REINDEER-STALKING IN RYFYLKE. 
47 
and frozen snow, the pony disappeared in the lake below. 
Then I saw antler-tips and corners of my baggage, as 
the beast swam across and began calmly to feed on 
three blades of grass, the saddle broken and all the pack 
and horns hanging; beneath. It cost an hour’s work to 
repair damages. 
The rain was falling solid, and, in the cloud, I dare 
not leave the track ; but, before passing the ridge, shot 
four brace of ptarmigan without leaving the pony’s side 
—half at one double shot: and added a brace of willow- 
grouse by a right and left in the birch-scrub below 
cloud-level. Lower down, but still above the highest 
sseter, the last shot of the season added an old blackcock 
to the bag. 
Three hours’ row down the lake brought me to the 
spot where I expected to find dry clothes ; but W., who 
had come down a few days before, had taken on our 
joint portmanteau. It requires more time than I could 
spare to dry things by hanging them out in the rain, so 
I was obliged to “ weather it out,” as I was; and only 
mention the circumstance as a caution to the improvi¬ 
dent, since the result was a severe chill which cost me 
no small trouble to throw off. In succeeding seasons, 
paying due attention to clothing and commissariat, I 
have hunted longer, staying on the fjeld till later in the 
season, without “ turning a hair.” Three hours in a 
rowing-boat, a day and a half’s carioling, then a day 
and a night in a fjord steamer, brought us to Bergen 
in time to catch the Nordenfjeldske steamer Kong 
Harold for the Tyne—so fine, indeed, had we run 
it, that we had to tranship from one steamer to the 
other by boat in the fjord; the obliging Norsk captains 
