THE ELK 
of the pursuer. As a Lapp hunter once remarked, “ You must hunt the elk 
with your head, not your legs. His legs are much longer than yours.” 
When chased by a dog the male seldom goes far but resorts to frequent 
circlings and halts to throw off his pursuers and will often come to bay 
in less than a mile. But if this “ bay ” is once broken and the quarry has 
seen the hunters the elk will sometimes travel for immense distances 
without another halt. 
When pursued with the “ bind-hund ” elk are not much frightened 
unless they have received the direct wind from man, but will only retreat 
for a mile or so and then return parallel to their tracks to try and get the 
wind of their pursuers or to return to their usual haunts. It is often, there- 
fore, possible to find the same elk in the same valley day after day, although 
it is not good policy to harass him unduly. In the following pages I have 
endeavoured to give some of the charm and excitement of elk -hunting 
with the “ bind-hund.” It is one of the finest of European sports and an 
ideal one for the young hunter who has to learn his woodcraft. At 
the present time the following are hunting seasons for elk in 
Scandinavia. 
Norway, Sept. 10 to 30; Sweden, Sept. 1 to 15 throughout the kingdom 
with the exception of the Royal forests of Halle and Hunneberg and Ornon, 
in Stockholm’s Lan, where elk-hunting is permitted the whole of Septem- 
ber. In Jemtland’s, Yesternorrland’s, Vesterbotten’s, Jonkoping’s, 
and Kronoberg’s Lan, as well as the northern part of Kalmar, elk shooting 
is permitted only from Sept. 9 to 15. Finland, bull elk during the first 
eight days of September. 
There is no doubt that the elk was used as a draught animal in Norway, 
Sweden and Finland in early times. Ancient literature and the stone 
carvings of Hastskotjarn and Skarvangen (Jemtland) and other places 
bear evidence of this. At the present day elk are occasionally broken in 
and trained to harness, but they are not so satisfactory as reindeer, being 
sluggish and obstinate. The fashion for keeping tame moose became 
recently such a nuisance in the village of Kenora (Manitoba) that a law 
had to be passed forbidding their possession except in proper enclosures. 
Moose or elk have never been a success in confinement in England. Even 
one which lived for some years in the park at Woburn never looked happy. 
Nor have experiments with moose in the New York Zoological Park been 
successful. Yet I think that if they could be acclimatized and released 
in some suitable area in Scotland they would flourish. I have never seen 
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