Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 June 1882 — Elk Shooting In Norway. [ARTICLE]

Elk Shooting In Norway.

’/The iKs to go* ouAwilfc John 1 pwtani&L Bn 10s. «trA pot ifwetgotWn ntliatday. Notwithstanding this itimulaut we hunted’a large strip of our own forest in vain, crossed over the river and drew the adjoining forest absolutely blank until a late lunch time. After lunch, starting in ahalf-hearted sort of way, and while still smoking, the dog soon began to show signs of being near game. Good little dog, what a treat it was to be out with him after the rollicking, loud-sounding Trugan! After looking at his dog John whispered to me, “Very near,” and pointed down the hill to the left. I crept forward, and in a few minutes saw two huge beasts quietly feeding in a small open patch about 120 yards off. My first impulse was to : take a snap shot at the first I saw, but as they did not dream of my existence I raised the rifle quietly and toox aim at the biggest. I suppose he saw the movement, for he turned and looked at me. Aiming strait at him I fired; the smoke blew back in my face,and when it cleared away both beasts were gone. Almost instantly after I saw two huge ones cross an open patch not far from me and I gave the biggest the benefit of mv other barrel. Calling out to John to come on with the dog, I ran to where I had last seen the elk to find out the result of my shots. John seemed in no hurry to come; the elk, I understand, are sometimes dangerous when wounded, but I should think very rarely. After following the trail for some time without seeing a trace of blood, we were satisfied neither of the two had deen touched. I could not believe that I had missed clean and clever a steady (shot at a beast as big as a horse, and so we retracedjour steps to where they had been standing when I fin’d the first shot. As soon as we got back to the place I pointed out to John where the one I aimed at had been, and on looking on the ground I saw a large drop of blood on a small dead stick. With a shout of triumph we started to follow up the tracks, and then found there had been three of the animals. They had turned down the hill at first, then two had wheeled round and passed up to where I had fired the second time, and so away into the forest. The third track |led down the hill, every few yards there being great splashes of blood, at sight of the firstof which John jerked out: “Dead, dead.” Yes, there, a few yards farther on, lay the mighty beast on his side, stone dead. The bullet had hit him full in the throat as he looked up at me and passed down into his lungs, killing him almost instantly. An enormous creature he was, big enough to provide the village with meat for nearly all winter. The first feeling of exultation at having at last been successful soon passed away, and it was almost with a feeling of sadness that we covered the mighty carcass over with heavy boughs, after having got him ready to be carried off on the morrow. On our way home we again came across the other two, a cow and a calf; they were apparently quite demoralized, and after getting nearly stuck in a bog, they stood and looked at us on the open moor, not more than 100 yards away. I suppose they were looking for their lord and father. If my second barrel, fired in the ex ciUment of the moment when I first saw them, had taken effect, I might have got into serious trouble for shooting two on the .same property, but there would have been no objection to my shooting either where they were now standing; but the sight of so much blood had sobered me, and I was content to watch the stupid clumsy beasts slowly cross the moor and dissapear. How such great uncouth beasts could have so long kept out of our sight seemed a perfect miraacle. At first sight they looked about the size and color of the buffalo cows one sees in Egypt.—Temple Bar. In 1764, a Scotchman named McAll, reversing his name, founded Almack’s, the London institution whose exclusive assemblies were the pride of the upper circles until 1840, when it shrunk and died away. During its career titled aristocrats were arbitrarily excluded, under certain circumstances, and its doors were shut in the face of the duke of Wellington when in the height of his fame, because some point of Almacky etiquette had not been complied with. For 40 years, England has had no Almack’s, but it is to be revived, and will open June 12, when Prince Leopold and his bride will be present. The London papers assure us that “the organization will constitute an inner circle of fashion within which only the purest bluest blood will be permitted to flow." This sounds well at the end of the record of the . expected presence of Prince Leopold, whose purest bluest blood is boiling over with the scrofulous taint inherited from a long line of kings.