ife HUNTING CAMPS. 



sunniness of the last days. Having followed the river 

 (where in spite of the turmoil of the rain I could see several 

 good trout lying) for some distance, we struck upwards, 

 and for a couple of hours hunted the precipitous side of 

 the mountain without any success. At length we passed 

 over the summit and emerged upon a kind of rocky terrace 

 set high above a great forest of pines. After carefully 

 examining what open ground there was without seeing 

 anything, Peder rolled one or two large stones down the hill- 

 side in the hope of disturbing any animal that might happen 

 to be lying close. This manoeuvre proving quite barren 

 of result, we descended once more to the foothills, and 

 there at last Bismarck began to lead straight up-wind. 



The ever-hopeful Peder at once whispered " Bool ! " 

 and then " Naer, naer ! " which I took I believe rightly 

 to mean near. I imagine Peder judged that Bismarck 

 had the scent direct from the animal or animals, but that 

 he was mistaken in this conclusion was quickly made plain, 

 for in about five minutes or more we came upon the trail 

 bending away to the westward across the wind. A hasty 

 examination showed that there were three elk, papa, 

 mamma, and baby, or, as Peder put it, " Vera bool, coo/' 

 and then signs signifying a little fellow. 



How exciting were those whispered consultations with 

 Peder in the pine' forests, and, for the number of words 

 used, very full of meat ! And small wonder, since neither 

 ever spoke without having something really necessary to 

 say, and our limited knowledge of each other's national 

 tongue forced us to compress our thoughts into two or three 

 words at most. 



Now at last the real glory of elk-hunting was ours. We 

 could see from every movement of the hound that we were 

 close, very close, to the quarry. At this crisis one of my 

 boots I was wearing red rubber soles with buckskin tops 

 commenced to creak, so I removed it and then crept 





