162 HUNTING CAMPS. 



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 after- 

 wards, 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 journeyed with some of the feelings of a 

 forlorn hope. We started in company with Geoffrey 

 Gathorne-Hardy, he of the right and left, who had 

 come down the valley the previous evening, bringing 

 with him news of a fine bull killed by his brother. 



The sun was high when we came in sight of the 

 saeter, a solid log hut roofed over with turf on which 

 grew long grass and flowers that waved in the wind. 



After visiting it we climbed over the hill and came 

 out up on the fjeld beyond it ; here Bismarck took a 

 " luft " and led us to the fresh tracks of a cow and a 

 calf, which we saw again later among the trees of a 

 neighbouring right. The dog was pulled off the trail 

 and taken, close hauled, in another direction. We next 

 entered a grove of young birches, which drew blank, 

 but emerging from it Bismarck began to show interest 

 and to sniff the wind that was blowing down the further 

 cliff. It was most curious to watch him from the 

 instant he lost his indifference. As owing to the 



