10 
WILD NORWAY. 
fjelds that will yield thirty to forty brace a day in 
southern and western Norway are few and far between. 
The willow-grouse are really the only thoroughly 
sporting game-birds in August, though the ptarmigan 
improve as the season advances, and the blackcocks 
are ready by September. The hazel-grouse can never 
be rated as a really sporting bird—good as he is to eat; 
while it is more the misfortune than the fault of the 
capercaillie that we cannot place that noble game-bird 
in the first class ; for his haunts in the dense spruce- 
forest, wildness, and relative scarcity, render his sole 
pursuit rarely worth following. Of snipe, on average 
fjelds, one sees about three in two days, with woodcock 
in but slightly larger numbers. Wildfowling as a sport 
does not exist.* 
Turning to large game, this pursuit demands infinite 
sacrifices. None but the hardier sort should essay the 
forest-hunting : the men who count no cost, and are 
careless of hardships, hard work, rough living, and 
disappointments without end. Rough as it is, however, 
the forest compares favourably with the fjeld. In the 
former, the elk-hunter has at least the shelter of sseter 
or a woodman s log-hut; whereas, on the high fjeld, 
the deer-stalker must live under canvas or in a “ cave¬ 
dwelling ” {stein fmset ), albeit it freezes hard by night 
and perhaps rains in torrents every day! Taking my 
own experience in the northern forests, the average is 
very nearly nine days’ work to each bull-elk brought 
to bag. The average with reindeer works out consider¬ 
ably better: not because the latter are, in any sense, 
easier to shoot, but because, being met with in herds 
* I write in general terms, and there are local exceptions. 
