THE WILD REINDEER OF NORWAY. 97 
probable when it is borne in mind that the flocks of 
tame deer in Finland and Nordland amount to 28,000 
head, as above stated.* 
During the winter months the reindeer keep to the 
high fjelds. Their food at this time consists almost 
entirely of remdeer moss and other lichens. Occa- 
sionally they descend into the regions of the birch and 
willow to eat the bark from the trees; but in spring 
they commence to migrate downwards from their lofty 
altitudes to visit the grassy dales in the vicinity of the 
seeters, while further on in the summer they may often 
be seen grazing in the valleys between the high fjelds. 
Occasionally they may be seen in early summer grazing 
* Mr. Asbjornsen is my authority here; but I must confess the 
number reputed to be killed annually seems exaggerated. Mr. A. 
speaks of one Hans Mo, “ who annually killed from 40 to 50 head ;” 
and of a hunter on the Dovre, “ who annually sells reindeer hides to 
the value of 70 dollars, which must have been supplied by at least 
40 deer.” (N.B. May not some of these have been purchased?) On 
this point a friend writes me word, who has had much practical ex- 
perience on the fjelds of Norway: “I was told a few years ago of 
one of the Gudbrandsdal hunters, who had been out six weeks, 
having killed six deer, as a wonderful instance of luck. B. tells 
me of a first-rate Vaage hunter, who once killed 13 in a year, and 
he says that the great man of all, ‘Old Joe,’ who is I suppose, par 
excellence, the ‘mighty hnnter’ of Norway, who has been at it 
without cessation for fifty years, living almost all his life up in the 
high fjelds amongst the deer, has slain in his half-century between 
500 and 600. I think one may judge also from the success of our 
English sportsmen. I have three or four in my eye now, first-rate 
stalkers and capital shots, who have spent several seasons on the 
fjelds, with sport varying from zero to, I think, nine head as the 
maximum ever reached, and I am sure any one of them would con- 
sider five deer in a season as ample recompense for all his toil.” 
H 
