MEMURUDALEN.
_Sunday, August 22._--We woke up this morning with a bright sun shining
through the canvas of the tent, and making it intolerably hot inside;
and as we threw open the door of the inner compartment, the fragrant
aroma of the 'boss pie' was wafted to us on the morning air.
We spent the morning in quiet Sunday fashion, chiefly in lying under the
shade of an awning made with rugs which we call the 'sycamine tree,' and
eating wimberries and cream. Besides this we perpetrated a great deal of
high art; every one was seized with the desire of sketching the camp,
and so we sat around on pinnacles like so many pelicans, libelling the
unfortunate place from every position whence it could be seen.
It is looking very comfortable just now. The tent itself is pitched in
an angle of a steep little cliff which effectually protects it from cold
winds at one side and the back, and at the other side we have put up a
thick fence of birch branches to temper the storm to the sleeping-tent.
We find it very convenient to have the two compartments: the inner one
is only used for sleeping in, and always immediately after reveillé is
plunged in an apparently hopeless confusion of rugs, sheepskins,
mattresses, and boots, with here and there a book or a hat protruding
(to use the Skipper's beautiful simile) like brickbats in a dust-heap.
After breakfast all the bedding is dragged out to be aired on the rocks,
and the tent generally tidied.
But the outer tent is always a picture of order and neatness, for here
we keep our stores, boxes of flour and biscuits, cartridges, cooking
utensils, tools, whisky, and potatoes. One of the boxes was made
specially under Esau's directions to be used as a table: the top and
bottom are both hinged, and so when the box is put on its front and
these two lids opened it makes a very good large table; the lids are
held up by a batten screwed underneath them, and for greater security we
have added two legs. But at present the weather is so pleasant that we
always feed outside, a few yards from the tent and nearer to the oven.
On the extreme left, as the penny showman says, you will observe one of
the meat safes, the other one 'thou canst not see, because it's not in
sight,' being close to the back of the tent. Also behind the tent may be
faintly seen the mustard and cress garden, always covered with a sheet
by day to save it from the heat of the sun, and with the same sheet by
night, to guard it from the cold, so that the poor thing never gets any
light, and does not flourish very exceedingly. None of the mustard seeds
have as yet grown up as big as the one in the parable, but when one does
we mean to make a lot of salad out of it, enough for all the camp.
Above the middle of the outer tent are three things which look like
lightning conductors, but are only our rods, which are always stuck in
the ground there when not in use. At their foot under the rock is the
egg larder, neatly constructed of stones and turf, with a wooden lid;
and hanging from the cliff hard by is a very pretty and curious spider's
nest made of paper, like a miniature wasp-nest, about two inches in
diameter.
High up in the centre is 'the meteor flag of England,' engaged in its
customary occupation of 'yet terrific burning,' there being absolutely
no Dutch Boers here. Underneath its shelter are many forked poles with
cross-bars, all made from the birch with which the valley abounds just
here, and on which clothing of some sort is always hanging out to dry;
so that the place looks like a laundry-ground, and deceives even the
ravens, which come down in swarms from the mountains in search of maids'
noses to devour. In the midst of these poles may be seen the oven, with
its flue reaching halfway up the hill, and its two openings, the lower
one for fuel, the upper for food.
[Plate: THE CAMP IN MEMURUDALEN.]
Right in front of the tent is the fireplace, a long trench in the
ground, faced with stones of such a size and shape that they form
apertures suitable for our numerous pans; and simmering by the fire is
the perennial soup. Nearer to the front is the wood pile, and nearer
still the board on which the cooking things are placed after washing up.
In front again of this is the little stream which supplies us with
water, now rapidly beginning to fail under the influence of the long
drought: it may be noticed that the engineers have changed its course in
several places for greater convenience in getting water, and to give
more room on the camp side.
The foreground is a mass of juniper, wimberries, skintukt, crowberries,
and rocks, and then comes about thirty yards from the tent the Memurua
torrent, all thick and milky from the glacier, cold as Christmas,
fishless, uninteresting, not drinkable, only useful as a refrigerator
for milk, and only agreeable to look upon from a distance, but
faithfully keeping up the unceasing roar that is customary among such
torrents. This river makes the waters of the lake too cold to bathe in
and too cheerless for fish to abide in near our camp, but it does not
come into the picture, partly because it runs in a ravine, but more
because it was right behind the artist.
The lake itself is to the extreme right, with unclimbable snow-capped
rocky mountains forming the opposite coast.
To-day we dined at 4 P.M. in order to get an uninterrupted evening's
fishing, but the experiment was not a success and will not be repeated,
for it spoilt the dinner and we caught no fish. On returning to camp at
night rather cold, very cross, and exceedingly hungry, we agreed that
the best antidote for these dangerous symptoms would be hot soup, so
John put the pot on the fire while the Skipper and Esau were attending
to the tent and domestic duties.
Soon the caldron was heated and brought into the tent, and the eager
crowd drew near with cups and spoons, and one lifted the lid, while
another plunged his cup into the steaming savoury mess. And then arose a
great cry of horror and desolation, and the sleeping valley rang with
the wail of men in despair, for John had put the wrong pot on the fire,
and we had been presented with boiling dirty water in which the
dinner-things had been washed up; while all the time the soup pot was
quiet, untouched and cold in the corner of the tent where it is kept.
But three hungry men are not to be balked of a meal on which their
hearts are set by any trifle like this, so we all commenced with a will
to stoke that fire up and put that other pot on, and we got our soup and
were snugly packed in bed long before the gentle August moon had sunk to
rest behind the sheltering mountain tops.
The Skipper, by the way, is very much exasperated with this same moon
just now. He says she is a fraud, for this morning when we got up, there
she was high in the heavens.
'What right,' he wants to know, 'has this moon--any moon, in fact--to be
up there blinking away in the middle of the day when we have plenty of
sun to light us? forward, dissipated thing! and then probably after this
week we shall have ever so many nights without any moon at all, and all
the earth left in total darkness to take care of itself; while here we
are to-day with an absurdly round moon at one end of this comparatively
diminutive valley, and a most extravagantly blazing sun at the other.'
The whole thing is ridiculous, he says, and it must be confessed that
there is some justice in his complaint; though no doubt there could be a
good deal said on the other side.
_August 23._--While Esau went out after deer the other two crawled up
the mountain and over to Rus Vand to fish, and had a good day. Two of
the Skipper's fish were three pounds each, but, like most of the biggest
fish, not in that beautiful condition which the smaller ones always
show. The Skipper is sure that the old worn-out fish creep up to the
stony shallows at the western end of the lake to die in a sunny spot,
just as we men creep away in our old age to Bath, Cheltenham, Cannes, or
Algiers, to breathe our last in a warm place, thereby taking one step in
the direction of the proverbial future.
Esau arrived in camp about half-past seven, quite exhausted, and
followed by Öla, also dead beat, and again bearing the heads and skins
of two deer, a buck and a doe. He was hailed with fervent joy and many
congratulations: it is certainly great luck to fall in with deer on two
stalking days in succession, for they are by no means numerous here this
year. Dinner was served in a marvellously short time.
MENU.--August 23.
_Poisson._
Truite à la Fried in Butter.
_Entrées._
Kari of Reindeer Tongue.
_Rôts._
The Boss Pie.
_Gibier._
Ryper à la Spitchcock.
_Entremets._
Jam. Wimberry tart. Marmalade.
_Potage._
Could not eat any.
Then came Esau's romance.
'We walked up the Memurua to the great glacier, and then skirted its
south side. We found many fresh tracks, and about two o'clock, when we
were seven miles from home, Öla spied three deer chewing stones about
three quarters of a mile away. The wind was just in the right direction
to allow us to approach them, and they were in capital ground for
stalking, full of little hollows and slopes. But there was a serious
drawback: on one side was a lake, on the other an impassable precipice;
and before we could get into a place out of their sight we should be
obliged to cross a narrow strip of ground in full view of them, though
perhaps half a mile from them. We sat down and had our lunch, and waited
an hour watching for them to lie down, and at last they did so; then we
determined to risk the passage of the dangerous strip, and by crawling
like serpents and aided by luck got across without the deer seeing us.
Then we had to creep along the side of a scandalous precipice for the
next half-mile, in no danger of being seen, but with our hearts
constantly in our mouths as, despite our care, some stone was dislodged
and went clattering down the rocks, sounding to my strained ears as if
it must disturb every living thing within a mile. Very slow and
difficult was our progress, occasionally dangerous, but at last we
arrived at a spot 200 yards from the deer, which were still lying down,
and pronounced by Öla to be a buck and two does.
'This was a very awkward place to shoot from, and I thought I could see
my way to a better one much nearer, so tried it and found it was just
possible, and after about a quarter of an hour's worming, I arrived at a
place only 100 yards from them. From this I could see both the does
well, but only the head of the buck, and so had to lie there an hour
waiting for him to get up. Both the does did so twice, offering
beautiful shots, but he would not move, and they lay down again. I dare
not whistle to make him jump up, for fear the does might possibly be in
the way at the moment. So there I lay, miserably uncomfortable, with
cramp in every muscle; and at last I tried to crawl to another stone
about five yards away, from which I thought I could see to shoot at the
buck. When I got to it and peered cautiously over, I was horrified to
see the deer some distance away, and running as hard as they could
towards a small glacier which was close to them.
[Illustration: Esau stalking near Hinaakjærnhullet]
'Of course I instantly lost my head, and jumping up fired at the buck
without much aim, and missed him. Then I recovered my senses and made a
careful shot at the last doe, knocking her over like a rabbit. The other
two were just then out of sight in a hollow, but they appeared directly
going up the hill on the snow at a great speed; and getting a broadside
shot at the buck I broke his shoulder; after this he went slowly, but
still kept on up the hill, and when he was about three hundred yards
away I fired two more shots, one of which hit him in the ribs, and the
other cut one of his horns off. Then he gave up trying to mount the
hill, and turned down towards the lake out of my sight. I ran as hard as
I could across the shoulder of the glacier, and saw him standing down
below me among the rocks close to the water, and sitting down I fired
another shot which killed him.
'This is not a creditable performance in the shooting line; but my solid
bullets have a good deal to do with the matter: either of the first two
shots would have stopped him at once if fired from an express with
hollow-pointed bullets.
'The doe is a barren one with a beautiful skin, and very fat, and the
buck is the best we have killed at present this year, a four-year-old,
what Öla calls a "litt stor bock" (little big buck), which I suppose is
the next best thing to the mythical "meget stor bock," whose footprints
we are always seeing, but who carefully absenteth himself whensoever the
jovial hunter goeth forth to pursue him.
'We saw a great deal of fresh spoor to-day, so that we may hope the deer
are beginning to come to our part of the country: perhaps the poor
things have been very much bullied in other places. Anyhow, they won't
find any better country in Norway than where we went to-day; and the
scenery there is glorious.'
Esau was so tired that he fell asleep once in the midst of his exciting
narrative, and as dinner was very late we all turned in almost as soon
as it was finished.