us. was rather benumbing to our spirits. We were quite surprised at our guides now proposing to halt and have dinner, without the slightest shelter from the pouring rain; and of all the dreary things I can possibly imagine, it was our alighting in a bog, without a spot to sit down on; undoing our packages with frozen fingers, drenched to the skin, and in company with a skeleton. . . . For hours, first in, then out of water, sharp frozen snow drifting in our faces, our curdled blood merely kept uncongealed by hard exercise, vista after vista of peak, peak, peak, before, behind, around-no seeming end; we felt at last as if placed outside the world, the rolling clouds closing in upon us; and when naught but a field of snow lay visible beneath, all track effaced, our hearts turned pale within The horses trembled violently; the only sound was a low distant howl; to remain still was death. Seizing each the arm of a guide, we pushed forward in the direction that our path should lie. . . . Ten hours in reality, but a lifetime in emotion, had passed from the last little mound of turf we had left till we alighted before a similar one, and were received by a woman. The crackle of the fire was almost too friendly in the sudden transition, and like a friend's kindness brought tears to our eyes, in which the pent-up feelings found vent. Porridge was soon steaming on the fire, plenty of cream, and a bonne-bouche of coffee. Unfortunately it was impossible to pass the night in the cabin, a long table being the only available bed; so, mounting again before darkness came on, we wound down the valley to Optuen. It was hard work putting on half-dried clothes, and facing the rain again. Having now no impulse to keep us up, these last two hours of jogging down the stony hill with stiffened limbs were very painful. Next came one of the real hardships of Norwegian travel: arriving, after twelve such hours, at a halting-place, not only divested of every comfort, but containing such an accumulation of filth that there was not one spot left to throw one's weary body down to rest. Such a house was the farm at Optuen; a gaunt peasant in rags, the most slovenly of women, with elflocked children rolling in sheep-skins on the floor, were its tenants; and on remonstrating with the guides for not selecting a better halting place, they exclaimed that this was the very best of the district, and as such had been chosen for the crown prince to pass the night at, in his passage over the Fjeld.”—Pp. 115–121. The ladies took a peep at life among the sæters, or mountain farms. This life, as we learn from many travelers, has a forbidding, as well as an attractive and picturesque aspect. It must be a pretty sight each evening when the flocks, scattered during the day, return, announcing their coming by the tinkling bells fastened to their necks. Sheep, goats, and cows, are all met with kind words and caresses by the girls who have the charge of them; a spoonful of salt is given, as a treat, to each, and then the business of milking commences, after which the mixed herd dispose themselves in groups on the ground around the sæter. But within the house itself there is seldom any comfort. The chief apartment often has a moist, muddy floor; and when a tolera-> bly dry corner is found, and a soft, fragrant bed of fresh juniper boughs is prepared, the hospitable people insist on adding sheep-skins and woolen rugs, which those who have once slept under seldom wish to try again. Then, supposing rest secured, there comes the question of food. Dairy produce in abundance-milk, cream, butter, cheese-is at the traveler's service; also plenty of flad-brödd, a thin cake of rye-meal; but no kind of animal food, often not an egg, nor the all but universal dried salmon. Oatmeal porridge, or stir-about, is the unfailing resource of the Norwegian traveler: but alas! he may grow tried with "the prodigal excess of too familiar happiness." It must be a very different thing to see it brought for the twenty-first time in one week, and to eat it, as George Stephenson loved to eat it, once a year-a dainty dish, prepared by his own hand, in the elegant home of his old age. But let us accompany the ladies on their visits to one or two happy circles in the more civilized parts of Norway: borhood. "The interior of the house" (they are visiting a pastor) "had an air of unpretending comfort, and the pictures on the walls, of subjects from Goldsmith's Deserted Village, had a refined effect; though almost any room that was furnished would have appeared luxuriously On the table was an Eastern in our eyes. illustrated edition of Longfellow's Poems. A piano graced the room, which, on its first arrival, had been the wonder of the peasant neighFarm-buildings stretched out at the back of the house, and there was a dependent sæter high up in the mountains. In another building the whole process of clothesmaking was going on, the nearest town being 180 miles off, too far for shopping, The wool of the priest's own sheep was spun by a buxom maiden, dressed herself in good broad-cloth of her own make; on the loom was a comfortable linsey-woolsey, striped with red, preparing against winter wear; while a tasteful chocolate just finished for the priestinn's best dress, who and white gown, of a much finer make, was was at the moment clad in a lilac homespun of the strongest linen-a capital material, which was at one time the fashion at Paris, under the name of coutil. In the next room two tailors were busy working at the priest's and household's coats, of substantial cloth, also spun by the maiden. The voyage of discovery was completed by making the entire tour of the premises in a pretty little plaything of their son Christopher's, a miniature sledge, pushed by himself, to make him hardy and strong in the arms. A choice Norwegian supper had been prepared by his mother's fair fingers-preserved fruits and fresh rusks. Intellectual conversation, with a feeling of confidence, as if we were old friends, yet knowing we should never meet again, made it difficult to part, and shorten that strange, sweet sensation of being so received without a question asked."-Pp. 134-6. The other interior is that of a gentleman's family living near Bergen. moldings and inserted mirrors. Real ivy train- every persuasion to induce us to stay to see 164. While in Tellemarken, the ladies visited the church of Hitterdal, the delight of the inhabitants of that district, and the largest of the remaining curious old wooden churches of Norway. "Seeking for a spot to rest on, we peeped in at the open gates of a garden surrounding a pretty house, whose rustic chairs were invitingly placed on a grassy hillock. A lady in a straw hat was watering her flowers, and looking up, instantly advanced, extending her hand with the most winning smile, saying: 'Wilkommen til Bergen.' After such a reception it was easy enough to explain what we wished; and, seated in an arbor, I drew the distant town amid roses and shrubs, my willing fingers marking the intricacies almost of their own accord; such a facilitator is kindness to every action in life! The lady said she would not look over me, but go in and prepare a cup of tea. All the rich merchants have their country houses near the town, standing in gardens just like English ones, only the turf is not so fine: there is no turf kept like that of England on the whole Continent. When the sun had sunk into the distant fjord, the lady reappeared, dressed elegantly, yet plainly, in the modern style, without exaggeration; a pretty fawn-colored silk dress, and a cap with pink ribbons, for she was a young matron. She said all was ready. Chatting round the tea-table, we found that our fair hostess was the wife of the principal merchant and banker of Bergen, loved the English, and spoke their language well, besides German and French, which her three children were beginning to pronounce also. The pretty daughter, Sidonia, just fifteen, had made her debut at the ball given by the prince a few days before; The lady's estimate of the value of the her two sons, Oscar and Halburt, were younger, restoring hand differs from that of certain and, though full of spirits. behaved like gentle- gentleman-tourists who visited Hitterdal men's sons, and were quite under her control. We noticed the deep respect of all children in during the same season. They complain presence of their parents throughout Norway. of the blocking up of the beautiful exter... The house was of wood, painted white, nal gallery, of the removal of what was and surrounded by a verandah twined with antique, and the entire failure of every at- creeping plants, partly inclosed by glass. In- tempt to imitate the original plan. The side, the rooms were moderately spacious, with church of Borgund, in the wild valley of polished floors, not carpeted in summer or winter; only rugs were laid for the feet of the the Leir, surpasses that of Hitterdal in insofas and tables. The furniture in the draw-terest; but the only one of these ancient ing-rooms was of dark, carved wood, very pret- churches that has any claim to beauty, as ty against the white walls, with plain gold well as to quaintness, is the little church "In the style somewhat of its sister of Borgund, but still more thickly covered with scales, it rises, bee-hive upon bee-hive, till a primmer, quainter, little edifice can not be imagined. It took me seven hours, in a hot sun, to sketch it slightly; and, like every thing else in Tellemarken, is like nothing else in the world. The interior was left unaltered till it began to crumble down, and now has been restored very prettily with different colored woods, in character with the edifice."-Page 241. To make a selection is difficult where much is inviting. We feel as we have felt sometimes when walking in a garden where many flowers of varied forms and tints appeal to our sense of the beautiful : we wish to gather two or three, types of the rest, to give to a friend; but when our choice is made and the flowers are in our hand, we look again to the bed where they grew, and fear that, after all, we have left the best unplucked. of Urnes. Much of its rich woodwork | tion should read Professor Forbes's work has been replaced by plain timbers; but on Norway and its Glaciers. It is full of inon roof, door, and panel are still to be terest, and exhibits the characteristic causeen the remains of Runic carving; that tion of the philosopher and the Scotchman. tracery of entwined dragons, foliage, and figures, characteristic of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, which, in crosses and tombstones, is still to be found in Scotland and Ireland, as well as Scandinavia. The capitals of its pillars, and the general character of its moldings, correspond, too, with the details of our own Norman architecture, allowance being made for the difference of the materials employed. Of our contemporary wooden churches, the little one of East-Greenstead, in Essex, is the only remaining specimen, decay or fire having destroyed the rest. The church at Urnes stands on a headland, three or four hundred feet above the blue waters of the Sogne-fjord, beyond which stretches a fertile valley, dotted with pleasant homesteads. Passing through Denmark, Madame D'Aunet pays this warm tribute to the memory of Christian IV.: shows to have been truly great, yet whose fame "He was one of those kings whom history has scarcely spread beyond the narrow limits of their own kingdom. It was his lot to reign during the busy and brilliant seventeenth century, when men were too much occupied to regard what was going on amid the mists of the North. Had they looked, they would have seen lightened prince, sparing of his subjects' blood, a noble and thoughtful hero, a courageous, enand, what is still more rare, careful in the use of the public revenues. During his long reign Christian maintained his ground against the Imperialists, and against Sweden; at one time he threatened Vienna; at another, he took Calmar, though it was defended by Gustavus Adolphus. Gifted with indefatigable mental Before parting with our unprotected friends, we would pray the younger lady, whose clever pencil has illustrated her volume so nicely, and whose fluent pen has so pleasant a dash and sparkle of its own, to leave slang to school-boys, and to spare a little time for the study of syntax. A "jolly dinner," a "smashing pace," and a "splendid fellow," are phrases that do not become a lady's lips any more than "scarlet indispensables" grace her per-activity, he was ceaselessly occupied in a variety son; and, through neglect of the commonest rules of grammer, such a passage as the following, respecting the habits of bears, is not very easily understood: "Before leaving their snow-holes, where they bury themselves for the winter, going in fat and coming out thin, and on first waking from their long sleep, they are so weak as to be no sport at all, letting themselves be drowsily killed; but after having been out a little, stretched, breakfasted, and on the look-out for lunch, are most savage and dangerous."-Page 219. Such literary slop-work would scarcely be pardonable in a lion-hunter, and is quite unworthy of a lady's neater hand. We now turn to the pleasant pages of Madame D'Aunet. She writes like a woman of intelligence and cultivation, and with a charming vivacity; so that those who wish to gain a picturesque acquaintance with Norway can not do better than follow her guidance; while any who may desire more accurate and scientific informa iansand, Christianople, and Christianstad; one of projects. He founded three cities-Christcolony-Tranquebar, on the coast of Coromandel: he rebuilt the capital of Norway, giving to it its modern name of Christiania. At Copenhagen he appointed professorships for the instruction of the people, and founded a navigation-school, rendered necessary by the jagged and dangerous coast of Jutland; he set up the first cannon foundry in Denmark, and he improved the condition of silk and cloth manufactures throughout his kingdom. He expelled the Jesuits from Denmark, and afforded protection to men of science. Unfortunately for Christian IV., at the time when he was thus showing how a king ought to reign, the eyes of Europe were fixed upon Richelieu, and after his death they were dazzled by the brilliancy of Louis XIV.; for all this occurred between the years 1613 and 1648."-Page 41. It might have been added that, as a youth, Christian IV. was an ardent lover and diligent student of the sacred Scriptures; and that, in mature years, he lent his aid towards the diffusion of the Divine word throughout his dominions. Of the appearance of the people Ma- machine whose head, furnished with a strong, dame D'Aunet says: sharp blade, cut in pieces, by an even, quiet movement, bars of copper as large as trunks of trees. Moving about among all these things was a crowd of black, half-dressed men, who, lighted by the red flames of the furnaces, looked like the demons of this pandemonium. The ceaseless stroke of hammers, the grinding of saws, the moaning of wheels, the crackling of braziers, the bubbling of melted metal, united above all rose the deafening noise of the falling to form an indescribable crashing sound; yet water!"-Pp. 98-100. "The Norwegians are particularly healthy and robust, the faces of the peasantry are square and fresh-colored; their noses full and somewhat turned up; their eyes of a pale blue; their hair fine, flaxen, and curling. The little children's heads are covered with that soft, almost white, hair, that recalls to mind those little wax figures of the infant Jesus, accompanied by a lamb in cotton-wool, that one sees so often, under a glass case, in the parlors of our French inns. The women are relatively larger than the men, and have so brilliant a complex- the northernmost town in the world, Between Throndhjem and Hammerfest, ion, that they often appear to be pretty, without haying handsome features. . The la- stretches a narrow, mountainous country, dies of Christiania struck me, at first sight, as seven hundred miles in length, so interpretty, and what is better, agreeable-looking, sected by fjords and short rivers, that notwithstanding two defects which connoisseurs some of the hills are insulated from the in beauty would not pass by lightly-poor mainland, and are almost inaccessible. teeth, and very large ears; but they have a Indeed, the chasms are so many, the dazzling complexion, fine hair, and elegant fig-sloping valleys so few, and the encroachures-elegant for the North."-Pp. 70, 64. Madame D'Aunet, while staying at Throndhjem, was persuaded to pay a visit to one of the famous sights of Norway, the Leerfoss, on the river Nid. She says: "I set out early in the morning, in spite of a small, fine, cold rain, of evil augury. Around Throndhjem the roads are made after the Russian fashion, of fir-tree trunks, laid side by side, forming an uneven, rugged carriage-way. As the trees are not even squared, one has to put up with the roughest jolting; and in places where they have become rotten, the road resembles a quagmire, and what was before fatiguing, now becomes positively dangerous. When we reach Leerfoss, the sight of the fall repays us for our preliminary joltings. Figure to yourself a whole river falling in a single sheet, eighty feet in depth; and then breaking over black, basaltic rocks, among which its waters boil and foam in mighty wrath. The passionless rocks lift up their rounded, shining backs, and look like large fishes sleeping on the sand. Under this peaceful seeming they offer so strong a resistance to the falling river that it must needs divide its waters into many little streams that pursue their tossed and troubled way for some hundreds of paces: then all becomes calm, the river finds a new bed, and resumes its tranquil flow. "At the edge of the river, and just below the falls, a copper foundry has been established. The great wheels of the machinery are turned by the rushing water, man having employed its force, and made its fury serviceable. I visited the foundry. I saw all those frightful moving machines, creatures of man's making, as power ful and formidable as the most terrible living monsters. I can not describe the various kinds of saws, wheels, cogs, and hammers, that were there. What terrified me most was a dreadful The ing waters so obstructive, that people 66 But partly on dried birch leaves, but chiefly on seaweed and the boiled heads of fish!" There are but three provinces in Northern Norway, and only a scanty population. All its congregated life is to be found on the sea-coast, or on the sides of its fjords. To the little villages that with their redtiled roofs and cheery smoke enliven the bases of the gray cliffs, the passing of the steamer that tells of welcome summer, and friendly greetings, and pleasant strangers, is a most delightful event. come old and young, dressed in their best, and many a long-projected visit is made to the neighboring station, ten or twelve leagues away. Out The sailors of Norway are skillful and trustworthy, as men should be who undertake to guide their fellows through such a labyrinth of obvious and hidden dangers. Madame D'Aunet's voyage was made safely. She thus sketches her temporary home in the little inn at Hammerfest : "The apartment of honor, reserved for me, had two divisions, each of eight feet square; the ceiling was so low that I could touch it with my hand. It was clear that the architect had only made provision for Laplanders. The furniture was limited to the smallest possible quantity-a table, two wooden arm-chairs, and a bed in which plain boards formed a strange contrast with the softest eider-down. The traveler is at liberty to drive nails into the wall; and it is his only way of making up for the absence of wardrobes. The windows and door were very small-the windows about three feet high, and the door about five; so that I could not look out without taking off my bonnet, nor leave the room without stooping. Then the inhabitants are so fond of light that they will not hang up curtains to shut it out. Thus, during the summer, one must either submit to a perpetual glare, or produce a factitious shade by the help of your own shawls and cloaks, hung up before the windows. Although I had recourse to this expedient, yet I could not reconcile myself to these unending days. They made me restless and uneasy. The common order of things seemed to be upset. I rose at midday; I dined at eleven o'clock at night; I went out to walk at two in the morning. I never knew when to get up, or when to go to bed, and sleep became almost impossible. (The inhabit ants of these high latitudes often work by night to avoid the sultry heat of noon. They say that there will be time enough to sleep next winter.) If there were neither calendar nor watch at Hammerfest, it would be easy to lose a sense of time, and one might soon be a fortnight before or after the rest of the world, with out having perceived the gradual change. The diet here did not border on luxury. Where you are badly lodged, you are likely to be worse fed; and the monotony of our bill of fare was not its worst fault. Veal and salmon formed the staple supply. Soups alternated between barley à la sliced lemon, and rye à la dried cherries. On gala days we had potatoes, roasted rein-deer, and milk." We shall not follow Madame D'Aunet to Spitzbergen, as the work of a more recent traveler, Lord Dufferin, has been lately noticed by us: but we must make room for one more extract, regarding the farm life of Norway. "The woman spin linen and hemp, weave them into cloth, and manufacture the strong and coarse wadmel worn by the men. The men are, by turns, laborers, smiths, masons and carpenters; and, at need, shoemakers and tailors. Besides good clothes and a fair supply of furniture, the young women often have a few valuables, as lace, neckerchiefs, and trinkets, brought for them from the nearest town, by their fathers; and then in every house we see, reverentially laid on a scrap of carpet, that large volume-the poor man's library-the book that surpasses all others, and makes up for their absence-the book of books--the Bible; and every little child, when asked by its mother, is able to read a verse. Sweet and peaceful life! calm, pure, and equable, like the blue sky of the North! how might wearied hearts envy so stormless a repose! As Luther says, 'Invideo quia quiescunt."—Page 70. It is a pity that this pleasing picture of a family Bible in every house is not quite true to life. To a traveler from Roman Catholic France, doubtless its frequency would be a subject of remark; but till lately the supply of Bibles was grievously inadequate to the wants of the population; and though, thanks to the Christiania press, and to the British and Foreign Bible Society, there is now a change for the better, yet those who love the Bible, and who love mankind, have still a great work to do in Norway. Dr. Paterson, who visited that country in 1832, under the direction of the British and Foreign Bible Society, met with a warm welcome, and an open field for exertion. He was the means of stimulating the energies of the Norwegian Bible Society, and of setting on foot several new agencies in connection with the Society for which he traveled. At Throndhjem, Bergen, Stavanger, and Christiansand, he was aided by warm-hearted and intelligent Christian friends; and at every place the demand for Bibles was larger than could be met by help from Christiania and from Lon don. Busy, commercial Bergen, especially, he found to possess facilities for a very wide distribution of the sacred Scriptures, as it commands the whole coast from Stavanger to the North Cape, and is visited thrice a year by the boats that are engaged in the cod fisheries of the Loffoden Isles. In the year 1854, a similar visit was made by Mr. Knolleke. the assistant with still more favorable results; so that foreign secretary of the Bible Society, and while, during the twenty-five years preceding Mr. Knolleke's visit, the Bible Society supplied Norway with 100,000 copies of the Scriptures, in one year since that time 25,000 have been distributed. |