136 MR. H. J. ELWES ON i ebra; 
This rapid increase of an animal which, on account of its great 
size and conspicuous tracks, cannot escape unnoticed in an 
inhabited country, must be entirely attributed to the wise game- 
laws made by the Norwegian Government, and in most parts 
honestly observed by the most law-abiding and _ well-governed 
people I have ever met with. In former times the Elk, in Scandi- 
navia, as In North America, was hunted down in winter on ski 
(the Norwegian form of snowshoe), and slaughtered for its meat 
by every peasant farmer, till it had almost been exterminated. 
When, however, a law was made that it could be hunted only in 
the month of September, which period was for a time somewhat 
extended in North Trondhjem, its numbers soon increased, and 
about 20 years ago attained such proportions that English and 
German sportsmen began to visit Norway to hunt Elk. The 
landowners in some districts then discovered that, instead of 
hunting themselves or paying Swedish hunters, who, from long 
experience, were more expert, to kill thew Elk for them, the 
right of killing Elk, which is limited to one animal on each farm, 
had a letting value; and when many such rights are united so 
that a large tract of country can be reserved to the lessee, this — 
value was worth a little trouble to maintain. The consequence 
has been that, though poaching and killing Elk out of season is 
not entirely unknown, yet it cannot be carried on extensively ; and 
I have little doubt that the Elk will continue to thrive wherever 
the country is suitable. 
The statistics which I append show the numbers of bull and cow 
Elk which are known to have been legally killed in the various 
‘“« Amts” or provinces of Norway in 1894, and the average for the 
previous five years, and may be taken as very nearly exact, though, 
according to some, the returns for the southern provinces are not 
so accurate as for the northern ones, and this record takes no 
account of those illegally killed. It will be seen that only four 
provinces of Norway (excluding Finmark), namely, Stavanger, 
North and South Bergenhus, and Romsdal, all of which are on 
the south-west coast and exposed to the warm and wet influence of 
the Gulf-Stream, are without Elk; and it may be added that in 
those four provinces wild Reindeer are most numerous. 
North Trondhjem is before all the rest in numbers; and in this 
province I believe the size of the horns is or was also much larger 
on the average than in any of the southern districts (text-fig. 18, 
p. 134). 
It is said that the Elk is gradually extending its range north- 
wards, and has appeared in the southern parts of the province of 
Nordland only in the last few years; and there seems to be no 
reason why it should not go still further, as in North America the 
Moose (which is so nearly allied to the Elk, that I do not think 
it ean be looked on as more than’‘a variety of that animal) is 
found in regions where the climate and food is certainly not more 
favourable to its habits than they seem to be in some parts of 
Nordland and Finmarken. 
The greater part of North Trondhjem and a large proportion of 
