TO THE POINTER. 89 



sideways to the misdoer, or, in spite of his reindeer-skiu 

 breeches, he might hav^e beea seriously hurt ; as it was, 

 he escaped with a few well-deserved shots iu the beud of 

 one of his knees." 



Many Black-Cocks are also shot to the Sfuud-Hnnd, or 

 pointer, in the central and southern portion of the 

 peninsula, for in the far north that dog is little available, 

 owing- to the extent and denseness of the forests. 



In certain localities in Sweden, and the same is no 

 doubt the case in Norway, very good Black-Cock shooting 

 may be had with the pointer. M. Greitf tells us, for 

 instance, that at Kafvelas, the seat of the Baron von 

 Essen, upwards of a hundred of those birds have been 

 shot in a single day ; and in other quarters I liave known 

 considerable slaughter to be committed. 



At times I have myself been tolerably suceesful. 

 One day, when crossing the country at haphazard, so 

 to say, I bagged fourteen and a half brace of Black- 

 Cock, and on the following afternoon — the morning 

 having proved an entire failure — seventeen and a half 

 bi'ace; and this, be it remembered, was in the middle of 

 September, when the poults were full grown, and hardly 

 to be distinguished from their parents. These were some- 

 Avliat exceptional days ; but on tolerably good ground I 

 could always pretty well calculate on bagging from three 

 or four to eight or ten brace of the birds in question. I 

 am, however, speaking of the olden times, when game of 

 every description in Sweden was, by all accounts, much 

 more abundant than at present. 



But as compared with the great extent of country a 

 man usually goes over when Black-Cock shooting, the 

 number of bii"ds he meets is usually m.iserably few. This 

 is, no doubt, greatly owing to the multitude of sportsmen, 

 almost every one nowadays carrying a gun ; but chieily, 

 I consider, to the vermin, both winged and four-footed, 



