184 A SPEING AND SUMMER IN LAPLAND. 



keen is the sense of hearing in the elk that they 

 will start at any unwonted sound, which they 

 can hear at a surprising distance ; and once afoot, 

 there is no saying where they will stop. As I 

 was leaving the house I chanced to cough, when an 

 old weather-beaten forester, seizing me by the 

 arm, implored me, as if it were a matter of life 

 and death, to clap my cap tightly before my mouth 

 to deaden the sound in case I coughed again. By 

 all accounts it seems, as the Scotch would say, 

 that these elk are indeed "kittle cattle to shoe." 



Never could we have a better chance of a shot, 

 for if the elk were only once started it was certain 

 that they would make for this rise, which was 

 bounded on one side by the charr lake, on the 

 other by a long open gully. This rise terminated 

 in a long tongue heavily timbered; and it was 

 here that two guns were planted, the other two 

 going on. I had the post to the extreme left, and 

 commanded the gully and the forest in front. My 

 next neighbour was "the Cockney," at about 400 

 yards distance. I had scarcely been on my post 

 a quarter of an hour before I heard a crashing 

 through the timber and the falling of loose stones 

 behind me ; and on looking round I saw a magni- 

 ficent cow elk quietly walking up the mountain-side 

 within about 300 yards of me. Instead of coming 

 up the gully, as I fancied would have been the 



