144 SPORT IN NORWAY. 
case it was ten to one the fabrication of some poacher 
who sought to cast the blame of “ elk-murder” on 
Bruin’s broad shoulders in order to avoid getting 
into trouble himself. There is reason in this, and 
little doubt but that poor Bruin has had to bear the 
blame of countless infringements of the game laws 
innocently. 
But that a bear will kill an elk when he gets an 
opportunity I should be slow to disbelieve, even if the 
following well-authenticated account did not solve the 
question. In the autumn of 1850 two hunters in the 
woods near Aamot in Osterdal, suddenly came across a 
bear which had just brought down an elk, and which 
was so busy in sucking the blood that it was not aware 
of the approach of danger, and accordingly paid dear 
for its presumption. As it occurred in the proper 
shooting season there was obviously no reason for 
deception being practised on the part of the hunters. 
Wangenheim avers that in the forests of Lithuania 
many elks are killed by the bears. 
‘“‘Bruin never ventures,” he writes, “to approach a 
herd of elk, but only looks out for an outlying deer, 
approaching it stealthily till sufficiently near to give the 
fatal spring. When once he has got the animal tightly 
hugged he commences to suck the blood from the 
throat. His thirst bemg slaked, and the elk quite 
dead, he then covers up the remains with leaves, 
