CHAPTER VI. 



AN ELK-HUNTING SEASON IN NORWAY. 



[Note. The chapter following is included in this 

 book as the author thinks it may interest his readers 

 to compare the methods adopted in Norway in hunting 

 the elk (A Ices machlis) with those in vogue in America 

 for hunting the moose (A Ices americamis), the New 

 World form of the same animal.] 



IN 1905 I decided to try a season in Norway, and in 

 pursuance of this plan I rented eighteen elk-rights in 

 the province of Namdalen. Most of the elk forests 

 in this district form part of the area of various farms, 

 and consequently the rights belong to the farmers, and 

 upon each " right " an elk, either bull or cow, may be 

 killed. 



The Norwegian farmers live a free, if hard, life, but 

 they derive in many cases their chief means of comfort 

 from the leasing of their sporting rights. The cost of 

 a licence to shoot elk is 100 kroners, a little more than 

 5, and the elk-rights cost from 5 to 15 apiece, 

 according to the chances of success which they offer. 

 A certain number of rights are to be hired in London, 

 but as a rule better value is to be obtained by dealing 

 direct with the farmers or owners. It has of late been 

 the wise policy of the Norwegian Storthing to cut 

 down the length of the shooting season ; from two 

 months it has already shrunk to twenty-one days, so 



