118 
WILD NORWAY. 
III. A Bear Incident. 
On the last evening of June, we were sitting in the 
verandah, smoking a pipe, and waiting till the sun 
should have “ got off the water,” when, about six 
o’clock, a letter was brought in from a farmer some 
three miles further up the valley, saying that a bear had 
“ killed a sheep from him ” the night before, and asking 
if one of the Englishmen would come and shoot it. 
The bear, he said, had only devoured one-third of the 
carcase, adding that he (Sverka) had left the remains 
untouched, and that Bruin would be sure to return 
about midnight to his “ kill.” All other stock had been 
removed from the fell; and if the Englishman would be 
at his house at nine o’clock, he would be ready to take 
him to the spot, which was four miles distant therefrom. 
The Paradox, with half a dozen ball-cartridges and 
other small necessaries, being made ready, at seven we 
went to fish for one hour, being on the home-beat, and 
having twice that day raised a heavy salmon close by. 
But eight o’clock arrived with the stor lax still free, and, 
though I somehow felt that, given time, I should be 
able eventually to coax him into a taking mood, we had 
larger game in view, and half reluctantly abandoned rod 
for rifle. 
Sverka was ready waiting when the cariole pulled 
up, and we at once set out for the climb on to the fj eld; 
not a difficult path, for in half an hour we were seven 
hundred feet up ; the remaining six hundred feet were 
soon accomplished, and a walk of three miles across the 
fjeld brought us to the place. The dead sheep lay in 
an open grassy glade, completely decapitated and neatly 
