166 HUNTING CAMPS. 



been out after elk, and for this purpose I accompanied him. 

 We had walked for some hours, when the dog picked up the 

 wind and led us to the fairly-fresh tracks of a cow and calf, 

 and a little later brought us quite noiselessly within two 

 hundred yards or so of the animals. Kristian was greatly 

 pleased with this success, and on the strength of it took the 

 dog out regularly. It was over this dog that later Geoffrey 

 Gathorne-Hardy killed the right and left I have alluded to. 

 Of course, as the hound is always on leash, and thus under 

 control, there are but two qualities necessary for him to 

 possess a good nose and a silent tongue. 



The most famous elk-hound of recent years in Nam- 

 dalen was Kristian's Bismarck, which in 1905 had to be 

 carried all the long distances from place to place, but would 

 still lead his master to elk. In the hands of a good trainer 

 it is more than probable that an average elk-hound might 

 be educated into an almost perfect ally in the chase of the 

 great deer. 



Although on the whole the Norway elk do not suffer 

 greatly from out-of-season killing and year by year they are, 

 I hope and believe, steadily increasing in numbers, yet but 

 for the game laws they could and would certainly be exter- 

 minated. For towards the beginning of winter, upon the 

 ground where we hunted, there arise occasional little groups 

 of drab dwellings, which are presently overlaid by the all- 

 whitening storms, and passing men on ski see flat Lapp faces, 

 grimed with the smoke of upland fires, peering at them from 

 behind the trees. To escape the rigours of the cold the 

 Lapps desert their summer haunts on the high fjeld and 

 drive their reindeer herds into the lower ground, and even 

 in spite of the legal restrictions which exist it can hardly be 

 doubted that the snow which periodically blots out much 

 of the northern world covers also the traces of the Lapp 

 poacher's shot as well-as the Lapshoe trail of the man whose 

 finger touches the trigger. 



