Quadrupeds. 3131 



ther guide to carry our provision-box and blankets, off we started up 

 the mountain side. There had been a drizzling rain all the morning, 

 and the mountain was very steep and rocky, and difficult to climb, so 

 that after about five hours' hard walking and clambering in the rain, 

 and much doubting whether there really were any reindeer in these 

 fjelds, we began to grumble at the expedition. However, the day 

 cleared up at noon, and soon after, as we rounded a rock, our guides, 

 who were always keeping a sharp look-out with their telescopes, bec- 

 koned to us to crouch down, and pointed to three black spots in the 

 snow on the mountain-side, some two miles off, exclaiming in a whis- 

 per the single word, "reins ! " — which piece of information, thus laco- 

 nically expressed, had the magical effect of making us hurry towards 

 them in a crouching posture. 



Who but a Norwegian huntsman w r ould have so instantly disco- 

 vered three such small specks to be reindeer ? Yet on looking through 

 our telescopes we could distinctly see them, as they were lying in the 

 snow ; an old buck above, as guard and watchman, a doe and fawn 

 (or calf, as they call it there) a little lower down : we could even see 

 the large branching antlers of the old buck. Now we retreated behind 

 a large rock, and prepared for a stalk, and then set off in a contrary 

 direction to the deer, intending to wind round the mountain and come 

 upon them from another point : but we had a large flat valley to cross 

 in their full view, and though so far distant from them that they still 

 appeared as spots to us, we must be very quiet and cautious, and 

 walk in a line, one behind the other, with our heads stooping down, 

 our guns at our sides, lest the sun should shine on the barrels and be- 

 tray us ; our hats in our hands, and not venturing to speak above the 

 gentlest whisper. We had almost gained the mountain, and were 

 wading through an intervening torrent, and over the rocks upon its 

 banks, when the old buck apparently caught sight of us, and sprang 

 up from the snow, and then walked leisurely off to the hill-side, fol- 

 lowed by the doe and her fawn, and went over the next rock out of 

 our sight. 



I was greatly disappointed, and should have given them up for lost, 

 but the old huntsman knew better : he told us that now was the time 

 to make haste ; so on we go, as fast as the rocky nature of the moun- 

 tain-side will allow us, and scramble over huge loose fragments of rock, 

 without making any noise, and scarcely daring to breathe, (for we are 

 now within half a mile of the deer). Now we have passed the snow 

 on which we first saw them lying, and have another exposed gully to 

 cross : here we advance very cautiously and snake-like indeed, with 



