132 . BIG GAME SHOOTING 



mory, it is proved that, in moments of rage and defiance, the 

 bull will also roar or bellow furiously. About the call of the 

 cow there is no doubt whatever ; she can also, on occasion, 

 produce a loud, harsh roar, intended as an attractive summons 

 to the bull. Colonel Walker mentions his having for some 

 time watched a cow in the very act of uttering this call, after 

 the bull had been shot whilst paying her great attentions. She 

 wholly disregarded the shot herself, and the approach of the 

 shooter, whom she allowed to come within twenty yards before 

 she moved quietly off. When about half a mile away she recom- 

 menced her alluring roar, which Colonel Walker describes as 

 ' like the noise of a very angry bear when you have him where 

 he cannot escape you.' The cow has also, when separated 

 from her calf, a milder call, nearly similar to that of the domestic^ 

 animal. The art of calling elk has, happily, never been practisec 

 in Scandinavia, and as all the hunting takes place during dayj 

 light, and as, moreover, the inhabitants of the interior have 

 decided objection to being abroad during the dark hours o| 

 either evening or morning, this subject, like that of the horns 

 has probably not received from them much attention. Yoi 

 will find men who have passed all their lives in the wilds 

 of Norway, and constantly hunted the elk, ready to swear that, 

 with the exception of the ' Lokton,' neither sex utters any cry 

 whatever. It is somewhat hard to reject altogether the idea 

 that the elk of Scandinavia is, during the rutting season, habitu- 

 ally more silent than the moose is reported to be — but here I 

 get out of my depth. 



The first signs that the rutting season is beginning usually 

 reveal themselves about the third week in September, when 

 the hunter will discover in the forest sundry young fir-trees 

 that have been freshly barked and cut to pieces by the horns 

 of the bull. This would scarcely of itself be conclusive 

 evidence, as the bull will occasionally spar with a tree much 

 earlier in the month, possibly to complete the removal of the 

 velvet. I have seen the horns of young elk covered with it as 

 late as the end of the first week. Corroboration will be sup- 



