146 HUNTING CAMPS. 



where we lived ; they sat about on the steps of the post 

 office opposite and discussed the events of local history 

 a saeter girl had seen a bull elk of eighteen points, a lynx 

 had killed two sheep across the river, that the old hound 

 grew more cunning with the passing years. Once or twice 

 spasms of political forecast, for war seemed imminent, shook 

 the little group, but always in the end the orbit of talk 

 settled round the magic word " elg." 



On the eve of the loth Peder reappeared, shy, dignified, 

 with a neatly-trimmed beard and his hunter's suit of home- 

 spun supplemented by a new cap with ear-flaps. His first 

 words after our handshake were " Very elg Gartland/' 

 which I understood to mean that a number of elk were to 

 be found in the Gartland Woods. Then, after a prolonged 

 pause, he added, " Big bool imorgen," plainly a prophecy 

 of good luck in the morning, made the more clear when, 

 by way of illustration, he placed his hands on either side of 

 his head in turn with eight fingers outstretched, cheerfully 

 indicative of a sixteen point bull. 



I was up early to find a misty morning with a promise 

 of rain, that continued to threaten all day but did not fall. 

 The weather to hope for, the weather proper to elk-hunting, 

 and that most conducive to success, is a gale of wind with 

 torrential rain beating down through the tree tops, for the 

 noise of the storm, as well as the soft condition produced 

 under foot, tends to cover the hunter's approach from the 

 large keen ears of his quarry. In those thick forests the 

 walking is almost invariably bad ; moss, wind-fallen trees, 

 often boulders and slippery surfaces of rock, and, worse 

 than all, dry branches and decaying brush make silent 

 progress a matter of extreme difficulty. My lot during the 

 best part of three weeks was bright weather with a hot sun, 

 and towards the end frosty nights with crisp grass and 

 frozen pools. 



Though I was up before dawn, Peder was waiting for 



