36 
WILD NORWAY. 
a splendid recurved sweep, surmounted by branch-like 
tines, all clean. 
At either flank of their position stood a smaller 
buck on sentry duty. For full half an hour the nearer 
vedette stood rigidly motionless, as shown in the sketch, 
and with a steadfast glance directed straight towards 
us. Even when relieved from duty, though he moved 
a few yards away, he still maintained that steadfast 
gaze, and a terrible fear oppressed me that he had seen 
something. 
For nearly an hour and a half continued this state 
of affairs : the deer enjoying their midday siesta, we 
lying watching them from behind our rock, at less than 
six hundred yards. Never was there a better opportu¬ 
nity for studying wild animals at home. With spy¬ 
glass and sketch-book in hand, I tried to catch their 
various characters, poses, and attitudes, as represented, 
from the life, in the accompanying drawings. Now a 
well-grown buck approached the second lord of the 
herd as he dreamily ruminated. For some seconds they 
stood face to face, then the master reared, struck out 
straight from the shoulder, and the impudent youngster 
vanished. “ They will begin to feed at half-two,” 
(= 1.30 p.m.) said Lars ; so we produced our lunch, and 
silently drew the cork of the ol. Then, more silently 
still, I lit a match and revelled in a few delicious pulls 
at the pipe—a precaution, I thought, against possible 
“ buck-fever ” or flurried nerves, when the crisis should 
arrive. 
Within a few minutes of the time predicted, there 
was evident commotion among the deer. The whole 
herd were on their legs, feeding rapidly from point to 
