The appance of the dy from the fjord is very puresque. The bases of vari us own, ymer-bulit, are ranged and the bar or, with the montains behind. It has woffered terribly from the at various times from the twelfth century to the nineteenth. In 1,9% to “Bagier," previoudly mentioned, set it in dames; in 1455 most of the town, with eleven parish churches, perished; in 1792 the while city early was reduced to ashes; in 155 one hundred and eighty bosses were bamt down in the western portion, and it was only at the broad market-place that a snoeessful stand was made against the devouring flames that threatened again to destroy the whole city. Formerly every house had to have a water-butt well filled at the door, but a more modern style of water supply, with telegraphie communication and other appliances, has been adopted. In the more recently built quarters, good houses line the straight, wide streets; but elsewhere quaint gables project over narrow winding lanes, between which run the alleys called "Smug," and the still narrower avenues called "Smitter.” Here and there open plots of ground, called "Almenninger," are left for the convenience of checking fires.

The long narrow Strand-gade running along the promontory, on which the main portion of the town is built, contains most of the shops, and is not infrequently temporarily blocked up with the traffic. Here in the jewellers' shops may be seen the silver studs and buttons so cherished by Norwegian peasants, and the silver crowns and ornaments of Norwegian brides. From the narrow pavement here and there steps lead to the cellar-shops, which are a curious feature of the city. On the high ground to the west of this street are the City Observatory and Fort Frederiksberg, and the Parade Ground (Engen), where of old many a stiff battle was fought between Birkebeiner and Bagler. The Strand-grade leads to the Torvet, or marketplace, at the end of the harbour, and on the adjacent Torv Almenning (where the band plays twice a week) is a bronze statue of W. F. R. Christie, one of the representatives of Bergen at the establishment of the Constitution. To watch the people flocking to and from the marketIlace is one of the sights of Bergen. There are men with sacks of vegetables strapped to

their backs, one above another; and women with firkins of milk, one at the back and another under each arm, brought in probably five or six miles from the country. Some have twowheeled carts and sit above a heap of sacks or firkins, unless the cart is too full already, when they plod at the side, stooping forward from constant habit-for the Bergen peasant always walks as if the burden were on his back. Along the side-walks there are tempting displays of fruit and flowers and wooden utensils, especially the bright wooden boxes, small and large, very popular with the country people.

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Everybody who can sell anything," says an American writer, "even the smallest thing, runs, or stands, or squats in the Bergen streets to sell it. Even spaces under high doorsteps. are apparently rented for shops, rigged up with a sort of door, and old women sit crouching in them, selling blue-berries and dark bread. One man, clad in sheepskin that looked a hundred years old, I saw trying to sell a bit of sheepskin nearly as old as that he was wearing; another had a basket with three bunches of wild monkshood, pink spiræa, and blue larkspur, and one small saucerful of wild strawberries; boys were carrying one pot with a plant growing in it, or a tub of sour milk, or a string of onions, or bunch of juniper boughs; women sitting on small butter-tubs upside down, their butter waiting sale around them in tubs or bits of newspaper, they knitting for dear life, or sewing patches on ragged garments; other groups of women sitting flat on the stones, surrounded by piles of juniper, moss, green heath, and wreaths made of kinni-kinnick vines, green moss, and yellow flowers. These last were for graves. The whole expression of the scene was of dogged and indomitable thriftiness, put to its last wits to turn a penny and squeeze out a living. Yet nobody appeared discontented; the women looked friendly as I passed, and smiled as they saw me taking out my note-book to write them down."

Fish is a great article of diet in Bergen in the summer months, and the fish-market is a lively spectacle, especially on Wednesdays and Saturdays. More than an acre of the water is covered with boats endeavouring to reach the quay, which is lined with servant girls from the town and peasant women from the country, bargaining with the men in the boats in the midst of a babel of sound. Many of the fishermen, despairing of front places by the quay, land and sell their fish in the market-place, while on every hand are seen the women hurrying to and from the scene of action with the tin scuttles, which are the only correct things to carry home fish in from the Bergen market-place. The "Streels," as the amphibious natives of the islands on the coast, who bring fish to the market, are called, are a curious race of men; they stand beside the fish, of which they have named the price, and stolidly chew tobacco, whilst the women scream and prod with umbrellas, until "masterly inactivity" wins the day, and the price is paid and the goods taken away.

Along the eastern side of the harbour is the Tydskebruggen, a row of tall white warehouses, once belonging to the Hanseatic League, and rebuilt after the great fire of 1702. Here are stored the dry fish and cod-liver oil purchased from the " jaegts" at the "Stævne," already alluded to. These jaegts are quaint, picturesque boats, said to be the exact models of the vessels used by the Norsemen of old in their piratical excursions, except that in those days there were one or two banks of oars. Otherwise the huge square sail and general build and rig of the vessel are the same as when the Vikings swept southward twelve centuries ago. The fish from Bergen warehouses helps to feed Roman Catholic Europe in Lent and on

fast-days. It has been said that if the Roman Catholics were to become Protestants, Norway would be plunged at once into misery. The "Stævne" have now been held twice a year for six centuries.

Bergen and its vicinity afford endless studies of peasant costume. The Sunday raiment of the women in some localities is highly picturesque. The dress of the men consists generally of a red woollen nightcap, a jacket of white "wadmal" (a coarse woollen cloth), a red waistcoat, knee-breeches, woollen stockings with gay-coloured checks, and shoes with silver buckles. The women wear a jacket of black wadmal, a bright red bodice, a scarlet petticoat, and an apron of white linen, embroidered with red worsted, and almost without exception are adorned with gold earrings and silver brooches. A wedding at one of the farmhouses is a very entertaining scene; for three days feasting and dancing are kept up, and the neighbours throng in to make presents to the bride and bridegroom. At length the bride withdraws the pin that keeps her crown in its place, and after she has "danced her crown off" the music ceases and all depart. Till recently Bergen had its watchmen, armed with an antique weapon called a "morning star," a brass globe with spikes in it, attached to a staff four feet in length. The Marquis of Waterford was nearly killed by one of these bludgeons in 1837.

Very briefly must we mention a few of the buildings of Bergen. The Fortress of Bergenhuus, commanding the harbour entrance, was erected by Olaf Kyrre, and was once the centre of a group of fine buildings. The naked walls of the stone hall of Haakon Haakonsön are still standing, and the edifice is to be restored as a national monument. The picturesque Walkendorf Tower, originally built by Haakon, has been restored, and is used as an arsenal. To the east of Bergenhuus, upon a wooded hill, are pleasure-gardens, with Fort Sverresborg, marking the site of the ramparts of Sverre and his Birkebeiner.

The oldest church in Bergen is St. Mariæ Kirke, mentioned in the Sagas as early as 1183, but several times burnt since then. During the era of German predominance the service was in German, and the walls were covered with German pictures. It is now thoroughly restored. There are numerous hospitals and other charitable institutions in Bergen; also an old Norse museum and other valuable collections. The exchange opposite the fish-market offers a lively scene when business is going forward.

Very beautiful and romantic are the environs of Bergen. On the terraces and declivities rising towards the seven encircling fjelds, or mountains, villas abound commanding extensive prospects. Beyond rise the lofty heights, speedily attaining an altitude of about two thousand feet. It is declared that there is no going out of Bergen on the east or west except by going straight up skyward, so steep are the slopes. Towards the south the ascents are gentler, and the road is bordered for miles with pretty country houses of wood, brightly painted and fantastically carved, and with gay summer-houses perched among lime and ash trees on the terraces. Beyond lies a wild wooded country; a mingling of stony hills and ferny nooks, and dark tarns and sunny meadows strewn with boulders, and here and there the blue fjord gleaming through the trees below. But the mountains overlooking Bergen are easily ascended, and the views from the summit, especially from Ulrikken on the south-east, well repay the trouble. The most extensive prospect is obtained from Löustakken, whence to the south-east is seen the long glittering glacier of Folgefond, about forty English miles in length by fifteen broad. In the treacherous

abysses of the Folgefond hunters have ofttimes disappeared, and it is said that whole herds of reindeer have gone over the precipices and perished in its snows. Old legends tell how the valley was inhabited by people for whose sins a terrible snowstorm was sent, that lasted for ten weeks without intermission, till every house was buried, and the valley that once comprised seven parishes is now only one huge glacier.

STOCKHOLM.

At the junction of Lake Mälar with an arm of the Baltic Sea stands Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. Partly on islands, partly on an adjacent plain, and partly on rocky hills, is situated the picturesque "Venice of the North." West of the city stretches the

renowned Mälar Lake, with its hundreds of islands and scores of châteaux, and with innumerable sites upon its shores linked with historic or legendary associations. Here are memories of the hero-god Odin; of the first Christian missionaries who penetrated these Northern fastnesses of heathenism; of Vikings, who sailed hence to scatter destruction far and wide, or who upon these fair waters grappled with each other in sanguinary strife.

To the eye of the approaching traveller the view of Stockholm is very beautiful and strangely varied. Right up to the city, with its towers and palaces, are portions of primæval forest, and amidst gay gardens and verdant lawns, and even amongst the houses in some parts, fragments of bare granite protrude abruptly. The central island, Staden, is an eminence covered with terraces of houses, with the Royal Palace crowning the summit.

The excellent harbours, on both the Baltic and Lake Mälar sides of the city, accommodate a busy traffic, and the channels between the islands are so deep that large ships can come close up to the quays.

In very early times a settlement had sprung up here, which, from the tragic end of King Agne, had received the name of Agnefit. King Agne had slain the King of Finland in battle and carried away that monarch's charming daughter, intending to make her his bride as soon as he reached Lake Mälar. Around his neck he wore a heavy gold chain brought from Finland by one of his ancestors, and by which it had been fated that the greatest of the "Ynglingar" should die. On reaching Lake Mälar, Agne and his comrades indulged in revelry and all fell asleep. Then the unwilling bride, assisted by her brother, hung the king on a tree with the fatal chain and escaped to Finland. Esthonians and Karelians, and various hordes of pirates, plundered the place during the twelfth century. They destroyed Sigtuna, the city which Odin had founded on an arm of the lake, and the inhabitants of that town crammed their choicest valuables into a "stock," or hollow trunk of a tree, and set it afloat. When the pirates had gone this stock was found near Agnefit, and so (it is said) the strongly fortified city, built here by Earl Birger on three islands in 1260, was called Stockholm. It was long before the limits of the islands could be permanently exceeded. Several times the overflowing population settled on the adjacent mainland, but frequent sieges cleared away all new buildings. It was besieged by Margaret of Denmark, the Semiramis of the North, in 1389, and by Christian I. in 1471. In 1501 Christina, queen of John of Denmark, was shut up in Stockholm with a garrison of 1,000 men. From October 7th to the 27th of the following March, the citadel was held against the insurgent Swedes, till the defenders were reduced to eighty men. The queen surrendered, and was a prisoner in the hands of the Swedes when the Danish fleet arrived for her relief three days afterwards. In 1520 the Swedish patriotic party were holding the city against Christian II. of Denmark. The defence was conducted by Christina Gyllenstierna for four months successfully. Then, at the intervention of two Swedish bishops, the town was surrendered to Christian, who, in spite of his solemn promises, had the most distinguished Swedes throughout the country massacred. The father of the great Gustavus Vasa and ninety-three others were executed in one day near the Church of St. Nicholas in Stockholm. Christina herself was kept a close prisoner, and her husband's corpse taken from its grave and burnt. These acts of tyranny hastened the liberation of Sweden by Gustavus Vasa, and the advent of the grandest period in its history. From the sixteenth century forward Stockholm had leisure to extend its boundaries and prosper. It has experienced six or seven great conflagrations, and most of the antique timber-built houses are now replaced by stone edifices. During the present century the population has increased from 75,500

to 165.600.

The Norrbro, a handsome seven-arched bridge of granite, connects Staden with the mainland, and spans the chief outlet of Lake Mälar; the view from this point of the city, with its quays and busy harbour traffic, is exceedingly picturesque. From the bridge, round the east side of Staden, extends a broad granite quay called the Skeppsbro, with the pretty island of Skeppsholmen opposite. On the Skeppsbro there is a constant hurrying to and fro of merchants, and a ceaseless lading or unlading of ocean-bound ships or steamers.