96 SPORT IN NORWAY. 



The reindeer is unquestionably the most numerous of 

 the large game of Norway, the red deer and elk being 

 comparatively few in number. Yet, in proportion to 

 their number, the quantity which falls a prey to 

 the hunter's rifle is very unimportant ; for they frequent 

 the most inaccessible parts of the country, and nature 

 has, moreover, provided them with extremely sensitive 

 organs of smell.* It is of course a matter of extreme 

 difficulty, and in fact only approximately possible, to 

 ascertain with any degree of precision the numbers 

 of wild reindeer which are annually slaughtered. But 

 when one takes into consideration the quantity of 

 venison which is to be found in almost every house 

 in those districts which are frequented by these ani- 

 mals, bearing in mind that nearly every farmer is a 

 hunter, some of whom kill as many as fifty head 

 per annum (not unfrequently ten on a single excursion), 

 it cannot be computed at less than between 2,000 and 

 3,000 yearly. Such being the case, there must at least 

 be from 20,000 to 30,000 wild reindeer in Norway, 

 in order to admit of such a yearly diminution. Perhaps 

 it would be nearer the mark to estimate it at nearly 

 double this number ; for it is hard to suppose that one 

 in every ten is annually killed ; and this is the more 



* An old Norwegian hunter told a friend of mine that he believed 

 great numbers perished annually by falling into the crevices of the 

 glaciers, and that these, added to what the wolves killed, far out- 

 numbered those which fell a prey to the hunter's rifle. 



