Chapter XVII (2)

We now travelled with more briskness, not only lured by the chance of coming up with the herd of rein-deer, but pursued by the moss-grown phantom of a mountain couch. An endless forest of firs lay on our right hand, and the nearer we approached it, the more clearly we could hear the howl of wolves; and whenever we reached an elevated mound of ground we thought to see a troop of them galloping forth to their nightly depredations. Mountainous ridge after ridge we climbed, but along the wide expanse our eyes could alight on no lake; and only through a chasm, far away between two mountains, the lead-coloured water of the Sogne Fiord momentarily deceived the sight. The guide kept his place in front and led the way, bounding from valley to mountain-top like a spirit of Indian rubber; and unwearied in his tongue as he seemed in body, he continued shouting, cheerily, in a strange, drawling chant,

"Salt, h-o-o-o! salt, h-o-o-o! salt, h-o-o-o!"

"Salt" in the Norwegian language signifies salt, as it does in ours; but the vowel has a soft pronunciation. The rein-deer are very fond of salt, and the wildest of them will follow a person, who holds some salt in his hand, for miles together. To put salt on a bird's tail, and catch it, may be an English piece of jocularity; but the Norwegian would be puzzled to think why we should attach a joke to such an act; and to prove to an Englishman the inaptitude of the proverb, the Norseman will go forth with his handful of salt, and take, not his covey of sparrows, for his country has none; but a fine fat buck.

As the evening advanced, the light wind, that had made the heat of the day tolerable, now lulled; but mute as the long blades of grass were, the breath of night, when it moved the hair gently from our brows to cool our faces, whispered in our ears the warning sound of the tramp and unceasing howl of a hundred wolves. Regardless of all danger, be it far or near, the Norwegian still claimed the van, and dipped his hand with frequency in the little bag of salt that dangled at his girdle, chanting as he went,

"Salt, h-o-o-o! salt, h-o-o-o! salt, h-o-o-o!"

The deer came not; though the lonely hills took up the words, and passed them from vale to vale.

"We shall never reach home to-night," said R---- to me, as we toiled up the side of the hill overgrown with moss.

"I am afraid not," I answered; "and for my own comfort I don't care. If we made a fire we could sleep as safely up here as on board. However, let's consult when we get to the top."

"Yes; it takes the whole of one's breath," observed R----, "to scramble over this moss."

Mounted to the top, we were not inclined to curtail our jaunt; for we saw a pool of water, one of the objects of our search, spread beneath us; and, what is an uncommon sight at 3000 feet above the level of the sea, its banks were covered with rushes. Opponent to us, on the extreme side, or eastern corner of this pool, the even surface of the mountain rose into a hill which, being higher than the ground where we stood, obstructed our view. The rein-deer had frequently resorted to this water to drink, for the mud of its diminutive shore was everywhere indented with their hooves. The Norwegian examined these marks with much minuteness; and when he had satisfied himself that they were the hoof-prints of the rein-deer, and not of the smaller cows of the country, he thrust his hand into the salt-bag that was still suspended from his left side, like a good-sized rook's nest, and vociferated,

"Salt, h-o-o-o! salt, h-o-o-o! salt! salt!"

The monotony of his song was kept up for a quarter of an hour without any variation either in the tones of his voice, or arrangement of the words; but, occasionally, when he looked on the ground, and was reminded of the cloven marks in the slough, his voice would swell to the passionate bellow of a war-whoop. His manner reminded me strongly of a bull, that by some mischance has lost the common herd; and as he gallops along the meadows, when he finds himself alone, will stop suddenly at times, and, placing his broad nostrils to the earth, sniff the grass with the absorption of a huge pump; then lifting his head loftily in the air, will lash his tail, and madly tossing his legs, roar till the country round is filled with the sounds of his anger.

"Well, Sir," said the Norwegian, addressing me, "if we do not find the deer near this water, I fear we shall find none to-day. It is late; and they are gone to shelter in the forests for the night."

The last four words had not yet fallen from his lips, when a doe, followed by her fawn, stood on the brow of the hill directly opposite to us; and halting for a moment, moved her head up and down, scenting the air. No sooner did the guide perceive the animal, than he tugged the salt-bag from his belt, and, holding it in his left hand, extended it at arm's length before him, creeping down the hillock on which we had clustered, exclaiming,

"Kommit; salt, h-o-o-o! salt, h-o-o-o! kommit, kommit."

The deer seemed perfectly to understand his meaning, for she shook her antlers and small tufted tail, and trotted down the other hill towards the Norwegian. Our guide still kept moving forward by stealthy steps, while the animal quickened its motion from a trot to a canter, and arriving within a yard of the proffered salt-bag, made a dead stop. The Norwegian had volunteered the promise, that if the deer turned out to be his own, and he could lay hands on her, we should accept her as a gift.

"Kommit," said the Norwegian, in tones of gentler blandness; "salt!--salt, h-o-o-o! kommit, kommit."

But the doe was not so easily to be entrapped; for she stretched out her long neck as far as it would go, and then, just as her nose was so near to the salt that its savour made her dart out her tongue and lick her slimy nostrils, she plunged backwards as if a cannon had exploded, and scampered half-way up the hill to her fawn. The Norwegian turned his head and smiled with us, but would not yet despair of success.

"Kommit," still, with onward step, he said, "kommit; salt, h-o-o-o! salt!--kommit, kommit."

The doe appeared as desirous of tasting the salt, as the Norwegian was to give it; for she fixed her large eyes on the little moving man as he stumbled and tottered over the uneven heath, and watching his gradual approach, threw up her head, and stamped her foot.

I and my two companions were aware, that the Norwegian intended, if practicable, to seize the deer by the horns, and by that means secure her; but we saw more clearly than he did, that, if any attempt of the kind was made on the doe, she would not only tumble our little friend down the steep side of the mountain, but, no doubt, being with the fawn, gore him. If he is fool enough, we thought, not to know any better, having passed all his life among deer, and claiming, moreover, a patrimony of five hundred head, surely it was needless to interrupt by our surmises his preconcerted plans. For my own part, and I will attribute the same anticipations to R---- and P----, I promised myself more laughter than wounds from the engagement of the Norwegian with the deer; but I knew there was some risk, yet rejoiced in my own heart at the sum of pleasure that might be cast up in my favour, making no deduction for the Norwegian.

The deer remained perfectly still until the Norwegian could almost have touched her overcome with the insatiable craving to taste the salt; but if he dared, however slily, to move the other hand that held no salt, she bounded several yards from him.

"Kommit; salt, h-o-o-o! kommit,--kommit; salt, h-o-o-o! salt, h-o-o-o!" the Norwegian continued half singing, and half importuning the deer to come to him. His importunities and cantata might have lasted for another week, but we observed, that the doe was, by insensible degrees, allowing, like a human creature, her appetite to get the better of her mind, or instinct; and when she took, at last a trifling lap of the salt, the Norwegian, with much dexterity, seized her with his right hand by one of the antlers. The deer, feeling herself thus assaulted, shot, like a thunder-bolt, backwards, dragging the Norwegian with her; and though, by the weight of her antagonist's strength, her nose was almost forced between her fore-legs, she shook her head violently, and making a desperate lunge, struck her countryman somewhere about the silver buckle of his belt, or, pugilistically speaking "in the wind," with her forehead, and threw him, gun, pistols, provender, salt-bag, and all, towards a ravine formed by the rain, into which, rolling over and over, he fell heavily, like a sack of oats. So soon as the deer had butted, and the Norwegian was overturned on his back, the gun went off, and instantly blew his red cap some height into the air, and we made up our minds it must be full, as it was before, of our guide's skull, and that he had now gone to that bourn from which no hunter, like no traveller, could ever return. We ran to his assistance. The gun by some contortion of the Norwegian's body, was twisted upside down, and instead of the muzzle being pointed downwards, had been elevated, point blank, towards his head. The poor Norwegian, breathing with great labour, closed eyes, and opened mouth, lay on his back, like a log in a mill-pond; but we were glad to find that his mouth, tongue, and all his teeth remained perfect; and it was some inducement to us to raise the body with the hope, that he was not yet beyond the need of medical, if of our skill. The closed eyes of the Norwegian opened, and the opened mouth closed, when he felt us touch him, and sitting upright, showed all the external symptoms of having been stunned, for he rubbed his eyes, and pressed his hand to his brow, then clasped his temples, and with a continuous movement bowed his head, the crown of which we saw was unmutilated. After a time, he looked up at us, and seemed surprised to find himself seated in the gulley; for starting immediately, without any aid, to his feet, he laughed idiotically as some men will laugh when awakened from a nap, and setting in order his dress, and singed hair, bore no other signs of injury beyond a scratch on the left cheek, and the loss of his scarlet woollen cap. The Norwegian, however, has to thank Heaven for a narrow escape, since the whole charge of his gun struck the tassel of his cap, and changed that memento of spousal devotion into its original nonentity.

The readjustment of the Norwegian's lungs did not detain us long; and binding his spotted handkerchief round his head to guard against rheum, or catarrh, he led us by a track almost invisible down the mountain. Since the fray we had seen nothing of the deer, and gave no further thought of her, or any of her genus; but made the best of our way, by the waning light, to a village at the foot of the mountain, whence we hoped to find some conveyance home. The Norwegian, trustful to the last, did not yield all chance of capturing the deer for us; and actuated by the feeling of generosity steadfast to his nation, recommenced his song. Although the first hour of morning had subtracted from that of midnight the light was sufficient to guide our steps aright, but not enough to mislead the wolves; for their howling, and its eternal repercussion among the mountains and over the forests, brought the most melancholy fancies to the mind, which the undecided hue of the atmosphere, neither that of brilliant day nor the black majesty of profound night, and the low moan of the wind through the fir trees, that sounded like the feeble expression of bodily pain, or contrition of a dying creature, made too oppressively sad to admit any thoughts of rational meditation which the solemnity of the time and place might have encouraged. The gloomy shadows of the fir forest, through which we had to pass, caused us to look around with greater caution than we had hitherto done; and our guide failed not to keep our vigilance alive by exclaiming at the regular terminations of a few minutes;

"Varg, varg."

"Varg," means a wolf. The rustling of the leaves, or the rolling of a stone as one of us might strike it accidentally with the foot, would set the trigger of each gun clicking, and send from mouth to mouth the signal of----

"Listen!--h-u-u-u-sh!"

Since we had left the more open part of the mountain, we had not felt entirely at ease; for the incessant tramp of some wild animal was too distinct at times to attribute the sound to imagination; and we pursued our way with a feeling of uncertainty as to the manner and moment we might be attacked. We all concluded, that some wolf had got in our track, and was following at such a distance as to keep himself out of our sight; but not so far to prevent him from pouncing on us just when his opportunity offered. Though we were not wolves, we completely understood the intentions of the animal, and exercised that attribute of craft which is as abundant in the organization of man, as of the brute. We had now reached the very heart of the forest; and the shades of light were so uncertain, that the fallen trunks of the firs and pine were often mistaken for bears, or any other kind of ferocious beast that we had ever heard was of the colour of the bark, or common to Norway. The measured tramp in our rear became louder and nearer, the deeper we advanced into the forest; and every moment seemed to be the one in which the conflict was to commence.

"Let us stop and see," said the Norwegian, in his own language, "if he will come up to us."

We stood still; and turning the locks of our guns downwards, tapped them, to replace the powder that might have receded from the nipples. We could not afford to give our enemy the benefit of one gun hanging fire.

"Keep still," said P----, in a low voice, as he stooped down and glanced through the firs; "here he comes!--but,--no;--it's no wolf."

"Ja," replied the Norwegian, who had asked me what P---- said; "ja!--varg;" and he placed himself in an attitude to fire at the shortest possible notice.

"It's no wolf, I tell you," answered P----, rather louder than he had spoken at first; "it's too big--why, damn it!" and he again stooped down, moving his body from side to side, as he looked between the pines that obstructed his view; and placing his left hand over his eyes, used it as a kind of shade,--"surely--yes;--I'm sure--it's a jackass!"

"Is it?" said R----; "well, then, let's shoot him as a nuisance."

"Nej, nej," exclaimed the Norwegian, with much trepidation, laying hold of R----'s fowling-piece, that he had jokingly raised to his shoulder preparatory to its discharge.

The animal, whatever it was, still continued trotting towards us, winding its way by the circuitous track of the forest. P---- kneeled down to have a more exact range both for his gun and sight; but springing to his feet almost instantly, he exclaimed,----

"I'll be shot, if it isn't the old doe again!"

Panting from fatigue, and the unflagging speed with which she had travelled, the deer, with her fawn, came close to us, and tamed by weariness, stood within a foot of the Norwegian.

"Kommit," he said; "salt; kommit, kommit," and filling his hand with salt, the animal came near, and devoured it greedily, and allowed the Norwegian to pat her on the neck and shoulder.

The extreme fondness of the rein-deer for salt cannot be better exemplified; for this animal had followed us from her natural abode on the top of the mountain to its base, and could not have performed a lesser journey than twenty miles. She approached us with so much confidence, and licked our hands with that domestic affection which is so winning in dumb animals, that we declined to accept and take her from her native haunts; but strove by every discordant noise and angry gesture to drive her back to the mountains. With the same care, however, that the deer had avoided us, she now sought our society, and did not leave us until we had reached the precincts of the village, and leaping a high, wooden fence that separated it from the forest, we gave her the alternative of doing as we did, or remaining where she was. With the decorous conduct of her sex she made not the attempt; but during the hour we wandered about the sleeping village in search of some boatmen to row us back to Auron, we could hear her lowing piteously. We had descended the eastern side of the mountain, and arrived on a southern branch of the Sogne Fiord.

Day now began to dawn; and though we had hardly eaten or drank since our departure the previous morning from Auron, the freshness of the early air, the balm of mountain flowers, and the beautiful face of nature, afforded new vigour to our frames, and in feasting the mind we nourished the body. Wandering from cottage to cottage we knocked at the doors and windows, hoping to rouse the slumbering people; but sleep sits more willingly on the peasant's hard pillow than it will pace, without fretting, the softly-garnished chamber of indolent wealth, and not long for morning to fly away. At last we succeeded completely by not only awakening the family of one cottage, but our vociferations alarmed nearly half the village population. I do not recollect the name of the village, but the inhabitants bore the disturbance with great good nature; and thrusting their heads out of their bed-room windows, that looked no bigger than port-holes, two or three men directed us to the abode of a fisherman who would soon put us in the way of hiring a pram. Finding the fisherman's hut, we soon thumped him out of his dreams, and, shouting uproariously from within, he desired to know who we were, and what we desired. The Norwegian, our guide, entered into a lengthened dialogue through the door, and assured the fisherman of our good faith and bad plight, begging that he would rise, and help us with the means of returning to Auron.

Half an hour afterwards we were reclining on some branches of the fir with which the four boatmen, whose services the fisherman had secured, covered the seats and bottom of the pram, having learned from our guide the distance we had travelled; and, spreading their coats over us, bade us rest. To soothe us to slumber, they sang, in union with the motion of their oars, a native boat-song, and its sweet and plaintive air, though it could not entice us to sleep soundly, pacified the wearied nerves, and we lay in a Paradise of dreaming sensibility. These four men were each six feet in stature, and their philanthropy and good nature were as broad as their frames. They ceased not rowing for one moment, throughout the entire distance, to rest on their oars; and though the rain, from two o'clock till four, fell in torrents, their spirits chafed not with its pelting violence; but they sang, and laughed, and jested with each other as if the sun was shining cheerfully over their heads. We stepped on board the cutter at four o'clock, having been rowed eighteen miles in three hours and a half.

For all the countries which I have traversed Nature appears not to have done so much to make them agreeable to man, as she has for Norway, and man so little to make his own soil suitable for himself as the Norwegian; nor have I, in either hemisphere, felt more truly spiritualized by the grandeur of the scenery, the honest frankness and simplicity of its people, as here. I have wandered over many parts of the earth; I have looked upon its lofty mountains shrouded in clouds, or capped with snow; I have, loitering in its smiling valleys, seen its waterfalls, and floated on its crystal torpid lakes, and rushing rivers; yet this old land of Norway yields not in all to them, but bears on her stern and rugged brow the soft impressions of a beneficent creation impartially dispensed. Such reflections failed not, day by day, to force themselves upon me; for I knew, that every step I now took removed me farther and farther from a country, whose mighty mountains had, with their solemnity, first taught me to think; and the integrity and single-mindedness of whose children showed how, though fostered in the flinty lap of poverty, happiness and heroic contentment were no fable. The peasants, whom we sometimes met in the interior of the country, where their livelihood must be earned with the hardest labour, and whose necessity during the long and dismal months of winter must not be much inferior to absolute want, ever seemed cheerful and ready, not only to share their scanty fare with us, but to give us milk and butter, and dried fish, or other dainties which they may have hoarded for the coming time of cold and darkness. Black bread of barley, or of rye, sour and unfit even for "Sailor," formed their daily diet, and meat had never been tasted by thousands; nor did we obtain any other animal food, except at Christiania and Bergen, and there but with difficulty, than what we had brought from England; yet, under all their privations, the contented and happy disposition of these people, added to their independent bearing and dauntless bravery, was a lesson as instructive to luxurious selfishness, as it must be gratifying to the man who believes in the innate nobility of his race, and is proud of it.

Our guide was determined that we should not quit the Sogne Fiord without some token by which we might remember it; and sending a messenger to the other side of the Fiord, desired that a certain number of his tenants or friends should go to the Reenfjeld, and bring as many rein-deer as they could secure to the foot of a mountain, which he specified by name, on the morrow. Early in the morning, therefore, the first man who might have been seen on the deck of the cutter, was our Norwegian guide; and helping to heave the anchor, he pointed our course to the spot where the rein-deer would be brought. About one o'clock in the afternoon, we lay-to off a small village consisting of a few cottages, reposing at the base of the mountain which the Norwegian had indicated as our destination. Here, as it had been everywhere else, the scene was sublime; stamped against the blue sky, glaciers were above our heads, and green fields at our feet; and thousands of cascades leaping down the barren sides of the mountains which surrounded us north, east, and west, were not concealed from the eye by tree or shrub; but could be traced, inch by inch, from the flat summit of the mountains to the valleys that sloped to the water on which the vessel swam.

A girl with a basket of cherries came off to the yacht in a boat rowed by an old man, who watched her with solicitude and the most devoted affection; and when arriving alongside, the young lady was requested to come on board, and she complied readily with our entreaty, the despair that shaded the countenance of the old man delineated the torture of his heart. This peculiar appearance of the patriarchal face was not lost upon R----, who was as observant, as he is full of fun, and turning to me, he said, "Let's take her for a sail, and leave the old bird behind."

"Very well," I answered; "shall I tell D----?"

The old man not being aware of the trick we were about to play, had not thought it necessary to make his pram fast to the cutter, but held on by the starboard main-channel. The order was given to put the helm over, and let the foresail draw. The cutter soon began to gather way, and before the old man could imagine why, or whence the increase of traction came, the main-chain slipped through his fingers, and he fell quietly but backwards in his pram. I am sorry to say our fair prisoner laughed as heartily as any one else at the comical attitude of the old man. Unlike the generality of people who have attained his years, the old man still possessed much presence of mind; and the instant he could recover his equilibrium, he sat down and set to work vigorously with his oars. We kept shouting to him in bad Norwegian, to "pull away;" and running the cutter close up in the wind, allowed him to overtake us, and then taking hold of a coil of rope, the sailors bade him to "stand by for the end," but always took care when they did throw it, to make it fall short of him. This went on for some time; so that by degrees we had enticed the old man some two miles from the land, but discovering that we were only cajoling him, he turned the bow of his pram towards the shore, and with a long face of misery rowed back. The young lady, in the mean time, had wheedled herself into the affections of the amorous tars, particularly of King, he being a linguist. Having sold her basket of cherries she then seated herself on the deck, near the quarter bulwarks, enjoying the excursion and novelty of her situation, and laughing merrily at the discomfiture of her old swain. We had now stood across the Fiord, and sailed within half a mile of another village of some importance, for a large church with a red wooden steeple soared above the houses, out of the windows of which a multitude of heads were thrust and turned towards the cutter.

"The girl, my Lord," said D---- coming up to R----, "wishes to go ashore here--she lives here, my Lord."

"Man the gig," answered R----, smiling, "and send her off in it."

"Very good, my Lord;" and away went D---- to give the order. The cutter lay to, and the gig was hauled up from the stern to the gangway. Four men sprung into her, and the cockswain took his seat aft; and received, beside the cushions for the seat and back-board, the empty basket of the Norwegian girl. The girl looked with much attention to all that was going forward; but could not tell why her basket was handed into the boat; and being informed that the gig was waiting to take her home, she did not dislike the honour about to be shewn her; but smiled and tittered with the instinctive gratification of her sex.

"Tak," she said, mindful of her manners, shaking R----, P----, and me, by the hand, "tak, tak;" and gathering her petticoats tight about her legs, yet without any semblance of prudery, walked to the gangway, and, without aid, jumped into the boat. Seating herself on the scarlet cushions, the cockswain receiving permission from her to go on, with all the gravity due to a queen gave the word to his men, and away the gig shot, the girl kissing her hand all the time affectionately, and with no lack of elegance in the bowing inclination of her body in answer to our acts of reciprocal adoration. I need scarcely say, that the girl had never touched her native shores with an appearance more imposing, nor enjoyed herself so largely in so short a time; nor was her return to the village strand on any previous occasion, whether baptismal, or hymeneal, more numerously attended than on that day; for men, women, naked children, and snarling dogs came to the water's side to greet her, without any reference to numerical force, or moral weakness.

At three o'clock, with the assistance of our glasses, we discovered sixteen Norwegians, and their invariable companions, as many dogs, leading and tormenting four rein-deer down the mountains; and for two hours, along the narrow road of descent, we watched the whole troop enlarging from the indistinctness of black-beetles to the symmetry and size of men and animals. When they had reached the plain on which the small village was built, they shouted and beckoned to us; and although we made all possible haste, they seemed to fancy their excited feelings sluggish, nor allowed us sufficient time to walk from one side of the deck to the gangway without renewing their whoop.

When we landed, the first object that drew our attention from everything else, was a buck, whose height and proportions quite astonished us. This animal measured from the tail to the nose five feet two inches, and from the hoof of the fore leg to the top of his horns, when he held his head up, seven feet three inches, and his body was quite as large as that of an ass. Although very much injured by the violence with which he had been used during his long journey from the mountains, and which had been rendered absolutely necessary by his ferocity and wildness, we were desirous of bringing him alive to England; but being so mutilated, our guide recommended us to have the buck slaughtered, and take a doe and her fawn on board. With great reluctance the death of the buck was agreed to by R----, and this splendid animal was dragged to a field close at hand. The strength and turbulence of the buck are beyond description; but I do not think I ever enjoyed any fiendish sight more than this short struggle between him and his murderers over twenty yards of ground. None but men, like the Norwegians, accustomed to these savage animals, could have controlled the deer in any way; but notwithstanding all their caution, I saw the buck kick one man on the chest, and throw him, exactly like a nine-pin, over and over, some few feet along the beach. The manner by which the Norwegians had secured this powerful animal was so ingenious, that he could, by no means, do much mischief, except to those persons who, bolder than the rest, went near to caress him; for three ropes were bound round the root of the horns, and being five or six feet in length, were held by three men who stood in the form of an angle, the head of the deer forming the base; or, in other words, one man stood on the left side of the buck, in a line with his left shoulder; a second man stood on the right side opposite to the right shoulder, while the third man took his station in front; and the three men were careful that the rope in the custody of each of them should be kept tight, since the peril of its being slack must be as obvious as its contrariety of tension; for whenever the animal made a plunge, as he sometimes did, towards the man on his right side, the Norwegian on the left could immediately check the career of the maddened deer by "holding on his end," as sailors say; the man in front at the same time giving his protection, and being protected in his turn.

The facility with which this buck was led seemed surprising; for the animal had not only his natural ferocity to offer against the skill of his antagonists, but he possessed strength and all the madness born of the human sounds to which he had been unaccustomed,--the loud ribaldry, and laughter of men and women, the whistle, and shrill cries of boys and frighted infants. Submitting to my ignorance, I must say that I had never seen any large animal killed, and did not know how the operation was performed; and with a feeling of the most horrible infatuation I gathered in the small group round the animal to learn the stratagems observed to surround his legs with looped ropes which, being drawn quickly, slipped into knots and tripped him up. When the proud deer fell to the ground, a man drawing a knife from his pocket, and unclasping it, thrust the blade up to the hilt into the skull between the horns. I could not have conceived anything deprived of life so suddenly; and were it not for the blood that flowed in warm and copious streams from the mouth and nostrils, the animal appeared to have been dead a week. Another buck was killed, and made a present by R---- to his crew. The doe and the fawn were with great difficulty put on board; and so much time was expended in the construction of a pen for them, that we did not sail until ten o'clock in the evening. The doe received a few bruises in hoisting her over the side of the vessel, and one of the sprouting horns of the fawn was broken, which we endeavoured by splints to restore; but inflammation appeared to succeed so rapidly, that P----, who was principal chirurgeon, was obliged to amputate it with his razor close to the head of the animal. This beautiful little creature is still alive, and may be seen in the Zoological Gardens in the Regent's Park, to which Society both animals were presented by R---- on their safe arrival in England.

Every available corner of the yacht was filled with moss, for the Norwegians told us we should find some difficulty in urging the doe to eat any other food; but the fawn might be accustomed to corn or oats. What the Norwegians then said was certified afterwards; for when within sight of the English coast, the moss had all been consumed, and the deer pined for its loss, eating nothing else in its lieu but bread and biscuit; but the fawn demolished the leaf of the filbert, corn, and hay, which had been collected in large quantities the last hour before we left Bergen.