140 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



cautiously and noiselessly as possible ; and this is not so easy 

 in a Scandinavian forest, where the ground is usually cumbered 

 with any number of dead trees armed with spikes as sharp as 

 rapiers, of rotten trunks half-buried in moss and rank vege- 

 tation, and of dry branches and twigs which crack loudly 

 beneath the over-hasty and incautious foot. In the rutting 

 season indeed such a noise is now and then of some slight 

 service to the hunter. I have known several instances in 

 which, the wind being right, a bull either searching for the cow 

 or suspicious of a rival has run back out of the thicket to see 

 what was approaching, arid paid the penalty of his curiosity. 

 Such an incident can of course only occur when the dog is in 

 hand, and the sportsman will do well not to presume upon its 

 very rare advantage. 



I recollect a scared elk running twenty English miles, with 

 the dog still sticking to him. After giving me a difficult chance, 

 he broke his bay two or three times during the first hour of the 

 chase, and how many times subsequently I cannot say, as, 

 finding the pace too hot for my age and weight, I stopped and 

 let the hunter, who was young and light and a celebrated 

 runner, go on with my rifle. This happened about u A.M., 

 and he shot the elk just before dusk. His dog, dear old 

 Kurre, was one of the staunchest loose hounds that ever lived ; 

 he was, in fact, too good, for if he once got up to the elk he 

 would never leave it until dark, and not always then. On one 

 occasion he held a bull at bay all night, until his master came 

 early in the morning and killed it. 



So keen was this dog to keep the attention of the bayed 

 elk on himself, that with a kind of demoniacal glee he would 

 actually roll on the ground just out of reach of his forefeet. 

 When very young he had been struck by an elk, and was sup- 

 posed at the time to be seriously if not mortally injured ; but 

 he recovered himself, went on again, and eventually stopped 

 the bull, which was then shot. With all this ferocious courage 

 there never was a dog more gentle, good-tempered, and well- 

 behaved in ordinary life. When an elk hound, as is certainly 



