THE ELK 
invariably adult individuals. Singularly enough, an elk recently suc- 
ceeded in making its way across from the mainland to the large 
island of Senjen (a little way to the south of Tromso), where it was 
frequently seen during the winter. In all probability it had come 
down to the Norwegian coast the preceding spring with the reindeer 
herds belonging to the Swedish Lapps, and had then swum over the 
intervening channel of Gisund. 
“ The elk have even penetrated to Finmarken, and in the autumn 
of 1900 a bull was seen in the valley of the Alten, in 69deg. 59min. 
north latitude, the most northern spot in the world where one of 
these animals has been observed. On the mountains between 
Kautokimo and Alten, they are sometimes fallen in with, but 
not so frequently as in the district of Karasjok on the Upper Tana, 
where for the last two or three years they have become permanent 
residents. The Lapps do not approve of these visitors, as they 
frighten their reindeer. Their continued existence in these remote 
parts is therefore distinctly doubtful, game laws not being held in 
much respect by these nomads. In the valley of the Pasvig, too, elk 
have been seen of late, and two were killed on the Russian side of the 
river in 1908. In Sweden at one time, as in the sister kingdom, elk 
were in a fair way of being exterminated, and in many parts of the 
country they were for long unknown; but with the disappearance 
from most districts of their enemies, the wolf, the glutton and the 
lynx, and the appointment of greatly extended close times, they 
have multiplied exceedingly, and are now to be found pretty nearly 
everywhere except on the islands of Oland and Gothland. When 
black -game shooting last autumn in Scania (in the extreme south), I 
came across the tracks of a big bull. Over three thousand elk are 
now killed annually in Sweden, which speaks well for the existing 
stock, as with a few local exceptions the season during which they 
may lawfully be hunted lasts from September 1st to the 15th only.” 
The best elk grounds in Norway are now to be found in North Trondhjem, 
though those about Guldalen and a few other more southern districts are 
equally good. 
Where not a single elk existed thirty years ago my friend, the late Sir 
H. Pottinger, speaks of spying nearly eighty elk in one season at Mo, 
whilst Mr Alfred Gathorne Hardy and his brother Geoffrey in 1906 
saw a great number of elk in Grondalen and Namdalen. I had recom- 
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