150 SPOET IN NORWAY. 



well, and became extremely plump and fat ; but they 

 never arrived at such a pitch of domestication as to 

 be used as draught animals.* They all of them died, 

 however, before completing the third year, of diarrhoea 

 or dysentery. 



The average number of elks that are shot in Norway 

 has been computed to amount to about 200 head per 

 annum ; many, perhaps the greater part, unlawfully. 

 And Mr. Asbjornsen considers that the total number 

 of elk-deer in Norway may be put down at about 

 5000 head. 



The value of an elk-deer ranges from 20 to 30 dollars, 

 or from 4 10s. to 6 15s., though they are often 

 worth more. The flesh of a full-grown elk seldom 

 weighs less than 40 bismer-pund, though they have 

 been known to attain double this weight. 



Of late years the number of elk that have been shot 

 unlawfully during the winter, both in Norway and 

 Sweden, has attracted the attention of government; 

 and I was informed that a bill would be laid before 

 the Storthing which is at present sitting, t the object 



* An officer at Halifax, Nova Scotia, kept a young bull moose 

 for a considerable time in the barrack-yard. Its great delight was 

 to lie with its head on a soldier's lap, and have tobacco-smoke 

 puffed up its nostrils ! It got its master into numberless scrapes by 

 its love for cabbages. No paling was high enough to prevent its 

 invading the neighbouring kitchen gardens. It died at last from 

 an over-feed of turnips. I have been told that moose have been 

 trained to draw in America. 



t March, 1863. 



