REINDEER-STALKING 1 01 



For the next week the same run of luck prevailed. 

 I saw reindeer every day, including one or two good 

 bucks, but only managed to secure two moderate 

 heads. Buxton also killed a small buck the only 

 shot he obtained. 



We enjoyed magnificent walking exercise, in a most 

 invigorating climate, and returned to Hoolaker just in 

 time to avoid the first bad snowstorm of the season ; 

 but I felt that my account with the reindeer of the 

 Dovre Fjeld was far from being satisfactorily settled, 

 and was fully determined only to hold it in suspense 

 for final adjustment on a future occasion. 



Two years later, with a better rifle, a trifle more 

 experience, and earlier in the season, I revisited the 

 Dovre Fjeld on an organized expedition of my own. 

 Jordhai accompanied me as hunter and guide, and 

 my old friend Ole as general assistant. We went 

 up from the same station, Hoolaker, this time to a 

 mountain saeter, which Jordhai then considered to 

 be better situated for our purpose, and for a month I 

 enjoyed an open-air fjeld life. 



It was in the month of August, and we had the 

 advantage of good trout-fishing on off-days. The 

 mountain lakes on the Dovre Fjeld hold very good 

 trout, but unfortunately the natives, even in those 

 days, used to fish these lakes heavily with that per- 

 nicious poaching instrument, the otter. 



The story is that some guileless Englishman, in 

 days gone by, introduced the otter to the notice of 

 his Norwegian guide. It was an unhappy inspiration. 

 The otter has since come widely into use among a 

 people who, naturally enough, fish mainly for the pot, 

 and in the lakes where it has thus been used rod 

 fishing has been greatly injured in consequence. 



