126 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



in that province for three years. Unluckily the local authoritie? 

 neglected to enforce at the same time proper supervision in 

 the matter of poaching. A Swede, who acted as hunter for 

 me some years later, coolly confessed that he and his comrades 

 had never had such good sport as during that long close-time. 

 Whilst honest law-abiding men stayed at home and the officials 

 pocketed their salaries and did nothing, the poacher gangs had 

 the immense forest tracts all to themselves, and with the con- 

 nivance of some of the farmers, who of course had their share 

 of the spoil, were easily able to escape detection. The elk 

 season in Sweden would appear to be subject to local varia- 

 tions similar to those in Norway ; in the province of Jemtland 

 it is confined to the month of September only. 



Knowing nothing of the American moose, except from 

 reading or hearsay, I am scarcely equal to drawing any com- ^ 

 parison between it and the Scandinavian elk. It is, I under- , 

 stand, generally agreed that while the two animals are about 

 equal in bulk, the moose, in the matter of horns at least, has 

 the advantage — ceteris paribus — of its European congener. 

 Nevertheless, the latter, when it has attained its full honours, 

 is capable of furnishing the sportsman with a trophy of which 

 he may well be proud. 



Whether, as some experienced hunters maintain, the age ot 

 an elk can be fairly determined by the number of points on its 

 antlers, or whether, as others declare, there is absolutely no 

 test by which it can be approximately guessed, beyond the fact 

 that the ruggedness and spread of the coronet and the thicken- 

 ing of the base of the horns and tines are sure indications of 

 old age, it is not for me, in the teeth of such conflicting 

 opinions, to decide, although I have for some years taken 

 especial pains to collect data and ideas on this very obscure 

 subject. But I would suggest, with all due respect to the 

 theories of others, that nature is seldom purely capricious, and 

 that, taking as a basis the normal development of the horns 

 during the first two or three years, which is, as a rule, regular 

 and easily observable, and regarding the large number of elk 



