One day's sail due north from Copenhagen, through the Sound,--Strait of
Katte,--brings us to Gottenburg, the metropolis of Southwestern Sweden.
The Strait, which is about a hundred miles in width, is nearly twice as
long, and contains many small islands. Gottenburg is situated on the
Gotha River, about five miles from its mouth. Though less populous, it
is commercially almost as important as Stockholm. The deep, broad
watercourse which runs through the town to the harbor is a portion of
the famous Gotha Canal, which joins fjord (inlet from the sea;
pronounced _feord_), river, lakes and locks together, thus connecting
the North Sea and the Baltic. The two cities are also joined by
railroad, the distance between them being over three hundred miles. The
country through which the canal passes is not unlike many inland
sections of New England, presenting pleasant views of thrifty farms and
well-cultivated lands. There are some sharp hills and abrupt valleys to
be encountered which are often marked by grand and picturesque
waterfalls, wild, foaming rivers, and fierce surging rapids.
Gottenburg is divided into an upper and lower town, the latter being a
plain cut up by canals, and the former spread over the adjoining hills.
The town is composed of two or three principal streets, very broad, and
intersecting one another at right angles, with a canal in the centre.
These water-ways are lined by substantial granite borders, with here
and there convenient stone steps connecting them with the water. The
spacious harbor admits of vessels drawing seventeen feet. The citizens
feel a just pride in a well-endowed college, a large public library, an
exchange, two orphan asylums, a flourishing society of arts and
sciences, a large theatre, and two public parks. In front of the theatre
is an admirable reproduction of the Swedish sculptor Molin's famous
group of two figures representing "the girdle-duellists" [these
duellists, bound together, fought with knives], the original of which
stands in front of the National Museum at Stockholm. Gottenburg is not
without a cathedral and numerous fine churches, nor let us forget to
speak of its excellent schools, attendance upon which is compulsory
throughout Sweden. English is regularly taught in her public schools,
and is very generally spoken by the intelligent people. Education is
more general, and culture is of a higher grade in Sweden than is common
with the people of Southern Europe, while music is nearly as universal
an acquirement here as it is in Italy. The population is frugal, honest,
self-helping, and in many respects resembles that of Switzerland.
The system of inland communication by means of the Gotha Canal is one of
the most remarkable ever achieved by man, when the obstacles which have
been overcome and the advantages accomplished are considered.
Steam-vessels, limited to one hundred and six feet in length on account
of the size of the locks, are carried hundreds of miles by it across and
over the highlands of Southern Sweden from sea to sea. When we see a
well-freighted steamboat climb a mountain side, float through lock after
lock, and after reaching the summit of the hills, descend with equal
facility towards the coast and sea-level, this great triumph of
engineering skill is fully appreciated. The vessels navigating the canal
rise in all, three hundred and eighty feet above the level of the Baltic
during the passage across country. At the little town of Berg the locks
are sixteen in number, and form a gigantic staircase by means of which
vessels are raised at this point one hundred and twenty feet.
On the line of the Gotha Canal is situated the famous Tröllhatta Falls,
which are so remarkable as to attract visitors from all parts of Europe.
These falls consist of a series of tremendous rapids extending over a
distance of about two hundred yards, and producing an uproar almost
equal to the ceaseless oratorio of Niagara. This angry water-way is
interspersed by some well-wooded islands, on either side of which the
waters rush with a wild, resistless power, tossed here and there by the
many under-currents. The whole forms a succession of falls of which the
first is called Gullöfallet, where on both sides of an inaccessible
little island the waters make a leap of twenty-six feet in height, the
rebound creating a constant cloud of feathery spray. Then follows the
highest of the falls, the Toppöfallet, forty-four feet in height, which
is likewise divided by a cliff into two parts, against which the frantic
waters chafe angrily. The next fall measures less than ten feet in
height, followed a little way down the rapids by what is called the
Flottbergström, all together making a fall of foaming eddies and whirls
equal to about one hundred and twelve feet.
The marine shells which are found in the bottom of some of the inland
lakes of both Norway and Sweden, show that the land which forms their
bed was once covered by the sea. This is clearly apparent in Lake Wener
and Lake Welter, which are situated nearly three hundred feet above the
present ocean level. Complete skeletons of whales have been found inland
at considerable elevations during the present century. The oldest
shell-banks discovered by scientists in Scandinavia are situated five
hundred feet above the level of the sea.
Sweden has comparatively few mountains, but many ranges of hills. Norway
monopolizes almost entirely the mountain system of the great northern
peninsula, but the large forests of pine, fir, and birch, which cover so
much of the country, are common to both. Though iron is found in large
deposits in Norway, it is still more abundant in Sweden, where it is
chiefly of the magnetic kind, yielding when properly smelted the best
ore for the manufacture of steel. It is believed that there is
sufficient malleable iron in the soil of Sweden to supply the whole
world with this necessary article for centuries. Mount Gellivare, which
is over eighteen hundred feet in height, is said to be almost wholly
formed of an ore containing eighty per cent of iron.
In approaching Christiania, the capital of Norway, by sea from
Gottenburg, we ascend the fjord of the same name a distance of seventy
miles. The city, which is built upon a gradual slope facing the south,
is seen to good advantage from the harbor. No more appropriate spot
could have been selected for the national capital by Christian IV., who
founded it, and after whom it is named, than the head of this beautiful
elongated bay. It is the seat of the Storthing, or Parliament, and the
king, whose permanent residence is at Stockholm, is expected to reside
here, attended by the court, at least three months of the year. With its
immediate suburbs, the population of the city is a hundred and
twenty-five thousand. It should be remembered that Norway is practically
a free and independent state though it is under the crown of Sweden, and
that the people are thoroughly democratic, having abolished all titles
of nobility by enactment of the Storthing so early as 1821, at which
time a law was also passed forbidding the king to create a new nobility.
Nevertheless, the thought occurs to us that these are the descendants of
those Northmen of whom one branch, under the name of Normans, conquered
the British Isles, and founded the very nobility there which is the
present boast and pride of England.
We find some problems solved in Norway which have created political
strife elsewhere. Though its Church is identical with the State,
unlimited toleration exists. There is a perfect system of political
representation, and while justice is open to all, litigation is
earnestly discouraged. The meetings of the Storthing are independent of
the king, not even requiring a writ of assemblage from him. Thus it will
be seen that although nominally under monarchial rule, Norway is in
reality self-governed.
The legal code of Norway is worthy of study, both on account of its
antiquity and its admirable provisions. The old sea-kings or
free-booters, as we have been accustomed to consider them, had a more
advanced and civilized code than any of the people whose shores they
devastated. Before the year of our Lord 885, the power of the law was
established over all persons of every rank, while, in the other
countries of Europe, the independent jurisdiction of the feudal lords
defied the laws. Before the eleventh century, the law of Scandinavia
provided for equal justice to all, established a system of weights and
measures, also one for the maintenance of roads and bridges, and for the
protection of women and animals from abuse; subjects which few other
European legal systems at that time embraced. These laws were collected
into one code by Magnus VII., about the year 1260. They were revised by
Christian IV. in 1604, and in 1687 the present system was drawn up. So
simple and compact is it, that the whole is contained in a pocket
volume, a copy of which is in the possession of every Norwegian family.
Each law occupies but a single paragraph, and all is simple and
intelligible.
The commerce of Christiania is growing rapidly. Over one thousand
vessels enter and depart from its harbor annually, which, however, is
closed by ice three months in the year, though that of Hammerfest,
situated a thousand miles further north on the same coast, is never
frozen, owing to the genial influence of the Gulf Stream,--an agent so
potent as to modify the temperature of the entire coast of Scandinavia
on its western border.
The university founded here by Frederick VI. in 1811, is a plain but
massive structure; the front ornamented by Corinthian pillars of
polished granite. It accommodates some nine hundred students, the
tuition being free to all native applicants suitably prepared. It
contains a noble library of over two hundred thousand volumes, which is
freely open even to strangers under very simple restrictions. Beneath
the same roof is an extensive museum of zoölogy and geology. The city
has a naval and military school, a lunatic asylum, an astronomical
observatory, and various charitable institutions. Its botanical garden
is situated about a mile from the town, and contains among other
interesting and finely arranged specimens, a collection of Alpine plants
from Spitzbergen and Iceland.
The parliament house is an imposing building of original design, very
pleasing in general effect and style, facing the Carl Johannes Square,
the largest open area in the city. It was finished in 1866. The
market-place is adorned with a marble statue of Christian IV. Another
fine square is the Eidsvolds Plads, planted with choice trees and
carpeted with intensely bright greensward. The chief street is the Carl
Johannes Gade, a broad thoroughfare extending from the railroad station
to the king's palace, halfway between which stands the university. In a
large wooden building behind the university is kept that unrivalled
curiosity, the "Viking Ship," a souvenir of nine hundred years ago. The
blue clay of the district, where it was exhumed in 1880, a few miles
south of Christiania, has preserved it all these years. The men who
built the graceful lines of this now crumbling vessel, "in some remote
and dateless day," knew quite as much of true marine architecture as do
our modern shipwrights. This interesting relic, doubtless the oldest
ship in the world, once served the Vikings, its masters, as a sea-craft.
It is eighty feet long by sixteen wide, and is about six feet deep from
the gunwale. Seventy shields, as many spears, and other war equipments
recovered with the hull, show that it carried that number of
fighting-men.
In such vessels as this the dauntless Northmen made voyages to every
country in Europe a thousand years ago, and, as is confidently believed
by many, they crossed the Atlantic, discovering North America centuries
before the name of Columbus was known. Ignoring the halo of romance and
chivalry which the poets have thrown about the valiant Vikings and their
followers, one thing we are compelled to admit--they were superb marine
architects. Ten centuries of progressive civilization have served to
produce none better. Most of the arts and sciences may, and do, exhibit
great progress in excellence, but ship-building is not among them. We
build bigger, but not finer, vessels.
The burial of this ship so many centuries ago was simply in accordance
with the custom of those days. When any great sea-king perished, he was
enclosed in the cabin of his galley, and either sunk in the ocean or
buried with his vessel and all of its warlike equipments upon the
nearest suitable spot of land. We are told that when a chieftain died in
battle, not only were his war-horse, his gold and silver plate, and his
portable personal effects buried or burned with his body, but a guard of
honor from among his followers slew themselves that he might enter the
sacred halls of Odin (the Scandinavian Deity) properly attended. The
more elevated in rank the chief might be, the larger the number who must
sacrifice themselves as his escort to the land of bliss. So entire was
the reliance of these Heathens in the demands of their peculiar faith,
that they freely acted up to its extreme requirements while singing
songs of joy.
A general aspect of good order, thrift, industry, and prosperity
prevails at Christiania. The simplicity of dress and the gentle manners,
especially among the female portion of the community, are marked
features. No stranger can fail to notice the low, sympathetic tones in
which the women always speak; but though decorous and worthy, it must be
admitted that the Norwegian ladies, as a rule, are not handsome. One
sees here none of the rush and fever of living which so wearies the
observer in many parts of Southern Europe. The common people evince more
solidity of character with less of the frivolities of life. They may be
said to be a trifle slow and phlegmatic, but by no means stupid. The
most careless schoolboy, when addressed by a stranger, removes his hat
and remains uncovered until he has responded to the inquiry made of him.
Upon visiting a new city in any part of the world, one learns much of
the national characteristics of the people, and of other matters worth
knowing, by mingling unconventionally with the throng, watching their
every-day habits and by observing the stream of busy life pouring
through its great thoroughfares. More valuable information is thus
acquired than from visiting grand cathedrals, art galleries, or
consulting guide-books. Years of travel fatigue us with the latter, but
never with Nature in her varying moods, with the peculiarities of races,
or with the manners and customs of each new locality and country. The
delight in natural objects grows by experience in every cultivated and
receptive mind. The rugged architecture of lofty mountains, the aspect
of tumbling waterfalls, noble rivers, glowing sunsets, broad land and
sea-views--each of these has a special, never-tiring and impressive
individuality.
While enjoying a bird's-eye view of Christiania, from the heights of
Egeberg, a well-wooded hill in the southern suburb, it is difficult to
believe one's self in Icelandic Scandinavia,--the precise latitude of
the Shetland Islands. A drowsy hum like the drone of bees seems to float
up from the busy city below. The beautiful fjord, with its graceful
promontories, its picturesque and leafy isles, might be Lake Maggiore or
Como, so placid and calm is its pale blue surface. Turning the eyes
inland, one sees clustered in lovely combinations fields of ripening
grain, gardens, lawns, cottages, and handsome villas, like a scene upon
the sunny shores of the Maritime Alps. An abundance of trees enliven the
view,--plane, sycamore, ash, and elm, in luxurious condition. Warmer
skies during the summer period are not to be found in Italy, nor
elsewhere outside of Egypt. As we stand upon the height of Egeberg on a
delicious sunny afternoon, there hangs over and about the Norwegian
capital a soft golden haze such as lingers in August above the Venetian
lagoons.
The summer is so short here as to give the fruits and flowers barely
time to blossom, ripen, and fade, and the husbandman a chance to gather
his crops. Vegetation is rapid in its growth, the sunshine being so
nearly constant during the ten weeks which intervene between seedtime
and harvest. Barley grows two inches, and pease three, in twenty-four
hours at certain stages of development. It is an interesting fact that
if the barley-seed be brought from a warmer climate, it has to become
acclimated, and does not yield a good crop until after two or three
years.
The flowers of the torrid and temperate zones, as a rule, close their
eyes like human beings, and sleep a third or half of the twenty-four
hours, but in Arctic regions, life to those lovely children of Nature is
one long sunny period, and sleep comes only with death and decay. It
will also be observed that the flowers assume more vivid colors and emit
more fragrance during their brief lives than they do in the south. The
long, delightful period of twilight during the summer season is seen
here in perfection, full of roseate loveliness. There is no dew to be
encountered or avoided, no dampness; all is crystal clearness.
In the rural districts women are generally employed in out-of-door
work, as they are in Germany and Italy, and there is quite a
preponderance of the sex in Norway and Sweden. As many women as men are
seen engaged in mowing, reaping, loading heavy carts, and getting in the
harvest generally. What would our American farmers think to see a woman
swing a scythe all day in the hayfields, cutting as broad and even a
swath as a man can do, and apparently with as little fatigue? Labor is
very poorly paid. Forty cents per day is considered to be liberal wages
for a man, except in the cities, where a small increase upon this amount
is obtained.
Norway has been appropriately called the country of mountains and
fjords, of cascades and lakes. Among the largest of the latter is Lake
Mjösen, which is about sixty miles long and has an average width of
twelve. It receives in its bosom one important river, the Longen, after
it has run a course of nearly a hundred and fifty miles. At its southern
extremity is the port of Eidsvol, and at the northern is Lillehammer.
These are situated in the direct route between Christiania and
Tröndhjem. But the most singular fact attached to the lake is that it
measures about fifteen hundred feet in depth while its surface is only
four hundred feet above the level of the ocean. Its bottom is known to
be nearly a thousand feet below that of the adjacent North Sea, which
would seem to show that the lake must be the mouth of some long-extinct
volcano.
As to the animals of Norway, the reindeer, the bear, the wolf, the fox,
and the lynx about complete the list. The ubiquitous crow abounds, and
fine specimens of the golden eagle, that dignified monarch of the upper
regions, may often be seen sailing through the air from cliff to cliff,
across the fjords and valleys. At certain seasons of the year this bird
proves destructive to domestic fowl and young lambs. Magpies appear to
be as much of a nuisance in Norway as crows are in India or Ceylon, and
quite as unmolested by the people. What are called the wild birds of
Scandinavia are in fact quite tame, and they are in large variety. As
the traveller passes through the country, he will observe sheaves of
unthreshed grain elevated upon poles beside the farm-houses and barns,
which are placed there to furnish the feathered visitors with food.
These sheaves are frequently renewed throughout the long winters;
otherwise the birds would starve. The confiding little creatures know
their friends, and often enter the houses for protection from the
severity of the weather. Neither man, woman, nor child would think of
disturbing them, for they are considered to bring good luck to the
premises.
In a journey from the capital to Tröndhjem, where the coasting steamer
is usually taken for the North Cape, we cross the Dovrefjeld, or
mountain table-land. The famous elevation called the Sneehaetta--"Snow
Hat"--forms a part of this Alpine range, and it is one of the loftiest
in Norway. It should be remembered that one-eighth of the country lies
within the region of perpetual snow, and that these lofty and nearly
inaccessible heights are robed in a constant garb of bridal whiteness.
No known portions of the globe have more extensive glaciers or
snowfields, unless, possibly, it be some portions of Alaska or
Greenland. There are glaciers in Norway which cover from four to five
hundred square miles, descending from plateaus three and four thousand
feet in height, down to very near sea-level.
Though the highest point in the peninsula is only about eight thousand
five hundred feet above the sea,--an elevation which is reached only by
Jotunfjeld, or Giant Mountain,--still no highlands in Europe surpass
those of Scandinavia in terrific grandeur. Mont Blanc (Switzerland) is
nearly twice as high as this Giant Mountain, but being less abrupt is
hardly so striking.
The elevations of Norway are intersected by deep, dark gorges and
threatening chasms, roaring with impetuous torrents and grand
water-falls, constantly presenting such scenes as would have inspired
the pencil of Salvator Rosa. The mountain system here does not form a
continuous range, but consists of a succession of table-lands, like the
Dovrefjeld, and of detached mountains rising from elevated bases. The
length of this series of elevations--mountains and plateaus--is that of
the entire peninsula from the North Cape to Christiania, some twelve
hundred miles, which gives to the mountains of Norway and Sweden an area
larger than the Alps, the Apennines, and Pyrenees combined; while the
lakes, waterfalls, and cascades far surpass those of the rest of Europe.
It has been said, somewhat extravagantly, by those familiar with the
geography of Scandinavia, that could it be flattened out into plains, it
would make as large a division of the earth as is now represented by
either of the four principal continents.
The ratio of arable land to the entire area of Norway is not more than
one to ten, and were it not that the support of the people came mainly
from the sea, the country would not sustain one-quarter of its present
population. Undismayed, however, by the prevalence of rocks, cliffs, and
chasms, the people utilize every available rod of land to the utmost.
The surroundings of many habitations seem severe and desolate, even when
viewed beneath the summer sun; what, then, must be their appearance
during the long and trying winters of their frosty regions?
It is not uncommon to see on the Norwegian coast, farm-houses surrounded
by a few low buildings, perched among rocks away up on some green
terrace, so high, indeed, as to make them seem scarcely larger than an
eagle's nest. To anybody but a mountaineer these spots are inaccessible,
and every article of subsistence, except what is raised upon the few
acres of available earth surrounding the dwelling, must be carried up
there upon men's backs. A few goats and sheep must constitute the animal
stock, added to which are generally some domestic fowls. These dwellings
are constructed of logs, cut in the lofty gulches, and drawn by hand to
the spot, one by one. It would seem that such energetic industry applied
in some inviting neighborhood would insure a more desirable result.