206 HAPPY HUNTING-GROUNDS 



lakes ; others, moss-covered and fungus-grown, lay 

 prone among the birches, and whenever the soil was 

 disturbed with a spade, more were discovered under- 

 ground. Some roots clearly showed the marks of an 

 axe, but it is impossible to ascribe the total disappear- 

 ance of the forest to human agency. There can never 

 have been a large population on these heights, which 

 are now only visited during the short summer season 

 by cattle and the soeter girls who milk and look after 

 them, and by reindeer hunters during two short weeks 

 in September. It would have been impossible to 

 transport the timber into the valley, or to make use 

 of much on the spot, so I can only conjecture that 

 change of climate must have been the cause. The old 

 trees and roots make excellent firewood, and provide 

 an almost inexhaustible supply. 



I took photographs of some of these outstanding 

 roots and fallen giants, and tried also, as it was a 

 bright sunny afternoon, to take pictures of some of the 

 most open elk pitfalls ; but although my host stood in 

 them with bill-hook in hand, my snapshots unfortu- 

 nately show nothing but a man looking out of a hole. 

 Even truth, perhaps fortunately, considering her state 

 of deshabille, could defy the photographer when at the 

 bottom of her well ! On our return journey we picked 

 up a last year's ryper snare. It was made of a forked 

 stick about a foot and a half high, with a fine wire 

 snare fixed to the bottom of one of its arms. The two 

 ends are planted across a run, and the surrounding 

 ground blocked with brushwood and heather, repeating 

 on a small scale the method adopted with the elk pit- 

 falls and bear snare. Then we botanised, and got some 

 beautiful saxifrages and ferns, and a sprig of white 



