228 
WILD NORWAY. 
during that mad scamper I was torn by doubts as to 
the wisdom of relying on so transient a blind. Down 
we flew, over banks of blaeberry and ling-clad ledges, 
then through forest intercepted by scrub and young 
pines, across two swollen burns—-how, I know not—till 
we gained the valley-floor. 
Still, to my surprise and dismay, Ole held his 
course, though we were now on open bog, not six 
hundred yards from the game, and the hail almost 
ceasing. But when at length we pulled up to recon¬ 
noitre from the shelter of some broken hummocks, all 
doubts were resolved. For there, on the opposite face, 
slowly feeding to leeward (that is, on a parallel course 
with our own), we descried, not one, but three elks, 
about five hundred yards away. The strategy of our 
hunter was also apparent. His dash, though seemingly 
risky (it was risky, but less so than I had feared), had 
now secured to us advantage both of wind and position. 
And the elks—we could now pause for a moment or 
two and watch them at leisure ! Slowly and deliberately 
the great beasts moved to and fro on that terrace-like 
ledge of the opposite fjeld, now disappearing in the 
gloom, their position only indicated by the shivering of 
some birch or rowan' as a succulent bough was torn 
down. Two were bulls, the third a cow; but what 
struck us at once was the extraordinary colour of one 
of the former—as Ole put it, En er ganshe hvit = “ One 
of them is quite white.” 
Without difficulty we crossed the intervening fiat, 
sheltered by scattered trees and broken ground, and 
commenced the ascent beyond. The elks were on a 
hanging ledge, flanked above and below by crags—one 
