter, some of whom kill as many as fifty head 
per annum (not unfrequently ten on a single excursion), 
it cannot be computed at less than between 2,000 and 
3,000 yearly. Such being the case, there must at least 
be from 20,000 to 30,000 wild reindeer in Norway, 
in order to admit of such a yearly diminution. Perhaps 
it would be nearer the mark to estimate it at nearly 
double this number ; for it is hard to suppose that one 
in every ten is annually killed; and this is the more 
* An old Norwegian hunter told a friend of mine that he believed 
great numbers perished annually by falling into the crevices of the 
glaciers, and that these, added to what the wolves killed, far out- 
numbered those which fell a prey to the hunter’s rifle. 
