THE WILD REINDEER OF NORWAY. 97 



probable when it is borne in mind that the flocks of 

 tame deer in Finland and Nordland amount to 28,000 

 head, as above stated.* 



During the winter months the reindeer keep to the 

 high fjelds. Their food at this time consists almost 

 entirely of reindeer moss and other lichens. Occa- 

 sionally they descend into the regions of the birch and 

 willow to eat the bark from the trees ; but in spring 

 they commence to migrate downwards from their lofty 

 altitudes to visit the grassy dales in the vicinity of the 

 saeters, while further on in the summer they may often 

 be seen grazing in the valleys between the high fjelds. 

 Occasionally they may be seen in early summer grazing 



* Mr. Asbjornsen is my authority here ; but I must confess the 

 number reputed to be killed annually seems exaggerated. Mr. A. 

 speaks of one Hans Mo, " who annually killed from 40 to 50 head ;" 

 and of a hunter on the Dovre, "who annually sells reindeer hides to 

 the value of 70 dollars, which must have been supplied by at least 

 -J(t i leer." (N.B. May not some of these have been purchased ?) On 

 this point a friend writes me word, who has had much practical ex- 

 perience on the fjelds of Norway : " I was told a few years ago of 

 one of the Gudbrandsdal hunters, who had been out six weeks, 

 having killed six deer, as a wonderful instance of luck. B. tells 

 me of a first-rate Vaage hunter, who once killed 13 in a year, and 

 he says that the great man of all, ' Old Joe,' who is I suppose, par 

 excellence, the 'mighty hunter' of Norway, who has been at it 

 without cessation for fifty years, living almost all his life up in the 

 high fjelds amongst the deer, has slain in his half-century between 

 500 and GOO. I think one may judge also from the success of our 

 English sportsmen. I have three or four in my eye now, first-rate 

 stalkers and capital shots, who have spent several seasons on the 

 fjelds, with sport varying from zero to, I think, nine head as the 

 maximum ever reached, and I am sure any one of them would con- 

 eider five deer in a season as ample recompense for all his toil." 



H 



