ELK HUNTING. 185 



the middle of June, at the first birth one, afterwards two 

 calves. The way in which we always hunt them in our 

 forest is by having a small " skall " planting the guns 

 across a certain part of the wood, and beating up to them. 

 We very often, of course, have a blank; but the best 

 " skall " I ever saw was in 1861, when we killed four elks, 

 and sent one away mortally wounded, which we lost. A 

 good rifle is, of course, the best thing for this sport ; and my 

 advice would be to an English sportsman who comes here, 

 either for bear, elk, or wild reindeer shooting, to bring over a 

 short, heavy double rifle, which will carry a two-ounce ball, 

 for I never yet saw an elk fall stone dead to the first shot 

 with an ordinary bullet. They always carry it away some 

 distance, and often fall dead in the forest from internal 

 hemorrhage, a long way from the place where they are 

 shot. 



Another way of killing them is to follow them with an 

 elk hound, trained for the purpose which will bring 

 the elk to bay, and the shooter then creeps up and kills it ; 

 and this is perhaps the surest way of shooting wild reindeer 

 on the fells. This is often laborious, but exciting, sport. 

 Such a dog is of no use except for elk and lynx, and when 

 properly broken, will cost about 10. I do not think it is any 

 use trying to stalk them in the forest without a dog, though, 

 of course, by wandering about a man might get a chance 

 shoto 



The principal destruction of the elk hitherto has taken 

 place in winter, when their worst enemies, the wolves 

 and " sked lopare " (peasants who can run on skidor), make 

 often sad havoc among them. At this time it is very diffi- 

 cult for the elk to run, because it sinks into the snow, and a 

 wolf or man on snow skates (skidor) can slide over the top 

 surface. However, I do not fancy there are many wolves in 

 the middle of Sweden just now, at least certainly not about 

 us ; and as the fine is very heavy for killing an elk in forbid- 

 den time, and it is strictly enforced, the breed will consider- 

 ably increase in a few years. It's not very easy, moreover, 

 to kill an elk without being found out (especially among 



