148 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



a steep thicket and effectually scare the elk before they sighted i 

 him. In fact, a judicious use of the many rocky knolls and J 

 steep acclivities which rise above the brushwood in the high- 1 

 level forest of Norway is one of the principal features of stalking, 

 for it is in the copses which clothe the sides of the watered dells 

 and the basins of the mountain tarns that the deer are oftenest 

 found. The main point is to sight the elk without disturbing 

 him, after which it becomes a question of time and patience 

 to get a shot. If he is not at first approachable, you must 

 watch him until he shifts his position, and then try again ; it 

 is better to spend the whole day in getting up to a beast than 

 to scare him and have to pass the next two or three days, 

 and possibly more, in finding another. Stalking has the great 

 advantage over loose-dog hunting that one need never be 

 idle ; elk when lying down may be frequently approached with 

 great success, and if one is forced to wait until they move, such 

 compulsory idleness is at all events fairly in the day's work ; 

 it has in it the elements of excitement and continual hope, and 

 is far better than merely killing time under a pine-tree or in a 

 hay-house. 



Although the stalker will find the high-level beats best 

 suited to his work, he will be at times obliged to exchange their 

 freedom and glorious air for the close monotony of the lower 

 pine wood, especially for those long sombre stretches of it — , 

 half level, half slope — which so often lie between the margin I 

 of a lake and a range of towering cliff. Here he will find, as ■ 

 a rule, but little undergrowth or brushwood, but from among 

 the moss-coated boulders many a tall, slender mountain-ash 

 will be found springing up and flourishing wherever it can gain 

 sufficient light and air. Such a place is a favourite resort of' 

 elk, who are generally aware of some steep pass among the 

 cliffs by which they can regain the higher ground. Supposing 

 the hunter to have settled to his satisfaction that there are deer ' 

 in such a stretch of wood ; supposing him to have found their 

 fresh signs all over it, the bared wood of the ash-saplings 

 showing white and the edges of the bark still bleeding, he has 



