58 FOREST SCENERY. 



I was assured, indeed, by Jan Pinne, of wlioni so 

 raucli mention was made in my former works, l)ut who 

 (as well as M. Talk and the rest of my old comrades) is 

 now in his grave, that he once thus shot no less than six 

 Capercali cocks in a single day, and these out of a pack 

 numbering twenty-six at the commencement of the winter, 

 but of which at its conclusion he only left one. This man, 

 like most of the northern peasants, shot with a rifle car- 

 rying a ball but little larger than a marrow-fat pea ; but 

 even with this weapon he frequently made in my presence 

 what might be looked upon as long shots. 



A peasant near Iljerpledan, on the Norwegian frontier, 

 informed me, furthermore, that in his younger days he had 

 known a pack of Capercali to consist of fully two hundred ; 

 that he himself and a comrade often went in pursuit of 

 these birds, and in the course of the winter killed about 

 forty ; but in spite of this slaughter, he went on to say, 

 the pack was apparently little reduced in number. And 

 this I can well believe, as from the vast extent of country 

 the pack vras driven over in its course, it must necessarily 

 have had frequent accessions fi'om other packs or addition 

 made by single birds. 



To stalk Capercali in the manner described I hold to 

 be, in a small Avay, one of the noblest of sports. The 

 scenery alone affords ample compensation for one's exer- 

 tions. The savage grandeur of the northern fox*ests, their 

 vastness, and tlieir solitude, can only be duly appreciated 

 by those who like myself have wandered in their wilds. 

 Mountain, rock, and glen, are all deeply covered with 

 the melancholy-looking pine, Avhich may be seen waving 

 in^endless succession as far as the sight can reach. "In 

 vain," says a contemporary writer, " does the eye, darting 

 between their tall, straight forms, rising in stately dignity, 

 and in their green, unchanging beauty, endeavour to pe- 

 netrate the dark extent, and to catch some traces of civi- 



