THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
too, no less than three old bullet wounds, whilst both the hind legs were 
heavily scored by recent attacks of wolves. How many hairbreadth escapes 
could the old fellow have told of had he the power of speech! The carcass 
was so large that we had great difficulty in turning it over for the gralloch; 
but when this was done I made some sketches of the animal while Bismark 
gorged himself with his share of the plunder. We then started for home 
laden with some of the best parts of the meat, and later in the day Elias 
fetched home the head and hung up the skin to dry. 
There is little doubt that this old bull had only just come into the valley, 
having probably been scared out of the Trones ground, and was quite 
unaware that his new retreat was infested with wolves. Old hunters say 
that when an elk comes into new ground he ranges it thoroughly to ascer- 
tain if other elk have been there recently and whether the conditions of life 
are safe before settling down; but Kristian, who had studied the habits 
of the animals closely for many years, would have it that the elk was the 
laziest as well as the most cunning of animals, and therefore unlikely to 
busy himself in this way. He assured me that a pair of elk, having selected 
a good retreat with abundance of their favourite food at hand, would 
remain in the same spot for months at a time, never going a greater dis- 
tance than 300 yards in any direction. In the previous year he was informed 
by a farmer below Fiskum of the whereabouts of two elk, a bull and a cow, 
which had taken up their abode on a high ridge, a spot indicated by a small 
pool round which grew masses of birch, rowan and salix. He went there 
on the last day of the season, for he had been away hunting in the north, 
and found both the elk and shot them. The ground round the pool he 
described as being like a cattle-pen, all broken down with the constant 
tread of the two elk. The spoor extended to a distance of about 300 yards 
in every direction, beyond which it suddenly ceased, only a few old foot- 
prints being visible outside. That the animals lived in this confined area, 
as they must have done, during the whole of the summer, would seem 
to indicate a certain degree of cunning as well as a love of seclusion, 
such as is shown in their well-known winter habit commonly called 
“ yarding.” 
The following day, after skinning the head, we all marched over the 
mountain down into the Grondals valley, on the way to which a diversion 
was caused by the dog getting on to the fresh spoor of a small bear, which, 
however, went far too fast for us and easily kept out of sight. Next morn- 
ing I was off to the wild high ground up beyond the Grondals Lake, and this 
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