HUNTING-CAMPS ON HARDANGER VIDDEN. 191 
by 4.30. Tent beginning to leak in places. While I 
write, another misfortune is reported : the net has 
caught no trout. Why ? “ The thunder.” 
August 2btli. —Bitterly cold all night, and this morn¬ 
ing the ground is white and snow falling. Called at six, 
but “ laid in.” Sent men to draw net—result, one half- 
pound trout, not enough for breakfast. Heavy snow all 
day ; stayed in “ bags ” till midday, coffee and bread in 
bed ; then twice attempted to start, but both times 
were driven back by furious snow-squalls from N. At 
night wind shifted to S.W., with heavy rain. 
Five days have passed since we entered the wilds, 
and not a shot has been fired nor game seen. For this 
we have to thank the weather. Reindeer-shooting is 
dependent wholly on the weather—next on luck; but 
without weather you can’t have luck. 
The cold, too, for August, is intense. Snow-fonds 
and glaciers impend our camp—one of them is twenty 
miles long. Swollen torrents surround us (there were 
only three at first, but new ones commence business 
every day, and the originals have trebled in size), and 
the roar of the cataracts blends day and night with the 
creaking of guy-ropes, the flapping of the tent, and the 
rattle of rain and hail on our canvas roof. We have 
not a dry rag left; five days’ rain has drenched every¬ 
thing, and we must perforce turn in at four, not having 
a change left. Moreover, having killed no game, we are 
reduced to living on bread-and-cheese and the. last tin 
of corned beef; the only hot thing we get is coffee. 
The “ brandy ” we brought proves to be aquavit; our 
butter and literature are exhausted, though not our 
patience—but oh, for a change in the weather ! 
