BY RAIL AND LAKE.
_July 13._--We were engaged till late at night putting the finishing
touches to our packing. The last thing we did was to put our most
gorgeous apparel, and any articles not likely to be needed during our
camp life, into two portmanteaus, with strict orders to the Boots to
keep the same until our return. This morning, after an early breakfast,
on descending to the courtyard we found these portmanteaus roped down on
the roof of the omnibus which was to take all the luggage to the station
_en route_ for Lillehammer. This we rectified, and then set off to walk
to the station ourselves.
Now Esau is possessed by an insensate craving for anchovy paste, which
he considers a necessity for camping; he said, 'It imparts a certain
tone to the stomach, and aids digestion;' and added that 'no
well-appointed dinner-table should ever be without it,' which sounds a
little like an advertisement, but which he asserted was a quotation from
the rules laid down for his diet by Dr. Andrew Clark. In Christiania
these rules are not strictly adhered to either by Esau or the
inhabitants of the place, for anchovy paste is not to be obtained there:
this we know, because we went into every shop in the town, and asked for
it without success. And in this supreme moment, when we were walking to
the station with only a few minutes before the train should start, he
insisted on diving into a wretched pokey little shop, which had escaped
our notice yesterday, and demanding 'anchovy paste' in a loud English
voice. The Skipper devoutly thanked Providence it could not be bought,
as he declared the smell of it alone was enough to put a man off his
breakfast, and that he had such a morbid longing for hair grease, that
he could not have prevented himself from putting it on his head.
We got our baggage safely booked, and ourselves also, after a scene of
riot that was nothing like a football match, but something like
Donnybrook fair, and at last found ourselves in a compartment with five
other passengers, all of whom had a most inconsiderate amount of luggage
with them in the carriage, while we contented ourselves with four guns,
seven fishing-rods, two axes, one spade, four hundred and fifty
cartridges, two fishing-bags, and a pair of glasses. We calculated that
we saved at least one and fourpence by taking these things with us; and
although our fellow-passengers were rather profane at first they soon
settled down, and we had time to digest the fact that we were one and
fourpence to the good. It was very warm in there; outside the
thermometer was 92° in the shade; but we survived it, and after that no
mere heat has any terrors for us.
Two of our fellow-passengers were an Englishman and his wife, who had a
maid travelling with them through to Throndhjem; and when getting the
tickets the booking clerk informed them that there were no second-class
through tickets issued, 'but,' he added, 'this will do as well,' and
handed them one first and one third through ticket, which we thought an
extremely ingenious way out of the difficulty.
A railway journey is not interesting anywhere, and less so in Norway
than other countries, as there is not even the sensation of speed to
divert your mind, and keep you excited in momentary expectation of a
smash. Uphill the pace is slow because it cannot be fast; downhill it is
slow for fear of the train running away.
There are only two trains a day, one very early, one rather late,
but timed to arrive at its destination before dark, for there is no
travelling by night. Directly darkness comes on the train is stopped,
and the passengers turned out into an hotel, where they remain to rest
till dawn. From Christiania to Eidsvold is about a three-hour journey,
and during that time the guard came to look at our tickets 425 times.
He wanted to incite us to commit a breach of the peace, or to catch us
offending against some of his by-laws, and was always appearing at a new
place; first at one door, then the other, anon peeping at us through the
hole for the lamp, and again blinking from the next carriage, through
the ice-water vessel. But we were aware of his intention, and did
nothing to annoy him, and always showed the same tickets till they were
worn out, and then we produced strawberry jam labels, which seemed to be
quite satisfactory.
We reached Eidsvold at twelve, and went aboard the steamer 'Skiblädner,'
where we found the canoes already nicely placed, lashed on the
paddle-boxes.
We had a delightful voyage up the Mjösen, on the most beautiful of
Norwegian summer days, in the best of Norwegian steamers. The Mjösen is
the largest Norwegian lake, about fifty-five miles long, and the
guide-books say it is 1,440 feet deep, but we had not time to measure
it, as we were busy admiring the scenery on the saloon table most of the
way. This steaming up the Mjösen is a very pleasant way of spending a
fine day: the shores are nowhere strikingly beautiful, but always pretty
and charming; the steamer goes fast, so that there is a sensation of
getting on and not losing time. There are intervals of mild excitement
whenever we come to a village, and take up or disembark passengers;
generally speaking they come out in boats, but occasionally we come to a
larger and more important place where there is a pier, or even a
railway, and at these the excitement is greater and the crowd quite
worthy of the name. The folks all take off their hats directly we get
within sight, and continue to do so till they fade away or sink below
the horizon; and we in the steamer all do the same. But the great
attraction is undoubtedly dinner, which is uncommonly well served in the
saloon, every luxury that can be obtained being placed before us,
concluding with wild strawberries and cream of the frothiest and most
captivating appearance.
Both on this boat and her sister the 'Kong Oscar' they take great pride
in doing things well, very much as the old mail-coaches which occupied a
parallel position in England used to do. The 'Kong Oscar' is rather the
faster boat, but we consider the captain of the 'Skiblädner' to be
lengths ahead of his rival, being a first-rate old fellow; on the other
hand, the 'Skiblädner' handmaidens are not comely, whereas they of the
'Kong Oscar' are renowned for their beauty, not only in Norway, but in
certain stately homes of England that we wot of. Esau lost his heart to
one of them two years ago, and still raves about her, though the only
way in which he endeavoured to win her affection was by sitting on a
paddle-box with his slouch hat tilted over his eyes, gazing at her with
mute admiration from a respectful distance, while she, alas! was totally
unconscious of his passion. He never told his love, because he could not
speak Norse.
We arrived at Lillehammer about eight o'clock, and went to the Victoria
Hotel, from the flat roof of which, after an excellent dinner, we
enjoyed a pipe and one of the prettiest views, in a quiet homely style
of prettiness, that any one could wish to see: just at our feet the
wooden village, with its many-coloured houses and their red roofs; then
some green slopes, and 100 feet below the vast extent of the Mjösen
lying calm and still and looking very green and deep, with the
landing-stage and deserted steamers apparently quite close below us. On
the opposite side of the lake highish hills covered with fir trees, and
to the right the river Laagen with its green waters hurrying down from
the mountains in a broad and rapid stream as far as the eye could reach.
Just across the road in front of the hotel there is a nice little stream
which turns a saw, and rejoices in a cool splashing waterfall, the
soothing sound of which refreshes us by day and night. The same torrent
can be seen higher up the mountain in a place where it makes some rather
fine falls, which only look like a long white rag fluttering amongst the
trees at this distance. This was the view we had at midnight, when it
was, apparently, no darker than immediately after sunset, and a good
deal lighter than it generally is in London at midday; the while the sky
was covered with the rich glow of colouring which can only be seen in
the Northern summer.
There were two Englishmen with us on the roof, with whom, aided by
coffee, we roamed over the greater part of the civilised and uncivilised
world--Australia, Canada, Japan, Turkey, and Ceylon, and we all agreed
that none of them can 'go one better' than a summer night in Norway.