SAILING UP THE GRON FIORD--DANGEROUS SWELL--EXCURSION
ASHORE--TROUT-FISHING--MOUNTAIN SCENERY--ANT-HILLS--
HAZARDOUS DRIVE--THE SCOTTISH EMIGRANT--MISERABLE
LODGING--CONDITION OF THE PEASANTRY--A VILLAGE
PATRIARCH--COSTUME OF THE COUNTRY-PEOPLE--ARRIVAL AT
FAEDDE.
On Wednesday, the 30th, we left Boom, having, during the ten days R----
and P---- had remained there, caught two hundred and sixty-four salmon.
On the afternoon of Wednesday, we landed at Christiansand for an hour,
to arrange a few accounts, and then sailed for the Gron Fiord.
The night was calm, and the sea smooth as a mirror. At noon the
following day, we were once more in sight of the Naze, and, signalling
for a pilot, elicited an instant answer from a solitary cottage standing
on the barren promontory. The swell was terrific; and as soon as the
pilot could contrive to scramble on board, we ran the vessel up the
lesser channel of the Gron Fiord to escape the sea. The violence of the
waves was more dangerous, as scarcely a breath of wind filled the sails;
and we were apprehensive that a huge spar like the boom swinging to and
fro, would carry away the mast by the board.
Leaving directions with D---- that the yacht should meet us in the Faedde
Fiord, R---- suggested that we should take an excursion inland. The
proposal was no sooner given than it was taken up gladly; and hiring a
mountaineer for our guide, who had jostled himself on board to see all
that he could, we started in the gig for a small village, the name of
which I forget, about sixteen miles further up the Fiord. What with
rowing, and sailing, under the favour of sudden puffs of wind which
nearly capsized us a dozen times, we came in sight of the village at
five o'clock in the afternoon. The sail thither was very beautiful; the
lofty mountains on all sides giving the Fiord the romantic calmness and
changing shadows of a beautiful lake. The water, too, so clear and
shallow, left our minds at ease when the frequent gusts of warm air
breathed heavily on our sail, and made us regard their sallies down the
different ravines rather as the cause of sport, than the effect of
mischief.
Being without a forbud, or courier, we waited for horses, as a
consequence, several hours at a post-house on the bank of the Fiord.
Time, however, did not hang heavily on our hands, R---- and P----
finding some amusement in fishing for trout in a neighbouring stream,
and I was not the less entertained by observing the rapidity with which
one fish was caught after the other. The surface of the water swarmed
with these little creatures, and the fly was no sooner thrown to them,
than they fought for the bait.
In half an hour we returned to the post-house; and three dozen trout
were, in a short time, converted into a substantial dinner. The flesh,
however, was so impregnated with the taste of turpentine, that I
relinquished the greater portion of my share to others who were more
hungry, and not so dainty. Living almost entirely on fish caught by
ourselves, I had, on former occasions, incurred the loss of my dinner
through this disagreeable flavour, but could not discover its cause
until a glass of water, taken from the Larvig River, tasted so strongly
of the fir, that, I preferred the inconveniences of thirst to the means
of its alleviation. So much timber is floated from the interior to the
towns on the sea-coast, that the rivers retain the taste of the fir, and
even take from it a particular light yellow tinge, not to be seen in
those streams that are too small and shallow for rafts or boats. Some
kinds of fish, deriving their sole sustenance from these rivers, are
consequently saturated with turpentine.
After dinner we walked up a hill, down whose rugged side ran a rapid,
murmuring brook. The Fiord, surrounded by mountains, lay beneath us,
and, far away, we could see the boat that had brought us hither,
floating, like a white feather, slowly homewards to the yacht. The
blue-bell and fox-glove were growing on every hand, and the heath throve
in luxuriance, but, flowerless, seemed to miss the golden blossoms of
the furze.
Sauntering along, we could scarcely avoid stumbling over numberless
ant-hills, of considerable size and height, raised around the trunks of
fallen firs rent in two by the violence of the winter storms, or hewn
down to be converted into charcoal. Regardless alike of the sultry
summer heat and of us, how industriously the little people worked,
running hither and thither with pieces of stick, ten times larger than
themselves, and sometimes so ponderous, that half-a-dozen of them would
put their strength together, and pull them from one corner of their
dominions to the other! I observed a sturdy mechanic, hurrying, like a
thief, along the summit of this mound, fall headlong to the very base;
but immediately recovering his senses, seized his load again, and
mounted valiantly to his former elevation.
I threw my glove in the midst of them. Their confusion and dismay were
beyond all description; but collecting their self-possession, they
returned in a mob, and seemed to view attentively the great calamity
that had befallen them. They examined it in every position, some
burrowing inside and arriving at the top of the glove through a small
hole between the thumb and the forefinger; others, apparently chemists,
clustering round the button at the wrist, and testing its properties.
Gathering in groups, they appeared to consult whether such a peculiar
substance could be converted into use, or whether the glove should be
drawn by main force, and precipitated to the sow-thistle below. Unlike
any large assemblage of men that I have ever seen, they wasted no time
in long speeches, but speedily came to a decision; and approaching the
thumb of my glove, some thirty or forty stalwart artificers took hold of
the seam that passes inside, and pulled stoutly. The glove moved. This
was not lost on the congregated thousands; for their motions appeared to
be in approval of their countrymen; and I am convinced did they wear
hats, they would have flourished them in the air, or owned voices, would
have cheered vociferously. The whole community now took part in the
removal of my glove, and in a few seconds it began to crawl pretty
evidently towards the edge of the mound.
Busily engaged as all the ants were, they did not pay much attention to
the proximity of danger, and, I am sure, even with their sagacity, did
not think of it; but bearing the common nuisance towards the boundary of
their country, they were only bent upon ejecting it summarily. The
little finger of my glove first reached the side of the ant-hill, and
falling, like a paralyzed limb, suddenly over the brink, cast some forty
excellent folks, head over heels, with rapidity and great force to the
long grass beneath. Unconscious of this accident at the other extremity,
the ants who laboured at the thumb and its environs, continued with
violent jerks to draw the glove towards its destination; and when it had
come so near the sloping edge, that the locomotive power became its own,
it slid, like an avalanche, to the bottom of the mound, drawing nearly
the entire population along with it. Never were pismires so terrified
before; nor did arrow ever swifter cleave the air, as these insects
scrambled over the blades of grass and chips of wood. The agility with
which they climbed up their pyramidical nest was perfectly astonishing;
and when the nimblest of them arrived at the top, the perfect state of
confusion which seemed to pervade the whole community, and the
continuance and fervour with which they were stopped and addressed by
those who had escaped the mishap, were the monkeyism and perplexity of
man truthful to a degree.
Late in the afternoon we started on our journey. The road at every
corner unfolded the sublimest scenery, my imagination conceiving nothing
beyond the grandeur and wild magnificence of the rugged mountains whose
castellated peaks, gray and black with time and storm, were fretted into
all combinations of pinnacle and turret raised like fortifications out
of their perpendicular, blank sides. To allay the parching heat and
sombreness of scene, the roar of falling water reached the ear, and here
and there the eyes caught sight of wooden bridges clasping an angry
torrent. Enclosed by mountains of great height, shooting abruptly into
the air, the precipices both above and beneath the narrow highway were
most frightful to contemplate, and in many places it was overhung with
immense portions of rock. We were obliged to stoop in order to avoid
striking our heads against them, and to keep the middle of the road, no
other precaution being taken to hinder a restive horse from falling into
the hideous gulf, than one or two stones piled on each other. The sharp
turn of the road, too, would appear at a distance to terminate at the
edge of a precipice; but when the spot was reached, this was found to be
mere deception, the angular corners of the road being most acute; and,
should a horse plunge in turning, or back, no human interference could
stay an instantaneous death.
A difficult descent brought us to a valley, shut in on all sides by
lofty mountains; and stopping our jaded horses by a rivulet, we had time
to observe another ascent, as steep as any we had yet encountered in
Norway. Looking along a ravine on the left hand, far as the eye could
see, the blue mountains, capped with snow, upon whose eminences rested
the brilliancy of the setting sun, were contrasted grandly with the
gloom and shadow of the nearer valley. Leaping from rock to rock, even
from the mountain's peak, cascades poured down their waters in every
direction, sparkling like columns of molten silver through the dark
green foliage of the fir and pine.
We commenced the ascent. Left to themselves, our horses exercised much
sagacity in overcoming every difficulty; for, occasionally making a
strong effort, they would gain ten or twenty yards upwards, and then,
halting of their own accord, plant their fore legs entirely under them
to recover their wind. But in spite of every indulgence, it was
disheartening to see the perspiration dripping, like a fountain, from
the flanks and stomachs of the animals, while they panted for breath.
Toiling up the acclivity, we arrived, at last, at the summit of the
mountain; and although the elevation must have been several thousand
feet above the level of the sea, a plain of great extent, inclining
slightly downwards to the north-west, and without the vestige of a
shrub, spread before us. Alighting from our carrioles, we stood on the
highest point of the mountain, and looking down the opposite side almost
perpendicularly beneath us, a beautiful lake suddenly broke upon the
view, the verdant banks of which, fringed with cottages, meandered for
many miles along a still, romantic valley. Down the sides of the
mountains that encompassed this valley, and with whose rocky heads we
had an equal altitude, hundreds of cascades were seen leaping among the
riven crags, and hid for a time from sight by the firs, would burst
again upon the eye, and roll in one large spout of foam down the
ravines, till they mingled with the sleeping waters of the lake now
thrown into deep shadow by the gigantic mountains, and ended day.
Taking up our abode for the night with a Scotsman, whose cottage we
found through the assistance of one of our skydsguts, we strove to make
ourselves as comfortable as circumstances would admit. This gentleman,
who had left his native land with the laudable motive of teaching
husbandry to the Norwegians, and with the ulterior chance of making his
fortune, discovered that the Norwegian farmers were as steadfast to the
aboriginal mode of cultivating their land, as he was ambitious of
becoming rich, and so, like a sensible man, when he found that his
agricultural scheme had failed, and retreat homewards, for want of
means, was impracticable, he wedded a Norwegian woman, and renting a
tract of land, turned farmer on his own account. All that his frugal
wife had collected for household use among these solitary mountains,
milk, eggs, and salmon, was freely offered to us; and having brought our
own tea and sugar, together with a few bottles of beer, we easily made a
wholesome meal. After we had supped, our host said that his house was
small, and his sleeping accommodation still more limited; but if we
could arrange between ourselves, as to the appropriation of one bed, and
a small sofa, he would be proud indeed to shelter us for the night.
We cast lots. R---- won the bed, and P---- the sofa. I might sleep where
I could, how I could, and when I could. However, things are so wisely
ordained in this world, even the most trivial, that I do not know
whether a man should not be as much elated with failure, as with
success. Who can tell the result of any undertaking?
At that "witching hour of night when churchyards yawn," we also had a
touch of the gaping fit, and thought of rest. The room in which we had
supped, was likewise our bed-room; and the bed and sofa, huddled cozily
in one corner of the apartment, carried comfort and enticement on their
spotless counterpanes. Joking, and suggesting all manner of plans for my
repose, R---- took off his coat, and sat down on his bed. No sooner had
he done so, than one might have thought his mattress was stuffed with
dried leaves or panes of glass, such a rustling and crackling ensued.
"By Jupiter!" exclaimed R----, starting from his seat, and clapping the
palm of his right hand to that part of his body that had caused the
hubbub; and then turning about, placed his other disengaged hand on the
bed, and said with an astonished voice and face,
"Damme, this is all straw, covered with a sheet!"
And pressing the mattress in all quarters, he seemed determined to
ascertain whether it were the fact, or, simply, the wandering of his
imagination. A piece of yellow straw, plucked from a central hole in the
sheet, was amply authenticating. P---- took the alarm; and plunging both
fists into the middle of his sofa, met with a soft composition of
juniper-leaves and common moss. A pleasant sort of foundation to sleep
upon, on a broiling summer's night, with the thermometer at 85 deg.!
However, the fun had only just commenced, and laughing heartily I made a
pillow of a couple of boat-cloaks, and wrapping myself, like a mummy,
in a white great-coat, stretched myself on the floor. The boards were
sanded, and so, when I turned, I sounded like a piece of sand-paper
scrubbing a grate. That was the extent of my inconvenience. I slept
soundly; and I may have done so for an hour, or two, when some one in a
low tone of voice called to me. It was R----.
"Well, what is it?" I said.
"Lord!" he replied, "this bed is full of bugs and fleas. What the devil
shall I do?"
"I don't know," I answered, half asleep;--"scratch yourself."
Seemingly in acquiescence with my advice, a violent scratching issued
from P----'s corner of the room; and then a heavy sigh, peculiar to a
sleeping person, succeeded. Twisting about and blowing his breath with a
puff, as people do in hot weather, or when tormented, each time R----
moved, his straw-mattress yielded to his weight with the same noise as
the skin of a roasting-pig yields to the incision of a carving-knife.
"I can't stand this any longer," at length he exclaimed, and shooting
out of bed, walked up and down the room, scratching and fuming as if he
had just escaped from an ant's nest. Infuriated by the irritation of the
flea-bites, he could not do otherwise than stumble over everything that
came in his way; and the long nails of his naked toes coming in contact
with my ear, soon set me on my head's antipodes.
"Gracious heavens!" I exclaimed, smarting with pain; "why don't you
remain in bed, instead of stalking up and down the room all night long?"
"Go and remain there yourself," retorted R----, in no happy frame of
mind. "I won't be eaten up by bugs and all kinds of beastliness, for any
one."
"Yes; but you can keep your nails to yourself," I replied; and having
great faith in the power of friction, commenced rubbing my ear.
The silentness of death succeeded, interrupted only by the long, loud
breathing of P----, and the low, melancholy howl of wolves in the
mountains.
With regrets and earnest protestations never to leave the yacht again,
R---- and I wore the night away. P---- remained impregnable to the
attacks of bugs, fleas, and mosquitoes; and while he told us, in a
sonorous language of his own, how profoundly he slept, he sometimes gave
mechanical signs of feeling by scratching obstreperously his legs and
arms, and slapping himself smartly on the face.
Early the subsequent morning we took leave of our host, and regardless
of the intense heat, made the best of our way towards Faedde. The
peasantry along the road we travelled appeared to descend in
wretchedness the farther we advanced; and nothing could exceed the
poverty exhibited in the outward appearance of their hovels. At every
station where we stopped, misery, by exterior marks, stood dominant; and
one post-house, the last before we arrived at Faedde, was divested of
every comfort, and looked more dreary than all the others we had seen.
The whole family were partaking of their scanty meal spread on a deal
table, yet smooth as marble, and brilliant as a polished sword.
Surrounded by a gang of children, some grown to maturity, men and women,
and others only infants, the poor patriarch sat pale and sickly at the
family board; and the melancholy shade that kept flitting over his
countenance, though he smiled and rose to greet us, told of some blight
that had fallen on his hopes; for he resumed his seat apart, and
crossing his thin hands on his lap, gave no other notice of his presence
than an occasional sigh, uttered deeply and involuntarily. Except the
old man, they all eat fast and greedily of a kind of white mixture, or
porridge, collected in a large wooden basin.
Leaving this place, we pursued our journey through a country intersected
by rugged mountains, whose summits, denuded of all verdure, rose high
and imposingly to Heaven, but their bases were clothed with the cheerful
birch, the fir and pine, and here and there, a little knoll of grass
shining, like an emerald, amid this wilderness of rock. Herds of cattle,
interspersed with goats and sheep, hung over the edges of the
precipices, browsing on the tufts of green food that sprouted from the
jagged crags. The road wound through narrow mountain-passes, nearly
choked up with huge fragments of rock, the parent mountains on either
hand rising perpendicularly to an enormous height; and where a ravine
yawned, as if to cheer the heart and eye saddened and wearied by the
desolate monotony of stony fell and inhospitable hill, a forest of firs
would creep, sloping, to their very summits. Far above our heads, only
the fleecy clouds breaking into a variety of forms as they moved slowly
along the mountain sides, and the raven's hoarse cry, or the shrill
scream of the eagle, broke the prevailing solitude of scene and sound.
Many of the peasants whom we encountered on the way, wore red caps and
short jackets scarcely descending below their arm-pits, covered
elaborately with small conical silver buttons; and while some of them
concluded their attire with breeches extending to the knees and there
clasped with buckles, others, more fantastic in taste, preferred the
loose trowsers of the Ottoman. Hair, prodigiously long, flowing slovenly
over the shoulders, was common to all. Hats were worn, but they may be
exceptions. A blue petticoat, blue as their beautiful sky, and a jacket
bound by a scarlet sash around the waist, and a coloured silk kerchief
wreathed about the head, its two ends projecting, like the wings of
Mercury's cap, behind each ear, appeared to constitute the ordinary
costume of the Norwegian peasant women.
On the morning of the fifth day since we had left the Gron Fiord,
driving up a steep and winding road we reached the top of a magnificent
range of mountains, and glancing over an intervening forest covered with
every variety of shade, that fir, pine, birch, and grassy glades could
afford, the eye rested on the village of Faedde, with its forty houses
and single wooden church, bosomed in a luxuriant, green valley, on the
opposite shore of the Fiord. A thousand feet beneath, on the blue water,
floated the yacht with flapping canvass, and bearing all the appearance
of having outstripped us in the journey only by a very few minutes. The
picturesque beauty of the Fiord was increased by being distinctly seen
from a commanding site, and the bold outlines of its frowning headlands
jutted one beyond the other nearly into the centre of the Fiord, till
they were mingled in colour with the distant ocean, of which a glimpse
could just be caught. The sea gulls frequenting this Fiord, flew around
us and screeched amid the universal silence which was broken by the roar
of waterfalls, concealed from sight by the dark forest, but the
sparkling stream, bursting at times upon the view, would flow a little
way in the broad daylight, then steal as suddenly again from observation
in its circuitous course.
An immense pram, larger than the launch of a frigate, and rowed by two
natives, bore us sluggishly to the cutter.