THAT MAINLAND STAG 63 



here and there, through pine-wood and birchen glen, 

 without another sight of deer. Signs we found in 

 plenty. There was his broad track, over 4 inches at 

 the heel ; here he had couched a few days ago ; and 

 here, again, he had rubbed his horns on a young fir. 

 But the stag himself was nowhere to be found. Ole 

 inclined to the opinion that he was on the other side 

 of the mountain, in a broad valley clothed on one side 

 with particularly thick birch-wood that he occasionally 

 frequented, altogether too thick for wood- crawling, 

 but suitable only for a drive. Accordingly, a drive 

 was determined on for the last day. In the morning 

 I varied the programme by going trout-fishing to the 

 end of the lake, where a good- sized stream carried its 

 waters to the fjord below. A rough dam of logs had 

 been constructed where the stream left the lake, and, 

 having killed some half-dozen good trout averaging 

 over a pound trolling with a minnow from the boat 

 on the way thither, I then changed to fly, and, casting 

 from behind the dam into the lake, happened on a 

 good rise, and took out nine speckled beauties from 

 one spot, just where the waters of the lake entered 

 the stream. 



In the stream itself I could get nothing but trout- 

 lets hardly worth the catching, until it occurred to me 

 to make an artificial spate. This we accomplished by 

 temporarily removing the two topmost logs of the 

 dam. The water rose a foot, and, fishing downstream 

 with a small salmon fly, the bag was increased by two 

 stream-trout over 3 pounds each. 



But time was getting on ; and some two hours later, 

 the rod having been laid aside for the rifle, found me 

 across the f jeld, and in the broad valley settling the 

 final plan of campaign with Daniel, Ole, and two other 

 natives hired for the day to help as drivers. The 



