REINDEER 109 



afterwards that the young sailor who was 

 assisting him to carry the reindeer suddenly 

 sat down and commenced to weep from very 

 weariness and anger. The doctor, used as he was 

 to fatigue, assured me that he felt like doing 

 the same thing himself. The sensation which 

 seizes one is one of absolute and complete 

 impotence. Time and courage overcome all 

 obstacles, however, and finally we got all our 

 reindeer safely aboard. My sincere advice to 

 the casual hunter is to avoid Giers Valley. He 

 may perhaps succeed in shooting a reindeer or 

 two, but he will never bring back his game, and 

 probably never return himself. The danger 

 of dying from fatigue up there on the heights 

 is not to be despised. 



Swensen, the Norwegian captain who accom- 

 panied me in 1909, was one of the cleverest 

 hunters and strongest men I have ever met. 

 Yet he told me that on one occasion he stumbled 

 into a similar bog when carrying a reindeer he 

 had shot. For six hours he struggled to 

 withdraw his game from the mud ; but the 

 swamp conquered, and he had at last been com- 

 pelled to abandon the carcass and save himself. 

 He added that when he came to firm land again 

 he would most probably have lain down and 

 slept, had it not been that one of his companions, 



