MY FIRST STAG AND SOME OTHERS 3 



gratuitous assistance of Christopher Strom, now long 

 since gathered to his fathers, we secured, a few days 

 after our landing as above described, the lease of an 

 inferior portion of the island some fifteen miles away, 

 in its north-west corner. 



I shall not easily forget that first carriole drive 

 across Hitteren. The weather was lovely. The 

 winding switchback road took us through scattered 

 pine-forest, past yellow-green marshes and innumer- 

 able lakes, whose varied colours showed brilliantly 

 under a northern summer sun. Gradually we emerged 

 into more open heather-covered ground. I had my 

 gun with me, and walking round a corner uphill, 

 ahead of the carriole, surprised a golden eagle within 

 40 yards, as he rose from lunching on a dead 

 sheep. A charge of No. 6 shot up the feathers 

 brought him wounded to the ground, and we slew 

 him with a stone. Never before or since have I been 

 so near an eagle, or killed one with a shot-gun. I 

 have since shot one or two specimens of these noble 

 birds they abound on the island of Hitteren with a 

 rifle. This particular eagle measured over 8 feet from 

 tip to tip of wings. 



About noon we arrived at a farmhouse, where the 

 owners of Hammerstad and Volden farms were 

 awaiting us, and by means of Christopher Strom's 

 eloquence and our talk's interpretation, accompanied 

 by whisky at intervals, successfully negotiated a lease 

 of our first 'deer-forest.' 



Six weeks later we started our deer-stalking, which 

 in those days commenced in Hitteren on September 1. 

 The interval we had passed in trout-fishing and ryper- 

 shooting on the mainland. 



The so-called 4 forest ' consisted mainly of open 



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