THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
Owing to the great numbers of wolves it looked as if the elk would 
become an extinct animal in the Scandinavian forests at the end of the 
eighteenth century, and I have met many old hunters who in their youth 
scarcely knew the animal in a living state. Laws were passed several times, 
both in Sweden and Norway, by which the elk was protected all the year 
round, but, like most Scandinavian laws, they were never enforced. It was 
not until the middle of the last century that wolves began to disappear 
and the elk to increase from the small stock that was left. Between 1870 
and 1880 elk existed in small numbers in all the south-eastern parts of 
Norway and in the interior of the Trondhjem Stift as far north as Nord- 
land. My friend, Mr G. Lindesay, who knows the Scandinavian forests 
well, writes: 
“ The improvement was maintained, and during the period 1889-93 
an average of over one thousand one hundred elk were killed annually; 
but during the next five years the number annually accounted for 
was less than one thousand, and from 1899 to 1903 it did not much 
exceed eight hundred, the falling off being attributed to excessive 
hunting and a too short close season. In certain districts, moreover, 
an outbreak of anthrax took place, and in 1896 more than one hundred 
elk succumbed to this disease in the forests in the neighbourhood of 
Christiania alone. Now, however, thanks mainly to the appointment 
of a shooting season which lasts three weeks only, namely, from 
September 10th to the 30th, the big deer are on the whole doing well 
in Norway, and during the last six years about one thousand two 
hundred have been shot annually. 
“ Between 1866 and 1883 an immense amount of timber was cut 
down in the picturesque valley of the Nefsen itself, and but few traces 
of elk remained; but when in 1885 the sound of the woodman’s axe 
had ceased to be heard and peace once more reigned amid what was 
left of the forests, they returned, and may be said to have existed 
there in very considerable numbers for the last five -and -twenty years. 
To the north of Saltdal the country offers no particular attractions 
to elk until the extensive forests of the Maalselv and Bardo are reached, 
and of late traces of their presence have been observed in the first - 
named of these valleys. But here, although comparatively free from 
disturbance, they do not seem to breed. It would almost appear that 
within the Arctic Circle in Norway the stock of elk is maintained 
almost entirely by migrants from Sweden, as those seen are almost 
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