THE WILD REINDEER OF NORWAY. 23 



the animals and birds frequenting the wild rocky 

 region in which we were. 



Our tent was pitched on the banks of a small 

 lake, with one or two tributary streams running into 

 it. There were considerable numbers of trout in it, 

 identical in species with our Salmo fario, though 

 they would seldom rise at a fly. We had had 

 several blank days, seeing deer on one occasion, but 

 having stalked within about 900 yards, a sudden 

 puff of wind gave them our scent, and our chance 

 of a shot was spoiled. However, one day, after a 

 long tramp over frozen snow and beds of jagged 

 gneiss rocks mingled with shingly broken fragments 

 of mica slate and ironstone, on the sandy margin of 

 a small lake, whose waters were fed by small rivu- 

 lets from a huge mass of half-melted snow and ice 

 on one side of it, we came across the spoor of four 

 or five reindeer. The track was fresh and the deer 

 had evidently passed a very short time before, for 

 some plants of Ranunculus glacialis growing close 

 by were still wet with saliva in the places where the 

 leaves and stalks had been cropped. A high stony 

 ridge covered with shingle and large scattered stones 

 was in front of us, and up this the spoor evidently 

 led. It was about 11 A.M., and as we knew that 

 it was the habit of the reindeer generally to rest at 

 this period of the day, after feeding in the earlier 

 portion of the morning, we were greatly in hope of 



