AN ELK SEASON. 153 



ness of the elk, and we passed into a pine-wood, treading 

 most carefully. Five minutes' walk through this wood 

 brought us to a little clearing, across which we went quickly 

 and into the shadows on the farther side. We were now in 

 a tongue of woodland that extended out upon the hillside. 

 My attention was fixed upon the hound ; his hair con- 

 tinued stiffly erect, and I made up my mind that the elk 

 was on the other side of a very thick clump just ahead, 

 and, signing to Peder to keep back, I cautiously advanced. 



I was soon aware of something brown on the far side of 

 the bush, and very gently put another foot forward. Prob- 

 ably I have never been in greater danger than at that 

 moment, for I saw suddenly that this was no elk towards 

 which the hound had led me, but another hunter, who was 

 as intent on my progress as I on his stillness. He, as a 

 matter of fact, was in no danger, for he was standing in the 

 open ; moreover, I would never shoot without looking at 

 and getting a fairly good idea of a bull's horns. But the 

 Norwegian was out for meat, and meat alone ; he would 

 have preferred a cow to a bull, and the native hunter is 

 very apt to fire at anything that moves in a bush. The 

 man turned out to be a hunter employed by the farmer 

 who owned the rights upon the adjoining land, which chanced 

 to be unlet that season. He had been sent out to shoot 

 meat for the winter provender, and had wandered over 

 the boundary into Gartland. Why the dog led us to him 

 I cannot explain. Peder assured me he had never done 

 anything of the kind before, and certainly afterwards, while 

 hunting with me, he never made that kind of mistake again. 



On the 26th of September, with only five days of the 

 season remaining, we set out for the largest of my rights, 

 the chief drawback to which lay in the obligatory three 

 hours' climb before the good elk-ground could be reached. 

 There was, however, a convenient saeter to which we jour- 

 neyed with some of the feelings of a forlorn hope. We 



