92 TRAVELS IN THE EIGHTIES. 



fully deposited in the game bag. The head, neatly 

 severed from the trunk, was found reposing on the 

 moss below, but the remaining parts had totally 

 vanished, for 



the bird 



Was so changed in a moment, 'twas really absurd. 



On the next occasion when these wood-ryper were 

 fallen in with the distance was more carefully chosen. 

 I experienced much the same difficulty in Alaska, 

 with the blue grouse. These birds are exceedingly 

 difficult to find in thick pine forests, and it can only 

 be accomplished by examining each tree separately 

 from such a position that it stands out against the 

 sky, or, better still, so that the sun shall be behind it. 

 These blue grouse, if they should be in the tree, will 

 then be plainly seen. But, since it must clearly be 

 impossible that every tree can be thus examined, 

 owing to its position and that of other trees, much 

 time is often consumed, especially in thick, dense 

 timber, after a most uncomfortable and painful craning 

 of the vertebral column, without the discovery of any 

 game. If, however, a family of these grouse should, 

 after all, be discerned, the whole of them can generally 

 be secured, if care be taken to dispose first of those 

 seated upon the lower branches in regular order up- 

 wards. The one seated near the top of the tree will 

 complacently watch the immolation of its relations, 

 turning its head from side to side, until its own doom 

 arrives. 



I remarked that travellers in northern Norway and 

 Sweden might find a novel excitement in reindeer 



