32 MY SPORTING HOLIDAYS 



wandering tendency of the birds. Both ryper and 

 blackgame constantly change their ground in Norway. 

 Blackgame migrate, in some autumns, in large num- 

 bers from the mainland to Hitteren, for example. I 

 have known certain fjelds on the mainland very good 

 for ryper some seasons, and almost bare of birds the 

 following season. Natives have told me that large 

 flocks of ryper have often been known to migrate 

 long distances in autumn and winter to gather 

 together and suddenly fly off into space, so to speak, 

 and disappear for reasons best known to themselves. 

 There may be, perchance, some influence of a restless 

 and disturbing kind in the bracing Northern climate 

 of Scandinavia, which begets these migratory char- 

 acteristics in its wild-game. 



During those first four seasons I killed some good 

 stags in Hitteren, and made some life-long sporting 

 friendships. Towards the end of September we used 

 to foregather, as I have said, at Havn, in Christopher 

 Strom's well-known house by the fjord, to wait for 

 the coasting steamer to take us south en route for 

 Hull and home. The old Tasso did not run to and 

 from Throndhjem and Hull in those days so late in 

 the season, and we had to make our way south to 

 Christiansund or Christiania as best we might by 

 some Norwegian coaster that was never, in late 

 autumn, within days of her scheduled time. 



In 1876 I was alone on Strom Forest for a fortnight 

 or so, and had enjoyed unusually good sport with the 

 deer. I had also that year leased the farm of Sanstad, 

 close to Havn on the east, and used to vary my time 

 and my stalking between Strom and Havn, from 

 which latter place Sanstad was reached. Robert 

 Staples, of Dunmore, Queen's County, Ireland, a fine 



