CHAPTER XVII.

THE DANGEROUS STRAITS--BRITISH SEAMANSHIP--THE GLACIERS

OF FOLGEFONDE--BERGEN--HABITS OF THE FISHERMEN--THE

SOGNE FIORD--LEERDAL--ARRIVAL AT AURON--A HOSPITABLE

HOST--ASCENDING THE MOUNTAINS--THE TWO SHEPHERDESSES

--HUNTING THE REIN-DEER--ADVENTURE ON THE MOUNTAINS

--SLAUGHTERING DEER--THE FAWN.

The time was now drawing to a close that we had purposed to spend in

Norway, because we desired to return to England and be present at the

regattas which usually take place towards the latter part of July, or

commencement of August along the southern coast of England; and

therefore it became necessary that we should move with more expedition

from place to place than we had hitherto done. A great many plans had

suggested themselves to us, and it was a wish to carry them out that had

enticed us in the first instance to Scandinavia; some we had already

fulfilled, but there were others as important in the list of pleasure

not yet realized. Moreover, our provisions, both for our personal use

and for the use of the yacht's company, were dwindling to scarcity; and

among these barren mountains no bread or meat could be bought. Bidding

farewell, therefore, to the beautiful village of Sand, and to the kind

hearts that increased its beauty, we made all sail the subsequent day

for Bergen.

Siggen, the loftiest scion of Norwegian mountains, soon towered with

conic form before and above us; and taking a shorter and different

course than the one we had previously steered, we were spectators, as we

proceeded, of the most magnificent scenery that the imagination could

conceive. We were so fortunate as to keep a fine strong wind the whole

way; and our pilot, who was an old and expert mariner, did not hesitate

to contend with the rapid currents that flow between the thousand

islands which obstruct the narrower and more unfrequented channels of

the Bukke Fiord. The cutter, too, retained her celebrity for swiftness,

and during her passage to Bergen showed her aptitude to overcome every

emergency.

There are, half way between Sand and Bergen and within sight of mighty

Siggen, two small islands of rock, disunited by a narrow channel not

three hundred yards broad, and between which the stream rushes from a

northern to a southern direction with much fleetness and force. It was

necessary to pass through this channel; and if any difficulty could have

arisen in our pilot's mind as to the efficiency of the yacht in making

good her passage to Bergen, and unwarranting his boldness in selecting a

path out of the ordinary track, it was the remembrance of this little

strait.

On Friday morning, the 16th, two days after we had left Sand, the two

islands, each with its solitary cottage belonging to some fishermen,

hove in sight. The wind blew nearly due north, and was, as sailors say,

"dead on end" for us. As the cutter came up to the islands, we saw a

fleet of Norwegian vessels at anchor, waiting a change of wind to

attempt the passage.

While the pilot and D---- held a short consultation regarding the

capabilities of the yacht, she had already glided, with the noiseless

speed of a spirit, into the midst of native brigs and Dutch barges, for

they cannot be called, ships. The beauty of the cutter, and the English

ensign streaming from the peak, combined with the strange place and

novelty of a vessel like the yacht, were quite enough to cause

conjecture and excitement among the crews of the different Norwegian and

Dutch craft, and to crowd their decks with spectators. The proud,

swan-like appearance with which the cutter sailed towards the channel,

still more moved their astonishment; and when the first eddy caught the

yacht on her weather bow and swung her to leeward, they were satisfied

of the impudent attempt we were contemplating.

Every sail of the yacht flapped, and the skilful management of the helm

alone prevented the boom from jibing. The pilot now saw that the task

was not one which the Iris would, as he had hoped, surmount with ease,

and going as far forward as he could, stood on the weather bow as if to

re-consider what he was about to undertake. Fixing his eyes long and

steadily on the swift flowing water, he appeared to think that, should

the wind fail, or the strong current bear us back, the danger was

manifest.

During the old pilot's meditation, D---- had mechanically taken his

position aft, close to the helmsman on the weather quarter. More fairly,

the cutter now started a second time, and, standing well up, promised to

fetch the very centre of the passage. The gaff-topsail shook.

"Keep her well full," said D---- to the helmsman. The man kept her half

a point more free. The current boiled, and eddied, and bubbled, as all

swift running water will do; and when again it caught the cutter's bow,

we could all feel the shock just as if she had touched a sand-bank.

"Blow, sweet breeze," said D----, half to himself, half aloud; and

casting his eyes, alternately from the flying jib and foresail to the

swelling gaff-topsail, stooped down and looked under the boom at the

land.

"Steady,--the helm," exclaimed the pilot, as he still stood to windward,

holding the bulwarks and bending slightly over the bow.

"Steady, sir," answered the helmsman.

Scarcely had the man made answer, than a puff filled every stitch of

canvass, and the cutter yielding to its pressure, leaned over and shot,

like a shaft, right into the middle of the channel.

"She'll do it now," said R---- to D----.

"She will, my Lord," replied D----, "if this puff holds ten minutes."

The wind did hold; and behaving well on this, her first tack, and edging

up in the wind's eye whenever she could get the chance, the impatient

cutter seemed willing to clear the channel on her second tack. The pilot

made much of the narrow berth, and ran close to the shore.

"I suppose the water is pretty deep here, eh?" asked R----, addressing

himself to D----.

"Oh! yes, my Lord; or the pilot would----"

"'Bout!" shouted the pilot, cutting D---- off in his reply.

"'Bout!" echoed the helmsman.

"Put the helm hard up," continued the pilot excitedly, in a louder

voice; "she mustn't shoot."

"Ay, ay, sir," again replied the helmsman, and in obedience to the reply

the cutter spun round, like a top. The noise of the sails and blocks,

while the vessel was in stays, roused the fishermen, their wives, and

children, who dwelt in the two cottages to which I have cursorily

alluded, and they gathered about the doors to look on. I heard those

hardy fishermen make some observation, for at intervals, we were not

many yards from their houses, either in derision of the cutter being

imagined competent to work through the channel, or in laudation of the

seaman-like skill with which she was managed. They called aloud each to

the other across the water, and spoke in praise or admiration; but being

in a dialect of the Norwegian language I could not tell what they said,

and how they thought. We had made a fair reach, and it was no longer

audacity to hope, that, the cutter was a match for the current. To get a

better view of the feat, some of the Dutchmen and Norwegians had mounted

the shrouds of their vessels, and appeared to take as much interest in

the trial as we did.

"'Bout!" a second time exclaimed the pilot, and turning towards the

helmsman, made a rotary motion with his hand to bring the cutter right

round at once.

"'Bout!" reiterated the helmsman, and lashed the tiller close up under

the weather quarter bulwarks. With equal adroitness, as at first, the

sails were let go and drawn aft, and our gallant vessel appeared not to

feel the resistance of the rapid tide. The wind, although foul as any

wind could be, blew steadily as any wind could blow, and the Iris, under

its favour, reluctantly though it seemed given, was in another and third

tack again in still water. The Dutch and Norwegian crews could not

resist expressing their admiration; and flourishing their caps over

their heads while standing in their rigging, they gave us three rounds

of lusty cheers. The soaring, sombre mountains took up the echoes, and

returned not cheer for cheer, but bellowed a ten-fold multiplication of

huzzas.

Since we had taken leave, we had seen no vessel to remind us of England;

and although, wherever we went, the natives would tell us some of our

countrymen were in the immediate neighbourhood, we never had the good

fortune to fall in with them. We had received no tidings, good or bad,

from home; and Europe, as far as we knew, might be in revolutionary

confusion: at Bergen, however, we hoped that letters were awaiting our

arrival.

Saturday the 17th of July, at midnight, we brought up off Bergen. It was

too late to pay much attention to any object; and after a careless view

of the town from deck, I went to bed.

The position of Bergen is similar to that of most of the other Norwegian

towns I had seen, girt on three sides with lofty, rocky mountains; and

on the fourth side by the blue waters of the Fiord. I looked on Bergen

with the liveliest interest, because its name was familiar to me when a

child, and I used to lisp the word before I could walk steadily; for in

those young days of waywardness my old schoolmistress, whose peaked nose

and malicious heart are still a vivid truth, would threaten to give me

to the fishermen at Bergen who, she said, would take and toss me into

the Maelstrom. With an eagerness akin to that of a schoolboy at

Christmas, gazing on the green curtain of a theatre, the moment it is

rising to disclose its wondrous entertainments, did I, travelling

headlong in memory from childhood to manhood and stumbling over a batch

of ancient feelings, stand looking, with strained eyes, on the

white-washed, quaint-fashioned Bergen, balancing the vicissitudes of

life and conjecturing what the chances might be, I should not, by some

agency as unaccountable as that which had brought me hither, be looking

in three months' time on the Golden shore of the Bight of Biaffir.

South-east of Bergen, twenty miles from the deck on which I stand,

blazing with dazzling splendour in the mid-day sun, the glaciers of

Folgefonde fall upon my sight; and raising its summit six thousand feet

to heaven, the stupendous range of mountain with its field of ice, forty

miles in length and twenty in breadth, braves with eternal snow the

tropic fury of this northern noon.

Surrounded as Bergen is by mountains of solid rock which, at a little

distance, appear completely black, some of the buildings painted green,

and others white, with their uniform roofs of red tiles, have a very

singular effect. The houses reared, with much order, on piles near the

water, are also neatly constructed of wood; and their bright colours

are not permitted to become tarnished by exposure to the weather, but

may contend with Holland in cleanliness and the freshness of their

paint. This first favourable glance from the deck of the yacht was not

altered when I had found myself in the streets. The inhabitants seemed a

lively, talkative set, and accustomed to mix with foreigners, for they

paid less attention to us than their countrymen and women in the other

towns we had visited.

The most important export trade of Bergen consists of timber and salt

fish, which are sent to the Mediterranean and Holland. The stench

arising from the fish, which is packed in great heaps on the eastern

quay of the harbour, is insuperable; and I leave the reader's

imagination to reach that height of misery when an unfortunate

sight-seeker and traveller like myself, loses his way, at broiling noon,

in the vicinity of this market, the thermometer being at 90 deg., and the

ling fish at perfection. How the old fishwomen, the natural guardians of

this northern frankincense, chatter and squabble! With their blue

petticoats tucked up above their knees, how they pick off the stray

pieces of raw haddock, or cod, and, with creaking jaws, chew them; and

while they ruminate, bask their own flabby carcasses in the sun! With

the dried tail of a herring sticking out of their saffron-coloured,

shrivelled chops, Lord! how they gaped when I passed by, hurriedly, like

a scared cat!

Being pressed for time, as I have hinted before, we did not waste much

at Bergen for the present, promising ourselves a longer sojourn when we

returned from the Sogne Fiord, for thither were we bound. The primary

object that sent us up the Sogne Fiord was, certainly, a little more

salmon-fishing; but rein-deer stalking had taken a tender hold of

R----'s game side. At Leerdal, a town at the farthest extremity of the

Sogne Fiord, and nearly one hundred miles to the north of Bergen, my two

friends had heard flowed a wonderful salmon river; and they relied with

confidence on the great chances of brilliant success since the stream

was so far removed from the path of common travellers. To the northward,

too, of Leerdal was Auron, a spot held in repute for the herds of

rein-deer that frequent the mountains there; and failing in salmon, my

companions might fall to venison. Replenishing, therefore, our exhausted

provisions, we secured on Monday evening the services of two pilots; and

on Tuesday morning, the 20th, we set sail for Leerdal. The whole of that

day was calm; and being on a cruise of much novelty and anticipated

sport, this lukewarmness of the wind touched our patience very severely.

On any other occasion we should not have observed its indifference; but

now we fretted, and expressed our annoyance in clamorous and bitter

terms. Towards evening the cutter drifted among a fleet of

fishing-boats; and it was no little entertainment to see the rapidity

with which the fishermen drew net after net, and the shoals of fish they

caught. Flocks of gulls hovered over the boats, and screamed; and

sometimes darted down, and bore away the fish in their beaks. We

purchased some very large fish, which were not cod, but very like them;

and satisfied with their great likeness to that favourite fish, we ate

them with greediness; but the heads being of an abominable bull-dog

shape, the cook was ordered to decapitate, before committing them to the

pot.

On Wednesday morning we entered the Sogne Fiord. It would be tedious to

dwell on the magnificence, beauty, and silence of this Fiord; because it

would only become a repetition of what I have already attempted to

describe as native to the other Fiords. There can be no softer, and more

soul-stirring scenery in the world than its small, rare, green valleys,

and barren mountains.

This evening, towards sunset, the cutter being becalmed, I went ashore

in one of the boats with two men, in search of milk; and making the boat

fast to a piece of rock, we walked to the top of a neighbouring hill to

look for some signs of a human habitation; but only the waters of the

Fiord could be seen at our feet, and the yacht, with a cloud of white

canvass, floating on its still surface. No sound,--not a bird's note,

nor the cry of animals, fell on the listening ear; save, occasionally,

the loud roar and splash of the rocks as they were loosened from the

mountains' sides, and rolled down into the water. Wandering about for

some time, struck with the sublime, solemn aspect of the mountains and

their level summits of endless snow, we found a goat tied with a string

to a stake; and taking that as a token of the near abode of human

beings, we strove to find some track through the long grass that might

lead us to a cottage. One of the sailors climbed up a tree, and veering

his body about in all quarters, like a bear on the top of a pole, came

down again, and said, that he saw smoke curling upwards from the middle

of a fir forest to the south-east. I had a small pocket-compass, and to

the south-east, therefore, we went; and after stumbling over fallen

rocks, and pulling each other up and down a variety of ravines,

differing in depth and ruggedness, we succeeded in arriving at last

before a very neat and comfortable cottage. An old woman, clean in dress

and comely in her person, came to the door, having, on either side of

her, two youths evidently her sons, for their features bore a strong

resemblance to her own; and between the lad on her right hand, and the

dame's black gown, a large dog, mongrel in his breed, thrust his

inquisitive nose. Out of the four windows, which I attributed to the

bed-rooms, the heads of four girls popped. Three half-naked savages, or

the Graces, could not have caused more excitement in the streets of

London, than we did to the amiable inmates of this lonely cottage; for I

do not suppose there was another house, or hovel, within twenty miles.

King, who had come with us, endeavoured to explain the object of our

visit by a request, made in the Norwegian language, for milk, and by

holding up the empty jug; but the old woman shook her head, and glancing

at the two lads, they shook their heads, and the four girls above shook

their heads too, but with the quick perception of drollery common to

their sex,--they laughed. King made a step or two nearer to the cottage

door to explain himself more distinctly; but the old lady retrograded in

the same proportion as King advanced, her two sons following her

example, and, likewise, the dog growling most gutturally.

"They don't understand you," I said to King.

"Oh! yes, Sir, they do," he replied; "but they can't make us out, and

are afraid."

"The girls ain't afraid, your Honour," observed the good-humoured

cockswain, who was the other sailor, beside King, with me, and had been

coquetting already with the four lasses. We beckoned to them to come

down, and one immediately withdrew her head, and the next moment peeped

over the old woman's shoulder. She seemed inclined to speak with us,

but the old hag would not permit such conduct: and the more earnestly

King notified our pacific errand, the more belligerent the ancient

mother thought it.

We were obliged to return without the milk; but I am sure, if the eldest

girl had been allowed to use her own discretion, she would have supplied

our wants; for when we had gone some distance from the cottage, I looked

back and saw her standing at the door; and kissing my hand to her, she

returned the salute readily.

I thought the old woman inhospitable, to say nothing of inhuman; for

among these solitary mountains we might have lost our way, for aught she

knew, and our wants exceeded a pint of milk. This is not, however, the

general character of the Norwegians, for they are tender-hearted, kind,

and generous to strangers; but fear had superseded the sympathy of the

old lady's expansive heart; and had men of riper years than her sons

been present, we should not have met with so much inattention to our

necessities. Even the girl, young though she was, desired to administer

to our need; but sweetness of manner, simplicity, tenderness, and noble

generosity are unchanging types of the youthful female character in

every quarter of the earth.

When I got on board again, R---- and P---- were amusing themselves by

firing, one by one, at all the empty soda-water bottles that the

steward could find. The bottles were slung to an oar which was stuck

upright in the taffrail aft; and placing themselves close to the

windlass, my two associates secured a range of some forty or fifty feet

along the deck. Now and then a grampus would divert their attention; and

every time the fish rose, a bullet was lodged, or attempted to be

lodged, in his huge dorsal fin. In this way the greater portion of the

time was passed, altered only by rowing about in the gig, and seeking

for wild ducks among the crevices of the rocks. But the farther we

sailed into the interior of the Fiord, the more bereft of animal and

vegetable life the country appeared to become; the scream of the eagle,

and the report of the rocks as they split asunder and bounded down the

mountains, being the only sounds that varied the silent monotony.

Sometimes the swivels were fired for the sake of listening to the

echoes, which, by their prolonged reverberations, repaid us well for the

lard we consumed in greasing the muzzles; a salute of nineteen or twenty

guns, fired at intervals of fifteen or seventeen seconds, creating the

most astonishing uproar; and what with the shrill screams of the eagles,

the consternation of wild geese, and the falling of the rocks caused by

the violent motion of the atmosphere, the powder and tow were profitably

expended by the novel entertainment they produced. This amusement, I

must intimate, was a favourite one with all on board, not omitting even

Jacko; and whenever the yacht became land-locked, I could always hear

the distinguishing order,

"Load the swivels!"

If it were not for the wild grandeur of the scenery, the sail among

these Fiords would be most tedious, unchanging, as they are, by

indications of human abode.

On Friday morning, at twelve, we arrived at Leerdal; and considered

ourselves most fortunate in taking only four days to drift from Bergen;

for beyond the eddying air that breathed down the valleys, no other

agency had propelled the vessel nearly one hundred miles.

Here we met a young Englishman who had travelled, for pleasure, over

land from Christiania; and although he could not speak two Norwegian

words, had contrived, by some unaccountable method, to supply all his

wants without difficulty. He was on his way to Bergen; and giving him

all the information he begged of us, we parted company, exchanging

mutual desires to meet again. Finding this place most desolate, we left

it, and the cutter was got under weigh the next morning, Saturday, for

Auron, a small town not many leagues farther up the Sogne Fiord, and

receiving from both our pilots the reputation of greater liveliness and

importance. Early the following morning we came within sight of Auron,

and went ashore before the anchor was dropped.

Auron, like all the Norwegian villages that are found, at rare

intervals, among the Fiords, is situated in a valley that rises gently

from the shore of the Fiord, and hastens in a steep ascent till it

aspires, south, east, and west, into high mountains, and inaccessible

cliffs. This hamlet of Auron was the most pleasantly situated of any

that we had seen; and the romantic beauty of the scenery was not more

perfect than the unanimity that seemed to animate the whole village. The

yellow ears of corn had invited men, women, children, and dogs to gather

them for winter store; and dispersed over a large field that sloped

along the valley to a considerable height up the mountains, this

universal family, inclusive of the dogs, was at its work. The arrival,

however, of three Englishmen with a retinue of some fifteen English

tars, strange-looking fellows! at their backs, was a circumstance not

likely to pass off in silence, or without due attention; and the

intelligence sounded by the tongues of several ragged urchins,

frolicking on the beach of the Fiord, was communicated to a lazy cur

that set up a continuous howl, and his noisy throat spread the news to

the diligent folk among the corn. In a short time we were naturally

hemmed about by a throng of both sexes, human and canine, curious to

learn the reason of our coming to Auron. The gestures of these people

were so energetic, and their voices so low, that, had I not known both

by history and my own observation, the Norwegians were not cannibals, I

should assuredly have been led away by the idea they were devising some

scheme to murder and eat us. Their behaviour, though respectful,

appeared so suspicious, that I was not at first without fear; but being

the slightest made and thinnest of the three, and my two friends being

ruddy and plump, I consoled myself by knowing that their previous

immolation would be timely warning enough for me to make good my escape.

While these useful reflections were putting me on my guard, a little,

spare, grey-eyed, high-cheekboned, long-headed man, forced his way

through the crowd, and tottering into the central space occupied by

ourselves, took off his felt hat, and making a profound obeisance

remained, with extreme courtesy, uncovered; but said nothing.

King was ordered to ask the man what the nature of his visit was, and to

tell him the object of ours. A few curt questions and answers made us

understand, that he was the very person of all that lived in Auron whose

acquaintance we most desired. The little man was lord of five hundred

rein-deer, and sole proprietor of the salmon river of which we had come

so far in search. The intelligent eyes of the Norwegian sparkled with

satisfaction, when he replaced his hat on his head, and shook hands

heartily with us all. The multitude who had given attentive ear to the

dialogue between King and their countryman, appeared pleased with the

immediate familiarity that sprung up between the Norwegian and

ourselves, and showed their cordial acquiescence by shaking us also by

the hand. Hurrying through the villagers our new friend led us with

triumphant strides and a vivacious air towards his cottage, and calling

forth his wife, bade her salute us, which she did with that modest and

simple demeanour common to her countrywomen. Gratified that he had so

far conduced, as he imagined, to our comfort, the Norwegian would insist

on our entering his house; and conducting us, by a steep and narrow

stair, to an upper room, the windows of which overlooked a small garden

filled with currant bushes, brought us, in due lapse of time, every

dainty that his larder or the thriftiness of his wife could give.

Although we were not hungry, we were too sensible of a hospitable man's

feelings to give offence by saying we had just breakfasted, but

attacking the different mountain delicacies, such as dried venison, and

broiled capercaillie, we actually devoured all that had been placed

before us, and did not decline a succession of native cheeses. These

latter dainties were, however, rather too much perfumed and animated for

me, and I left their entire consumption to the more fashionable taste of

my companions. After this slight repast, we then told our host,

definitively, the plans we wished to carry out by wending our way to

Auron; and that he would confer the greatest favour on us if he could

secure us a day's sport on the mountains. Our host replied, that he was

himself a proprietor of several hundred rein-deer; but his consent that

we should disturb the peacefulness of the whole herd, by firing at a

deer belonging to him, was not alone to be obtained. He informed us,

that the rein-deer were the original cattle of the country; and the

primitive usages adopted with regard to these animals by the old

inhabitants of Norway were still persisted in by their descendants.

"On the tops of these mountains," he said in Norwegian, and, I am

afraid, I translate his beautiful language but indifferently, "many

hundred rein-deer are wandering; and though a great many belong to me, I

cannot give you leave to shoot one of them, without the consent of those

by whom the remaining deer are owned; for all the deer herd together,

and they are only known to belong to different persons by the marks

made, at birth, on their skin. Mine have two slits on the right ear.

These distinguishing marks, which separate my deer from those claimed by

the neighbouring farmers, are so slight, that, they could not be

ascertained at a distance; and in taking aim with your rifles, you might

miss my deer and destroy the property of another man. You must be so

placed, that, you may kill, indifferently, any deer that comes within

shot; and for that purpose I must seek the assent of my friends. If,

however, you will go to the mountains with me to-day, you shall see the

herds, and to-morrow I will send round to my friends; to-day it is

hopeless to think of communicating with my neighbours, for they live so

far;--the night would come before my task was finished."

We hesitated for some time whether we should undergo the fatigue of

travelling over such declivitous mountains without any palpable reward.

"You hesitate," the Norwegian observed, smiling; "but you will not be

sorry when you stand up there."

And he pointed to the high peaks of the mountains that soared half-way

up to the clear, blue firmament.

"Let us not go unarmed," he continued, "for there are wolves and bears;

and the nightly destruction of our flocks gives us need of men who love

the chase like you. I, myself, will bear you company. Come, let us go."

The intimation that bears and wolves congregated on the level lands

above was quite sufficient to decide our wavering mood; and ordering the

crew to return with the gig to the yacht, and bring our rifles, we wiled

away the intermediate time by sitting at a window that opened upon the

waters of the Fiord, and afforded us a splendid view of the limitless

range of mountains on the opposite shore, called the Reenfjeld.

The morning was sometimes bright and clear, and sometimes the sky was

dimmed by large, dark, solid masses of clouds. It was very beautiful to

see the mountains glittering with their white summits in the strong

sunlight, while their bases were blackened with a shower of rain. These

showers were partial, and all things around so still, that we could hear

the rain drops pattering among the leaves of the trees that grew on the

sides of the mountains two miles from the spot where we sat rejoicing in

the warmth and cheerfulness of a summer's sun.

At eleven o'clock the boat returned with rifles, and powder enough to

blow up the village of Auron. Our host, who had disappeared for some

little time, now came back decked out like a chamois-hunter. His hat had

been exchanged for a red cap that fitted exactly to his skull, and a

velvet jacket buttoned up to his throat, defined a tolerable expanse of

chest. Across his back, from the right shoulder towards the left heel,

his trusty gun was slung, muzzle downwards. A leathern belt went

entirely round his waist, and pressing a brace of horse-pistols and a

wonderfully large knife to his left hip-bone, was clasped in front with

an embossed silver buckle. A red handkerchief, spotted white, hung by a

knowing loop from the right arm, contained provender and a flask of

liquor for the inward man. This last piece of accoutrement had the

evident impress of a woman's clear-sightedness; for while our friend

fortified the outward walls of his person with guns, pistols, and

knives, his wife, knowing how useless all these preparations were

without suitable attention to the repletion of the cisterns and stores

of the citadel, had suggested, with affectionate devotion no doubt, this

trifling bundle as being necessary to the conquest of present labour and

future danger. The very knot bore the combined neatness and strength of

female ingenuity, and its complication looked endless as conjugal love.

The Norwegian, our three selves, and King, formed the whole party. Our

ascent of the mountain, I need scarcely say, put the sinews of our

thighs to a severe test; and the higher we mounted, the more frequent

were the expressions of fatigue. When we had clambered a quarter of the

way, we came suddenly upon two sheds built of wood, and appropriated to

the use of a little girl and half a hundred pigs. I do not know whether

the swine squeaked their surprise more at seeing us, than the cheerless

child looked it. King, who had been ailing occasionally for some days,

now fell to the rear, and said, that, he was incompetent to proceed any

farther, and the permission to descend, which he solicited, was granted.

All larger vegetation now began gradually to disappear, and though I had

hardly marked the trees dwindling from the cherry to the filbert, and

then to long tufts of grass, the bare rocks strewed over an endless

tract of gravel made me stop and look about. When I cast my eyes above,

the mountains still towered half a mile higher, and gazing downwards I

could see the different kinds of trees and shrubs changing in size and

colour of their foliage, as the space between me and the low lands

increased. I do not remember that I had ever exceeded in elevation the

point to which I had now risen; and perhaps the appearance of the

valleys, the water, and habitations of men might have been more novel

than to persons who are accustomed to crawl to the tops of mountains. I

must confess I remained perfectly lost in thought for some minutes; nor

did I ever feel, or could imagine so distinctly, how the stupendous and

neglected works of creation are blended with the truest beauty; for,

seen from the very mountains on which I stood, so rough, so barren, so

bleak, the same rugged, straggling rocks, scattered over the opposite

mountain, seemed soft as velvet and more delicate than the finished

lines of a miniature.

Beneath the dark, blue surface of the Fiord I could discover shoals and

rocks for which the mariner had sought in vain, and for many miles along

the shore the shelving land showed, with a faint yellow tinge, the

distance it stretched under the water that was otherwise of a deep azure

shade. When from the deeply-dyed cerulean water, the valley with its

different green colours of tree and grass, and the red tints of the

atmosphere that rested round the sides of the remoter mountains, I

lifted my eyes to the fields of snow that extended, to an incalculable

extent, over the flat summit of the Reenfjeld, the contrast was so

forcible, that while I gazed my very soul seemed to bound with delight

it had discovered Sublimity was something material, and not an ideal

torture.

"Hollo! Bill, keep moving," was shouted in a loud voice from some rocks

above my head, and seriously interfered with any further contemplation.

"Here's a fox," continued the same voice, sustaining its sharp, resonant

tone; "come, and smell him!"

Though fond of giving reins to the imagination, I am as matter of fact

as most people when necessity requires it; nor do I yield to any man the

estimation at which I hold the odorous Reynard. Tucking my feet well

into the shingly mountain side, and bringing the point of equilibrium,

as nearly as possible, to an angle of twenty-five degrees, I scrambled

towards R----, and P----, and the Norwegian. They were all three on

their knees peering into a hole that Reynard had intended should be

round; but having forgotten, or never heard of Euclid, had dug it

frightfully oblong. It must have hurt his back to go in and out. We

shouted, and rummaged the premises very disgracefully, and if Reynard

were at home, I need not state the opinion I entertain of his courage;

for apathetic as I am, no one, not Goliath himself, should have

ransacked my house with the impunity we poked long sticks, and threw

acute-sided stones into the recesses of the Fox's residence. I ventured

to assure my companions that Reynard was abroad, and accepting my hint,

they partially jammed up the mouth of the cave with the fragments of an

old hat, and rising from their knees, left Reynard to find out who had

meddled with his lodging.

I have heard say, that mariners, returning home from India, may smell,

for many leagues off the Island of Madagascar, the sweet odour of

countless spices; but I must do this fox the fairness to state, that if

he were exiled to the Island of Madagascar, those latitudes would soon

excite in the minds of all keen-scented sailors the idea of an

interesting expedition to discover the variation of smell.

Passing that portion of the mountain where the hardiest plants had

ceased to grow, we arrived at those high regions abounding with the

rein-deer moss, and struggling with the severity of the cold temperature

the wild strawberry put forth its small, red fruit. The rein-deer moss

being purely white, like hoar frost, the scarlet colour of the

strawberry mingling thickly with it, conveyed pleasure to the eye, and a

feeling of delicacy to the mind. Our path did not become less irksome

now we had left the gravel behind, for the moss yielded with its

softness so much to the feet, that it sometimes covered our ankles; but

panting with desire to ascend the supreme brow of the mountain, fatigue

succumbed to the resuscitation of spiritual vigour.

Standing on a solitary patch of snow that spread over the highest point

of the mountain we found ourselves on a level plain with the lofty chain

of the Reenfjeld, separated from us by a gulf of fifteen miles, at the

bottom of which flowed the Sogne Fiord diminished in its wide expanse to

a river, and darkened to the sable dye of ebony by the intersecting

shadows of numerous mountains. The general character of the Norwegian

mountains being perfectly flat on the top, the distance seen where we

stood was very great; and the table-land assumed more solemn grandeur,

free as it almost was from glaciers, since, with livelier relief, the

peaks that cleaved the air shone brilliantly with their snowy hoods; and

over an infinite extent of country, diversifying no other verdure with

that of the tawny moss, these peaks, rising numberlessly, one over the

other, seemed like conical loaves of white sugar placed on an enormous

sheet of brown paper.

Taking up a handful of snow, we jestingly alluded to the occupation of

our cockney friends at the same moment, and saw them, in fancy, tricked

out with the Gallic finery of kid gloves and nankeen trowsers,

strutting through the crowded thoroughfares of Regent Street, or ambling

in Rotten Row.

"Yes, by George!" observed R----, who had been silently scraping the

snow together, and levelling it with his foot again, "I remember the

time when, about this hour of the day, and season of the year, then

somewhat younger than I am now, I used to look at men who talked of

anything else but balls, operas, and Hyde Park, as so many marvels of

imbecility; but now their good sense and just estimation of life oppress

me with the recollection of that lost portion of my own youth passed in

all the puppyism of fashion."

"Ay," I replied, "there is one consolation in growing old, we grow wiser

in our wickedness."

"Well, and if men are, de natura, depraved," continued R----, "and

possess virtue and vice only in proportional masses to the size of the

brain and body, they can surely exhibit a pound or two of wisdom to

eighteen stone of folly; and if they must be asinine, may cover their

actions with a little good sense."

"They may, truly," I said; "but remember your head has not grown a

particle larger since the Spring of 1844, nor your body less; but had

the same idea of Ethics been then presented to you, you would certainly

not have seen its lucidity."

R---- was about to retort, and I do not know how much longer we should

have endangered the moral existence of the young dandies at home, had

not P----, already at a distance from us, called out with the impatience

of a huntsman,

"Are you fellows coming on to-day?"

In a few seconds we overtook P---- and the Norwegian, and they proposed

that we should descend till we came to a valley, which the Norwegian

pointed out at a considerable way beneath us, and there it was thought

we should find a herd of deer. Remaining stationary while we spoke, a

space of fifty miles, partly mountain, and partly valley, lay above and

below us, and glancing the eye from end to end of this immense tract,

not a hut of any kind could be seen; but, faintly, the tinkling of bells

attached to the necks of sheep, or cattle, could be heard, and that only

when the feeble puffs of wind blew from a certain direction. We wandered

for many miles over the desolate mountains, and found no signs by which

we might be guided to the animals that we sought. Hour after hour

elapsed, and the day began to wane; but no tracks, not even the print of

their hooves on the muddy banks of the small lakes that abounded

everywhere, pointed the path the deer had taken. We reached, at last,

towards sunset, a valley that, virent by the multitude and variety of

its trees, changed the dreary similarity pervading all things; and a few

sheep, that bleated loudly when they saw us, led us to hope we had come

again within the line of animal existence. The Norwegian, our guide,

however, said that no one lived in this valley, but in an adjoining

vale, he thought, some cowherds dwelt.

"What are all these sheep here for?" I asked.

"They are driven here," the man replied, "for food; since in the lower

lands the grass is parched by heat."

"Who takes care of them, then?" again I asked.

"No one," answered the guide. "They will remain among these mountains

all the summer; and when the winter returns, they will be taken home,

and folded at Auron."

While the Norwegian was still addressing these sentences to me, we had

crossed the rivulet that gurgled through the valley, and commenced our

ascending zigzag way. The skins and bones of sheep destroyed by the

wolves that infest these mountains were scattered on every hand, and the

foot-marks of these furious brutes and bears were plainly

distinguishable on those parts of the soil moistened by the snow-water,

and not covered with moss. Our flagging spirits were roused when we

remembered that it might so chance we fell in with one of these animals;

but our guide did not add encouragement to our ardour, and told us how

the improbability of encountering wolves was strong, since they never

left their hiding-places in the forests until night.

"At any rate," he said, "we shall, a long while hear, before we see,

them; for they howl like devils. I assure you, you may be bold before

they arrive; but I have known many a courageous man grow timid when he

has heard the moaning, melancholy signal of their approach. Besides, I

suppose you know, wolves never go forth to feed singly; but issue,

prepared for mischief, from the caverns and glens in herds of fourteen

or twenty."

"Yes," observed either R---- or P----, "but we are a fair match for

twenty wolves."

"I am not so sure of that," answered the Norwegian, smiling with great

good humour. "Wolves in this country are not afraid of a man. No, sir,

they will attack two, or three men, and will overcome them. Many a one

has come to these mountains, and never left them again."

This is the kind of news that brave men like to hear; and as the

countenances of R---- and P---- did not blanch, but rather beamed with

gratification, as a ray of light will flash through divided dark clouds,

I am quite at liberty to state that they are gallant fellows; and I

could almost say it would take a great many more wolves than the

Norwegian nation can count to intimidate either of them. But since I

have not yet commenced the historical physiology of their courageous

hearts, I will not mar what I am arranging, methodically, in my head,

by slight allusions, or apologues that are ill wrought. The Norwegian,

by making these fearful intimations, had, doubtless, some object in

view; and sharing with a dutiful spouse the blessings of domestic life,

desired not to risk the protection of Heaven in a conflict with

predacious animals. But this is mere supposition; for the Norwegian

people are valiant in soul, as they are indefatigable in body, warm and

friendly of heart; yet I may conjecture; for our guide either spoke

fervently, having his own interest in sight, or felt deeply for our

preservation, which, he fancied, we would throw away with mad boldness

should an opportunity occur. On this occasion there was no visible

distinction between selfishness and philanthropy, or a disinterested

will to fight, or run with us.

On the top of the hill we rested, and looked down on the other valley

where we hoped to find some cottages; for, whatever the Norwegian might

have done to recruit his strength, we had neither eaten nor drank since

we left Auron. The hill on which we stopped was without vegetation of

any sort, except moss; but trees in great abundance grew in the valley;

and one small hut, partially concealed by three pines, showed its dun

roof of fir branches lying quietly below, like a dove in its nest; and

hard by the door, down in the centre of the valley enlivened and

refreshed as the meadows we had left behind, ran a brook that foamed

and sought its difficult way with noisy tongue. Thirsty and hungry we

wandered on towards the hut; but when we came near to it, we found no

other living animals but pigs and sheep likely to hold communion with

us. Our guide, conversant with the customs of his country, thought that

the cottagers might be slumbering, and tapped loudly with his fist and

the butt of his pistol; but no answer was returned. On the ground, near

the sill, had fallen an instrument, similar in outward form to the

classic Cornucopiae, about five feet in length, and which appeared to be

cut from some tree and made hollow by the pith being scooped out. The

Norwegian taking it from the ground and applying the smaller end to his

mouth, blew in it, and produced a blast that rang through the valley

from one extremity to the other, and rattled among the rocks of the

mountains. He bade us be still and listen; and the faint, distant,

long-sustained cry of a human voice gave a responsive halloo; and here

and there, from the farthest recesses of the fir forests, the lowing of

cattle could be perceived indistinctly. All was soon again as silent as

the scene was solitary. To our inquiries for what purpose this curious

trumpet was intended, the Norwegian made reply:----

"This is an instrument used by shepherds to call their flocks together;

and I have only to persist in blowing it to collect all the cows, that

graze in these mountains, about me. Did you not hear the cattle this

minute? The wolves also, and bears, and other predatory animals, do not

like its note; and when they hear it, will crouch to the ground and hide

themselves."

Issuing from the firs that formed a forest at the lower part of the

valley, two girls hurried towards us; and running and walking by turns,

they made haste to the cottage near which we stood.

"Who lives here?" I said, pointing to the miserable building.

"Those two girls," answered the Norwegian.

"Alone?" I asked.

"Yes, alone," replied the guide; "but they will go away when the winter

comes, for then the cattle are removed. It is only the months of summer

that they pass up here, to take care of these pigs, and sheep, and

cows."

"Only the months of summer," I thought; but by this time the two girls

had reached the cottage; and I could not help regarding them with some

little interest. The eldest was not more than eighteen, the youngest

four years less; and they possessed the simplicity and shyness of manner

such children of the mountain might be supposed naturally to imbibe from

the mode of life they led, and the desolation which surrounded them.

They wore no covering to the feet or head, and their arms and shoulders

were equally bare; and though naturally of a very fair complexion, their

faces had, by constant exposure to the sun, been tanned; but, lo! when

they smiled, their coral lips, curved like the bow that shot the arrow

through the heart of Psyche, parted to show a row of teeth as smooth and

pure as the snows of Siggen.

The pigs, that were lately digging up the soil by hundreds, trotted

towards these girls yet breathing heavily from the speed with which they

had run, and looking up in their faces, grunted and squeaked without any

apparent cause; and some of these swine told their wants, or affection,

with such painful shrillness, that it was almost impossible to make

ourselves heard.

Opening the cottage door with a wooden key, the eldest girl led us into

a small room appropriated as a dairy, in which were eight or ten large

basins of wood filled with milk, in the various gradations of

decomposition from its natural sweet state to that of acidity, until it

took the solidity of cream cheese. I do not know that the Norwegians

have any precise system of making cheese by churning; but from what I

saw, and I am now only speaking of the poorer peasantry, I believe that

the milk, from the moment that it is drawn from the cow is placed in

these deal basins, whence the cream is skimmed and committed to a

separate bowl, where it remains till it becomes sour, and after resting

undisturbed for a few days, thickens to a vile firm substance, the

natives call cheese. The Norwegians do not drink fresh milk, but use it,

even for household purposes, when quite sour; and plentiful as milk was,

we found much difficulty in procuring any, the most trifling quantity,

fit for our English tastes. We were so fortunate as to find one basin

that contained some fresh milk, of which we drank plentifully; but our

guide swallowed quart after quart of all the acid stuff he could smell

out; for he would not taste before he had applied his nose to each

basin.

There were only two apartments in this cottage, and both without floors,

or windows. In one corner of the dairy, which was not eight feet square,

a few planks of fir formed a bedstead over which were tumbled one or two

torn and dirty blankets. Three large stones, arranged angularly on the

dank earth, answered the purpose of a grate, for half burned sticks and

cinders were scattered about; and immediately over head, a large hole in

the roof admitted the rain and cold wind, while it might, and was

intended to let out the smoke. Poverty and discomfort seemed to wrestle

with each other which should torment these two girls the most. And yet

they looked glad and contented, and said they were so, and laughed

heartily at our discomposure when we went from pan to pan, and found

the milk sour, or half hardened to a jelly. They could hardly be

persuaded to receive any compensation for the milk we and the Norwegian

had consumed; and both of these girls shook hands with us, and thanked

us continually in grateful idioms for sixteen skillings, a sum of money

worth five pence sterling. They answered to the solicitous questions of

our guide, that a herd of three hundred rein-deer had passed through the

valley two days before, and believed they had gone towards a large lake

ten miles to the eastward.

The sun had now set, and no place of rest could be found among these

mountains, unless we chose to risk the danger of sleeping in the open

air under some tree. It was, therefore, necessary to delay as little as

possible, and we took leave of the two peasant girls. They came forward

with the most unaffected simplicity, and shaking us again by the hand,

wished us a pleasant journey. It seemed almost heartless to leave two

girls, so young and unprotected, in such a wilderness, many miles from

any human dwelling, surrounded everywhere by wolves and bears; and the

smile of perfect contentment and cheerful resignation to the dreary lot

attributed to them, made me feel the more sensibly for their isolated

condition. But it is the condition allotted to women by the usages of

Norway; and while the young men remain in the low lands to cultivate

the soil and gather the corn, the females are banished to the mountains

to tend the flocks. Sometimes, among the most distant and unfrequented

mountains, a hut, like this, may be met with, inhabited by a single

girl; and holding no communication with her fellow creatures she drags

on the bright time of summer in the profoundest solitude, quite

regardless, apparently, of the bereavement of all social intercourse, or

of the horrible death that may overtake her by the hunger and ferocity

of wild beasts.

We now travelled with more briskness, not only lured by the chance of

coming up with the herd of rein-deer, but pursued by the moss-grown

phantom of a mountain couch. An endless forest of firs lay on our right

hand, and the nearer we approached it, the more clearly we could hear

the howl of wolves; and whenever we reached an elevated mound of ground

we thought to see a troop of them galloping forth to their nightly

depredations. Mountainous ridge after ridge we climbed, but along the

wide expanse our eyes could alight on no lake; and only through a chasm,

far away between two mountains, the lead-coloured water of the Sogne

Fiord momentarily deceived the sight. The guide kept his place in front

and led the way, bounding from valley to mountain-top like a spirit of

Indian rubber; and unwearied in his tongue as he seemed in body, he

continued shouting, cheerily, in a strange, drawling chant,

"Salt, h-o-o-o! salt, h-o-o-o! salt, h-o-o-o!"

"Salt" in the Norwegian language signifies salt, as it does in ours; but

the vowel has a soft pronunciation. The rein-deer are very fond of salt,

and the wildest of them will follow a person, who holds some salt in his

hand, for miles together. To put salt on a bird's tail, and catch it,

may be an English piece of jocularity; but the Norwegian would be

puzzled to think why we should attach a joke to such an act; and to

prove to an Englishman the inaptitude of the proverb, the Norseman will

go forth with his handful of salt, and take, not his covey of sparrows,

for his country has none; but a fine fat buck.

As the evening advanced, the light wind, that had made the heat of the

day tolerable, now lulled; but mute as the long blades of grass were,

the breath of night, when it moved the hair gently from our brows to

cool our faces, whispered in our ears the warning sound of the tramp and

unceasing howl of a hundred wolves. Regardless of all danger, be it far

or near, the Norwegian still claimed the van, and dipped his hand with

frequency in the little bag of salt that dangled at his girdle, chanting

as he went,

"Salt, h-o-o-o! salt, h-o-o-o! salt, h-o-o-o!"

The deer came not; though the lonely hills took up the words, and passed

them from vale to vale.

"We shall never reach home to-night," said R---- to me, as we toiled up

the side of the hill overgrown with moss.

"I am afraid not," I answered; "and for my own comfort I don't care. If

we made a fire we could sleep as safely up here as on board. However,

let's consult when we get to the top."

"Yes; it takes the whole of one's breath," observed R----, "to scramble

over this moss."

Mounted to the top, we were not inclined to curtail our jaunt; for we

saw a pool of water, one of the objects of our search, spread beneath

us; and, what is an uncommon sight at 3000 feet above the level of the

sea, its banks were covered with rushes. Opponent to us, on the extreme

side, or eastern corner of this pool, the even surface of the mountain

rose into a hill which, being higher than the ground where we stood,

obstructed our view. The rein-deer had frequently resorted to this water

to drink, for the mud of its diminutive shore was everywhere indented

with their hooves. The Norwegian examined these marks with much

minuteness; and when he had satisfied himself that they were the

hoof-prints of the rein-deer, and not of the smaller cows of the

country, he thrust his hand into the salt-bag that was still suspended

from his left side, like a good-sized rook's nest, and vociferated,

"Salt, h-o-o-o! salt, h-o-o-o! salt! salt!"

The monotony of his song was kept up for a quarter of an hour without

any variation either in the tones of his voice, or arrangement of the

words; but, occasionally, when he looked on the ground, and was reminded

of the cloven marks in the slough, his voice would swell to the

passionate bellow of a war-whoop. His manner reminded me strongly of a

bull, that by some mischance has lost the common herd; and as he gallops

along the meadows, when he finds himself alone, will stop suddenly at

times, and, placing his broad nostrils to the earth, sniff the grass

with the absorption of a huge pump; then lifting his head loftily in the

air, will lash his tail, and madly tossing his legs, roar till the

country round is filled with the sounds of his anger.

"Well, Sir," said the Norwegian, addressing me, "if we do not find the

deer near this water, I fear we shall find none to-day. It is late; and

they are gone to shelter in the forests for the night."

The last four words had not yet fallen from his lips, when a doe,

followed by her fawn, stood on the brow of the hill directly opposite to

us; and halting for a moment, moved her head up and down, scenting the

air. No sooner did the guide perceive the animal, than he tugged the

salt-bag from his belt, and, holding it in his left hand, extended it at

arm's length before him, creeping down the hillock on which we had

clustered, exclaiming,

"Kommit; salt, h-o-o-o! salt, h-o-o-o! kommit, kommit."

The deer seemed perfectly to understand his meaning, for she shook her

antlers and small tufted tail, and trotted down the other hill towards

the Norwegian. Our guide still kept moving forward by stealthy steps,

while the animal quickened its motion from a trot to a canter, and

arriving within a yard of the proffered salt-bag, made a dead stop. The

Norwegian had volunteered the promise, that if the deer turned out to be

his own, and he could lay hands on her, we should accept her as a gift.

"Kommit," said the Norwegian, in tones of gentler blandness;

"salt!--salt, h-o-o-o! kommit, kommit."

But the doe was not so easily to be entrapped; for she stretched out her

long neck as far as it would go, and then, just as her nose was so near

to the salt that its savour made her dart out her tongue and lick her

slimy nostrils, she plunged backwards as if a cannon had exploded, and

scampered half-way up the hill to her fawn. The Norwegian turned his

head and smiled with us, but would not yet despair of success.

"Kommit," still, with onward step, he said, "kommit; salt, h-o-o-o!

salt!--kommit, kommit."

The doe appeared as desirous of tasting the salt, as the Norwegian was

to give it; for she fixed her large eyes on the little moving man as he

stumbled and tottered over the uneven heath, and watching his gradual

approach, threw up her head, and stamped her foot.

I and my two companions were aware, that the Norwegian intended, if

practicable, to seize the deer by the horns, and by that means secure

her; but we saw more clearly than he did, that, if any attempt of the

kind was made on the doe, she would not only tumble our little friend

down the steep side of the mountain, but, no doubt, being with the fawn,

gore him. If he is fool enough, we thought, not to know any better,

having passed all his life among deer, and claiming, moreover, a

patrimony of five hundred head, surely it was needless to interrupt by

our surmises his preconcerted plans. For my own part, and I will

attribute the same anticipations to R---- and P----, I promised myself

more laughter than wounds from the engagement of the Norwegian with the

deer; but I knew there was some risk, yet rejoiced in my own heart at

the sum of pleasure that might be cast up in my favour, making no

deduction for the Norwegian.

The deer remained perfectly still until the Norwegian could almost have

touched her overcome with the insatiable craving to taste the salt; but

if he dared, however slily, to move the other hand that held no salt,

she bounded several yards from him.

"Kommit; salt, h-o-o-o! kommit,--kommit; salt, h-o-o-o! salt, h-o-o-o!"

the Norwegian continued half singing, and half importuning the deer to

come to him. His importunities and cantata might have lasted for another

week, but we observed, that the doe was, by insensible degrees,

allowing, like a human creature, her appetite to get the better of her

mind, or instinct; and when she took, at last a trifling lap of the

salt, the Norwegian, with much dexterity, seized her with his right hand

by one of the antlers. The deer, feeling herself thus assaulted, shot,

like a thunder-bolt, backwards, dragging the Norwegian with her; and

though, by the weight of her antagonist's strength, her nose was almost

forced between her fore-legs, she shook her head violently, and making a

desperate lunge, struck her countryman somewhere about the silver buckle

of his belt, or, pugilistically speaking "in the wind," with her

forehead, and threw him, gun, pistols, provender, salt-bag, and all,

towards a ravine formed by the rain, into which, rolling over and over,

he fell heavily, like a sack of oats. So soon as the deer had butted,

and the Norwegian was overturned on his back, the gun went off, and

instantly blew his red cap some height into the air, and we made up our

minds it must be full, as it was before, of our guide's skull, and that

he had now gone to that bourn from which no hunter, like no traveller,

could ever return. We ran to his assistance. The gun by some contortion

of the Norwegian's body, was twisted upside down, and instead of the

muzzle being pointed downwards, had been elevated, point blank, towards

his head. The poor Norwegian, breathing with great labour, closed eyes,

and opened mouth, lay on his back, like a log in a mill-pond; but we

were glad to find that his mouth, tongue, and all his teeth remained

perfect; and it was some inducement to us to raise the body with the

hope, that he was not yet beyond the need of medical, if of our skill.

The closed eyes of the Norwegian opened, and the opened mouth closed,

when he felt us touch him, and sitting upright, showed all the external

symptoms of having been stunned, for he rubbed his eyes, and pressed his

hand to his brow, then clasped his temples, and with a continuous

movement bowed his head, the crown of which we saw was unmutilated.

After a time, he looked up at us, and seemed surprised to find himself

seated in the gulley; for starting immediately, without any aid, to his

feet, he laughed idiotically as some men will laugh when awakened from a

nap, and setting in order his dress, and singed hair, bore no other

signs of injury beyond a scratch on the left cheek, and the loss of his

scarlet woollen cap. The Norwegian, however, has to thank Heaven for a

narrow escape, since the whole charge of his gun struck the tassel of

his cap, and changed that memento of spousal devotion into its original

nonentity.

The readjustment of the Norwegian's lungs did not detain us long; and

binding his spotted handkerchief round his head to guard against rheum,

or catarrh, he led us by a track almost invisible down the mountain.

Since the fray we had seen nothing of the deer, and gave no further

thought of her, or any of her genus; but made the best of our way, by

the waning light, to a village at the foot of the mountain, whence we

hoped to find some conveyance home. The Norwegian, trustful to the last,

did not yield all chance of capturing the deer for us; and actuated by

the feeling of generosity steadfast to his nation, recommenced his song.

Although the first hour of morning had subtracted from that of midnight

the light was sufficient to guide our steps aright, but not enough to

mislead the wolves; for their howling, and its eternal repercussion

among the mountains and over the forests, brought the most melancholy

fancies to the mind, which the undecided hue of the atmosphere, neither

that of brilliant day nor the black majesty of profound night, and the

low moan of the wind through the fir trees, that sounded like the feeble

expression of bodily pain, or contrition of a dying creature, made too

oppressively sad to admit any thoughts of rational meditation which the

solemnity of the time and place might have encouraged. The gloomy

shadows of the fir forest, through which we had to pass, caused us to

look around with greater caution than we had hitherto done; and our

guide failed not to keep our vigilance alive by exclaiming at the

regular terminations of a few minutes;

"Varg, varg."

"Varg," means a wolf. The rustling of the leaves, or the rolling of a

stone as one of us might strike it accidentally with the foot, would set

the trigger of each gun clicking, and send from mouth to mouth the

signal of----

"Listen!--h-u-u-u-sh!"

Since we had left the more open part of the mountain, we had not felt

entirely at ease; for the incessant tramp of some wild animal was too

distinct at times to attribute the sound to imagination; and we pursued

our way with a feeling of uncertainty as to the manner and moment we

might be attacked. We all concluded, that some wolf had got in our

track, and was following at such a distance as to keep himself out of

our sight; but not so far to prevent him from pouncing on us just when

his opportunity offered. Though we were not wolves, we completely

understood the intentions of the animal, and exercised that attribute of

craft which is as abundant in the organization of man, as of the brute.

We had now reached the very heart of the forest; and the shades of light

were so uncertain, that the fallen trunks of the firs and pine were

often mistaken for bears, or any other kind of ferocious beast that we

had ever heard was of the colour of the bark, or common to Norway. The

measured tramp in our rear became louder and nearer, the deeper we

advanced into the forest; and every moment seemed to be the one in which

the conflict was to commence.

"Let us stop and see," said the Norwegian, in his own language, "if he

will come up to us."

We stood still; and turning the locks of our guns downwards, tapped

them, to replace the powder that might have receded from the nipples. We

could not afford to give our enemy the benefit of one gun hanging fire.

"Keep still," said P----, in a low voice, as he stooped down and glanced

through the firs; "here he comes!--but,--no;--it's no wolf."

"Ja," replied the Norwegian, who had asked me what P---- said;

"ja!--varg;" and he placed himself in an attitude to fire at the

shortest possible notice.

"It's no wolf, I tell you," answered P----, rather louder than he had

spoken at first; "it's too big--why, damn it!" and he again stooped

down, moving his body from side to side, as he looked between the pines

that obstructed his view; and placing his left hand over his eyes, used

it as a kind of shade,--"surely--yes;--I'm sure--it's a jackass!"

"Is it?" said R----; "well, then, let's shoot him as a nuisance."

"Nej, nej," exclaimed the Norwegian, with much trepidation, laying hold

of R----'s fowling-piece, that he had jokingly raised to his shoulder

preparatory to its discharge.

The animal, whatever it was, still continued trotting towards us,

winding its way by the circuitous track of the forest. P---- kneeled

down to have a more exact range both for his gun and sight; but

springing to his feet almost instantly, he exclaimed,----

"I'll be shot, if it isn't the old doe again!"

Panting from fatigue, and the unflagging speed with which she had

travelled, the deer, with her fawn, came close to us, and tamed by

weariness, stood within a foot of the Norwegian.

"Kommit," he said; "salt; kommit, kommit," and filling his hand with

salt, the animal came near, and devoured it greedily, and allowed the

Norwegian to pat her on the neck and shoulder.

The extreme fondness of the rein-deer for salt cannot be better

exemplified; for this animal had followed us from her natural abode on

the top of the mountain to its base, and could not have performed a

lesser journey than twenty miles. She approached us with so much

confidence, and licked our hands with that domestic affection which is

so winning in dumb animals, that we declined to accept and take her from

her native haunts; but strove by every discordant noise and angry

gesture to drive her back to the mountains. With the same care, however,

that the deer had avoided us, she now sought our society, and did not

leave us until we had reached the precincts of the village, and leaping

a high, wooden fence that separated it from the forest, we gave her the

alternative of doing as we did, or remaining where she was. With the

decorous conduct of her sex she made not the attempt; but during the

hour we wandered about the sleeping village in search of some boatmen to

row us back to Auron, we could hear her lowing piteously. We had

descended the eastern side of the mountain, and arrived on a southern

branch of the Sogne Fiord.

Day now began to dawn; and though we had hardly eaten or drank since our

departure the previous morning from Auron, the freshness of the early

air, the balm of mountain flowers, and the beautiful face of nature,

afforded new vigour to our frames, and in feasting the mind we nourished

the body. Wandering from cottage to cottage we knocked at the doors and

windows, hoping to rouse the slumbering people; but sleep sits more

willingly on the peasant's hard pillow than it will pace, without

fretting, the softly-garnished chamber of indolent wealth, and not long

for morning to fly away. At last we succeeded completely by not only

awakening the family of one cottage, but our vociferations alarmed

nearly half the village population. I do not recollect the name of the

village, but the inhabitants bore the disturbance with great good

nature; and thrusting their heads out of their bed-room windows, that

looked no bigger than port-holes, two or three men directed us to the

abode of a fisherman who would soon put us in the way of hiring a pram.

Finding the fisherman's hut, we soon thumped him out of his dreams, and,

shouting uproariously from within, he desired to know who we were, and

what we desired. The Norwegian, our guide, entered into a lengthened

dialogue through the door, and assured the fisherman of our good faith

and bad plight, begging that he would rise, and help us with the means

of returning to Auron.

Half an hour afterwards we were reclining on some branches of the fir

with which the four boatmen, whose services the fisherman had secured,

covered the seats and bottom of the pram, having learned from our guide

the distance we had travelled; and, spreading their coats over us, bade

us rest. To soothe us to slumber, they sang, in union with the motion of

their oars, a native boat-song, and its sweet and plaintive air, though

it could not entice us to sleep soundly, pacified the wearied nerves,

and we lay in a Paradise of dreaming sensibility. These four men were

each six feet in stature, and their philanthropy and good nature were as

broad as their frames. They ceased not rowing for one moment, throughout

the entire distance, to rest on their oars; and though the rain, from

two o'clock till four, fell in torrents, their spirits chafed not with

its pelting violence; but they sang, and laughed, and jested with each

other as if the sun was shining cheerfully over their heads. We stepped

on board the cutter at four o'clock, having been rowed eighteen miles in

three hours and a half.

For all the countries which I have traversed Nature appears not to have

done so much to make them agreeable to man, as she has for Norway, and

man so little to make his own soil suitable for himself as the

Norwegian; nor have I, in either hemisphere, felt more truly

spiritualized by the grandeur of the scenery, the honest frankness and

simplicity of its people, as here. I have wandered over many parts of

the earth; I have looked upon its lofty mountains shrouded in clouds, or

capped with snow; I have, loitering in its smiling valleys, seen its

waterfalls, and floated on its crystal torpid lakes, and rushing rivers;

yet this old land of Norway yields not in all to them, but bears on her

stern and rugged brow the soft impressions of a beneficent creation

impartially dispensed. Such reflections failed not, day by day, to force

themselves upon me; for I knew, that every step I now took removed me

farther and farther from a country, whose mighty mountains had, with

their solemnity, first taught me to think; and the integrity and

single-mindedness of whose children showed how, though fostered in the

flinty lap of poverty, happiness and heroic contentment were no fable.

The peasants, whom we sometimes met in the interior of the country,

where their livelihood must be earned with the hardest labour, and whose

necessity during the long and dismal months of winter must not be much

inferior to absolute want, ever seemed cheerful and ready, not only to

share their scanty fare with us, but to give us milk and butter, and

dried fish, or other dainties which they may have hoarded for the coming

time of cold and darkness. Black bread of barley, or of rye, sour and

unfit even for "Sailor," formed their daily diet, and meat had never

been tasted by thousands; nor did we obtain any other animal food,

except at Christiania and Bergen, and there but with difficulty, than

what we had brought from England; yet, under all their privations, the

contented and happy disposition of these people, added to their

independent bearing and dauntless bravery, was a lesson as instructive

to luxurious selfishness, as it must be gratifying to the man who

believes in the innate nobility of his race, and is proud of it.

Our guide was determined that we should not quit the Sogne Fiord without

some token by which we might remember it; and sending a messenger to the

other side of the Fiord, desired that a certain number of his tenants or

friends should go to the Reenfjeld, and bring as many rein-deer as they

could secure to the foot of a mountain, which he specified by name, on

the morrow. Early in the morning, therefore, the first man who might

have been seen on the deck of the cutter, was our Norwegian guide; and

helping to heave the anchor, he pointed our course to the spot where the

rein-deer would be brought. About one o'clock in the afternoon, we

lay-to off a small village consisting of a few cottages, reposing at the

base of the mountain which the Norwegian had indicated as our

destination. Here, as it had been everywhere else, the scene was

sublime; stamped against the blue sky, glaciers were above our heads,

and green fields at our feet; and thousands of cascades leaping down the

barren sides of the mountains which surrounded us north, east, and west,

were not concealed from the eye by tree or shrub; but could be traced,

inch by inch, from the flat summit of the mountains to the valleys that

sloped to the water on which the vessel swam.

A girl with a basket of cherries came off to the yacht in a boat rowed

by an old man, who watched her with solicitude and the most devoted

affection; and when arriving alongside, the young lady was requested to

come on board, and she complied readily with our entreaty, the despair

that shaded the countenance of the old man delineated the torture of his

heart. This peculiar appearance of the patriarchal face was not lost

upon R----, who was as observant, as he is full of fun, and turning to

me, he said, "Let's take her for a sail, and leave the old bird

behind."

"Very well," I answered; "shall I tell D----?"

The old man not being aware of the trick we were about to play, had not

thought it necessary to make his pram fast to the cutter, but held on by

the starboard main-channel. The order was given to put the helm over,

and let the foresail draw. The cutter soon began to gather way, and

before the old man could imagine why, or whence the increase of traction

came, the main-chain slipped through his fingers, and he fell quietly

but backwards in his pram. I am sorry to say our fair prisoner laughed

as heartily as any one else at the comical attitude of the old man.

Unlike the generality of people who have attained his years, the old man

still possessed much presence of mind; and the instant he could recover

his equilibrium, he sat down and set to work vigorously with his oars.

We kept shouting to him in bad Norwegian, to "pull away;" and running

the cutter close up in the wind, allowed him to overtake us, and then

taking hold of a coil of rope, the sailors bade him to "stand by for the

end," but always took care when they did throw it, to make it fall short

of him. This went on for some time; so that by degrees we had enticed

the old man some two miles from the land, but discovering that we were

only cajoling him, he turned the bow of his pram towards the shore, and

with a long face of misery rowed back. The young lady, in the mean time,

had wheedled herself into the affections of the amorous tars,

particularly of King, he being a linguist. Having sold her basket of

cherries she then seated herself on the deck, near the quarter bulwarks,

enjoying the excursion and novelty of her situation, and laughing

merrily at the discomfiture of her old swain. We had now stood across

the Fiord, and sailed within half a mile of another village of some

importance, for a large church with a red wooden steeple soared above

the houses, out of the windows of which a multitude of heads were thrust

and turned towards the cutter.

"The girl, my Lord," said D---- coming up to R----, "wishes to go ashore

here--she lives here, my Lord."

"Man the gig," answered R----, smiling, "and send her off in it."

"Very good, my Lord;" and away went D---- to give the order. The cutter

lay to, and the gig was hauled up from the stern to the gangway. Four

men sprung into her, and the cockswain took his seat aft; and received,

beside the cushions for the seat and back-board, the empty basket of the

Norwegian girl. The girl looked with much attention to all that was

going forward; but could not tell why her basket was handed into the

boat; and being informed that the gig was waiting to take her home, she

did not dislike the honour about to be shewn her; but smiled and

tittered with the instinctive gratification of her sex.

"Tak," she said, mindful of her manners, shaking R----, P----, and me,

by the hand, "tak, tak;" and gathering her petticoats tight about her

legs, yet without any semblance of prudery, walked to the gangway, and,

without aid, jumped into the boat. Seating herself on the scarlet

cushions, the cockswain receiving permission from her to go on, with all

the gravity due to a queen gave the word to his men, and away the gig

shot, the girl kissing her hand all the time affectionately, and with no

lack of elegance in the bowing inclination of her body in answer to our

acts of reciprocal adoration. I need scarcely say, that the girl had

never touched her native shores with an appearance more imposing, nor

enjoyed herself so largely in so short a time; nor was her return to the

village strand on any previous occasion, whether baptismal, or hymeneal,

more numerously attended than on that day; for men, women, naked

children, and snarling dogs came to the water's side to greet her,

without any reference to numerical force, or moral weakness.

At three o'clock, with the assistance of our glasses, we discovered

sixteen Norwegians, and their invariable companions, as many dogs,

leading and tormenting four rein-deer down the mountains; and for two

hours, along the narrow road of descent, we watched the whole troop

enlarging from the indistinctness of black-beetles to the symmetry and

size of men and animals. When they had reached the plain on which the

small village was built, they shouted and beckoned to us; and although

we made all possible haste, they seemed to fancy their excited feelings

sluggish, nor allowed us sufficient time to walk from one side of the

deck to the gangway without renewing their whoop.

When we landed, the first object that drew our attention from everything

else, was a buck, whose height and proportions quite astonished us. This

animal measured from the tail to the nose five feet two inches, and from

the hoof of the fore leg to the top of his horns, when he held his head

up, seven feet three inches, and his body was quite as large as that of

an ass. Although very much injured by the violence with which he had

been used during his long journey from the mountains, and which had been

rendered absolutely necessary by his ferocity and wildness, we were

desirous of bringing him alive to England; but being so mutilated, our

guide recommended us to have the buck slaughtered, and take a doe and

her fawn on board. With great reluctance the death of the buck was

agreed to by R----, and this splendid animal was dragged to a field

close at hand. The strength and turbulence of the buck are beyond

description; but I do not think I ever enjoyed any fiendish sight more

than this short struggle between him and his murderers over twenty yards

of ground. None but men, like the Norwegians, accustomed to these savage

animals, could have controlled the deer in any way; but notwithstanding

all their caution, I saw the buck kick one man on the chest, and throw

him, exactly like a nine-pin, over and over, some few feet along the

beach. The manner by which the Norwegians had secured this powerful

animal was so ingenious, that he could, by no means, do much mischief,

except to those persons who, bolder than the rest, went near to caress

him; for three ropes were bound round the root of the horns, and being

five or six feet in length, were held by three men who stood in the form

of an angle, the head of the deer forming the base; or, in other words,

one man stood on the left side of the buck, in a line with his left

shoulder; a second man stood on the right side opposite to the right

shoulder, while the third man took his station in front; and the three

men were careful that the rope in the custody of each of them should be

kept tight, since the peril of its being slack must be as obvious as its

contrariety of tension; for whenever the animal made a plunge, as he

sometimes did, towards the man on his right side, the Norwegian on the

left could immediately check the career of the maddened deer by "holding

on his end," as sailors say; the man in front at the same time giving

his protection, and being protected in his turn.

The facility with which this buck was led seemed surprising; for the

animal had not only his natural ferocity to offer against the skill of

his antagonists, but he possessed strength and all the madness born of

the human sounds to which he had been unaccustomed,--the loud ribaldry,

and laughter of men and women, the whistle, and shrill cries of boys and

frighted infants. Submitting to my ignorance, I must say that I had

never seen any large animal killed, and did not know how the operation

was performed; and with a feeling of the most horrible infatuation I

gathered in the small group round the animal to learn the stratagems

observed to surround his legs with looped ropes which, being drawn

quickly, slipped into knots and tripped him up. When the proud deer fell

to the ground, a man drawing a knife from his pocket, and unclasping it,

thrust the blade up to the hilt into the skull between the horns. I

could not have conceived anything deprived of life so suddenly; and were

it not for the blood that flowed in warm and copious streams from the

mouth and nostrils, the animal appeared to have been dead a week.

Another buck was killed, and made a present by R---- to his crew. The

doe and the fawn were with great difficulty put on board; and so much

time was expended in the construction of a pen for them, that we did not

sail until ten o'clock in the evening. The doe received a few bruises in

hoisting her over the side of the vessel, and one of the sprouting horns

of the fawn was broken, which we endeavoured by splints to restore; but

inflammation appeared to succeed so rapidly, that P----, who was

principal chirurgeon, was obliged to amputate it with his razor close to

the head of the animal. This beautiful little creature is still alive,

and may be seen in the Zoological Gardens in the Regent's Park, to which

Society both animals were presented by R---- on their safe arrival in

England.

Every available corner of the yacht was filled with moss, for the

Norwegians told us we should find some difficulty in urging the doe to

eat any other food; but the fawn might be accustomed to corn or oats.

What the Norwegians then said was certified afterwards; for when within

sight of the English coast, the moss had all been consumed, and the deer

pined for its loss, eating nothing else in its lieu but bread and

biscuit; but the fawn demolished the leaf of the filbert, corn, and hay,

which had been collected in large quantities the last hour before we

left Bergen.