REINDEER-STALKING IN RYFYLKE. 
33 
moment, tempted by a clump of golden-ripe moltebcer , 
when I perceived from Lars’ movements that something 
had occurred. In a moment I was at his side. Yes; 
there they are at last! About a mile away a herd of 
deer were slowly emerging, one by one, from a glen, 
and feeding along its rock-strewn ridge. There were 
four or five calves, smaller and conspicuously lighter- 
coloured than the rest, which were of a darker grey, 
but the horns of all were still in the velvet. Then 
behind them, there emerged from the glen a finer beast 
carrying clean white antlers with a forest of points. 
But even he was presently to be dwarfed by the real 
monarch of Rannces-fjeld. For a long time we lay 
watching them with the binoculars—one of those truly 
entrancing spectacles, a herd of wild animals still roam¬ 
ing in absolute security. Lars kept urging a forward 
movement; but as the glass still swept lovingly over 
the scene, all at once they rested on a new object—were 
they indeed horns, or the sheltered, weather-blanched 
skeleton of a pine ? From behind a rock projected such 
a pair of antlers as I had never before seen in life. The 
beast was lying down, his whole body concealed by the 
rock, and some hundred and fifty yards away from 
the herd. “ Meget , meget stor Ren! ” whispered Lars, 
as he closed the glass, and off we set at top speed down 
a glen which ran in their direction. The first half-mile 
presented no difficulties—beyond a wide and rushing 
torrent which, however, delayed us not an instant—and 
we reached a second ridge which commanded a clear 
view of the game, distant about seven hundred yards on 
the opposite hill. We could now see that they numbered 
twenty-one as they moved, feeding, along the crest. 
D 
