SHOOTING. 173 



obtained in the neighbourhood of the great dividing fell 

 range between Sweden and Norway. I do not suppose 

 it would matter much, on which side he was stationed. I 

 should of course prefer the Swedish side as knowing the 

 country best, and I fancy the sportsman will find things 

 far cheaper, and the peasants less exorbitant, and more 

 accommodating in Sweden, than in Norway. He will require 

 to be up as far as 62 north lat. at least, before 

 he will reach any of the true fells for ptarmigan. In the 

 north of Dalecarlia, and on the fells towards the Norwegian 

 frontier, every species both of furred and feathered game 

 peculiar to Sweden, except perhaps partridges, are to be met 

 with, and trout and char fishing in every lake and stream. The 

 whole south of Sweden up to about 59 is much more open, 

 and the forests much smaller, than when we reach Werm- 

 land. There is excellent partridge and black game shooting 

 in many parts, and the English sportsman may here enjoy 

 some good open shooting to his pointers or setters, which 

 he cannot do much further north. 



The Island of Gotland would, I fancy, be an excellent 

 station for the sportsman, and the snipe and woodcock 

 shooting there is excellent. The double snipe breeds there, 

 and it has been reckoned, at a rough calculation, that about 

 200 birds are yearly killed at the present day on this island. 

 A sportsman from that island, writing in the " Swedish 

 Sporting Magazine," says that the greatest number of 

 common snipe which he has known to fall to one gun in 

 one moor, was nineteen, in five hours shooting, but this 

 gives us scarcely any idea of what the shooting really is there. 

 The same writer observes, respecting the woodcock, that 

 probably every spring 1000 woodcocks visit this island for the 

 purpose of breeding. Of these he reckons at least one-third 

 are shot, before and during the early breeding season 

 while "roading." If we now reflect that the remaining 

 two-thirds are scattered over about twenty square miles 

 (300,000 tunnland) it is easy to guess, that the sportsman 

 may beat over a good deal of ground without flushing many 

 cocks. The woods on Gotland are beautifully adapted for 



