RANGE OF ELK IN EUROPE AND ASIA 291 



increased, for in the fifties, as the writer can testify, 

 they were seldom seen or heard of in many districts 

 where they are now not infrequent. ... In 

 Norway it is forbidden, under a heavy penalty, 

 to kill more than a single elk, bull or cow, on each 

 farm or registered division of land. . . . The 

 shooting of calves is strictly forbidden.""^ In 1894 

 Pottinger wrote: Altogether about 850 elk on 

 the average are killed yearly in Norway, and in 

 Sweden rather more than double the number."^ 

 Increased restrictions in Sweden have reduced 

 the number killed, while in Norway an increase 

 is noted. Martenson, quoting statements fur- 

 nished by the Norwegian Hunting and Fishing 

 Association, wrote in 1903 that the annual kill in 

 Sweden was 1300 or 1400 elk, against 900 to 1000 

 in Norway. ^ 



Seeking information industriously from all avail- 

 able sources, Martenson estimated the number 

 of elk in all portions of his European and Asiatic 

 range. Scandinavia he credits with from 8000 to 

 10,000 elk, and this estimate, in view of the num- 

 bers annually killed, would seem to be sufficiently 

 conservative. In Finland he notes a marked 



^Encyclopedia of Sport and Games (London, 191 1), vol. ii., p.177. 

 5 Big Game Shooting (Badminton Library), vol. ii., p. 125. 

 ^ Ubi supra, p. 90. 



