THE ELK IN NORWAY. 123 



feet together, and kicks them out simultaneously with 

 great violence, and thus manages to jerk itself along. 

 In this way it is enahled to cross places where even 

 the wolf gets completely nonplussed. But on the 

 smooth ice it is perfectly helpless. No cat on walnut- 

 shells, or donkey on stilts, ever looked half so ridiculous 

 as does an elk on the ice. It falls down directly it 

 begins to move, and owing to its length of leg is unable 

 to rise again. The specimen that may be seen stuffed 

 in the Zoological Museum at the Christiania Univer- 

 sity was shot when on the ice on the river Glommen, 

 in Odalen, a few winters back. 



The elk can run very quickly ; but their powers of 

 endurance are not nearly so great as those of the 

 reindeer. They very seldom break into a gallop, except 

 when suddenly alarmed, but usually maintain a long 

 swinging, lurching kind of trot. The neck is then 

 stretched out, so that the nose is carried parallel with 

 the ground, by which the horns are brought backwards 

 on each side of the neck. In trotting, the hind feet 

 strike against the soles of the fore feet, and produce 

 a clicking sound similar to that often heard in horses. 

 When suddenly startled they go off in a straight 

 direction, trampling down everything that comes in 

 their way ; and their course may be tracked for a long 

 distance by the breaking of twigs and the snapping 

 of branches. A full-grown elk will Aveigh from 700 to 



