MY SPORTING HOLIDAYS 



for a moment mistaken for an elk lying down, Ivor's 

 quick sight discovered an animal couched in a thick 

 birch-grove. My binoculars showed me that the 

 square foot or so of gray colour I saw some 80 yards 

 away in the cover was certainly some portion of an 

 elk, but whether of bull or cow it was impossible to 

 see. I took the risk of its being a cow, and, balanced 

 on one foot on a steep hillside, put an express bullet 

 in the centre of the visible patch of hair. The track 

 we had followed was that of a good bull, and the 

 event justified the risk. Had I waited to look too 

 long, the chance might have been lost, for at the 

 slightest noise the elk would have disappeared like a 

 dream. As the smoke of the shot cleared away, a 

 glimpse of a palmated horn and of a dark -gray body 

 was caught sight of for a moment, and a heavy 

 animal was heard crashing through the cover. The 

 usual headlong race of the syndicate down the hill 

 after the elk promptly followed, but another shot was 

 unnecessary. A hundred yards away we came on my 

 third bull in the agonies of death, with an express 

 bullet near or through the heart. Everything, in- 

 cluding a luckily-placed shot, had come off right. He 

 was a heavy beast, but with an inferior head. 



Peder, the farmer, was much delighted, for his 

 share was half the meat ; and he promptly went off 

 for a gang of horses and men to bring the carcass 

 home to his farm that afternoon. But this was 

 evidently not the big bull of the story, the one we 

 were after, and the syndicate were not satisfied. 

 However, no more elk were seen that day, except a 

 long-legged cow whom we disturbed later on, and 

 watched trotting for half a mile across an open fjeld 

 to a distant valley. Her marvellously easy action 



