REINDEER-STALKING 99 



a run of luck were in my favour. With the exception 

 of a red-deer stag my first killed on Hitteren a 

 month previously, I had then done no big-game 

 hunting of any kind. I was shooting with a short 

 Snider carbine, a very inferior weapon to the express 

 rifle, particularly at ranges over 50 yards. In addition 

 to all this, while Buxton was an experienced rifle- 

 shot, Jordhai was a fjeld hunter of great experience. 



Therefore did fate naturally and sternly decree, 

 by way of equalizing matters, and according to the 

 universal law of compensation, that, wherever Ole 

 and I went on the fjeld, we should always come across 

 reindeer on that my first visit to the Dovre Fjeld ; 

 also that Buxton and Jordhai, in spite of the best 

 intentions and the greatest forethought on their part, 

 as well as on ours in their behalf, should almost 

 invariably draw blank. 



Let no man scoff at the idea of ' duffer's luck.' It 

 is a factor in sport that is always to be reckoned with. 



In a later chapter I give some instances of c duffer's 

 luck ' in fishing. Many instances of a similar kind in 

 the stalking line could easily be quoted. When my 

 friend H. M. Denny first came out to Hitteren with 

 his father, who was co-lessee with me of the Forest of 

 Havn and Aune, on the morrow of his arrival on the 

 island, and the very first day he put foot on Hitteren 

 deer-ground having had no previous experience of 

 deer- stalking he there and then at close quarters on 

 Ram Fjeld came upon the biggest stag ever seen in 

 Hitteren. I am glad to say his father, E. M. Denny, 

 killed this same stag the following season, and a 

 magnificent old deer he was. Also H. M. Denny 

 killed one his first season, very nearly as good. But 

 that particular old stag was not killed on the occasion 



72 



