224 
WILD NORWAY. 
appeared to be reconciled to ber lot, for, so long as we 
remained conscious, she kept chortling and clucking, like 
a caper-hen on a pine-bough, to the eleven subjacent 
males. There is safety in numbers. 
The end came, and the big elks had beaten us. Later 
on, we learned the reason of this failure in Furudal. It 
was those Bears we had to thank. For some cause 
unexplained, bears that season roamed in quite unusual 
numbers over Inderoen. From our first mornings 
hunting onwards (as above recorded) we had constant, 
daily evidence of their presence on all parts of our beat 
—on two occasions of their actual violence towards the 
deer. The tainted atmosphere had told the tale. The 
startled elks travelled hither and thither, never settling 
down, never daring to rest, or remain for a single day 
in their wonted haunts. Had we but realized this fact 
in time, and devoted ourselves exclusively to bears, 
instead of persevering in an almost hopeless stern-chase 
after elks already scared and restless, the result might 
not have been a blank. Even without specially seeking 
for bears, it was curious that in all the hundreds of 
miles traversed on the Inderoen fjelds, early and late, 
the writer never once had the luck to fall in with these 
ursine intruders. At least ten bears were seen, within 
our own knowledge, by others, and of these three were 
bagged—but not by me. 
The whole incident presents a curious and interesting 
phase of wild-life. The lesson it conveys cost us too 
dear; but it may one day prove useful to others, as 
illustrative of the possible coincidences or combinations 
in forest-hunting in Scandinavia. 
