148 SPORT IN NORWAY. 
without meeting with a mountain stream of the clearest 
and most delicious water. 
The uses to which the dead elk-deer can be applied 
are as manifold as in the case of the reindeer; the 
fiesh, hide, hair, knuckles, marrow, fat, sinews, hoofs, 
&c., being all and each employed in various branches of 
domestic economy. 
At the proper season elk venison is considered to be 
a wholesome and nutritious food, though coarser and 
less palatable than remdeer venison. ‘The flesh is of a 
darker colour. As may be supposed, the calves prove 
the best eating. 
From the middle towards the end of the month 
of September, the flesh of the bucks is uneatable, 
having a rank and nauseous taste, on account of the 
approaching rutting season. Still, I think, the stomach 
of a Norwegian Bonde is capable of digesting almost 
anything ;* an assertion which those who have travelled 
much in the country will doubtless corroborate. The 
best time for eating elk venison is undoubtedly in 
the beginning of August, though that of the does 
may be eaten till towards the end of September. 
Mr. Asbjérnsen says that he has been informed by 
an experienced housewife in Solder, who used to keep 
* On seeing them eat, I have often thought of those lines of 
H orace, beginning— 
“ Dura messorum ilia,” &c. 
