ELK-HUNTING IN INDEROEN. 
215 
could be seen, and the nature of the game puzzled us. 
The yielding sphagnum retained no impress, but at 
length, on a patch of peat, big round pugs showed that 
the quarry was a lynx. For another hour the beast 
led us up-hill and down, twisting and doubling through 
the worst ground ho could find. As these tactics must 
give the game our wind, “ Passop ” was let go, when 
the pace soon became too hot to last, and it was almost 
a relief to find, on a densely-timbered and almost per¬ 
pendicular face, that the scent was lost. I imagine, 
from experience of the lynx in Spain, that this acute 
beast would never be secured by spooring with the dog 
in hand. 
During the three-mile row along Troll-botn, sundry 
trout were captured. Sitting in the stern, it was amusing 
to watch the anglers’ faces as another two-pounder 
seized the spoon. The bilges swam with big fish before 
B. and I, with Ole, whom we had brought from Nam- 
dalen, and his elk-hound “ Bengel,” landed to hunt the 
south shore. The wind to-day (and every day) was 
very light and variable—-conditions almost fatal to 
success—^yet already, from the boat, “ Bengel ” had 
touched a faint luft (scent), and within six hundred 
yards we came on fresh spoor of a bull. By the trail 
it was evident the elk was on the alert; he was moving 
at a canter, though not fast. It was still early, and 
for four miles we followed a straight-away spoor through 
moderately open forest and bog. Then the beast had 
settled down; he had commenced tracing that erratic 
course to right and left—often almost doubling on his 
tracks—that is characteristic of the elk, and necessitates 
the utmost caution on the hunters part. Again and 
