DUCK-SHOOTING IN WERMLAND, 

 SWEDEN. 



I HAVE, I think, already observed, that in the part of Sweden where 

 I reside w^e have none of what the English game-shooter would call 

 open shooting. Our partridges were all destroyed by two severe 

 winters a few years since, and the breed has never been got up 

 again. The capercailly and hazel grouse, as in all other parts of 

 Sweden, are confined exclusively to the forests, and here, at least, I 

 only occasionally find the blackgame lying out in the open, although 

 we have some tolerable ground, and the hares are always in woods 

 or plantations. The forests are so much thicker than in England, 

 that one rarely gets a fair flying shot. It ;s_, therefore, impossible to 

 make a heavy bag in any of the woods round us, and the English 

 sportsman would find but little amusement in a day's covert-shoot- 

 ing in S^^den, except, perhaps, just in the very south, at woodcocks. 



But although, as I have said, we have no open shooting at game, 

 we have round us some of the finest duck and snipe grounds that 

 any man would wish to shoot over, and I will describe two localities 

 in my own neighbourhood over which I have full right to shoot, 

 and these will give the English sportsman a pretty good idea of 

 hundreds — I may say thousands — of places in Sweden of the same 

 description. 



As a word of preface, I may as well say at starting that, except 

 just for duck and snipe, my game-book would show a very poor 

 return when compared with that of most English sportsmen ; but 

 then we must remember that I do not pay one shilling rent for 

 either my fishing or shooting, and exactly that sum per day is the 

 cost of my man, who rows and attends me in all my little trips. 



