STALKING, 213 



ment ; for at that season the deer keep much to the 

 naked fjiills, where, comparatively speaking, there is little 

 snow ; and that little, moreover, from the wind having free 

 access to it, so hard packed together, that the animals can 

 go at their own pace. On these occasions the Lapps, as when 

 pursuing the wolf, have frequently no other weapon than a 

 stout staff, arrned at one end with a pike. 



During the summer and autumn many wild rein-deer are 

 stalked in much the same manner as the stag with us. 

 Sometimes the hunter is alone; but at others he is accom- 

 panied by a dog, which, in a long leash, and in the manner 

 spoken of when treating of the elk, leads him up to the 

 deer. On other occasions the hunter, under the shelter of 

 tame rein-deer, makes his approaches to the quarry. It 

 happens, moreover, not unfrequently, that such of the 

 younger males as have been driven away from the seraglio 

 by the Sarakka, mingle with the tame herds, and pair with 

 the hinds an act of temerity that usually costs them their 

 lives. 



The number of wild rein-deer killed annually in Scan- 

 dinavia by one means or another, is considerable. Very 

 many, to my knowledge, are shot on the Norwegian moun- 

 tains by peasants and others ; as also in the more northern 

 parts of the peninsula. One of my guides in Russian 

 Lapland, who was much celebrated as a Chasseur, assured 

 me, indeed, that in his time he had destroyed hundreds of 

 those animals in one instance as many as nine in a single 

 day. For the most part, he had shot them during the 

 autumn, when they were in the best condition ; but many he 

 had also run down on Skidor. 



