94 SPORT IN NORWAY. 



excellent ; indeed, no other part of the country can vie 

 with Osterdal for the comfort, cleanliness, and good 

 fare to be met with.* 



Though wild reindeer are certainly to be met with in 

 Finmark and in Nordland, yet they are comparatively 

 few in number. Most of the deer in these provinces 

 are tame, and belong to the Lapps. It has been 

 computed that they amount to over 28,000 head. To 

 the Lapp the reindeer is his sole possession, so that it 

 is needless to say how jealously they are guarded. 

 Indeed, there is a heavy penalty for shooting one of 

 them purposely ; and I would recommend no English- 

 man to indulge in eccentricities, for the Lapps occasion- 

 ally take the law into their own hands, as the following 

 history will show : 



" Some years ago a number of convicts escaped from 

 the fortress at Vardohuus. In order to obtain food 

 they had recourse to killing tame reindeer. This 

 exasperated the Lapps beyond measure. They tracked 

 these unfortunate poachers from place to place, slowly, 

 but as surely as the bloodhound follows on the track of 

 a runaway slave. For years nothing was heard of 

 them, till at last their blanched skeletons were found, 

 bearing evident signs that their former inmates had 

 fallen into the hands of their remorseless and aven^in^ 



o o 



pursuers." Therefore, I repeat (verb, sap.), be careful 



* Vide Appendix. 



