258 SHORT STALKS 



of about twenty farmers, each of whom is eu titled to kill 

 two deer. I need hardly say that the right to kill, is by 

 no means equivalent to the power to kill. Indeed, I doubt 

 if there were forty deer in all that part of the island. 

 They live in rather dense w^oods of Scotch fir, dwarfed hy 

 the Atlantic gales, and it is not possil^le to do much with- 

 out driving, which has few attractions for me. But I may 

 say in passing, that these deer reach heavy weights and 

 carry fine heads, and that the islanders are particularly 

 unsoj^histicated and hospitable. At the end of three weeks 

 our stalking — if poking about the woods on the chance of 

 a snap shot, at the stern of some animal of indeterminate 

 sex, can be so dignified — had not been particularly success- 

 ful, and we came to the conclusion that hunting the red 

 deer in this wise was not a noble sport at all. Besides, 

 excitino; rumours reached us of bears on the mainland — 

 there are none on the island — and we determined to try 

 pastures new. 



Crossing the island, we hired a fishing-boat, and sailed 

 across the sound which separated us from the continent 

 towards the narrow entrance of the Hevne Fjord, then 

 up its quiet reaches till w^e came to a green patch denoting 

 a habitation of some sort. Tliis fjord is less stern and 

 forbidding in character than most of the show fjords farther 

 south, but to my mind is more varied and lovely. 



We landed at the farm to pass the night and make 

 inquiries. From the heights above it, I remember seeing a 

 strange sio-ht. We looked dow^n on the still waters of the 

 fjord, here about two miles wide. Halfway across it there 

 appeared a distinct wave, apparently propelled by the nose 

 or fin of some large submarine creature. It moved on for 



