190 TEN YEAES IN SWEDEN. 



foxes in these forests, and that a good skin is worth about 

 9s. or 10s. The Arctic fox is confined to the very fell 

 tracts. 



The Hare never hardly lies out in the open, in the mid- 

 land districts, although you find them at form the same as 

 in England, among rough grass in the south, and on the 

 bare fells in the very north. With us they always lie in 

 the woods, and a small kind of hound, of no particular breed, 

 something like a terrier, is used to drive them. Hare- 

 hunting is, par excellence, the sport of the Swede. There 

 seems no particular art required, save a knowledge of where 

 the shooter should station himself, as soon as the hounds 

 have the hare up, for she always comes back to her starting- 

 place. I always consider this hare-shooting very poor 

 sport indeed, for these hounds drive very slowly, and often 

 do not bring the hare back for hours, so if a man gets about 

 a couple of shots in the day, he is well content. These little 

 hare-hounds may be very clever in their way, but they 

 run riot a good deal, and I have often thought that the 

 caustic remark of an old English huntsman would apply to 

 them very well, ' ' It was principally our opinion that the 

 hounds were running hare at all, they did not know them- 

 selves one half the time what they were running." 



In an article in the last number of the " Swedish Sport- 

 ing Magazine," on the decrease of game in Sweden, the 

 writer gives us the result of 21 battues or skalls in Scania 

 in 10 years, from 1842 to 1852, at which he was present 

 (in which there were never less than 25, but generally from 

 25 to 50 men), and the whole number of animals seen 

 and killed in the 21 battues amounted to (Listen ! all ye 

 English gamekeepers) 50 foxes seen, out of which 27 were 

 killed; hares, 54 seen, 38 shot; 1 black cock. The 

 best day's sport was 10 hares and 2 foxes. I think this 

 will pretty well prove that the Swedish game laws require 

 re-modelling. 



The Squirrel. In Lapland and the far north, where 

 the skins are very grey in autumn, the squirrel is eagerly 

 sought after, and 40 skins are worth perhaps 8s. In 



