28 THE NATUEALIST IN NORWAY. 



his tongue soon finds an expressive way of proclaiming 

 his wants; 'while he is soon understood when he has 

 money in his purse. 



The principal refuge for the sportsman in the Nor- 

 wegian mountains is the soeter, which answers, in many 

 respects, to the Swiss chalet. Here, in summer, the 

 cattle are driven to find pasture ; and here, afc night, 

 the tired hunter finds sleeping accommodation, such 

 as it is, with rye-bread and flat cakes, called in Nor- 

 way flad-brod, cheese, cream, and butter. Fresh eggs 

 may generally be had at the eaters, although poultry 

 is kept only at the farms in the lowlands. Tea, coffee, 

 and sugar, are not to be had at any price. It is to be 

 hoped, however, that the sportsman will have been 

 fortunate enough, during his day's sport, to have 

 provided himself with a fresh steak of reindeer 

 venison, a dish not to be despised. The sceters are 

 inhabited by healthy and robust, but plain-looking 

 peasant girls, who are extremely attentive to the 

 wants of the traveller, and are very modest and well- 

 behaved. 



The Norwegian bonder, who live in mountainous 

 districts, go to the fjelds in summer to hunt the rein- 

 deer, on which their families almost entirely subsist 

 during the long winter. They erect stone hovels on 

 the mountains, and when a reindeer is killed, it is 

 flayed, divided into quarters, then wrapped up in the 

 skin, and placed en cachette,to protect it from the ravages 

 of wolves, gluttons, and foxes. The hunter comes the 

 next morning with a pony, and removes the deer to 

 his home, where it is salted down for domestic use 

 during the winter. The man then returns to the fjelds, 

 and continues his hunting until he has procured suf- 



