was great variety of other game besides ryper, and the bag, though small, was extremely varied. I remember one day on which we began by beating the woods up to the edge of the fjeld, where capercaillie, black game and hjerpe or hazel grouse were found. On reaching the high fjeld, we divided into two parties, and shot ryper with the help of the dogs, picking up a few snipe and odd woodcock, and golden plover in the course of the walk. After lunch we went still higher and found a good many fjeld ryper or ptarmigan on the rocky top of Blaahommen, a mountain about 4,000 feet high, where I also found a small party of dottrel. On the way back, we got two or three ducks and teal on the edge of a marshy lake, so that eleven kinds of game were included in the bag in one day. We found tracks of elk up to at least 3,000 feet, and on more than one occasion came quite close to elk which were lying in small thickets of birch, far out on the fjeld and above the forest, which here reached to a little over 2,000 feet. This year was one of those which occur at varying intervals, in which the lemmings increase and multiply to such an extent that they are forced to migrate in immense numbers to lower ground in search of food, and in consequence there were great numbers of rough¬ legged buzzards and other birds of prey. Snowy owls, which feed largely on lemmings, had bred in the district, and I obtained from the Lapps four young snowy owls of which we succeeded in bringing three home alive to England, where they lived for some time in Lord Lilford’s aviaries. In order to supply the owls with food on the voyage, I had 200 live lem¬ mings put in boxes, but they fought so desperately with each other that most of them were killed before we got on board the steamer. The fear¬ less nature of these little animals is very striking, for they seem to have no idea of danger, and will stand squeaking in your path without trying to get away. When they come to a lake or river they go straight into the water, and I have seen thousands at a time trying to swim across a large lake, where most of them were drowned. The water in some places was so much contaminated by the number of dead lemmings that we could not drink it, and the grass was in places almost destroyed. But in the following years we saw few or none, and though much has been written by Scandinavian naturalists about these animals, I do not think their wonderful increase in numbers at long intervals has ever been fully explained.
About the natural history of Norway, what struck me most was the scarcity of birds on the lakes and marshes. A few black-throated divers, mergansers, scoters and sandpipers were almost all that I saw on Tydal, where snipe, woodcock and ducks generally were very scarce in September. I do not think I shot a duck or teal in the three seasons I was there. Geese were occasionally seen flying south, but I never saw any breeding. There are, however, some lakes on the Swedish frontier near Noroli in North Trondhjem where grey geese are said to breed in great numbers, as they do on the island of Smolen, where my cousin, Patrick Musters of Annesley, has had great sport with them. There were also very few birds of prey. In the lemming year rough-legged buzzards and snowy owls bred on the fjelds, but in other years kestrels and an occasional eagle were almost the only ones. Owls I never saw, though once or twice I heard the cry
