THE ISLAND OF HITTEREN 23 



Thomas, who took over the lease of the Havn and 

 Aune forest after my co-lessee and old friend 

 E. M. Denny and myself had relinquished it in 1900, 

 and he now holds it in conjunction with his own forest 

 of Strom. Being a good sportsman who only kills 

 warrantable stags, the hinds continue to be preserved, 

 all Norwegian game laws notwithstanding, and the 

 island still contains, in consequence, an excellent 

 stock of deer. 



Hitteren also possesses some special advantages in 

 locality and climate, which may have something to do 

 with its sporting superiority, but these are not suffi- 

 ciently marked to form the chief factor in the case, 

 so far as regards the western islands. The severity 

 of the winters on the mainland, coupled with the size 

 and density of its forests, are, perhaps, sufficient to 

 account for the difficulty of finding red- deer in, for 

 example, such places as the Throndhjem district, 

 opposite Hitteren. 



I have visited this district and seen deer- sign, and 

 on one occasion I shot a fine stag there, of which 

 more is told in a later chapter. The Hitteren deer 

 come and go from this locality. On another occasion 

 I spent a week on the shores of the Hardanger in 

 search of red-deer. We again saw deer- sign, and a 

 fine stag was seen by one of the party who had no rifle. 

 We were also shown some good shed horns, one or 

 two being royal, picked up during the past few years. 

 In a bloodthirsty mood, after several blank days, I 

 there shot an enormous yeld hind, the only deer I 

 personally saw. Army rifles, I am told, are now 

 cheap and plentiful in the Hardanger. Both the 

 above localities are useless for all practical purposes 

 of deer- stalking, the size and roughness of the 



