THE ELK IN NORWAY. 123 
feet together, and kicks them out simultaneously with 
great violence, and thus manages to jerk itself along. 
In this way it is enabled to cross places where even 
the wolf gets completely nonplussed. But on the 
smooth ice it is perfectly helpless. No cat on walnut- 
shells, or donkey on stilts, ever looked half so ridiculous 
as does an elk on the ice. It falls down directly it 
begins to move, and owing to its length of leg is unable 
to rise again. The specimen that may be seen stuffed 
in the Zoological Museum at the Christiania Univer- 
sity was shot when on the ice on the river Glommen, 
in Odalen, a few winters back. 
The elk can run very quickly; but their powers of 
endurance are not nearly so great as those of the 
reindeer. They very seldom break into a gallop, except 
when suddenly alarmed, but usually maintain a long 
swinging, lurching kind of trot. The neck is then 
stretched out, so that the nose is carried parallel with 
the ground, by which the horns are brought backwards 
on each side of the neck. In trotting, the hind feet 
strike against the soles of the fore feet, and produce 
a clicking sound similar to that often heard in horses. 
When suddenly startled they go off in a straight 
direction, trampling down everything that comes in 
their way ; and their course may be tracked for a long 
distance by the breaking of twigs and the snapping 
of branches. A full-grown elk will weigh from 700 to 
