188 HAPPY HUNTING-GROUNDS 



some of which our host cleared out of the way with 

 the bill-hook he always carries with him on such ex- 

 peditions. This pioneering work is not done merely 

 to improve the path, but also with a view of making it 

 easy to identify in thick weather ; for which reason 

 also we marked our course by raising little cairns of 

 stones upon all the prominent peaks, within sight of 

 each other. 



Changes of climate are rapid at these altitudes, 

 and it is no joke to be lost in a mist or storm. Not 

 very long before our visit a farmer, who lived up at 

 Havsaas, was lost on the fjeld for four days, although 

 he was a noted reindeer hunter and practised moun- 

 taineer and well acquainted with every inch of the 

 ground. When he had been absent about two days 

 and nights his wife became anxious, and a search-party 

 was organised. His tracks in the snow, which were 

 soon found and followed, meandered about in the 

 most extraordinary manner in loops, curves, and circles, 

 and in one place the party came upon a corniche of 

 snow overlooking a sheer precipice of over a thousand 

 feet through which his staff had pierced into the void. 

 For a short time he had found shelter in an old hut, 

 or he must have succumbed to the effects of exposure, 

 and it was a proof of his dazed condition that he had 

 ventured to leave his place of safety and wandered a 

 second time out into the impenetrable mist. Even- 

 tually he was found almost at his last gasp, and quite 

 light-headed ; but although he completely recovered, 

 he had so entirely lost his nerve that he could never 

 again be persuaded to tempt the perils of the high 



L 



The birch-trees on these uplands are in great 



