“How many shall I have under me in the hållet?”
“We cannot spare you above five hundred,” said Bjornstjerna; “but the ground is easy enough, at least so far as the hållet is concerned. See here,” and he produced a rough but well-executed military sketch of the ground, which he had surveyed and mapped that morning; “this plain is the country we mean to drive,—there is about three miles of it in length, that is to say,” he added, parenthetically, nodding to the Englishmen, “what you would call in your country, one or two-and-twenty. On the west, as you see, it is bounded by the river which I have marked here in blue; this, in its course, expands into these two lakes, and just by the water-side the country is comparatively open, with a few farm houses and hamlets about it; the forest, however, closes it all round, getting thicker as you approach the mountains. On the east is this range of heights which, as luck will have it, I find are scarped by nature into cliffs, so that nothing but a bird can get up them—except at these passes, which I have marked on the map with a cross. These are mostly the dry or half-dry beds of torrents, and by the side of almost all of them there is a passage into the upper fjeld, practicable for men, and, consequently, for beasts also, when they are frightened. At this point, where we intend stationing our dref, the range of hills is about six of your miles distant from the line of the river, but it gradually approaches it; and at this point, where there are some falls and rapids, the distance is very trifling—not above a thousand eller—somewhere about half an English mile; and, besides, there is a spur of rock here which causes the falls of the river, and upon this the forest is very thin and open. Here I propose placing you with the hållet. You will establish yourself on the reverse slope of the spur, so that our shot will pass over your heads; you will then only have to clear away sufficient of the under-stuff from the front of your position to give you a fair shot at anything that attempts to cross.
“About a thousand or fifteen hundred eller in front of your position, and parallel to it, runs a cow-track to the upper säters, which, upon the whole, is pretty open, and upon which you may as well set a hundred or two of your men, to improve to-morrow into a shooting line. Here we shall take our stand after we have driven the country. There is a thickish bit between this path and your position; the game will not object to enter it, and if they do, we ought to get every one of them, for to the left the rock is absolutely perpendicular, and on the right the rapids are such that nothing can cross them.”
“You have no skal-plats?” said Moodie.
“Why this is a skal-plats,” said Bjornstjerna, “rather a large one, to be sure; but we shall not run much risk of getting our men shot in driving it, because you will be on the reverse slope; and, by the way, you must be very particular in cautioning all your skalfogdar to keep their men from showing themselves on the crest of the hill. I did at one time think of making a skal-plats here, on the banks of this lower lake, and driving from both ends at the same time; but the ground is not favourable; a good deal of it is cleared, and every bear will make for the roots of the mountains, where the under-stuff is thickest; they cannot get up the perpendicular cliffs, to be sure, but we should have them creeping up a little way by the branches, and then stealing back as soon as the dref has passed the place,—upon the whole, though, I think my present plan is the best.”
“I really think it is,” said Moodie, “as far as I can judge from seeing it on paper; but you seem to have a pretty large country to drive, not less than twenty miles English in length. What number do you muster?”
“Not above fifteen hundred or two thousand at the most,” said Bjornstjerna, “though I have called out five parishes; but look at the place, it seems cut out for a skal,—half-a-dozen boats will guard the river, which is navigable in its whole length till you come to the rapids which flank your position, and not a bear will go near the houses, as you know, or face the open ground, if he can possibly help it,—so much for our right flank; while for the other, a small picket at each of the water-courses, will be quite sufficient to guard them till the dref has passed, and then the picket can either strengthen the other guards farther on, or reinforce our line, or join you at the hållet, according as they are wanted. Then, since the cliffs keep approaching the river, in proportion as we drive forward so our line will be strengthened by the men closing on each other, till, in the end, when the beasts begin to break out, we shall be able to send you a reinforcement of two or three hundred men, for we shall have more than we want.”
“That will do,” said Moodie; “we shall have a glorious skal, I see, and I give you great credit for making the most of your men.”
“The truth is, I have quite as many men as I want—I have never been at a loss for them; what I have been at a loss for, hitherto, is officers, for the Indelta has been unexpectedly summoned to Stockholm, and with them I have lost almost every man who knows how to command.”
“Why not wait till they come back?” said Birger; “they never keep the Indelta out for more than three weeks, and I am sure the ‘Fur-clothed Disturbers’ would wait for you:” (no Swede ever mentions the bear’s name, if he can possibly help it).