98 SPORT IN NORWAY. 



quietly amongst the cattle. Should the musquitoes 

 prove very troublesome the does betake themselves 

 again to the regions of snow ; but the old bucks, whose 

 hides are not usually of such a delicate texture, find the 

 sweet grass in the lowlands too attractive to be re- 

 linquished for the sake of a few troublesome gnats, and 

 get uncommonly plump and fat. If the summer is an 

 uncommonly rainy one, as has been the case for the 

 last three years, the numerous fungi which the moisture 

 draws forth seduces them into the Scotch and spruce fir 

 forests, where they grow in abundance. 



They begin to shed their coats about the latter part 

 of July, previously to which they are of a greyish-white 

 colour ; whilst the operation is going on, dappled ; and 

 afterwards a dark greyish-brown. 



A full-grown buck measures about six to seven feet 

 hi length, and about four feet in height. A very large 

 buck might, perhaps, reach four feet six inches. The 

 head is rather elongated, the nozzle thick, the eyes 

 large and prominent (expressively beautiful, I always 

 think), the ears about six inches in length, and oval. 

 There are two beautiful specimens in the Zoological 

 Museum at the .University of Christiania. One of 

 these, which is a very fine one, was shot by a friend of 

 mine on the fjelds, a fe'.v miles south of Elstad station 

 in Gudbrandsdal. It was the year of the coronation ; 

 and consequently the station-masters were often put 



