ELK-HUNTING IN NORWAY 109 



a low-carried head, high withers and great length of 

 limb, also a small pendant of hairy skin under his 

 throat, use unknown. His powers of scent and hear- 

 ing his main safeguard against hostile approach 

 are preternaturally acute, and he appears to have the 

 power of going through thick cover in an extra- 

 ordinarily noiseless and rapid fashion. His food is 

 the leaf and young twigs of the birch, the bark, leaf, 

 and twigs of the mountain-ash, and the young branches 

 of the spruce-fir, the latter chiefly in the winter. 



When I first visited Norway, some thirty years 

 ago, there was no elk-hunting to be had in that 

 country. Too much hunting, too short a close-time, 

 and probably some poaching, had there reduced the 

 stock of elk almost to the vanishing point ; and the 

 Norwegian Government, with more reason and wisdom 

 than has been displayed by them in quite recent game 

 legislation, enacted an absolute close-time for elk for 

 many years, in order to save this fine wild animal 

 from extinction. In spite of some continued poach- 

 ing chiefly practised, I believe, in Sweden, whence 

 the elk range to and fro from Swedish forests to 

 Norwegian valleys and birch-clad f jelds this close- 

 time has had its due effect, and for the past twelve 

 years or thereabouts some fair sport with the elk has 

 at times been obtained in Norway and Sweden, and 

 some good heads secured by British and also by 

 German and native sportsmen during the short season 

 in September when hunting is now allowed. The 

 present elk-shooting season in Norway is from Sep- 

 tember 10 to 30. 



The weak part of existing legislation is that, though 

 the number of elk allowed to be killed on each farm 

 and Government district is strictly limited, yet no 



