REINDEER-STALKING IN RYFYLKE. 
31 
pot-shots at him with stones, merely crouching as each 
struck hard by, till at length he took wing with loud 
execrations. As elsewhere mentioned, I believe that 
in these remote spots the ptarmigan have hardly learned 
to distinguish man from deer or other harmless animals 
and of course the hunter rarely molests them. 
Towards evening the Eyper were busy feeding,, 
moving rapidly about on the sheltered slopes of the 
glens, where heath and crowberry-ling grow. Among 
the latter humble covert (not three inches high) I found 
a nest of the previous summer containing an addled 
egg and the hatched-out remains of the rest. I noticed 
that the nestling quills of the young ptarmigan shot in 
September were speckled brown, like those of fledgling 
grouse, and not white, as in the adults. 
To return to our deer. I have now described a 
blank day, and others followed. As Sunday drew near, 
we became anxious as to possible Sabbatarian tendencies 
in our companions, and approached the subject with 
diplomatic circumlocution. But Lars’ view, as we 
understood it, was simple : there is no Sunday above 
three thousand feet! Certainly there are no churches. 
The final days of August yielded no special incident 
worthy of record, and for an illustration of the opposite 
picture, success, we must pass on to a glorious First of 
September. 
