THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
work but a real good fellow, indefatigable, keen and self-reliant — three 
of the most essential qualities in a hunter — good-natured, too, modest and 
absolutely trustworthy. He spoke English excellently and managed my 
accounts so well that I had no worry with the constant disbursement 
of small sums. To my brother sportsmen who think of hunting in Upper 
Namdalen I would say by all means secure his services if you can. You 
cannot do better. 
His dog Bismark was worthy of the name he bore — a really “great” 
dog, devoted to his work and so familiar in every point of it that 
rarely indeed did he make a mistake. When he did he had reason to regret 
it. And here I may say that elk dogs educated like him, to the utmost 
limit of their capacity, are gifted beyond any other in the art of speaking 
without words. A raising of the nose and tossing it from side to side, a 
quick snuffle in a footprint, a sudden cocking of the ears, a whispered 
whine, an indifferent yawn, or a straining throat rattle, tells the hunter 
exactly what he wants to know as to the movements of the game in front. 
Kristian cheered me with the opinion that I had secured some really good 
ground. The high ground, he said, was excellent — all except Tunsdalen, 
which had been ravaged and was now tenanted by wolves — whilst the 
forest rights above Lassimoen, some twenty -five miles up the river, were 
about the best in the Namsen Valley. Here then — at Lassimoen — we 
decided to start operations, and the next morning saw us driving up the 
river, alternately passing through green meadows and dense pine forests. 
Leaving my friend to proceed to the Admiral’s house in Tunsdalen, 
where he was to collect birds and shoot ryper, Kristian and I crossed the 
Namsen in a boat and were soon making ourselves at home in the com- 
fortable farmhouse where I intended to spend a week. 
This was the opening day (September 1), so, after a hasty lunch, we took 
the dog and went out to inspect the ground, a big forest through the low 
and swampy glades of which we had hardly walked half a mile when 
Bismark, catching a taint in the air, began running from side to side, 
the better to test its quality. In a few minutes he drew us to the edge of a 
small sheet of water just as a light breeze sprung up and gave him the 
scent direct from the elk, for elk it was. “ If this will only last,” whispered 
Kristian excitedly, “ we shall soon see what is in front.” Hardly, however, 
was the dog pulled off the direct wind, for we had decided to approach 
by a flanking movement, than the wind dropped and we felt that at every 
step we took through the branch -bestrewn forest we were making more 
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