In the Northman's Land. Travel, sport, and folk-lore in the Hardanger Fjord and Fjeld ... With map, illustrations, and appendix

Appendix

LONDON SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY (__.V_77._P) St. Sunstan's H-ousc FETTER LANE, FLEET STREET, E.C.

Preface

In the following pages I have endeavoured to give a de scription of the charms of one of the most beautiful parts of the Northman's country, hoping that the experiences of several summer and autumn holidays may be of service to the intending visitor to Norway. For the lover of scenery, the yachtsman, the sportsman, the student of archæology, geology, natural history and botany, or for the tourist, probably no portion of Northern Europe contains more of general interest than the fjords and the fjelds of the Hardanger — that district of the country lying opposite to our eastern shores. Here, through long winding waterways, the holiday maker is able to feast his eyes on the most glorious scenery of the world, without leaving the steamer which has conveyed him across the North Sea from England, and, if he can afford the time, he can find, amid the mountain wilds adjacent to the fjords, solitude as un broken as on the stony plains of Central Asia.

The little fjordside resorts which crop up at intervals have each their particular attractions, be they waterfalls, glaciers. snowfields, or merely the more prosaic charms of northern landscape. The wanderer who carries with him a trout rod can indulge in the 'gentle craft' for the asking, and generally fill a respectable-sized basket; while the more VI IN THE NORTH-MAN'S LAND ardent sportsman can try his hand with salmon, or, by going a little farther afield, can enjoy the pleasures of reindeer and ryper shooting. All Englishmen who travel are not, however, imbued with that insatiable desire to kill which is supposed by foreigners to be the national trait of our countrymen ; more over, of the annual stream of tourists that flows into the Hardanger, ladies form a very large proportion, to most of whom the reindeer, the ryper, the salmon, and the trout are as things apart — except, perhaps, when cooked ; yet, even for the lady, the Hardanger can hold its own with Switzerland, or any other European holiday resort, and the knowledge that she, like the hardy Norseman of re nown, has ' braved the stormy wave' to reach her destination must bear its due weight.

For all, therefore, is the ; smiling Hardanger ' a land of delight and one unsurpassed in interest, a part of the world a visit to which leaves such pleasant memories that one longs to return again and again. My attention was first drawn to the Hardanger many years ago, when I was persuaded to try it for reindeer shooting. Success having crowned my efforts, I returned once more for the same purpose. Then, after awhile, I commenced to study the country and its people, ?vandering about by steamer, boat, carriole, stolljærre, on horseback and on foot, among the intricacies of the fjords and the wildernesses ofthe fjelds, sometimes alone and sometimes accompanied by my wife. In describing my rambles in this ' happy hunting ground ' I have thought it best to go systematically through the Hardanger from its commencement to its end though it was not in this order that I visited the different places mentioned ; and I should perhaps say that this book is intended principally for the new*-comer who knows

PREFACE.

VII nothing of Norway, and for whom I have been at some trouble to put matters clearly — even at times, I fear, treating him as an utter ignoramus. The old traveller in the Hardanger will, of course, find little in these pages with which he is unacquainted ; still, I am not without a hope that many of the scraps of folk-lore and old traditions of the district may be new to him, and, at any rate, it is often pleasant to refresh one's memory by the perusal of descriptions of a country in which one has travelled. The chapters which I have devoted to physical features, natural history, &c, do not claim to be anything more than rough notes on the subjects, though I am vain enough to imagine that they contain many little details which will prove of interest to the reader who has a taste for such things.

In conclusion, I have to offer my sincere thanks to many Norwegian gentlemen for the kind assistance they have given me in my work. To Herr Haukenæs I am indebted for much valuable information and several old legends and fairy-tales. To my old friends the Brothers Næsheim, of Vik-i-Eidfjord, to Sylvfast Kvammen, my reindeer-hunter, to many a clergyman, hotel manager, bonde, and peasant I have to give mange nay tusind talc, and if my humble efforts tend in any way to bring kroner to their purses, I shall feel that I have been able to do something towards repaying them for their many acts of kindness. CONTENTS

Chapter I Gamle Norge

! l'AGR Physical features of Norway — Mountains — Valleys — Fjords — The Skjœrgaard — The Great Ice Age — Its effects — Origin of the fjords — Rounded hill-tops — Lake hollows — River beds — Scenery — The people— Climate — Divisions of the country . 1

Chapter II The Hardanger

The Vikings of the Hardanger — Extent of the fjord — Routes — Bergen — The steamboat — Fellow passengers — An American lady — Breakfast — Coffee — Whey cheese — Live fish for market — In the steerage — The great sea-serpent — A Norse hero — Seagulls — The skua — Bjome Fjord — Tysnaes — Godosund — The Loksund 8

Chapter III Kvindherred

Hardanger boundaries — Haringer and Soringer— Peculiarities — Dress — A fjordside belle — The Outer Hardanger — Legend of Kvindherred — Origin of the name — Tero — Hay-making — A terrible accident — Fodder for the winter — A farmer's stories — Jan-by-the-Sea— Agood fairy — The Wandering Jew — Farewell to the ' Lyderhorn ' — A word of advice X IN THE NORTHMAN'S LAND

Chapter IV Rosendal And Its Barons Tage

The Valley of the Rose— Norwegian Society — Axel Mouath and his descendants— The Rosenkrands family — The Rosenkrone — A charitable bequest— The last of the barons — Rosendal — The mansion and the farms — A secluded spot — Trout and ryper — Mountain spirits— The devil and the blacksmith — Kvindherred Church— Scotch residents— An old painting— The artist's troubles— Old bells — Embalmed ancestors — A poet's paradise — The pixies of Klette— The Earl of Bothwell's Hardanger wife . 27

Chapter V The Mauranger Fjord

Legend of Olaf's Spring — A modern church — Church-going — Religion — Absence of sectarianism — Confirmation and marriage — Enæs Farm — Legend of the Giant's Seat — A Norman church- Country parsons — Maurangernæs — Hill-spirits in disguise — The guardian of the farm — The spirit and the traveller — The cobbler at Aarvik — The Gardsbonde and the dragon — Rowing boats — Furuberg Waterfall — Romantic scenery — A summer storm — Bondhusdalen — A wayside inn — The head of the fjord — The ghost of Oyre — A witch story — Routes to the snowfield . 41

Chapter VI Sleighing In Summer

Sundal — An evening's fishing — Peder the Guide — Start for the Folgefond — The ice road — Glorious scenery — The Bondhus Glacier— Life at a sæter — Cattle — The charms of sleighing — On the great snowfield — Winter in summer — A bird's-eye view — An August snowstorm — Galloping down-hill — A reckless driver — Hand-shaking — Tokheim and the Sorfjord Odda The Pioneer of the Folgefond— Reindeer sleighs — The Norwegian Tourist Club 55

Chapter VII Strandebarm

Beacon Island — Story of Varaldso Church — The demon of the mountains — A strange wedding — The Wandering Jew — Mining Herring fishery — Primitive method of fishing — Mundheim and its petty king — King Bonde — Skogseid Lake — Bakke - Country hotels — Stringent drink laws — Strandebarm Church Legend — Climbing Kvitingen — A panoramic view — Vikingnæs — An old-time fight — Boat building — Superstitions . . CONTENTS XI

Chapter VIII Jondal Page

Tborsnæs — The Galtungs — Family traditions — Norwegian surnames — Thor of Tborsnæs — Modern gladiators — Korsdalen — The legend of the Cross— Midsummer's Eve — Bonfires — Old customs — A strange spectacle —Fortune-telling — The apparition from Holstein 76

Chapter IX Vikor

Boundaries of the parish — Place names — Old wooden churches — Parish priests — Nordheimsund — Beautiful meadows — A remarkable waterfall — The Rogstue — Old buildings — The two ghosts of Ostenso — Superstitious times — The Fiksensund — A wild ravine — Giants and giantesses — Legend of Gjygra-Rova — A cave church — The chamber of death— Across the mountains — A modern wedding — The red badge of Vikor — Old marriage customs 88

Chapter X An Old Man's Tales

Gamle Lars — Violins — Fairy tunes — Legend of the underground goblins— Spirit cows— The woman and tbe goblin — Theft of a bride — The deaf and dumb elf-child — Superstitions about babies — The tradition of the Giant's Bolt — Fairy tales— Ashpot, or Cinderella — About the Freemasons — Christmas festivities — The raid of the old Norse gods — The friendly giant . . . 101

Chapter XI The Inner Hardanger

The parishes of Ullensvang and Ulvik — -An old timber port — Oksenfjeld and its alarm-beacon — An ancient document — A runestone — The Mother of the Hardanger — Government by Things — Modern local government — Kioservik Church— -River floods — Earthquakes — Delightful climate — Fruit culture — Prosperity — Lofthus — Painters and poets — Peasant life — Houses — Food — Grid and Fladbrod — Varieties of cheese . .113 IN THE NORTHMAN'S LAND XII

Chapter XII The Sorfjord Pagk

Ullensvang and its church— Sunset effects— The great storm— Opedal monastery— A ballad of Opedal— The hill-troll and the bride— The robbers of Villure — A murderer's pardon — Norwegian property laws — Odel-rights— Superstitions about the Lapps — The Lapp woman's revenge A haunted farm — Odda — Its church — Legend of Rymbel Pool ...... 125

Chapter XIII Odda And Its Neighbourhood

A tourist's haunt — The Skjæggedal Fall— Norwegian waterfalls and their cause — Ascent to the fall— The ' Bird of Skjæggedalen ' — A wondrous sight— Tyssestrengene — Comparisons — Visit to the Buar Glacier — A beautiful valley — History of the Buar Brae — The Folgefond and its glaciers— Traditions of the Folgefond — Snowfields and glaciers — Origin of glaciers — Description of a glacier — Lateral, terminal, and medial moraines — Crevasses — The snow limit — Its variation in different latitudes . . . 136

Chapter XIV

A DRIVE TO ROLDAL An hotel fire — Driving in Norway — The conveyances — A narrow valley — Scenery — A queer Skydsgut — Norwegian harness — Seljestad — A steep ascent — The snake-road — The burst of the storm — Roldal Lake — Traditions of Roldal — The church and its history — The pilgrimage to the Sacred Crucifix — Miraculous cures — A church thief — A Christian sacrifice — The dean and the devil — The ' Black-book ' — The devil's tasks — Roldal poverty — An annual fair — Bad times — New life ..... 147

Chapter XV Branch Fjords

The Graven Fjord — Eide — li raven and Ulvik parishes— Salmon and trout — Legend of the aspen tree — A lovely lake — The monster turnip — Norwegian roads — ' The sun that danced on Easter Morn' — Ulvik — Superb scenery — Education and its progress Travelling schoolmasters — State schools — Osefjord — Cold and hot caverns — Mineral springs — An intermittent spring— Giants' kettles — The Blacksmith Fall — The cave church of Segnestveit . CONTENTS XIII

Chapter XVI Eidfjord Page

The end of the Great Fjord— Vik-i-Eidf jord— Similarity of Bids jord, Odda, and Eide — The Ice Age theory — A massive moraine — Improvements — The new road by the lake — The ancient church — Legend of Rika Ragna — The mysterious runestone — Olaf the Saint — His conversion of Eidfjord — Fishing — Salmon traps — Law about nets — A day with sea-trout — A sporting kill — Kvamdal— A sæter belle and her lovers — The strange fiddler — Dancing mad —Spirited away 170

Chapter XVII Simodalen

A quiet retreat — Wild scenery — Fish and seals — At the ' Cold-holes ' — Description of the valley — The river and its floods — Cause of the floods — The glacier dam — Recent events — Visit to theDæmme Vand — The Rembedal Fall — A rough climb — On the Hardanger Vidde — Lemmings — The lake and the glacier — Crossing the glacier — Red snow — Its origin — A wonderful sight — The tramp home — An American sæter-maid . . . 182

Chapter XVIII Beasts Of The Lowlands

Decrease in numbers of elk, bears, and red deer — The elk — Quaint tales — The bear — A shepherd boy's adventures — Healir.g properties of bears' paws — Method of killing bears — Habits of the brown bear — Hibernation and the birth of the cubs — The lynx — His thirst for blood — The lynx and the ram — The wolf — Badgers — Foxes — Otters — Squirrels — Ermines — Hares and their names ........... 195

Chapter XIX Birds Of The Fjord And Forest

Varieties of grouse — Willow grouse — Changes of plumage — The black grouse — Hazel grouse — Strange hybrids — Woodcock and snipe — Plovers — Legend of the lapwing — Wild-fowl — Swans, geese, and ducks — The eider duck — Breeding grounds — Method of collecting the down — Shore birds — Seagulls — Eagles — Owls — Hawks — Superstitions about the owl — Woodpeckers — Legend of Gertrude's bird — The hooded crow — The nutcracker — Smaller birds — Legend of the gold crest— The common wren . . IN THE NORTHMAN'S LAND

Chapter XX To The Fjelds Tagk

A wild plateau — Fjeld life — Through Hjelmodalen — A wet walk — My wife's misfortunes — A typical mountain farm — Milking the goats — Cheese — Viverlien and its occupants — A troubled night — The Norse milkmaid — Aspect of the fjeld — The reindeer's leap — The ghost of Normands Laagen — The Wizard of the North — Lapp magic — An unfortunate dairymaid — A fight for life— ' Ropp ' 217

Chapter XXI In The Heart Of The Vidde

Sandhaug hut and Fiskebod — Out of the world — The charms of the wilderness— Fjeld weather — Fishing — The black-throated diver — Horrible vulpicide — The Government reward — R.Tper shooting — Golden plover — A mother and her chick — Golden eagles — Stalking a snowy owl — A weird country — The results of the Ice Age — Luxuriant vegetation — Reindeer moss — Desolation — Distant views 227

Chapter XXII The Reindeer

The reindeer in a wild state — Growth of horns — The shield — Hoofs — The rutting season — The battle of the bucks — The herd of females — Varsimler — Time of the hardening of the horns Game laws, past and present — Reindeer ground — The Lapps and their tame herds— Habits of tame reindeer — Norwegian reindeer farms — Prospects — A visit to a tame herd — Milking — Necessity for preserving wild reindeer ..... 237

Chapter XXIII Reindeer Stalking

Big-game shooting — The artificial and the real — Sport in the Hardanger — Days of toil — The reward — Death of a Stor buck — Sylvfast the hunter — No luck — Cold weather — Find a herd — Bad shooting — Favoured by fortune — A moonlight sail — A third season — ' There is many hen I ' — Tbe white buck — A lady's experience of fjeld life — Stalking a herd — Sylvfast's dog — A hard day — The spoil-sport — Last sight of reindeer .... CONTENTS XV

Chapter XXIV Foxes And Lemmings I'agk

The red fox — The arctic fox — Habits — Enormous quantities — How destroyed — Fox stories — The fox-chain — The lemming — Raids —Exorcism — Mystery of a ' lemming year ' — The attack on the lowlands — Recent migration.- — Descriptions by old writers — Destruction of crops — Pollution of water — Lemming fever — Causes of migration — A problem for solution — Lemmings' nests 261

Chapter XXV Some Mountain Birds

Game birds — Ryper — Solitary snipe — Plover — Duck and teal — Birds of prey — Divers — Old beliefs — Small birds — Saving a stone-chat — Fjeld ryper — The sea swallow and the hawk — The golden eagle — Snowy owls — Attacking a dog — The raven — Folklore of the laven — Gerfalcons and vaiious hawks . . 270

Chapter XXVI Over The Hills

Mountain travel — Routes about the Vidde — Maabodalen — Butterflies — Rocks and boulders — Tbe Voringfos — Fosli — The fall from above — Garen — Maurset — Reindeer hunters — A Lapp charm— A Nimrod — The magical powder horn — Hardanger Jokul — Appearance of the snowfield — Fjeld tracks — Across the plateau — Haaiteigen — A peculiar mountain — Olafsdalen — Wild flowers and berries — A last walk — ' Farvel Gamle Norge 1 ' . 278 APPENDICES I. A sketch of Norwegian history 291 II. The Wandering Jew 306 III. The Dæmme Vand 308 Index LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS The Skjæggedal Fall Frontispiece The Hunter's Son Vignette In the Outer Hardanger To face p. 22 Rosendal prom across the Fjord „ 38 Mauranger Fjord ........ >, 50 a portion of the bondhus glacier . . . „ 58 A Dame of the Hardanger ,, 113 The Sobfjord from Odda „ 125 The Buar Bræ ,,142 The Folgefond from the Roldal Road . . „ 151 Graven ■ . . . . „ 161 Salmon-trap at Eidfjord , „ 174 The Sæter at Viverlien „ 220 Reindeer 237 Reindeer Hunters on the AriDDE . . . 2E0 Mountain Transport 260 In Maabodalen 280 A Stolkjærre page 290 Panorama of the Dæmme Vand Region . . . m THE NORTHMAN'S LAND

Chapter I

'gamle norge' Physical features of Norway — Mountains — Valleys — Fjords — The Sltjœrgaard — The Great Ice Age — Its effects— Origin of the fjords — Rounded hill-tops — Lake hollows — River beds — Scenery — The people — Climate — Divisions of the country. ' Old Norway,' as its inhabitants delight to call it, has of late years become so well known both by hearsay and. personal acquaintance that it seems almost unnecessary to give anything like a minute description of the country ; so we will content ourselves with a passing glance at the physical features particularly noticeable in that portion of this northern land to which these pages are devoted. Macaulay's schoolboy has been given credit for know ing most things, and, though possibly the historian some what overrated his proteges abilities, yet I feel certain that in his earliest schooldays he was well acquainted with the great Dovrefjeld, which was said to stretch away down throughout tbe length of the Scandinavian Penin sula.

The Doverfield Mountains he probably called them, and that is near enough for all practical purposes. The omniscient one was laid in his grave, or at any rate should have been, in the natural course of events, before any of us commenced schooling ; but still the Dovrefjeld remained to form the principal inland feature of the skeleton maps of Norway and Sweden which in the days of our youth ES we were called upon to construct. The rugged coast-line was carefully traced in, and then a quill pen speedily de liueated what resembled the huge backbone of a fish from north to south of the peninsula. This a quarter of a century ago was the popular idea of the mountain system ot Scandinavia. ' Norroway over the foam ' is essentially a land of mountains ; in reality, almost the whole country consists of a series of immense and lofty plateaux, sometimes con nected one with another, but more often separated by deep valleys.

There are few level tracts within its boundaries, such as there are being mostly found in the valleys by the river beds or on the summits of the hills. On the fjeld tops are wide expanses of barren land, with never-ending lakes and occasional snowfields ; while in the depths of the boulder-strewn valleys flow rivers, well-stocked with fish, and watering vast, fertile, and beautiful meadows. In places the rivers widen into lakes, and generally the lower slopes of the mountains are clothed with far-extending forests. The most remarkable features, however, are the deep and narrow fjords, which at first sight resemble a number of long, tapering fingers pushed from the hand of the sea far into the recesses of the land. These are the principal features which the visitor to Norway, however much he may have travelled elsewhere, cannot fail to notice.

Let us now view them as they will appear to him on arriving off the south-west coast, after his summer passage across the North Sea. The first ob ject that attracts his attention is the distant outline ofthe mountains, broken only here and there by a rounded top standing a few hundred feet above the general level of the towering heights. Streaks of snow lie unmelted in the deep ravines, and, if the day be clear, the glistening dome of some field of perpetual snow may be seen rising towards the pale-blue heavens. As the steamer draws nearer to the shores the coast-line develops into a series of countless islands ; some large, well-wooded, and cultivated • others small, barren, and rocky. This belt of islands is known as the Skjœrgaurd, or rock-girdle ; but fully to ' GAMLE NORGE ' 3 appreciate its extent it is necessary to climb some inland mountain-top, and look down on the mighty island mass.

Suffice it to say that, from Stavanger to a few miles north of Bergen, the Skjærgaard consists of several thou sand islands, guarding the entrances to the long fjords which penetrate hundreds of miles into the rock-bound land. The mystery of why Norway possesses such striking peculiarities of formation has after years of careful in vestigation been solved by the geologists. To understand it all we must carry our minds back thousands — perhaps millions — of years to what is now generally spoken of as the Glacial Period, or the Great Ice Age. At first this indefinite computation of time seems difficult to grasp, for we have always been led to believe that the creation of the universe took place B.C. 4004. To geologists 5,000 or 6,000 years of the world's existence are no more than an atom of its real life.

Their computation of time is by periods or epochs ; an epoch consisting of they know not how many thousands of years. No attempt has been made to fix even an approximate date for any of these epochs ; it is sufficient for the scientist to be able to prove that certain definite changes have taken place in the earth's sur face, and to be able to fix the nature and order of each change. For our purpose it is enough to say that some of the most eminent authorities consider the Ice Age to have been divided into thirteen epochs, viz. preglacial times, six glacial epochs, five interglacial epochs, and the present time. During the Glacial Epochs Scandinavia (as well as a great part of Northern Europe) was covered with a mantle of solid ice, varying in thickness and extent in each epoch. To give an idea of what this means I may say that during the Second Glacial Epoch a gigantic mer de qlace spread over the whole of Scandinavia, the North Sea, and the British Isles, and descended as far south as Saxony.

The interglacial epochs, which alternated with the glacial ones, were temperate ; and as the cold periods gradually became less severe, so the temperate periods became correspondingly cooler ; that is to say, the colder B or more extended in area the glacial epoch, the hotter the interglacial epoch that followed. This gives the reader a general idea of what the Great Ice Age was ; ' we shall now see how it particularly influenced Norway. Reviewing the different glacial epochs, we find that the Scandinavian Peninsula was always more under the influence of glaciation than any other country of Europe. It was, so to speak, the starting point of the ice sheet of each epoch. From its highlands the' great sea of ice commenced to flow down, east, west, and south : and, though the neighbouring countries were only in some epochs slightly affected by this mer de glace, Scandinavia, as the distributor, was always under its influence.

The mere presence of ice, however, would not be sufficient of itself to bring about the extraordinary formations found in Norway ; it was the constant motion of the weighty mass of ice, and the stones that it carried with it, that wrought all these wonders. The highlands contained vast snow-fields, from which radiated countless glaciers, grinding down the valleys into the lowlands, and even at times being forced by the weight behind them up gentle inclines. The results of this ice action are, as we shall find, visible throughout the country, from the Skjærgaard, or island belt of ice-worn rocks, to the rounded tops of the higher mountains. With regard to the fjords — the characteristic feature of Norway — there is little doubt that their origin is due entirely to glacier action, though at one time the opinion was held that they were clefts or fissures formed in the general upheaval of the land which preceded the Glacial Period, and, instead of being affected by the ice-sheet were preserved by it.

This idea, however, has long since been dissipated, and investigations have proved that not only in Scandinavia, but also in Greenland, Labrador, South America, New Zealand, and even on the west coast of Scotland, the fjords have been scooped out of the solid rock by the erosive action of glaciers. If the reader will Vide Professor James Geikie's Great lee Age. ' GAMLE NORGE ' 5 consider what this scooping process implies, he will at once understand why the average depth of the fjords exceeds the depth of the sea near the Skjærgaard. The ice would naturally have been thicker and weightier high up the valley than towards the mouth, and would consequently scoop deeper at the former spot. A glance at the soundings marked on a chart of the west coast of Norway will serve to illustrate this, and, as an instance, we find in the Hardangerfjord that the depth of the water near Varaldso is 2,185 feet, while towards the Skjœrgaurd it is in places less than 500 feet.

Since the retreat of the great glaciers, time and the elements have, of course, played their part in altering the appearance of the country, but only superficially. Soil has formed wherever the smooth rocky slopes were not too steep to give it a resting-place, a luxuriant vegetation has grown up, and the once-barren land has become clothed with mighty forests. Rain and frost have been steadily undoing the work of the ice-sheet by washing and splitting up the rocks, thus forming precipices and rugged hill-tops where all before was smooth and round. The absence of anything like peaks in Norway is very noticeable, and for this reason the beauty of the outline of the mountains is inferior to what we find in Switzerland. The fact is that, in spite of the Norseman's name for it, Norway is a young country ; young, that is, in its present surface formations, for, of course, the underlying rocky masses were there in preglacial times : it was the last of all the countries of Europe to cast aside its robe of ice, and its mountains have not yet had time to get rid of their rounded tops.

Some peaks, it is. true, do exist, in the Jotunheim and elsewhere, but these, it is imagined, from their superior height, never came under direct glacial influence, but stood at all times bearing nothing weightier than snow. Another proof of Norway's comparative youth is the immense number of lake-hollows among the moun tains : chains of lakes, connected one with another by waterfalls and rapids, are met with in all parts of the country, leading us to believe that, so far, the rivers have not been long enough at work to hollow out regular beds for themselves. Young or old, however, Norway presents to the visitor, in whatever part he selects to travel, a succession of the most glorious views it is possible to imagine. The scenery is ever changing : in some parts it is wild and romantic, in others it is homely and picturesque beyond compare, whilst everywhere it has a charm which dwells on the memory for all time.

But it is not in the scenery alone that the charm of Norway lies. The land is inhabited by people whom it is impossible for Englishmen to regard as foreigners ; they come of the same good old stock as our selves ; their ways are ours, or what ours were before excessive civilisation deprived us of many of our good qualities ; and one feels always that one is in the midst of friends. The Norwegian appreciates the Englishman for reasons other than the mercenary ones which usually account for the seeming friendship between ourselves and Continental Europeans. There are many tastes in common between the two northern races, a love of freedom and sport being, perhaps, the most marked. As to the climate of the country, in a fine summer season there is little left to be desired — heavenly sunshine and glowing warmth.

A wet season is, of course, un pleasant, and, unfortunately, near the coast rain falls frequently ; yet, for some extraordinary reason, one suffers little harm from its effects. In winter Norway is a changed land — a land for several months buried deep in snow — but I doubt if there be any country more delightful in the early months of the year. The air is then crisp and dry, while the sun shines brightly on the brilliant white canopy which covers everything, and on snow-shoes and skates one perhaps sees ' Gamle Norge ' at her best. My personal experience of this season is limited to one winter spent in Christiania, but as a cure for most ills I can strongly recommend it. One word about the division of Norway for ecclesiastical and local government purposes. There are six Stifts, or dioceses, each divided into numerous Præstegjelds or 'GAMLE NORGE' 7 pari.shes ; and twenty Amis, or counties (including Chris tiania and Bergen), divided again into Fogderis, or sheriffs' districts.