JOO MY SPORTING HOLIDAYS 



mentioned, and the strange part of it was that no 

 rifleman ever got another chance at him that year, 

 though he was known to remain on Ram Fjeld the 

 whole season, where we constantly stalked, and where 

 the men often saw him when we drove it. 



The finest royal head I have known taken off 

 Hitteren was killed by a farmer on an outlying 

 portion of the island, where deer are seldom seen, the 

 farmer himself being no hunter, and a very indifferent 

 shot. 



Therefore Ole and I saw plenty of reindeer in 

 1872. The very first day out from Hoolaker, en route 

 for the hut, we came across our first good buck. It 

 was late in the afternoon, and we found fresh tracks 

 at the head of a rocky valley. In following them 

 over a steep shoulder, I happened to be on higher 

 ground than Ole, and suddenly over a ridge, and to 

 our left, I caught a glimpse of a gray animal, with 

 branching horns clearly a reindeer, and the first I 

 had ever seen. 



I beckoned to Ole. He crouched down with the 

 dog. We always had with us a trained Finn dog in 

 leash, but on this occasion the deer had fed round in 

 a semicircle, and the dog had missed their wind. I 

 crawled up the ridge, and the buck, with some hinds 

 accompanying, obligingly walked up on the next 

 ridge, broadside on, in full view, not 100 yards away. 

 Shaking with c buck fever,' I fired hastily from the 

 shoulder, and without a rest, and away ran the deer. 

 We found drops of blood, but evidently the buck was 

 only slightly wounded ; for soon we saw him, with his 

 hinds, going strong a mile or more away on a far hill- 

 side. So we returned to the hut in deep dejection, 

 to find that Buxton and Jordhai had seen no deer. 



