ELK-HUNTING IN NAMDALEN. 
231 
useless from the shoulder as the sick beast staggered 
from sight, and, unless we quite misunderstood our 
friend, concluded he had, in his haste, followed on the 
track of the cow/* At any rate the black bull lay there 
safe enough, not fifty yards below the ridge, having, in 
fact, fallen to the shot and rolled so far down the steep 
face. I had bagged my two first bull-elks, right and left; 
an ambition was achieved and a vow fulfilled. Standing, 
a month before, on the gangway of the Capella, along¬ 
side the Tydskebryggen at Bergen, I had stopped amid 
clamour of touts and porters on the quay, to register 
a mental vow not to quit Norwegian soil till the bull-elk 
had fallen. 
Both elks were huge animals, afterwards estimated 
by our hunters at nine hundred and one thousand 
pounds respectively. The lesser was rich glossy black in 
pile with warmer undertones, the other light iron-grey. 
The first carried nine points, the bigger beast only seven, 
though the size and sweep of horn warranted a greater 
palmation, and by the spoor Ole had anticipated 
a twelve or fourteen-pointer. 
The normal colour of the elk is very dark, smoke- 
grey, with glossy sheen ; but the warmer shades of the 
under-fur, showing through the outer bristly hair, give 
the pile its rich appearance. The lower legs and inner 
parts of flanks are white, and this contrast between the 
dark and light colours is accentuated by a band of 
shorter hair of a deep dull black adjoining the line 
of demarcation. As mentioned, there is a curious white 
* It is probably much easier for the shooter to keep cool than 
for his companion, who finds himself in presence of game, but 
ivithout a rifle. 
