Journal of a Residence in Norway, during the years 1834, 5, 6, etc

Introduction

. Norway has been visited and described by von Buch, Dr. Clarke, and other travellers of science and talent ; but these enlightened observers have naturally directed their attention to the geology, botany, and sublime natural scenery which the country presents in the most interesting forms, and have bestowed little of it on the social condi tion and state of the Norwegian people. They are, however, the most interesting and singular group of people in Europe. They live under an cient laws and social arrangements totally different in principle from those which regulate society and property in the feudally constituted countries ; and among them, perhaps, may be traced the germ of all the free institutions which distinguish the British constitution at the present day. They present to the political philosopher the singulai spectacle of a nation emerging suddenly from un der the hand of an uncontrolled and absolute sovereign power, with their civil liberties and social arrangements so well adapted to their con dition, and so well secured by their ancient laws, a

INTRODUCTION.

. IV that the transition from despotism to democracy was unmarked by any convulsion, or revolutionary movement, or important change in the state of society and property. The remarkable firmness, moderation, and judgment with which this people have exercised the legislative power, vested by their constitution entirely in their representatives, place them, in the moral estimate of European nations, in a much higher rank than those who have re ceived a much greater share of the public attention in this country. Norway has a claim morally and politically upon the British nation, which renders her social con dition and her present constitution of peculiar interest. In 1813 our government was party to a treaty with Sweden, — the foulest blot, perhaps, in British history, — by which we agreed, in consi deration of Sweden joining the Allied Powers against Buonaparte, to give Sweden the kingdom of Norway, of which neither of the contracting parties had at that moment possession, even as military occupants of the territory, and far less any shadow of rightful claim to it.

It would be a case in point, as far as regards principle, if Russia and Denmark were to conclude a treaty for giving to Russia the kingdom of Ireland. Providence sometimes will not allow our measures to be so flagitious as we design them. The Norwegians declared themselves an independent nation upon the Danish monarch renouncing the sovereignty

INTRODUCTION.

. V of Norway, framed a constitution, and proclaimed the son of their former sovereign king. The Danish prince abdicated his newly acquired crown rather than engage in so unequal a contest with Sweden and England ; and these two contracting powers redeemed in so far the character of their private nefarious treaty, that the Norwegian nation was not, as in the case of Poland, handed over like a herd of black cattle from one potentate to another, but their distinct national existence was acknowledged, their new constitution was accepted of on the 17th of May, 1814, and solemnly sworn to by the proposed monarch, the late king of Sweden ; and on these conditions only, viz. the distinct existence as a nation of the kingdom of Norway, and the preservation of its constitution as sworn to, were the two crowns of Norway and Sweden united — under the guarantee of this country, as one of the Allied Powers, to support each party, the Kings of Sweden and the Norwegian nation, in their just rights.

Great Britain is therefore morally and in honour bound to preserve the national independence of Norway, and her singu larly liberal and well constructed constitution. Norway never can become a province of Sweden nor be deprived of her present constitution, while there exists in the British cabinet honour or re spect for its own guarantee ; and abhorrence in the nation of a participation in a measure which would have been in principle and in effect exactly similar a VI

INTRODUCTION.

. to the partition of Poland, but for the redeeming circumstances of our recognising and guaranteeing the independent national existence and free con stitution of Norway. The writer of the following observations aims at a higher object than the amusement or instruction of those who may read them. He would draw the attention of this country, if he had the ability to do so, to the important duty which, by the transactions of 1813 and 1814, we are morally bound as a nation to perform to this handful of free and happy people living under a liberal con stitution, flourishing under their own legislation, and making no demands, asking no favours, from the other governments of Europe, unless that Great Britain should watch over the guarantee she has given for their independent existence and the enjoyment of their constitution of the 17th of May, 1814. London, August 12. 1836. Page 1 63 CONTENTS.

Chapter I

Norway interesting from its peculiar Law of Succession. — Steam-Boats. — Gottenburg. — Trollhætta. — Christiania. — Money. — Fish. — Slaves — Cariole travelling. — Myosen Lake. — Farms. — Houses. — Haymaking. — Ladies' Side-Saddles Laurgaard. — Goats. — Log- Houses. — Norwegian and Scotch Highlanders. — Condition, Property, Food, Lodging compared Timber Duties. — Snow. — Dovre Field. — Mill. — Sneehætte. — Game. — Fishing. — Norwegian Inns. — Sækness. — Sundset. ......

Chapter II

Dronthiem. — Inn. — Cathedral. — Town. — Shipping. — Library. — Saxon and Norman Arches. — Gothic Architecture. — Stordal. — Colonel George Sinclair. — Rocking Stones. — Levanger. — Dronthiem Fiord and Bothnian Gulph. — Norwegian Farm. — Hops. — Stikklestad. — Date of the Battle corrected by an Eclipse. — Værdal. — Peasants. — Cross Roads. — Snaasen Vand. — Steenkjær. — Scotch Farmers. — Norwegian Farms. — Value, Size, Taxes, Harvest Work, Ploughing. — Gigot Sleeves. — My Winter Quarters. CONTENTS. Page IOS 139

Chapter III

Brusved Gaard. — Polite Manners of the Lower Classes. — Breed of Cattle. — Bible Society Potato Brandy. — Earthquakes in Norway. — Norwegian Constitution. — Storthing, — Qualifications. — Election Men. — Representation. — The Power of the Legislative. — Attempts to alter the Constitution defeated. — Amalgamation with Sweden not desirable. — Veto of the Executive suspensive only. — Constitutional Principles generally diffused. — The Press. — Newspapers. — Influence. — Free in Norway. — Not in Sweden.

Chapter IV

Theatrical Representations. — Holberg. — Winter. — Sledge-driving. — Snow-skating. — Laplanders. — Reindeer Venison. — Reindeer Farming. — Expensive Weddings. — Betrothals. — Checks on Population. — Housemen. — Illegitimate Children. — Their Condition in Norway. — Light and Darkness in Winter sublime. — English Poor Rates. — Use of Coal instead of Wood for Fuel. — Effect on the Condition of the Poor. — Family Room or Hall of a Norwegian House in the Morning. — State of Manners among the People. — Forms of Politeness. — Station of the Female Sex in Society. — Female Employments. — Small Estates. — Number of Landholders in Scotland and Norway compared. — The Effect on the Condition ofthe Females of the small Estates. — Berend Island. — Coals. — White Bears. — The Fair. — Sobriety Crimes. — Yule. — Norwegian Entertainments. — Arrival of a Sledge Party. — Ease and Uniformity of Living. — Norwegian Church. — Incomes. — Education. — No Dissent. — Confirmation. — Sunday. — Observance in the Lutheran Church. — Educated Labourers in England in a worse Condition than uneducated. — Remedy. - CONTENTS. IX Pa 194 241

Chapter V

King's Birthday. — Manners of the Middle Class. — Ball and Supper. — Loyalty. — Jealousy of National Independence. — King's Style. — Carl III. or Carl XIV.? — Budstick. — Hue and Cry Remarkable Landslip Peasantry. — Udal Property. — Udal Laws. — Early Maturity of Udal System. — Civilisation of the Northern Invaders. — Scalds. — The Grey Goose. — Its Enactments. — Jury Trial. — Its Origin in Udal Law. — Present Administration of Law. — Court of Arbitration. — Sorenskrivers' Court. — Jury. — Christian V. — Law Book. — Liberal Institutions for 1687. — Ireland and Norway. — England and Denmark. — Punishment of Death abolished. — Loss of Honour an effective Punishment. — Stifts Amt Court. — The Hoieste ret Court a Part of the State. — Peculiar Principle of Responsibility of Judges. . - - - -

Chapter VI

Another Fair. — Skins. — Dogs bred for Fur. — Books at the Fair. — Bible Society's Operations counteract the Diffusion of the Bible in Foreign Lands. — Laplanders. — Peculiar Race. — Present State. — Numbers. - — Language. — Value of Stock required to subsist a Laplander. — The Fjelde Life. — Its Attractions Corn Banks. — Thrashing Machines. — Probably a Norwegian, not a Scotch Invention. — Fences in Norway. — Description. i — Advantages. — Economy. — Russian Population. — Power. — Policy. — Value to Russia of a Sea-Coast. — Northern Provinces of Finmark and Nordland. — Their Connection with Norway — with Russia. — Probable Views of Russia on that Part of Scandinavia North of the 62° of Latitude. — Importance of such an Acquisition. — Indications that it is contemplated. CONTENTS. X Page 274 304

Chapter VII

Emigrants of small Capital Norway better than Canada. — Land cheap. — Labour cheap. — Houses good. — Mode of purchasing Land Bank of Norway. — Peculiar System of Banking Moral Condition as affected by the general Diffusion of Property. — Physical Condition. — Lodging compared to that of the Scotch Peasantry. — Food. — Living in a Norwegian Family of the middle Class. — Use of Spirits. — Temperance Societies. — Gravesend Smacks. — Bothy for Farm Servants. — Bed-clothes. — Foreign Luxuries. — Cheapness. — Bonding System. — Clothing Household Manufactures. — Advertisement of a Farm to be sold. — Value of Money. — Climate. -

Chapter VIII

Fishing in Norway. — Hire a Farm. — Description. — Ancient Fresh-Water Lakes. — Midgrunden Gaard. — Farming. — Rent. — Asiatic Origin of Scandinavians. — Laplanders, Celtic. — Use of Horse Flesh. — Hereditary Attachment to the Horse. — Berserker. — Peculiar Intoxication. — Domestic Servants in America — in Norway. — Housekeepers in Families. — Provisions. — Capercailzie. — Ptarmigan. — Jerper. — Bear-shooting Hybernation of Animals. — Condition of Bonder Class. — Equality of Manners. — Excursion to Snasen-Vand. — Ancient Sea-Beach above the present Level of the Sea. — Excursion through the Fjelde. — Bark Bread. — Væra Lake. — Shjækkerhatte. — Bivouac. — Shjækker Valley Trees at various Elevations above the Sea Furu. — Gran. — Birch. .... CONTENTS. XI Page 349

Chapter IX

Orkney and Zetland belonged to Norway. — Pledged for Fifty Thousand Florins. — Tradition Claim to redeem these Provinces. — Torfæus. — Christian V. — Buonaparte Dr. Clarke. — Saga Sea King Swein His Adventures. — Jarl Rognvald Cathedral. — Churches in Romney Marsh. — Free Institutions. — Kings. — Harald Haarfagre. — Hakon. — Former Classes of Society. — Sigurd Sir. — Manners described in the Saga. — Dress of Sigurd Sir Are the Priest. — Scalds. — Alliteration. — Authorities of Saga. — Kuads. — Norwegian Literature. — Road from the Dronthiem Fiord to the Bothnian Gulph Important Basis for the Military Defence of Norway and Sweden. — King's Visit by this Road to Norway, compared with that of George IV. to Scotland His Visit to the Field of Stikkleslad. — His Reception by the Norwegians Triumph of Constitutional Principles. — The Election in our District for the Storthing. — Distillation of Spirits from Potatoes. — Effect of the free Distillation on Population and Property. — State of Sea-side Population. — The Winter Fishing at Lafoden. — Use of Nets in the Cod Fishery. — Regulations. — Herring Fishery. — Bonder or Agricultural Population. — Fjelde Bonder. — Their Condition. — Ancient Families. ....

Chapter X

Lapland Girl — Slighted by the Norwegians — Condition. — Visits from Laplanders. — Ophthalmia — Reindeer. — Sledges. — Speed. — Powers of Draught. — Reindeer cannot endure Wet. — Cannot live in Scotland Buy a fat Reindeer for killing Lapland Butcher. — Weight of Four Quarters. — Cold. — Birds Wolves. — Travelling Dress in Winter Journey to Dronthiem. — Vollan. — Ovne. — Jerkin. — Winter Scenery in the CONTENTS. Page 409 440 Glens. — Sledge-driving. — Winter on the Fjelde. — Substitutes for Hay in feeding Cattle. — Acquired Tastes of Cattle. — Remains of old Buildings on Dovre Fjeld. — Picts' Houses in Scotland. — Guldebrandsdal in Winter. — Hammer. — Sunshine as hurtful as Frost to the Crops in Norway. — Complete little Estates. — How an English Family could live here. — American Towns. — Norwegian Horses. - - - -

Chapter XI

Christiania. — Fiord Frozen Population. — University. — Students. — State of Education in Norway. — The Meeting of Storthing. — Number of Members. — Principle of Reform of the Representation always acting. — What Description of Persons in this Storthing Pay of Members. — The Lagthing or House of Lords. — How elected. — What Description of Persons. — Storthing properly three Houses of Parliament. — Mode of Procedure with Bills Rejection of Royal Propositions for a Veto and Power to naturalize. — Chambers. — Dress. — Appearance of Members. — Speaking. — Examples of Procedure. — Ornaments of a Statue of Odin. — Booty of an ancient Væringer. — Question before Storthing how to dispose of these. — Return of Bank of Norway to Cash Payments. — Debate in Storthing How determined. — Influence of the Press. — Simplicity of Procedure in the Storthing. — Constitution works well. — By whom framed. — Guaranteed to Norway by England. — ' Treaty of March, 1813. — Character of our Proceedings. — Bound in Principle to guard the Independence and Constitution of Norway. — Conclusions. — Best Structure of Society. — True Checks on Over-Population. — Only Remedy for the Condition of the Irish People. .... . . > IN the years 1834, 1835, 1836. " O fortunatos nimium sua si bona norint # - # # # * extrema per illos Justitia excedens terris vestigia fecit." Vir. Georg. II.

Chapter I. Norway Interesting From Its Peculiar Law Of Succes- Sion

STEAM-BOATS. GOTTENBURG. — TROLLHÆTTA. CHRISTIANIA. — MONEY. — FISH. SLAVES. CARIOLE TRAVELLING. MYOSEN LAKE. FARMS. HOUSES. HAYMAKING. LADIES' SIDE-SADDLES. LAURGAARD. GOATS. LOG-HOUSES. NORWEGIAN AND SCOTCH HIGH- LANDERS CONDITION, PROPERTY, FOOD, LODGING COM- PARED. TIMBER DUTIES. SNOW. DOVRE FIELD. MILL. SNEEHÆTTE. — GAME. FISHING. NORWEGIAN INNS. SÆKNESS. SUNDSET. Hull, July 7. 1834. Norway is a country peculiarly interesting to the political economist. It is the only part of Europe in which property, from the earliest ages, has been transmitted upon the principle of partition among all the children. The feudal structure of society, B with its law of primogeniture, and its privileged class of hereditary nobles, never prevailed in Nor way. In this remote corner of the civilised world we may, therefore, see the effects upon the condi tion of society of this peculiar distribution of pro perty; it will exhibit, on a small scale, what America and France will be a thousand years hence.

From a period coeval with the establishment of the feudal system, the land and the people of Norway have been under the influence of the mode of succession which those countries have only recently adopted. Whateffect has this produced on the state of society? on the condition ofthe lower and middle classes in this peculiar community? what on the arrange ment and distribution of its landed property after a thousand years of division and subdivision? A single fact, brought home from such a country, is worth a volume of speculation. I had long entertained a wish to visitNorway, partly to investigate the social condition of a people living under institutions so ancient and peculiar, and which have recently been adopted by two of the greatest of modern nations, and partly from the historical in terest which we attach to every thing Norwegian.

Here we expect to see the original type of institutions, customs, and domestic usages which England received by the Norman conquest, and the long previous occupation of a large portion of her territory by invaders of Norwegian race. Few readers ofthe historical events of the middle ages rise from the perusal without a wish to visit the country from which issued, in the tenth century, the men who conquered the fairest portions of Europe. Such were the objects, to investigate which the writer was induced to spend nearly two years in this remote part of Europe; and he will now, in the form of a journal, communicate the result of his inquiries. Gottenburg, July, 1834. — Steam-boats interfere most particularly with the vocation of the traveller who sets out in quest of all sorts of adventures and perils by sea and land, and hopes to edify and astonish his friends at home by the narration of them.

These mail coaches of the ocean deliver him and his portmanteau, on the other side ofthe North Sea, within twenty minutes of the appointed time, with out more adventure, and with considerably less trouble, than if he were journeying in the coach from Charing Cross to Greenwich ; and he finds himself with his hands in his breeches' pockets, whistling along the quay of Gottenburg, before he is well aware that he has left the favourite corner in his old accustomed coffee-room, and has actually accom plished a voyage across the salt seas. The fare by the steam-packet from Hull to Got tenburg is about seven pounds sterling ; and we accomplished the passage in seventy-two hours, with favourable weather and a smooth sea. There were only five passengers on board, and, I understand, seventeen are the greatest number the vessel ever conveyed to Gottenburg.

This, of course, would be a ruinous trade for a steam-vessel ; but the owners are secured from loss by a contract with the British and Swedish post-offices. They receive four thoub sand pounds for conveying the mails to and from Gottenburg once a week, during nine months of the year. This is a very limited intercourse between the two countries. Hamburgh, being the centre of exchanges and of mercantile affairs for the north of Europe, is the route which men of business prefer both for themselves and their letters. Our Nor wegian steam-packet mails are very ill regulated. The steam-packet from Copenhagen and Gotten burg to Norway was leaving the latter port while we were entering the river, so that our mails and passengers for Norway, although arriving at the proper hour, will be detained here a week.

It appears extraordinary that three millions of people, so near to our coast, requiring all the arti cles which we manufacture, and having commodities which we specially require, — wood and iron, — should have so little correspondence with Britain. At one of our country post towns there are pro bably received and delivered more letters in a day than are transmitted to or from Scandinavia in a week. This surely implies something wrong in the commercial relations between the two coun tries. I have passed a pleasant week at Gottenburg. I became acquainted at the table-d'hote with a Swedish gentleman from Sundsval, on the Both nian Gulf, who spoke French and German ; as he had also a few leisure days to get rid of, we re solved to visit together the Falls of Trollhætta. We set off at eight in the morning, in a little steam boat which plies up and down the river Gotha : her machinery, I observe, was made at Dundee, possibly of Swedish iron.

The day was beautiful ; the sun sparkling in the water ; the boat running swiftly along, and the passengers numerous, gay, evidently good-humoured folk, who had set out determined to enjoy themselves. Between eating, drinking, smoking, admiring the scenery, and three-card Loo, we got on very successfully ; and in eight hours were landed at the hamlet of Lilla Edet. The scenery on the Gotha is not fine : marshes on each side reach to flat fields, bounded by hills skirting the river-valley, at the distance of half a mile on each side. These hills are mere knobs or hummocks of gneiss, scantily covered with soil, and with edges of granite occasionally shooting up through it. As we approach Lilla Edet the hills close in, and the scenery resembles the tamest views on the Cumberland Lakes. It is water sleeping between green banks and woods, and the current is scarcely perceptible till near Lilla Edet.

We landed on the right bank, the river ceasing to be navigable on account of rocks in the channel. Having hired a four-wheeled vehicle and a pair of horses, we drove about six teen miles to a ferry, where we crossed to the locks of the celebrated Trollhætta Canal, at the foot of the great waterfall. Our road was over an open country, apparently well and carefully cultivated in the plain and valleys ; but the hills, although of small elevation, are bare knobs of rock shooting up through the earth, without a particle of soil on them. These naked ribs of gneiss and granite run b through the country, like the bare bones of some giant-skeleton, leaving between them small inter vals skinned over with a thin covering of soil, and forming, together with the river-valley, the only parts ofthe country capable of cultivation.

Every patch of soil seemed occupied. The rest of the country in view, to the extent, I should think, of four fifths of the surface, was naked rock, without even moss or heath. When a country containing a great extent of such land is compared as to the number of inhabitants with other regions, it is to be remembered, that of the square mile of 640 acres there should be thrown out of the account perhaps 200 acres or more, as bare rock, or waters producing neither subsistence nor employment for man. With this allowance, I should suppose, from the many odd nooks and corners in which houses are set down, and attempts made at cultivation, where six or eight sheaves of corn only could be raised, that land is scarce even in proportion to the population ; and that every square mile of what really is land is inhabited as densely as in other cultivated countries.

Small patches of soil between the rocks, which, in a territory where good soil was plentiful, would be neglected as inconvenient, are here occupied. Without some correction of this kind, the statements ofthe number of inhabit ants to the square mile in different countries furnish no correct data for comparing the agricultural industry of one country with that of another. The canal of Trollhætta did not appear to me a work of such great magnificence as it is often considered. The idea originally formed by Charles the Twelfth was undoubtedly bold, and superior to his age. The splendid inland sea called the Wenner is connected on one side by a chain of lakes with the Baltic, and on the other by the river Gotha with .the North Sea. The Falls of Trollhætta, on the Gotha, are the only impediment to a free na vigation from the ocean into the Baltic.

The idea of overcoming it by a series of locks was the con ception of a great mind, but the execution is la mentably defective. The locks strike the eye at once as too narrow for vessels of sufficient breadth of beam to navigate the Baltic, the North Sea, or even the Wenner, yet unnecessarily wide for canal boats or river barges. This defect appears ex traordinary ; since, great as the undertaking was, the execution consisted simply in excavating a very hard and solid rock, in which every inch quarried was gained for ever, and any dimensions whatever could have been given by patience and gunpowder. There were none of those natural difficulties to contend with, such as soft soils in the sides, loose sands or gravel, slips of clay, springs, rivers, valleys, or hills to turn or surmount, and all that variety of obstacles which place canal engineering among the highest efforts of human intellect.

As a work of art, the Trollhætta cannot be placed by the side of the Caledonian Canal ; the difficulties were vastly inferior ; and in the execution of the locks, lock-gates stone-work, and in the finish of the whole, it cannot be compared to its rival, which, in its present state of perfection, is undoubtedly b finest work which Scotland can show to the stranger. In consequence of this defect in the Trollhætta Canal, it is proposed to excavate another of greater width of lock by its side : it is not pro bable, however, that such an undertaking would ever defray the expense. Commerce is somewhat wayward, and will not take the road which go vernment and ministers point out. The Troll hætta and Caledonian Canals are similar in one respect ; both, in proportion to their cost, are almost equally useless.

The Trollhætta, how ever, serves to convey wood from the Wenner Lake to the saw-mills at the Falls, and from the mills to the navigable part of the Gotha. The north and west coasts of the Wenner are the principal districts for timber. The blocks of wood, that is, the trunks of the trees divested of bark and branches, are floated down the rivers which run through the forests in the back country, and fall into the Wenner in the neighbourhood of Carlstadt : they are there shipped in schooners and sloops, which carry from fourteen to forty dozen blocks ; and they are transported, at the freight of five dollars banco per dozen, to Troll hætta, where they are sawed into planks. The saw-mills are erected on the very edge of the ca taract. The boldness of their situation is one of the most striking features of Trollhætta.

The Falls are the most magnificent in the north of Europe ; but it were idle to attempt to describe the scenery. Trollhætta is a village containing nearly a thousand inhabitants, and a large and good inn, A party of actors from the opera-house at Stockholm, unfortunately for us, possessed the best accommo dations. These French of the North, as Voltaire calls the Swedes, are as fond of the theatre as the Parisian French. I found the mate of our steam boat reading " Medea en Opera ;" and all the saw mill population of Trollhætta were opera going people. Our accommodations at this good inn were consequently not of the best ; and I found, in bed at least, ten thousand good reasons fop getting up long before sunrise. I advise the tra veller who may visit Trollhætta for its sublime scenery to do the same, and see the falls amid the morning mists, and before living things are a-stir ring.

The enormous chasm through which this great body of water rolls from the Wenner, makes the artificial canal beside it appear a mere scratch on the surface ofthe earth. A time must have been, however, when this chasm itself was only a scratch on the granite ; for all the rocks around and above it are water-worn, and have been long submerged, apparently under running water. One remarkable place is shown to strangers, because the king and other great personages have inscribed their names in it ; but it is much more remarkable, because it could only have been scooped out into such rounded and polished hollows in the hard substance of the primary rock by the continued action of water in motion over it for a length of time beyond imagination. When my Swedish friend awoke, we recrossed river below the falls, and set off to regain the steam-boat.

He drove our little calash, which looked like a bundle of hop-poles upon axle-trees ; and, certainly, no English coachman would have taken his vehicle down such steeps as we rattled over at full speed. I thought at first the gentleman was trying my nerves at the risk of our necks, but I saw every person on the road proceeding in the same way. It is the serious, sober way of driving in this country, to take every slope, although it should be as steep as the roof of a house, at full gallop. The carriages are light, the horses small, active, and in excellent wind. They finished their stage, at their utmost rate of exertion, without panting or distress. Gottenburg resembles some of the old decayed towns of Holland, with its wide streets of good houses, canals in the middle of the streets, and nothing stirring either in the streets or in the canals.

Few places have suffered greater vicissi tudes. It had a flourishing herring fishery ; but the fish disappeared from the Skaggerack, and never returned. It had an East India trade, which failed ; and during the last war it had a third period of prosperity, which vanished with the return of peace. The population is about 16,000 ; and there is a suburb, called Clippen, extending more than two miles below the city, which contains, probably, as many more. They are of the labouring and sea faring class. The shipping come no higher up the river than Clippen. The little cabins of the inhabitants of this suburb are built upon bare granite, with scarcely soil enough for gardens ; they are set down like so many wooden boxes on the side of the hill, without any regularity. In threading my way through these crowded habitations, I observed that the meanest had a wooden floor and good windows, ornamented with the fringe, at least, of window curtains ; and flower-pots, with pinks and other com mon flowers, well cared for, were in every house.

These trifles indicate some degree of taste and lei sure among the labouring classes. At Gottenburg I put up at the hotel of a Scotch man, Mr. Tod, who has been settled there for many years. I found the accommodation good, and ex pence moderate. Christiania, Monday, July 21. 1834. — I am at last in Norway. I embarked at Clippen on Satur day in the steam-packet Gustav Adolph, com manded by an officer of the Norwegian navy, with a lieutenant under him. I paid five dollars of Nor wegian money, or about twenty shillings sterling, for my passage from Gottenburg. The other pas sengers had all come in the vessel from Copen hagen. The sudden disjunction of Norway and Denmark left, of course, much business to be ad justed between individuals ofthe two countries : it occasioned much distress and loss to persons having connections and property in both ; and it still pro duces a constant intercourse.