I 4 8 HUNTING CAMPS. 



spying with glasses is possible, few trophies would be ob- 

 tained, and many farmsteads would lack their winter supply 

 of salted meat. The ordinary elk-hound is nearly allied to 

 the husky, though, unlike his congener, he displays towards 

 human beings a kindly nature. Between themselves the 

 elk-hounds are very pugnacious, and when an elk is killed 

 the tracking dog is generally unwilling to allow any one, 

 save his master, to approach it. There seem to be two 

 distinct kinds of elk-hound, one smaller than the other, 

 but it will be as well to drop generalities in favour of Bis- 

 marck, whose companionship gave me an immense amount 

 of pleasure, and who was responsible for such success as I 

 obtained. Early in our acquaintance a suspicion arose that 

 the dog, who, as I was proudly told by Peder, was account- 

 able for the death of sixteen elk, acted in months other 

 than September the part of bird hound that is to say, he 

 was accustomed to bay beneath trees on which capercailzie 

 or hjerpe were perched, until his master arrived with a gun 

 and shot them. But for all that he was a useful dog with a 

 fine nose. One of the interesting points about Bismarck 

 showed itself gradually as the season advanced. A marked 

 alteration took place in his character day by day he went 

 back more and more to the mood of savage nature. At 

 the outset an affectionate animal, with a wagging tail and 

 a keen eye to the main chance, by the end of the three weeks 

 he would growl even at his master, and he ended the season 

 by attacking a farmer upon whose ground we killed an elk. 

 Undoubtedly the original strain was strong, and perhaps 

 not so very many generations have elapsed since the an- 

 cestors of Bismarck chased the elk in wolf-packs as the 

 wolves do to-day during winter snows, though in the summer 

 time they withdraw to the kigher ground of the mountains 

 towards Sweden. 



It is strange that the wolf, above all his brothers of the 

 wild, remains the chosen hero of legend and romance from 



