THE ISLAND OF HITTEREN 29 



next best stalking- ground to Havn and Aune ; and we 

 generally migrated there from the Orkla in the first 

 week of August for some ryper- shooting before the 

 stalking season commenced. The open season for 

 deer regulated in Norway by Norske ' House of 

 Commons' law extended in those years from Sep- 

 tember 1 to October 10. This open season was 

 subsequently extended in the eighties by a fortnight, 

 commencing August 15, and terminating, as before, 

 October 10. Quite recently the open season for deer 

 has again been altered by legislation, and, while com- 

 mencing still on August 15, extends only to Sep- 

 tember 30, thus depriving the sportsman of the best 

 ten days of the rutting season, when the stags are 

 belling, and when in a woodland country the most 

 favourable opportunity occurs to find and kill the 

 master stags. One effect of this change is to reduce 

 to some extent the value of Hitteren deer-forests from 

 a sportsman's point of view. 



Twenty years ago there were a fair number of ryper, 

 the Norwegian variety of the red-grouse, as well as 

 blackgame, on the outlying and more open heather- 

 covered parts of Hitteren. We still retained our 

 original lease of the Hammer stad and Volden farms, 

 marching with the Strom Forest on the north-east, 

 and during August had fair sport ryper-shooting. The 

 regulations affecting the importation of dogs into 

 Norway had not then come into force, and we were 

 free to take out such sporting dogs as we chose 

 without restriction. For several seasons my favourite 

 ryper dog was a brown Irish water- spaniel named 

 Floe. Her nose was quite first-rate, though her educa- 

 tion was defective. The chief difficulty attending 

 ryper-shooting in Norway during August was to find 



