116 SPORT IN NORWAY. 
rank among the animals of bygone days. In fact, 
between the years 1810 and 1830 there were only about 
three places where they were to be found, namely, im some 
parts’ of the province of Throndhjem and in Oster- 
dalen. 
Fortunately, government now stepped in, and in 
1818 passed a law that not a single elk should be 
killed for the next twenty years. In 1845 this strin- 
gent but necessary enactment was again modified, and 
now the law stands as follows:—that ‘“elks can only 
be killed between August lst and November Ist, and 
then only one on each separate property, under a 
penalty of forty dollars.” This law is, however, fre- 
quently broken. For the penalty is so laid that half 
goes to the informer, half to the poor-box of the district 
in which the elk is shot. Thus if A. shoots an elk 
at an unlawful time, his brother B. has nothing to do 
but cut off to the nearest Foged, or magistrate, and lay 
an information against him, and recover half the fine ; 
and as the flesh and hide, &c. are quite worth that sum, 
the poacher is not a loser, and has the fun into the 
bargain. The penalty is to be raised shortly, and several 
alterations, in fact, are to be made in the game laws * of 
Norway. 
As may be imagined, it could be no very difficult — 
thing to eradicate animals of such size from the face 
* These will be found at the end of the chapter. 
