158 HUNTING CAMPS. 



and began our search in a new direction. We had not 

 gone far when Bismarck suddenly bounded forward on 

 his leash. Mathias crowed in his delight, and in another 

 instant Peder and I were hastening through the trees on 

 the rediscovered trail. Evidently the elk had entered the 

 lake, and had either found himself too weak to cross it or, 

 as I think, simply meant to throw us off his track, and had 

 for a time succeeded only too well in doing so. Bismarck 

 now raced along the trail at a great pace. At length we 

 jumped the elk among some pine trees three hundred yards 

 ahead, and then for another steady two hours we followed 

 him. At the end of that time I had almost given up hope 

 that he would ever stop ; as we passed through a young wood 

 we were aware of the huge, high-shouldered beast standing 

 in the middle of a marsh with his back to us. Peder urged 

 me to shoot at once, but the animal was in a bad position, 

 and I was determined to take no more chances. He was 

 quite unaware of our presence, and I waited a little, hoping 

 he might turn broadside on. But he did not move, and I 

 began to be afraid of his starting off again. I aimed care- 

 fully and fired. He was about one hundred and eighty 

 yards from me, and at the shot he turned, giving me as he 

 did so the first clear sight of an elk's shoulder I had yet 

 had in Norway. I immediately fired again, and on receiv- 

 ing this last bullet he collapsed. Immediately Peder ran 

 up and Bismarck leaped upon the body, tearing out tufts 

 of its hair, rolling on it and barking. I found that two of 

 my shots had missed the bull. When we came to examine 

 the head we found, as I had expected, that it was a poor 

 one, although and this is very frequently the case the 

 body of the elk was both large and heavy. After using the 

 knife Peder and I retraced our steps to the lake, and I waited 

 on the nearer side while my hunter and his dog went off 

 to fetch Mathias, who presently appeared with his entire 

 family, including a jtoddler of about four years, all vocifer- 



