AN ELK SEASON 155 



a carpet of pile a foot deep and of colours beyond 

 imagination, reindeer moss threw its lace of yellow and 

 white over hills and hollows, and the ground was every- 

 where starred with golden multebsere. It is on such 

 ground as this that the Norwegian elk passes the hotter 

 part of summer, until stress of weather drives him to 

 take shelter lower down among the trees. Yet even in 

 September, when the sun shines out after a night of 

 storm or of frost, he is apt to climb away from the 

 fringes of the forests and to spend the day on the higher 

 levels lying in some marshy hollow. 



On that first day we patrolled the sombre woodlands 

 and the breezy open, but not a sign of elk did we see, 

 and the evening closed upon the non-fulfilment of 

 Peder's forecast. This went on for four days, during 

 which Bismarck stalked ahead in his leash, for the most 

 part with listless indifference, only once raising our 

 hopes by a more alert demeanour, which, however, ended 

 in nothing more exciting than a glimpse of a spike-bull 

 already skrosmt upon a distant hillside. 



Half the charm of elk-hunting centres on the dog, 

 without whose aid, except on the very high and open 

 fjeld where spying with glasses is possible, few 

 trophies would be obtained, and many farmsteads would 

 lack their winter supply of salted meat. The ordinary 

 elk-hound is nearly allied to the husky, though, unlike 

 his congener, he displays towards human beings a kindly 

 nature. Between themselves the elk-hounds are very 

 pugnacious, and when an elk is killed the tracking dog 

 is generally unwilling to allow any one, save his master, 

 to approach it. There seem to be two distinct kinds of 

 elk-hound, one smaller than the other, but it will be as 

 well to drop generalities in favour of Bismarck, whose 



