The following day, from Næs to Green, was a continuation of our journey

down the Hallingdal. There was little change in the scenery,--high

fir-wooded mountains on either hand, the lower slopes spotted with

farms. The houses showed some slight improvement as we advanced. The

people were all at work in the fields, cutting the year's satisfactory

harvest. A scorching sun blazed in a cloudless sky; the earth was baked

and dry, and suffocating clouds of dust rose from under our horses'

hoofs. Most of the women in the fields, on account of the heat, had

pulled off their body-sacks, and were working in shifts made on the same

principle, which reached to the knees. Other garments they had none. A

few, recognising us as strangers, hastily threw on their sacks or got

behind a barley-stack until we had passed; the others were quite

unconcerned. One, whose garment was exceedingly short, no sooner saw us

than she commenced a fjeld dance, full of astonishing leaps and whirls

to the great diversion of the other hands. "Weel done, cutty sark!" I

cried; but the quotation was thrown away upon her.

Green, on the Kröder Lake, which we did not reach until long after dark,

was an oasis after our previous experience. Such clean, refined,

friendly people, such a neat table, such excellent fare, and such

delicious beds we had certainly never seen before. Blessed be decency!

blessed be humanity! was our fervent ejaculation. And when in the

morning we paid an honest reckoning and received a hearty "_lycksame

resa!_" (a lucky journey!) at parting, we vowed that the place should

always be green in our memories. Thence to Kongsberg we had fast

stations and civilised people; the country was open, well settled, and

cultivated, the scenery pleasant and picturesque, and, except the

insufferable heat and dust, we could complain of nothing.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

TELLEMARK AND THE RIUKAN FOSS.

Kongsberg, where we arrived on the 26th of August, is celebrated for its

extensive silver mines, which were first opened by Christian IV in 1624,

and are now worked by the Government. They are doubtless interesting to

mineralogists; but we did not visit them. The guide-book says, "The

principal entrance to the mines is through a level nearly two English

miles in length; from this level you descend by thirty-eight

perpendicular ladders, of the average length of five fathoms each, a

very fatiguing task, and then find yourself at the bottom of the shaft,

and are rewarded by the sight of the veins of native silver"--not a bit

of which, after all, are you allowed to put into your pocket. Thank you!

I prefer remaining above ground, and was content with having in my

possession smelted specimens of the ore, stamped with the head of Oscar

I.

The goal of our journey was the Riukan Foss, which lies in Upper

Tellemark, on the south-eastern edge of the great plateau of the

Hardanger Fjeld. This cascade disputes with the Vöring Foss the

supremacy of the thousand waterfalls of Norway. There are several ways

from Kongsberg thither; and in our ignorance of the country, we

suffered ourselves to be guided by the landlord of our hotel. Let no

traveller follow our example! The road he recommended was almost

impassable for carrioles, and miserably supplied with horses, while that

through Hitterdal, by which we returned, is broad, smooth, and

excellent. We left on the morning after our arrival, taking a road which

led up the valley of the Lauven for some distance, and then struck

westward through the hills to a little station called Moen. Here, as the

place was rarely visited by travellers, the people were simple, honest,

and friendly. Horses could not be had in less than two hours; and my

postillion, an intelligent fellow far gone in consumption, proposed

taking the same horse to the next station, fifteen miles further. He

accepted my offer of increased pay; but another, who appeared to be the

owner of the horses, refused, demanding more than double the usual

rates. "How is it?" said I, "that you were willing to bring us to Moen

for one and a half marks, and will not take us to Bolkesjö for less than

five?" "It was my turn," he answered, "to furnish post-horses. I am

bound by law to bring you here at the price fixed by the law; but now I

can make my own bargain, and I want a price that will leave me some

profit." This was reasonable enough; and we finally agreed to retain two

of the horses, taking the postmaster's for a third.

The region we now traversed was almost a wilderness. There were

grazing-farms in the valley, with a few fields of oats or barley; but

these soon ceased, and an interminable forest enclosed us. The road,

terribly rough and stony, crossed spurs of the hills, slowly climbing to

a wild summit-level, whence we caught glimpses of lakes far below us,

and the blue mountain-ranges in the west, with the pyramidal peak of the

Gousta Fjeld crowning them. Bolkesjö, which we reached in a little more

than two hours, is a small hamlet on the western slope of the mountain,

overlooking a wide tract of lake and forest. Most of the inhabitants

were away in the harvest-fields; but the _skyds-shaffer_, a tall

powerful fellow, with a grin of ineffable stupidity on his face, came

forward as we pulled in our horses on the turfy square between the rows

of magazines. "Can we get horses at once?" "Ne-e-ey!" was his drawling

answer, accompanied with a still broader grin, as if the thing were a

good joke. "How soon?" "In three hours." "But if we pay fast prices?" He

hesitated, scratched his head, and drawled, "In a _liten stund_" (a

"short time"), which may mean any time from five minutes to as many

hours. "Can we get fresh milk?" "Ne-e-ey!" "Can we get butter?"

"Ne-e-ey!" "What can we get?" "Nothing." Fortunately we had foreseen

this emergency, and had brought a meal with us from Kongsberg.

We took possession of the kitchen, a spacious and tolerably clean

apartment, with ponderous benches against two sides of it, and two

bedsteads, as huge and ugly as those of kings, built along the third.

Enormous platters of pewter, earthen and stone ware, were ranged on

shelves; while a cupboard, fantastically painted, contained the smaller

crockery. There was a heavy red and green cornice above the bed, upon

which the names of the host and his wife, with the date of their

marriage, were painted in yellow letters. The worthy couple lay so high

that several steps were necessary to enable them to reach the bed, in

which process their eyes encountered words of admonition, painted upon

triangular boards, introduced to strengthen the pillars at the head and

foot. One of these inscriptions ran, "This is my bed: here I take my

rest in the night, and when morning comes I get up cheerfully and go to

work;" and the other, "When thou liest down to sleep think on thy last

hour, pray that God will guard thy sleep, and be ready for thy last hour

when it comes." On the bottom of the cupboard was a representation of

two individuals with chalk-white faces and inky eyes, smoking their

pipes and clinking glasses. The same fondness for decorations and

inscriptions is seen in all the houses in Tellemark and a great part of

Hallingdal. Some of them are thoroughly Chinese in gaudy colour and

grotesque design.

In the course of an hour and a half we obtained three strong and

spirited stallions, and continued our journey towards the Tind-Sö.

During this stage of twelve or thirteen miles, the quality of our

carrioles was tested in the most satisfactory manner. Up-hill and down,

over stock and stone, jolted on rock and wrenched in gulley, they were

whirled at a smashing rate; but the tough ash and firmly-welded iron

resisted every shock. For any other than Norwegian horses and vehicles,

it would have been hazardous travelling. We were anxious to retain the

same animals for the remaining stage to Tinoset, at the foot of the

lake; but the postillions refused, and a further delay of two hours was

the consequence. It was dark when the new horses came; and ten miles of

forest lay before us. We were ferried one by one across the Tind Elv, on

a weak, loose raft and got our carrioles up a frightful bank on the

opposite side by miraculous luck. Fortunately we struck the post-road

from Hitterdal at this place; for it would have been impossible to ride

over such rocky by-ways as we had left behind us. A white streak was all

that was visible in the gloom of the forest. We kept in the middle of

it, not knowing whether the road went up, down, or on a level, until we

had gone over it. At last, however, the forest came to an end, and we

saw Tind Lake lying still and black in the starlight. All were in bed at

Tinoset; but we went into the common sleeping-room, and stirred the

people up promiscuously until we found the housewife, who gave us the

only supper the house afforded--hard oaten bread and milk. We three then

made the most of two small beds.

In the morning we took a boat, with four oarsmen, for Mael, at the mouth

of the Westfjord-dal, in which lies the Riukan Foss. There was no end to

our wonderful weather. In rainy Norway the sky had for once forgotten

its clouds. One after another dawned the bright Egyptian days, followed

by nights soft, starry, and dewless. The wooded shores of the long Tind

Lake were illuminated with perfect sunshine, and its mirror of

translucent beryl broke into light waves under the northern breeze. Yet,

with every advantage of sun and air, I found this lake undeserving of

its reputation for picturesque beauty. The highest peaks rise to the

height of 2000 feet, but there is nothing bold and decided in their

forms, and after the splendid fjords of the western coast the scenery

appears tame and commonplace. Our boatmen pulled well, and by noon

brought us to Hakenaes, a distance of twenty-one miles. Here we stopped

to engage horses to the Riukan Foss, as there is no post-station at

Mael. While the old man put off in his boat to notify the farmers whose

turn it was to supply the animals, we entered the farm-house, a

substantial two-story building. The rooms were tolerably clean and well

stocked with the clumsy, heavy furniture of the country, which is mostly

made by the farmers themselves, every man being his own carpenter,

cooper, and blacksmith. There were some odd old stools, made of segments

of the trunk of a tree, the upper part hollowed out so as to receive the

body, and form a support for the back. I have no doubt that this fashion

of seat is as old as the time of the Vikings. The owner was evidently a

man in tolerable circumstances, and we therefore cherished the hope of

getting a good meal; but all that the old woman, with the best will in

the world, was able to furnish, was milk, butter, oaten bread, and an

egg apiece. The upper rooms were all supplied with beds, one of which

displayed remarkable portraits of the Crown Prince of Denmark and his

spouse, upon the head-board. In another room was a loom of primitive

construction.

It was nearly two hours before the old farmer returned with the

information that the horses would be at Mael as soon as we; but we lay

upon the bank for some time after arriving there, watching the

postillions swim them across the mouth of the Maan Elv. Leaving the

boat, which was to await our return the next day, we set off up the

Westfjord-dal, towards the broad cone-like mass of the Gousta-Fjeld,

whose huge bulk, 6000 feet in height, loomed grandly over the valley.

The houses of Mael, clustered about its little church, were scattered

over the slope above the lake; and across the river, amid the fields of

grass and grain, stood another village of equal size. The bed of the

valley, dotted with farms and groups of farm-houses, appeared to be

thickly populated; but as a farmer's residence rarely consists of less

than six buildings--sometimes even eight--a stranger would naturally

overrate the number of inhabitants. The production of grain, also, is

much less than would be supposed from the amount of land under

cultivation, owing to the heads being so light. The valley of the Maan,

apparently a rich and populous region, is in reality rather the reverse.

In relation to its beauty, however, there can be no two opinions. Deeply

sunken between the Gousta and another bold spur of the Hardanger, its

golden harvest-fields and groves of birch, ash, and pine seem doubly

charming from the contrast of the savage steeps overhanging them, at

first scantily feathered with fir-trees, and scarred with the tracks of

cataracts and slides, then streaked only with patches of grey moss, and

at last bleak and sublimely bare. The deeply-channelled cone of the

Gousta, with its indented summit, rose far above us, sharp and clear in

the thin ether; but its base, wrapped in forests and wet by many a

waterfall--sank into the bed of blue vapour which filled the valley.

There was no Arabian, nor even Byzantine blood in our horses; and our

attendants--a stout full-grown farmer and a boy of sixteen--easily kept

pace with their slow rough trot. In order to reach Tinoset the next day,

we had determined to push on to the Riukan Foss the same evening. Our

quarters for the night were to be in the house of the old farmer, Ole

Torgensen, in the village of Däl, half-way between Mael and the

cataract, which we did not reach until five o'clock, when the sun was

already resting his chin on the shoulder of the Gousta. On a turfy slope

surrounded with groves, above the pretty little church of Däl, we found

Ole's _gaard_. There was no one at home except the daughter, a blooming

lass of twenty, whose neat dress, and graceful, friendly deportment,

after the hideous feminines of Hallingdal, in their ungirdled sacks and

shifts, so charmed us that if we had been younger, more sentimental, and

less experienced in such matters, I should not answer for the

consequences. She ushered us into the guests' room, which was neatness

itself, set before us a bottle of Bavarian beer and promised to have a

supper ready on our return.

There were still ten miles to the Riukan, and consequently no time to be

lost. The valley contracted, squeezing the Maan between the interlocking

bases of the mountains, through which, in the course of uncounted

centuries, it had worn itself a deep groove, cut straight and clean into

the heart of the rock. The loud, perpetual roar of the vexed waters

filled the glen; the only sound except the bleating of goats clinging to

the steep pastures above us. The mountain walls on either hand were now

so high and precipitous, that the bed of the valley lay wholly in

shadow; and on looking back, its further foldings were dimly seen

through purple mist. Only the peak of the Gousta, which from this point

appeared an entire and perfect pyramid, 1500 feet in perpendicular

height above the mountain platform from which it rose, gleamed with a

rich bronze lustre in the setting sun. The valley was now a mere

ascending gorge, along the sides of which our road climbed. Before us

extended a slanting shelf thrust out from the mountain, and affording

room for a few cottages and fields; but all else was naked rock and

ragged pine. From one of the huts we passed, a crippled, distorted form

crawled out on its hands and knees to beg of us. It was a boy of

sixteen, struck with another and scarcely less frightful form of

leprosy. In this case, instead of hideous swellings and fungous

excrescences, the limbs gradually dry up and drop off piecemeal at the

joints. Well may the victims of both these forms of hopeless disease

curse the hour in which they were begotten. I know of no more awful

example of that visitation of the sins of the parents upon the children,

which almost always attends confirmed drunkenness, filth, and

licentiousness.

When we reached the little hamlet on the shelf of the mountain, the last

rays of the sun were playing on the summits above. We had mounted about

2000 feet since leaving the Tind Lake, and the dusky valley yawned far

beneath us, its termination invisible, as if leading downward into a

lower world. Many hundreds of feet below the edge of the wild little

platform on which we stood, thundered the Maan in a cleft, the bottom of

which the sun has never beheld. Beyond this the path was impracticable

for horses; we walked, climbed, or scrambled along the side of the dizzy

steep, where, in many places, a false step would have sent us to the

brink of gulfs whose mysteries we had no desire to explore. After we had

advanced nearly two miles in this manner, ascending rapidly all the

time, a hollow reverberation, and a glimpse of profounder abysses ahead,

revealed the neighbourhood of the Riukan. All at once patches of lurid

gloom appeared through the openings of the birch thicket we were

threading, and we came abruptly upon the brink of the great chasm into

which the river falls.

The Riukan lay before us, a miracle of sprayey splendour, an apparition

of unearthly loveliness, set in a framework of darkness and terror

befitting the jaws of hell. Before us, so high against the sky as to

shut out the colours of sunset, rose the top of the valley--the level of

the Hardanger table land, on which, a short distance further, lies the

Miös-Vand, a lovely lake, in which the Maan Elv is born. The river first

comes into sight a mass of boiling foam, shooting around the corner of a

line of black cliffs which are rent for its passage, curves to the right

as it descends, and then drops in a single fall of 500 feet in a hollow

caldron of bare black rock. The water is already foam as it leaps from

the summit; and the successive waves, as they are whirled into the air,

and feel the gusts which for ever revolve around the abyss, drop into

beaded fringes in falling, and go fluttering down like scarfs of the

richest lace. It is not water, but the spirit of water. The bottom is

lost in a shifting snowy film, with starry rays of foam radiating from

its heart, below which, as the clouds shifts, break momentary gleams of

perfect emerald light. What fairy bowers of some Northern Undine are

suggested in those sudden flashes of silver and green! In that dim

profound, which human eye can but partially explore, in which human foot

shall never be set, what secret wonders may still lie hidden! And around

this vision of perfect loveliness, rise the awful walls wet with spray

which never dries, and crossed by ledges of dazzling turf, from the gulf

so far below our feet, until, still further above our heads, they lift

their irregular cornices against the sky.

I do not think I am extravagant when I say that the Riukan Foss is the

most beautiful cataract in the world. I looked upon it with that

involuntary suspension of the breath and quickening of the pulse, which

is the surest recognition of beauty. The whole scene, with its breadth

and grandeur of form, and its superb gloom of colouring, enshrining this

one glorious flash of grace, and brightness, and loveliness, is

indelibly impressed upon my mind. Not alone during that half hour of

fading sunset, but day after day, and night after night, the embroidered

spray wreaths of the Riukan were falling before me.

We turned away reluctantly at last, when the emerald pavement of

Undine's palace was no longer visible through the shooting meteors of

silver foam. The depths of Westfjord-dal were filled with purple

darkness: only the perfect pyramid of the Gousta, lifted upon a mountain

basement more than 4000 feet in height, shone like a colossal wedge of

fire against the violet sky. By the time we reached our horses we

discovered that we were hungry, and, leaving the attendants to follow at

their leisure, we urged the tired animals down the rocky road. The smell

of fresh-cut grain and sweet mountain hay filled the cool evening air;

darkness crept under the birches and pines, and we no longer met the

home-going harvesters. Between nine and ten our horses took the way to a

_gaard_ standing a little off the road; but it did not appear to be Ole

Torgensen's, so we kept on. In the darkness, however, we began to doubt

our memory, and finally turned back again. This time there could be no

mistake: it was _not_ Ole Torgensen's. I knocked at various doors, and

hallooed loudly, until a sleepy farmer made his appearance, and started

us forward again. He kindly offered to accompany us, but we did not

think it necessary. Terribly fatigued and hungry, we at last saw a star

of promise--the light of Ole's kitchen window. There was a white cloth

on the table in the guests' house, and Ole's charming daughter--the Rose

of Westfjord-dalen--did not keep us long waiting. Roast mutton, tender

as her own heart, potatoes plump as her cheeks, and beer sparkling as

her eyes, graced the board; but emptiness, void as our own celibate

lives, was there when we arose. In the upper room there were beds, with

linen fresh as youth and aromatic as spring; and the peace of a full

stomach and a clear conscience descended upon our sleep.

In the morning we prepared for an early return to Mael, as the boatmen

were anxious to get back to their barley-fields. I found but one

expression in the guests' book--that of satisfaction with Ole Torgensen,

and cheerfully added our amen to the previous declarations. Ole's bill

proved his honesty, no less than his worthy face. He brightened up on

learning that we were Americans. "Why," said he, "there have only been

two Americans here before in all my life; and you cannot be a _born_

American, because you speak Norsk so well." "Oh," said I, "I have

learned the language in travelling." "Is it possible?" he exclaimed:

"then you must have a powerful intellect." "By no means," said I, "it is

a very easy thing; I have travelled much, and can speak six other

languages." "Now, God help us!" cried he; "_seven_ languages! It is

truly wonderful how much comprehension God has given unto man, that he

can keep seven languages in his head at one time. Here am I, and I am

not a fool; yet I do not see how it would be possible for me to speak

anything but Norsk; and when I think of you, it shows me what wonders

God has done. Will you not make a mark under your name, in the book, so

that I may distinguish you from the other two?" I cheerfully complied,

and hereby notify future visitors why my name is italicised in Ole's

book.

We bade farewell to the good old man, and rode down the valley of the

Maan, through the morning shadow of the Gousta. Our boat was in

readiness; and its couch of fir boughs in the stern became a pleasant

divan of indolence, after our hard horses and rough roads. We reached

Tinoset by one o'clock, but were obliged to wait until four for horses.

The only refreshment we could obtain was oaten bread, and weak spruce

beer. Off at last, we took the post-road to Hitterdal, a smooth,

excellent highway, through interminable forests of fir and pine. Towards

the close of the stage, glimpses of a broad, beautiful, and

thickly-settled valley glimmered through the woods, and we found

ourselves on the edge of a tremendous gully, apparently the bed of an

extinct river. The banks on both sides were composed entirely of gravel

and huge rounded pebbles, masses of which we loosened at the top, and

sent down the sides, gathering as they rolled, until in a cloud of dust

they crashed with a sound like thunder upon the loose shingles of the

bottom 200 feet below. It was scarcely possible to account for this

phenomenon by the action of spring torrents from the melted snow. The

immense banks of gravel, which we found to extend for a considerable

distance along the northern side of the valley, seemed rather to be the

deposit of an ocean-flood.

Hitterdal, with its enclosed fields, its harvests, and groups of

picturesque, substantial farm-houses, gave us promise of good quarters

for the night; and when our postillions stopped at the door of a

prosperous-looking establishment, we congratulated ourselves on our

luck. But (--) never whistle until you are out of the woods. The people

seemed decidedly not to like the idea of our remaining, but promised to

give us supper and beds. They were stupid, but not unfriendly; and our

causes of dissatisfaction were, first, that they were so outrageously

filthy, and secondly, that they lived so miserably when their means

evidently allowed them to do better. The family room, with its two

cumbrous bedsteads built against the wall, and indescribably dirty beds,

was given up to us, the family betaking themselves to the stable. As

they issued thence in the morning, in single garments, we were

involuntary observers of their degree of bodily neatness; and the

impression was one we would willingly forget. Yet a great painted desk

in the room contained, amid many flourishes, the names and character of

the host and hostess, as follows:--"Andres Svennogsen Bamble, and Ragnil

Thorkilsdatter Bamble, Which These Two Are Respectable People." Over the

cupboard, studded with earthen-ware dishes, was an inscription in

misspelt Latin: "Solli Deo Glorria." Our supper consisted of boiled

potatoes and fried salt pork, which, having seen the respectable hosts,

it required considerable courage to eat, although we had not seen the

cooking. Fleas darkened the floor; and they, with the fear of something

worse, prevented us from sleeping much. We did not ask for coffee in the

morning, but, as soon as we could procure horses, drove away hungry and

disgusted from Bamble-Kaasa and its respectable inhabitants.

The church of Hitterdal, larger than that of Borgund, dates from about

the same period, probably the twelfth century. Its style is similar,

although it has not the same horned ornaments upon the roof, and the

Byzantine features being simpler, produce a more harmonious effect. It

is a charmingly quaint and picturesque building, and the people of the

valley are justly proud of it. The interior has been renovated, not in

the best style.

Well, to make this very long chapter short, we passed the beautiful

falls of the Tind Elv, drove for more than twenty miles over wild piny

hills, and then descended to Kongsberg, where Fru Hansen comforted us

with a good dinner. The next day we breakfasted in Drammen, and, in

baking heat and stifling dust, traversed the civilised country between

that city and Christiania. Our Norwegian travel was now at an end; and,

as a snobby Englishman once said to me of the Nile, "it is a good thing

to have gotten over."

CHAPTER XXXIV.

NORWAY AND SWEDEN.

We spent four days in Christiania, after completing our Norwegian

travels. The sky was still perfectly clear, and up to the day of our

departure no rain fell. Out of sixty days which we had devoted to

Norway, only four were rainy--a degree of good fortune which rarely

falls to the lot of travellers in the North.

Christiania, from its proximity to the continent, and its character as

capital of the country, is sufficiently advanced in the arts of living,

to be a pleasant resting-place after the _désagrémens_ and privations of

travel in the interior. It has two or three tolerably good and very

exorbitant hotels, and some bankers with less than the usual amount of

conscience. One of them offered to change some Prussian thalers for my

friend, at only ten per cent. less than their current value. The

_vognmand_ from whom we purchased our carrioles, endeavoured to evade

his bargain, and protested that he had not money enough to repurchase

them. I insisted, however, and with such good effect that he finally

pulled a roll of notes, amounting to several hundred dollars out of his

pocket, and paid me the amount in full. The English travellers whom I

met had not fared any better; and one and all of us were obliged to

recede from our preconceived ideas of Norwegian character. But enough of

an unpleasant theme; I would rather praise than blame, any day, but I

can neither praise nor be silent when censure is a part of the truth.

I had a long conversation with a distinguished Norwegian, on the

condition of the country people. He differed with me in the opinion that

the clergy were to some extent responsible for their filthy and

licentious habits, asserting that, though the latter were _petits

seigneurs_, with considerable privileges and powers, the people were

jealously suspicious of any attempt to exert an influence upon their

lives. But is not this a natural result of the preaching of doctrinal

religion, of giving an undue value to external forms and ceremonies? "We

have a stubborn people," said my informant; "their excessive self-esteem

makes them difficult to manage. Besides, their morals are perhaps better

than would be inferred from the statistics. Old habits have been

retained, in many districts, which are certainly reprehensible, but

which spring from custom rather than depravity. I wish they were less

vain and sensitive, since in that case they would improve more rapidly."

He stated also that the surprising number of illegitimate births is

partly accounted for by the fact that there are a great number of

connections which have all the character of marriage except the actual

ceremony. This is an affair of considerable cost and show; and many of

the poorer people, unable to afford it, live together rather than wait,

hoping that a time may come when they will be able to defray the

expenses, and legitimate the children who may meanwhile be born. In some

cases the parties disagree, the connection is broken off, and each one

seeks a new mate. Whatever palliation there may be in particular

instances, the moral effect of this custom is unquestionably bad; and

the volume of statistics recently published by Herr Sundt, who was

appointed by the Storthing to investigate the subject, shows that there

is no agricultural population in the world which stands lower in the

scale of chastity, than that of Norway.

In the course of our conversation, the gentleman gave an amusing

instance of the very sensitiveness which he condemned. I happened,

casually, to speak of the Icelandic language. "The _Icelandic_

language!" he exclaimed. "So you also in America call it Icelandic; but

you ought to know that it is Norwegian. It is the same language spoken

by the Norwegian Vikings who colonised Iceland--the old Norsk, which

originated here, and was merely carried thither." "We certainly have

some reason," I replied, "seeing that it now only exists in Iceland, and

has not been spoken in Norway for centuries; but let me ask why you,

speaking Danish, call your language Norsk." "Our language, as written

and printed, is certainly pure Danish," said he; "but there is some

difference of accent in speaking it." He did not add that this

difference is strenuously preserved and even increased by the

Norwegians, that they may not be suspected of speaking Danish, while

they resist with equal zeal, any approach to the Swedish. Often, in

thoughtlessly speaking of the language as Danish, I have heard the

ill-humoured reply, "Our language is not Danish, but Norsk." As well

might we say at home, "We speak American, not English."

I had the good fortune to find Professor Munck, the historian of Norway,

at home, though on the eve of leaving for Italy. He is one of the few

distinguished literary names the country has produced. Holberg the

comedian was born in Bergen; but he is generally classed among the

Danish authors. In art, however, Norway takes no mean rank, the names of

her painters Dahl, Gude, and Tidemand having a European reputation.

Professor Munck is about fifty years of age, and a fine specimen of the

Viking stock. He speaks English fluently, and I regretted that the

shortness of my stay did not allow me to make further drafts on his

surplus intelligence. In the Museum of Northern Antiquities, which is

small, as compared with that of Copenhagen, but admirably arranged, I

made the acquaintance of Professor Keyser, the author of a very

interesting work, on the "Religion of Northmen," a translation of which

by Mr. Barclay Pennock, appeared in New York, some three years ago.

I was indebted to Professor Munck, for a sight of the Storthing, or

National Legislative Assembly, which was then in session. The large hall

of the University, a semi-circular room, something like our Senate

Chamber, has been given up to its use, until an appropriate building

shall be erected. The appearance and conduct of the body strikingly

reminded me of one of our State Legislatures. The members were plain,

practical-looking men, chosen from all classes, and without any

distinguishing mark of dress. The speaker was quite a young man, with a

moustache. Schweigaard the first jurist in Norway, was speaking as we

entered. The hall is very badly constructed for sound, and I could not

understand the drift of his speech, but was exceedingly struck by the

dryness of his manner. The Norwegian Constitution has been in operation

forty-three years, and its provisions, in most respects so just and

liberal, have been most thoroughly and satisfactorily tested. The Swedes

and a small conservative party in Norway, would willingly see the powers

of the Storthing curtailed a little; but the people now know what they

have got, and are further than ever from yielding any part of it. In the

house of almost every Norwegian farmer, one sees the constitution, with

the _facsimile_ autographs of its signers, framed and conspicuously hung

up. The reproach has been made, that it is not an original

instrument--that it is merely a translation of the Spanish Constitution

of 1812, a copy of the French Constitution of 1791, &c.; but it is none

the worse for that. Its framers at least had the wisdom to produce the

right thing at the right time, and by their resolution and determined

attitude to change a subject province into a free and independent state:

for, carefully guarded as it is, the union with Sweden is only a source

of strength and security.

One peculiarity of the Storthing is, that a majority of its members are,

and necessarily must be, farmers; whence Norway is sometimes nicknamed

the _Farmer State_. Naturally, they take very good care of their own

interests, one of their first steps being to abolish all taxes on landed

property; but in other respects I cannot learn that their rule is not as

equitable as that of most legislative bodies. Mügge, in his recently

published _Nordisches Bilderbuch_ (Northern Picture Book), gives an

account of a conversation which he had with a Swedish statesman on this

subject. The latter was complaining of the stubbornness and ignorance of

the Norwegian farmers. Mügge asked, (the remainder of the dialogue is

too good to be omitted):--

"The Storthing, then, consists of a majority of coarse and ignorant

people?"

STATESMAN. "I will not assert that. A certain practical understanding

cannot be denied to most of these farmers, and they often bestow on

their sons a good education before giving them the charge of the

paternal fields. One, therefore, finds in the country many accomplished

men: how could there be 700 students in Christiania, if there were not

many farmers' sons among them?"

AUTHOR. "But does this majority of farmers in the Storthing commit

absurdities? does it govern the country badly, burden it with debts or

enact unjust laws?"

STATESMAN. "That cannot exactly be admitted, although this majority

naturally gives its own interests the preference, and shapes the

government accordingly. The state has no debts; on the contrary, its

treasury is full, an abundance of silver, its bank-notes in demand,

order everywhere, and, as you see, an increase of prosperity, with a

flourishing commerce. Here lies a statement before me, according to

which, in the last six months alone, more than a hundred vessels have

been launched in different ports."

AUTHOR. "The Farmer-Legislature, then, as I remark, takes care of

itself, but is niggardly and avaricious when its own interests are not

concerned?"

STATESMAN. "It is a peculiar state of affairs. In very many respects

this reproach cannot be made against the farmers. If anything is to be

done for science, or for so-called utilitarian objects, they are always

ready to give money. If a deserving man is to be assisted, if means are

wanted for beneficial purposes, insane asylums, hospitals, schools, and

such like institutions, the Council of State is always sure that it will

encounter no opposition. On other occasions, however, these lords of the

land are as hard and tough as Norwegian pines, and button up their

pockets so tight that not a dollar drops out."

AUTHOR. "On what occasions?"

STATESMAN. "Why, you see (shrugging his shoulders), those farmers have

not the least _comprehension of statesmanship_! As soon as there is any

talk of appropriations for increasing the army, or the number of

officers, or the pay of foreign ministers, or the salaries of high

official persons, or anything of that sort, you can't do anything with

them."

AUTHOR. (To himself.) "God keep them a long time without a comprehension

of statesmanship! If I were a member of the Storthing, I would have as

thick a head as the rest of them."

On the 5th of September, Braisted and I took passage for Gottenburg, my

friend having already gone home by way of Kiel. We had a smooth sea and

an agreeable voyage, and awoke the next morning in Sweden. On the day

after our arrival, a fire broke out in the suburb of Haga, which

consumed thirteen large houses, and turned more than two hundred poor

people out of doors. This gave me an opportunity to see how fires are

managed here. It was full half an hour after the alarm-bell was rung

before the first engine began to play; the water had to be hauled from

the canal, and the machine, of a very small and antiquated pattern,

contributed little towards stopping the progress of the flames. The

intervention of a row of gardens alone saved the whole suburb from

destruction. There must have been from six to eight thousand spectators

present, scattered all over the rocky knolls which surround Gottenburg.

The fields were covered with piles of household furniture and clothing,

yet no guard seemed to be necessary for their protection, and the owners

showed no concern for their security.

There is a degree of confidence exhibited towards strangers in Sweden,

especially in hotels, at post-stations, and on board the inland

steamers, which tells well for the general honesty of the people. We

went on board the steamer _Werner_ on the morning of the 8th, but first

paid our passage two days afterwards, just before reaching Carlstad. An

account book hangs up in the cabin, in which each passenger enters the

number of meals or other refreshments he has had, makes his own bill and

hands over the amount to the stewardess. In posting, the _skjutsbonder_

very often do not know the rates, and take implicitly what the traveller

gives them. I have yet to experience the first attempt at imposition in

Sweden. The only instances I heard of were related to me by Swedes

themselves, a large class of whom make a point of depreciating their own

country and character. This habit of detraction is carried to quite as

great an extreme as the vanity of the Norwegians, and is the less

pardonable vice of the two.

It was a pleasant thing to hear again the musical Swedish tongue, and

to exchange the indifference and reserve of Norway for the friendly,

genial, courteous manner of Sweden. What I have said about the formality

and affectation of manners, and the rigidity of social etiquette, in the

chapters relating to Stockholm, was meant to apply especially to the

capital. Far be it from me to censure that natural and spontaneous

courtesy which is a characteristic of the whole people. The more I see

of the Swedes, the more I am convinced that there is no kinder, simpler,

and honester people in the world. With a liberal common school system, a

fairer representation, and release from the burden of a state church,

they would develop rapidly and nobly.

Our voyage from Gottenburg to Carlstad, on the Wener Lake, had but one

noteworthy point--the Falls of Trollhätten. Even had I not been fresh

from the Riukan-Foss, which was still flashing in my memory, I should

have been disappointed in this renowned cataract. It is not a single

fall, but four successive descents, within the distance of half a mile,

none of them being over twenty feet in perpendicular height. The Toppö

Fall is the only one which at all impressed me, and that principally

through its remarkable form. The huge mass of the Gotha River, squeezed

between two rocks, slides down a plane with an inclination of about 50°,

strikes a projecting rock at the bottom, and takes an upward curve,

flinging tremendous volumes of spray, or rather broken water, into the

air. The bright emerald face of the watery plane is covered with a

network of silver threads of shifting spray, and gleams of pale blue and

purple light play among the shadows of the rising globes of foam below.

CHAPTER XXXV.

A TRAMP THROUGH WERMELAND AND DALECARLIA.

On leaving Carlstad our route lay northward up the valley of the Klar

Elv, in the province of Wermeland, and thence over the hills, by way of

Westerdal, in Dalecarlia, to the head of the Siljan Lake. The greater

part of this region is almost unknown to travellers, and belongs to the

poorest and wildest parts of Sweden. We made choice of it for this

reason, that we might become acquainted with the people in their true

character, and compare them with the same class in Norway. Our heavy

luggage had all been sent on to Stockholm, in the charge of an Irish

friend, and we retained no more than could be carried easily in two

packs, as we anticipated being obliged to perform part of the journey on

foot.

It rained in torrents during the day we spent in Carlstad, and some

lumber merchants of Gottenburg, who were on their way to Fryxendal, to

superintend the getting down of their rafts, predicted that the deluge

would last an entire month. There was always a month of rainy weather at

this season they said, and we had better give up our proposed journey.

We trusted to our combined good luck however, and were not deceived,

for, with the exception of two days, we had charming weather during the

remainder of our stay in Sweden. Having engaged a two-horse cart for the

first post-station, we left Carlstad on the morning of the 11th of

September. The clouds were still heavy, but gradually rolled into

compacter masses, giving promise of breaking away. The city is built

upon a little island at the head of the lake, whence we crossed to the

mainland by a strong old bridge. Our road led eastward through a

slightly undulating country, where broad woods of fir and birch divided

the large, well cultivated farms. The _gårds_, or mansions, which we

passed, with their gardens and ornamental shrubbery, gave evidence of

comfort and competence. The people were in the harvest-fields, cutting

oats, which they piled upon stakes to dry. Every one we met saluted us

courteously, with a cheerful and friendly air, which was all the more

agreeable by contrast with the Norwegian reserve.

At the station, Prestegård, we procured a good breakfast of ham, eggs,

and potatoes, and engaged two carts to take us further. We now turned

northward over a lovely rolling country, watered with frequent

streams,--a land of soft outlines, of woods and swelling knolls, to

which the stately old houses gave an expression of contentment and

household happiness. At Deye we left our carts, shouldered our packs,

and trudged off on foot up the valley of the Klar Elv, which is here a

broad lazy stream, filled with tens of thousands of pine-logs, waiting

to be carried down to the Wener by the first freshet. The scenery

charmed us by its rich and quiet beauty; it was without grand or

striking features, but gently undulating, peaceful, and home-like. We

found walking very fatiguing in the hot sun, which blazed upon us all

the afternoon with a summer heat. The handsome residences and gardens,

which we occasionally passed, gave evidence of taste and refinement in

their possessors, and there was a pleasant grace in the courteous

greetings of the country people whom we met. Towards evening we reached

a post-station, and were tired enough to take horses again. It was after

dark before we drew up at Ohlsäter, in the heart of Wermeland. Here we

found a neat, comfortable room, with clean beds, and procured a supper

of superb potatoes. The landlord was a tall, handsome fellow, whose

friendly manners, and frank face, breathing honesty and kindness in

every lineament, quite won my heart. Were there more such persons in the

world, it would be a pleasanter place of residence.

We took horses and bone-shattering carts in the morning, for a distance

of thirteen miles up the valley of the Klar Elv. The country was very

picturesque and beautiful, well cultivated, and quite thickly settled.

The wood in the sheltered bed of the valley was of remarkably fine

growth; the birch trees were the largest I ever saw, some of them being

over one hundred feet in height. Comfortable residences, with orchards

and well-kept gardens attached, were quite frequent, and large sawmills

along the river, which in some places was entirely concealed by floating

rafts of lumber, gave an air of industry and animation to the landscape.

In one place the road was spanned, for a considerable distance, with

triumphal arches of foliage. I inquired the meaning of this display of

the boy who accompanied us. "Why," said he, "there was a wedding a week

ago, at the _herregård_ (gentleman's residence); the young Herr got

married, and these arches were put up for him and his bride." The

herregård, which we passed soon afterwards, was an imposing mansion,

upon an eminence overlooking the valley. Beside it was a _jernbruk_, or

iron-works, from which a tramway, some miles in length, led to the

mines.

Resuming our knapsacks, we walked on up the valley. The hills on either

side increased in height, and gloomed darkly under a threatening sky.

The aspect of the country gradually became wilder, though, wherever

there was cultivation, it bore the same evidence of thrift and

prosperity. After a steady walk of four hours, we reached the village of

Råda, where our road left the beautiful Klar Elv, and struck northwards

towards Westerdal, in Dalecarlia. We procured a dinner of potatoes and

bacon, with excellent ale, enjoying, meanwhile, a lovely view over a

lake to the eastward, which stretched away for ten miles between the

wooded hills. The evening was cold and raw: we drove through pine-woods,

around the head of the lake, and by six o'clock reached Asplund, a

miserable little hamlet on a dreary hill. The post-station was a forlorn

cottage with a single room, not of the most inviting appearance. I asked

if we could get quarters for the night. "If you _will_ stay, of course

you _can_," said the occupant, an old woman; "but there is no bed, and I

can get you horses directly to go on." It was a distance of thirteen

miles to the next station, but we yielded to the old woman's hint, and

set forward. The road led through woods, which seemed interminable. We

were jammed together into a little two-wheeled cart, with the boy

between our knees. He seemed much disinclined to hurry the horse, but

soon fell asleep, and one of us held him by the collar to prevent his

tumbling out, while the other took the lines, and urged on our slow

beast. The night was so dark that we had great difficulty in keeping the

road, but towards eleven o'clock we emerged from the woods, and found,

by shaking the boy, that we were approaching the station at last. This

was a little place called Laggasen, on the northern frontier of

Wermeland.

Everybody had gone to bed in the hut at which we stopped. We entered the

kitchen, which was at the same time the bedroom, and aroused the

inmates, who consisted of a lonely woman, with two or three children.

She got up in a very scanty chemise, lit a wooden splinter, and

inspected us, and, in answer to our demand for a bed, informed us that

we would have to lie upon the floor. We were about to do this, when she

said we could get good quarters at the _Nore_, on the top of the hill.

Her earnestness in persuading us to go made me suspect that she merely

wanted to get rid of us, and I insisted that she should accompany us to

show the way. After some hesitation she consented, and we set out. We

first crossed a broad swamp, on a road made of loose logs, then climbed

a hill, and trudged for some distance across stubble-fields, until my

patience was quite worn out, and Braisted made use of some powerful

maritime expressions. Finally, we reached a house, which we entered

without more ado. The close, stifling atmosphere, and the sound of hard

breathing on all sides, showed us that a whole family had been for some

hours asleep there. Our guide thumped on the door, and hailed, and at

length somebody awoke. "Can you give two travellers a bed?" she asked.

"No," was the comfortable reply, followed by the yell of an aroused baby

and the noises of the older children. We retreated at once, and opened a

battery of reproaches on the old woman for having brought us on a fool's

errand. "There is Ohlsen's," she replied, very quietly, "I think I can

get you a bed there." Whereupon we entered another house in the same

unceremonious manner, but with a better result. A plump, good-natured

housewife jumped out of bed, went to an opposite door, and thumped upon

it. "Lars!" she cried, "come out of that this minute!" As we entered,

with a torch of dry fir, Lars, who proved to be a middle-aged man, got

out of bed sleepily, picked up his clothes and marched off. The hostess

then brought clean sheets and pillow-cases, and by midnight we were

sweetly and blissfully stowed away together in the place vacated by poor

Lars.

Nothing could exceed the kindness and courtesy of the good people in the

morning. The hostess brought us coffee, and her son went off to get us a

horse and cart. She would make no charge, as we had had so little, she

said, and was quite grateful for the moderate sum I gave her. We had a

wild road over hills, covered with pine forests, through the breaks in

which we now and then caught a glimpse of a long lake to the westward,

shining with a steel-blue gleam in the morning sun. There were but few

clearings along the road, and miles frequently intervened without a sign

of human habitation. We met, however, with great numbers of travellers,

mostly farmers, with laden hay-carts. It was Sunday morning, and I could

not help contrasting these people with those we had seen on the same day

three weeks previous whilst crossing the Fille Fjeld. Here, every one

had evidently been washed and combed: the men wore clean shirts and

stockings, and the women chemises of snowy whiteness under their gay

boddices. They were mostly Dalecarlians, in the picturesque costume of

the province. We entered Dalecarlia on this stage, and the frank fresh

faces of these people, their unmistakable expression of honesty and

integrity, and the hearty cordiality of their greetings, welcomed us

delightfully to the storied ground of Sweden.

Towards noon we reached the village of Tyngsjö, a little settlement

buried in the heart of the wild woods. A mile or two of the southern

slope of a hill had been cleared away, and over this a number of dark

wooden farmhouses were scattered, with oats and potato-fields around

them. An odd little church stood in midst, and the rich swell of a hymn,

sung by sweet Swedish voices, floated to us over the fields as we drove

up to the post-station. The master, a tall, slender man, with yellow

locks falling upon his shoulders, and a face which might be trusted with

millions, welcomed us with a fine antique courtesy, and at once sent off

for horses. In a little while three farmers came, saluting us

gracefully, and standing bareheaded while they spoke to us. One of them,

who wore a dark brown jacket and knee-breeches, with a clean white shirt

and stockings, had a strikingly beautiful head. The face was a perfect

oval, the eyes large and dark, and the jet-black hair, parted on the

forehead, fell in silky waves upon his shoulders. He was as handsome and

graceful as one of Vandyk's cavaliers, and showed the born gentleman in

his demeanour. He proposed that we should take one horse, as it could

be gotten without delay, while two (which the law obliged us to take and

pay for, if the farmers chose), would have detained us an hour. As the

women were in church, the postmaster himself cooked us some freshly-dug

potatoes, which, with excellent butter, he set before us. "I have a kind

of ale," said he, "which is called porter; if you will try it, perhaps

you will like it." It was, in reality, so good, that we took a second

bottle with us for refreshment on the road. When I asked how much we

should pay, he said: "I don't think you should pay anything, there was

so little." "Well," said I, "It is worth at least half a rigsdaler."

"Oh, but that may be too much," he answered, hesitatingly.

Our postillion was a fine handsome fellow, so rosy and robust that it

made one feel stronger and healthier to sit beside him. He did not spare

the horse, which was a big, capable animal, and we rolled along through

endless forests of fir and pine as rapidly as the sandy road would

allow. After we had gone about eight miles he left us, taking a shorter

footpath through the woods. We guessed at our proper direction,

sometimes taking the wrong road, but finally, after two hours or more,

emerged from the woods into Westerdal, one of the two great valleys from

which Dalecarlia (_Dalarne_, or The Dales) takes its name. The day was

magnificent, clear, and with a cold north-east wind, resembling the

latter part of October at home. The broad, level valley, with its fields

and clustered villages, lay before us in the pale, cold autumnal

sunshine, with low blue hills bounding it in the distance. We met many

parties in carts, either returning from church, or on their way to visit

neighbours. All were in brilliant Sunday costume, the men in blue

jackets and knee-breeches, with vests of red or some other brilliant

colour, and the women with gay embroidered boddices, white sleeves, and

striped petticoats of blue, red, brown, and purple, and scarlet

stockings. Some of them wore, in addition, an outer jacket of snowy

sheepskin, with elaborate ornamental stitch-work on the back. Their

faces were as frank and cheerful as their dresses were tidy, and they

all greeted us with that spontaneous goodness of heart which recognises

a brother in every man. We had again taken a wrong road, and a merry

party carefully set us right again, one old lady even proposing to leave

her friends and accompany us, for fear we should go astray again.

We crossed the Westerdal by a floating bridge, and towards sunset

reached the inn of Rågsveden, our destination. It was a farmer's _gård_,

standing a little distance off the road. An entrance through one of the

buildings, closed with double doors, admitted us into the courtyard, a

hollow square, surrounded with two story wooden dwellings, painted dark

red. There seemed to be no one at home, but after knocking and calling

for a time an old man made his appearance. He was in his second

childhood, but knew enough to usher us into the kitchen and ask us to

wait for the landlord's arrival. After half an hour our postillion

arrived with four or five men in their gayest and trimmest costume, the

landlord among them. They immediately asked who and what we were, and we

were then obliged to give them an account of all our travels. Their

questions were shrewd and intelligent, and their manner of asking,

coupled as it was with their native courtesy, showed an earnest desire

for information, which we were most willing to gratify. By and by the

hostess came, and we were ushered into a very pleasant room, with two

beds, and furnished with a supper of fresh meat, potatoes, and mead. The

landlord and two or three of the neighbours sat with us before the fire

until we were too sleepy to answer any more questions. A more naturally

independent and manly bearing I have never seen than that of our host.

He was a tall, powerful man, of middle age, with very handsome features,

which were softened but not weakened in expression by his long blond

hair, parted on his forehead. He had the proper pride which belongs to

the consciousness of worth, and has no kinship with empty vanity. "We

have come to Dalecarlia to see the descendants of the people who gave

Gustavus Vasa his throne," said I, curious to see whether he would

betray any signs of flattered pride. His blue eye flashed a little, as

he sat with his hands clasped over one knee, gazing at the fire, a light

flush ran over his temples--but he said nothing. Some time ago a

proposition was made to place a portrait of Gustavus Vasa in the church

at Mora. "No," said the Dalecarlians, "we will not have it: we do not

need any picture to remind us of what our fathers have done."

The landlady was a little woman, who confessed to being forty-nine years

old, although she did not appear to be more than forty. "I have had a

great deal of headache," said she, "and I look much older than I am."

Her teeth were superb, as were those of all the women we saw. I do not

suppose a tooth-brush is known in the valley; yet the teeth one sees are

perfect pearls. The use of so much sour milk is said to preserve them.

There was a younger person in the house, whom we took to be a girl of

sixteen, but who proved to be the son's wife, a woman of twenty-six, and

the mother of two or three children. The Dalecarlians marry young when

they are able, but even in opposite cases they rarely commit any

violation of the laws of morality. Instances are frequent, I was told,

where a man and woman, unable to defray the expense of marriage, live

together for years in a state of mutual chastity, until they have saved

a sum sufficient to enable them to assume the responsibilities of

married life. I know there is no honester, and I doubt whether there is

a purer, people on the earth than these Dalecarlians.

We awoke to another glorious autumnal day. The valley was white with

frost in the morning, and the air deliciously keen and cold; but after

sunrise heavy white vapours arose from the spangled grass, and the day

gradually grew milder. I was amused at the _naïve_ curiosity of the

landlady and her daughter-in-law, who came into our room very early,

that they might see the make of our garments and our manner of dressing.

As they did not appear to be conscious of any impropriety, we did not

think it necessary to feel embarrassed. Our Lapland journey had taught

us habits of self-possession under such trying circumstances. We had

coffee, paid an absurdly small sum for our entertainment, and took a

cordial leave of the good people. A boy of fifteen, whose eyes, teeth

and complexion kept my admiration on the stretch during the whole stage,

drove us through unbroken woods to Skamhed, ten miles further down the

valley. Here the inn was a little one story hut, miserable to behold

externally, but containing a neat guest's room and moreover, as we

discovered in the course of time--a good breakfast. While we were

waiting there, a man came up who greeted us in the name of our Lord

Jesus Christ, on learning that we came from America. "Are you not afraid

to travel so far from home?" he asked: "how could you cross the great

sea?" "Oh," I answered, "there is no more danger in one part of the

world than another." "Yes," said he, "God is as near on the water as on

the land"--unconsciously repeating the last words of Sir Humphrey

Gilbert: "Christ walked upon the waves and quieted them, and he walks

yet, for them that believe in Him." Hereupon he began repeating some

hymns, mingled with texts of Scripture, which process he continued until

we became heartily tired. I took him at a venture, for an

over-enthusiastic _Läsare_, or "Reader," the name given to the Swedish

dissenters.

We had a station of twenty three miles before us, to the village of

Landbobyn, which lies in the wooded wilderness between Osterdal and

Westerdal. Our postillion, a fine young fellow of twenty-two, over six

feet in height, put on his best blue jacket and knee-breeches, with a

leather apron reaching from his shoulders to below his knees. This is an

article worn by almost all Dalecarlians for the purpose of saving their

clothes while at work, and gives them an awkward and ungraceful air.

This fellow, in spite of a little fear at the bare idea, expressed his

willingness to go with us all over the world, but the spirit of

wandering was evidently so easy to be kindled in him, that I rather

discouraged him. We had a monotonous journey of five hours through a

forest of pine, fir, and birch, in which deer and elk are frequently

met with; while the wolf and the bear haunt its remoter valleys. The

ground was but slightly undulating, and the scenery in general was as

tame as it was savage.

Landbobyn was a wretched hamlet on the banks of a stream, with a few

cleared fields about it. As the sun had not yet set, we determined to

push on to Kettbo, eight or ten miles further, and engaged a boy to

pilot us through the woods. The post-station was a miserable place,

where we found it impossible to get anything to eat. I sat down and

talked with the family while our guide recruited himself with a large

dish of thick sour milk. "Why do you travel about the earth?" asked his

mother: "is it that you may spy out the poverty of the people and see

how miserably they live?" "No," said I, "it is that I may become

acquainted with the people, whether they are poor or not." "But," she

continued, "did you ever see a people poorer than we?" "Often," said I;

"because you are contented, and no one can be entirely poor who does not

complain." She shook her head with a sad smile and said nothing.

Our guide poled us across the river in a rickety boat, and then plunged

into the woods. He was a tall, well grown boy of fifteen or sixteen,

with a beautiful oval face, long fair hair parted in the middle and

hanging upon his shoulders, and a fine, manly, resolute expression. With

his jacket, girdle, knee-breeches, and the high crowned and broad

brimmed felt hat he wore, he reminded me strongly of the picture of

Gustavus Vasa in his Dalecarlian disguise, in the cathedral of Upsala.

He was a splendid walker, and quite put me, old pedestrian as I am, out

of countenance. The footpath we followed was terribly rough; we

stumbled over stock and stone, leaped fallen trees, crossed swamps on

tussocks of spongy moss, and climbed over heaps of granite boulders:

yet, while we were panting and exhausted with our exertions to keep pace

with him, he walked onward as quietly and easily as if the smoothest

meadow turf were under his feet. I was quite puzzled by the speed he

kept up on such a hard path, without seeming to put forth any extra

strength. At sunset he pointed out some clearings on a hill side over

the tree tops, a mile or two ahead, as our destination. Dusk was

gathering as we came upon a pretty lake, with a village scattered along

its hilly shore. The post-station, however, was beyond it, and after

some delay the boy procured a boat and rowed us across. Telling us to go

up the hill and we should find the inn, he bade us good bye and set out

on his return.

We soon reached a _gård_, the owner whereof, after satisfying his

curiosity concerning us by numerous questions, informed us that the inn

was still further. After groping about in the dark for awhile, we found

it. The landlord and his wife were sitting before the fire, and seemed,

I thought, considerably embarrassed by our arrival. There was no bed,

they said, and they had nothing that we could eat; their house was

beyond the lake, and they only came over to take charge of the

post-station when their turn arrived. We were devoured with hunger and

thirst, and told them we should be satisfied with potatoes and a place

on the floor. The wife's brother, who came in soon afterwards, was

thereupon despatched across the lake to bring coffee for us, and the

pleasant good-wife put our potatoes upon the fire to boil. We lit our

pipes, meanwhile, and sat before the fire, talking with our host and

some neighbours who came in. They had much to ask about America, none of

them having ever before seen a native of that country. Their questions

related principally to the cost of living, to the value of labour, the

price of grain, the climate and productions, and the character of our

laws. They informed me that the usual wages in Dalecarlia were 24

skillings (13 cents) a day, and that one _tunne_ (about 480 lbs.) of rye

cost 32 _rigsdaler_ ($8.37-1/2). "No doubt you write descriptions of

your travels?" asked the landlord. I assented. "And then, perhaps, you

make books of them?" he continued: whereupon one of the neighbours

asked, "But do you get any money for your books?"

The potatoes were finally done, and they, with some delicious milk,

constituted our supper. By this time the brother had returned, bringing

with him coffee, a pillow, and a large coverlet made entirely of

cat-skins. A deep bed of hay was spread upon the floor, a coarse linen

sheet thrown over it, and, with the soft fur covering, we had a

sumptuous bed. About midnight we were awakened by an arrival. Two

tailors, one of them hump-backed, on their way to Wermeland, came in,

with a tall, strong woman as postillion. The fire was rekindled, and

every thing which the landlord had extracted from us was repeated to the

new comers, together with a very genial criticism upon our personal

appearance and character. After an hour or two, more hay was brought in

and the two tailors and the postillioness lay down side by side. We had

barely got to sleep again, when there was another arrival. "I am the

post-girl," said a female voice. Hereupon everybody woke up, and the

story of the two foreign travellers was told over again. In the course

of the conversation I learned that the girl carried the post twenty

English miles once a week, for which she received 24 _rigs_ ($6.25)

annually. "It is a hard business," said the hump-backed tailor. "Yes;

but I am obliged to do it," answered the girl. After her departure we

were not again disturbed, and managed to get some sleep at last.

We all completed our toilettes in the same room, without the least

embarrassment; and, with a traveller's curiosity, I may be pardoned for

noticing the general bodily cleanliness of my various bed-fellows,

especially as the city Swedes are in the habit of saying that the

country people are shockingly dirty. We had coffee, and made

arrangements with the girl who had brought the tailors to take us back

in her cart. Our host would make no charge for the bed, and next to

nothing for our fare, so I put a bank-note in the hand of little Pehr,

his only child, telling him to take care of it, and spend it wisely when

he grew up. The delight of the good people knew no bounds. Pehr must

hold up his little mouth to be kissed, again and again; the mother shook

us warmly by the hand, and the father harnessed his horse and started

with us. May the blessing of God be upon all poor, honest, and contented

people!

Our road led between wooded hills to the Siljan-Forss, a large

iron-foundry upon a stream which flows into the Siljan Lake. It was a

lovely morning, and our postillion who was a woman of good sense and

some intelligence, chatted with me the whole way. She was delighted to

find that we could so easily make ourselves understood. "When I saw you

first in the night," said she, "I thought you must certainly be Swedes.

All the foreigners I saw in Stockholm had something dark and cloudy in

their countenances, but both of you have shining faces." She questioned

me a great deal about the sacred localities of Palestine, and about the

state of religion in America. She evidently belonged to the _Läsare_,

who, she stated, were very numerous in Dalecarlia. "It is a shame," said

she, "that we poor people are obliged to pay so much for the support of

the Church, whether we belong to it or not. Our taxes amount to 40

_rigs_ yearly, ten of which, in Mora parish, go to the priest. They say

he has an income of half a _rigs_ every hour of his life. King Oscar

wishes to make religion free, and so it ought to be, but the clergy are

all against him, and the clergy control the _Bondestånd_ (House of

Peasants), and so he can do nothing." The woman was thirty-one years

old, and worn with hard labour. I asked her if she was married. "No,"

she answered, with a deep sigh, looking at the betrothal-ring on her

finger. "Ah," she continued, "we are all poor, Sweden is a poor country;

we have only iron and timber, not grain, and cotton, and silk, and

sugar, like other countries."

As we descended towards the post-station of Vik we caught a glimpse of

the Siljan Lake to the south, and the tall tower of Mora Church, far to

the eastward. At Vik, where we found the same simple and honest race of

people, we parted with the postillioness and with our host of Kettbo,

who thanked us again in Pehr's name, as he shook hands for the last

time. We now had fast horses, and a fine road over a long wooded hill,

which was quite covered with the _lingon_, or Swedish cranberry. From

the further slope we at last looked down upon Mora, at the head of the

Siljan Lake, in the midst of a broad and fertile valley. Ten miles to

the eastward arose the spire of Orsa, and southward, on an island in the

lake, the tall church of Sollerön. "You can see three churches at once,"

said our postillion with great pride. So we could, and also the large,

stately inn of Mora--a most welcome sight to us, after five days on

potato diet.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

LAST DAYS IN THE NORTH.

Mora, in Dalecarlia, is classic ground. It was here that Gustavus Vasa

first harangued the people, and kindled that spark of revolution, which

in the end swept the Danes from Sweden. In the cellar of a house which

was pointed out to us, on the southern shore of the Siljan Lake, he lay

hidden three days; in the barn of Ivan Elfssen he threshed corn,

disguised as a peasant; and on the road by which we had travelled from

Kettbo, in descending to the lake, we had seen the mounds of stone,

heaped over the Danes, who were slain in his first victorious

engagement. This district is considered, also, one of the most beautiful

in Sweden. It has, indeed, a quiet, tranquil beauty, which gradually

grows upon the eye, so that if one is not particularly aroused on first

acquaintance, he at least carries away a delightful picture in his

memory. But in order to enjoy properly any Swedish landscape whatsoever,

one should not be too fresh from Norway.

After dinner we called at the "Parsonage of Mora," which has given Miss

Fredrika Bremer the materials for one of her stories of Swedish life.

The _Prost_, Herr Kjelström, was not at home, but his wife received us

with great cordiality, and insisted upon our remaining to tea. The

magister----, who called at the same time, gave us some information

concerning the porphyry quarries at Elfdal, which we were debating

whether we should visit. Very little is doing at present, not more than

ten men in all being employed, and in his opinion we would hardly be

repaid for the journey thither; so we determined to turn southward

again, and gradually make our way to Stockholm. Fru Kjelström was one of

the few Swedes I met, who was really an enthusiastic admirer of Tegner;

she knew by heart the greater part of his "Frithiof's Saga."

The morning after our arrival in Mora dawned dark and cloudy, with a

wailing wind and dashes of rain. There were threats of the equinoctial

storm, and we remembered the prediction of the lumber merchants in

Carlstad. During the night, however, a little steamer belonging to an

iron company arrived, offering us the chance of a passage down the lake

to Leksand. While we were waiting on the shore, the magister, who had

come to see us depart, gave me some information about the Läsare. He

admitted that there were many in Dalecarlia, and said that the policy of

persecution, which was practiced against them in the beginning, was now

dropped. They were, in general, ignored by the clerical authorities. He

looked upon the movement rather as a transient hallucination than as a

permanent secession from the Established Church, and seemed to think

that it would gradually disappear, if left to itself. He admitted that

the king was in favour of religious liberty, but was so guarded in

speaking of the subject that I did not ascertain his own views.

We had on board about sixty passengers, mostly peasants from Upper

Elfdal, bound on a peddling excursion through Sweden, with packs of

articles which they manufacture at home. Their stock consisted mostly of

pocket-books, purses, boxes, and various small articles of ornament and

use. The little steamer was so well laden with their solid forms that

she settled into the mud, and the crew had hard poling to get her off.

There was service in Mora Church, and the sound of the organ and choir

was heard along the lake. Many friends and relatives of the wandering

Elfdalians were on the little wooden pier to bid them adieu. "God's

peace be with thee!" was a parting salutation which I heard many times

repeated. At last we got fairly clear and paddled off through the

sepia-coloured water, watching the softly undulating shores, which soon

sank low enough to show the blue, irregular hills in the distant

background. Mora spire was the central point in the landscape, and

remained visible until we had nearly reached the other end of the lake.

The Siljan has a length of about twenty-five miles, with a breadth of

from six to ten. The shores are hilly, but only moderately high, except

in the neighborhood of Rättvik, where they were bold and beautiful. The

soft slopes on either hand were covered with the yellow pillars of the

ripe oats, bound to upright stakes to dry. From every village rose a

tall midsummer pole, yet laden with the withered garlands of Sweden's

fairest festival, and bearing aloft its patriotic symbol, the crossed

arrows of Dalecarlia. The threatened storm broke and dispersed as we

left Mora, and strong sun-bursts between the clouds flashed across

these pastoral pictures.

Soon after we left, a number of the men and women collected together on

the after-deck, and commenced singing hymns, which occupation they kept

up with untiring fervour during the whole voyage. The young girls were

remarkable for weight and solidity of figure, ugliness of face, and

sweetness of voice. The clear, ringing tones, with a bell-like purity

and delicious _timbre_, issued without effort from between their thick,

beefy lips, and there was such a contrast between sound and substance,

that they attracted my attention more than I should have thought

possible. Some of the men, who had heard what we were, entered into

conversation with us. I soon discovered that they were all Läsare, and

one of them, who seemed to exercise a kind of leadership, and who was a

man of considerable intelligence, gave me a good deal of information

about the sect. They met together privately, he said, to read the New

Testament, trusting entirely to its inspired pages for the means of

enlightenment as to what was necessary for the salvation of their souls.

The clergy stood between them and the Voice of God, who had spoken not

to a particular class, but to all mankind. They were liable to a fine of

200 _rigs_ ($52) every time they thus met together, my informant had

once been obliged to pay it himself. Nevertheless, he said they were not

interfered with so much at present, except that they were obliged to pay

tithes, as before. "The king is a good man," he continued, "he means

well, and would do us justice if he had the power; but the clergy are

all against him, and his own authority is limited. Now they are going

to bring the question of religious freedom before the Diet, but we have

not the least hope that anything will be done." He also stated--what,

indeed, must be evident to every observing traveller--that the doctrines

of the Läsare had spread very rapidly, and that their numbers were

continually increasing.

The creation of such a powerful dissenting body is a thing that might

have been expected. The Church, in Sweden, had become a system of forms

and ceremonies. The pure spiritualism of Swedenborg, in the last

century, was a natural and gigantic rebound to the opposite extreme,

but, from its lofty intellectuality, was unfitted to be the nucleus of a

popular protest. Meanwhile, the souls of the people starved on the dry

husks which were portioned out to them. They needed genuine nourishment.

They are an earnest, reflective race, and the religious element is

deeply implanted in their nature. The present movement, so much like

Methodism in many particulars, owes its success to the same genial and

all-embracing doctrine of an impartial visitation of Divine grace,

bringing man into nearer and tenderer relations to his Maker. In a word,

it is the democratic, opposed to the aristocratic principle in religion.

It is fashionable in Sweden to sneer at the Läsare; their numbers,

character, and sincerity are very generally under-estimated. No doubt

there is much that is absurd and grotesque in their services; no doubt

they run into violent and unchristian extremes, and often merely

substitute fanaticism for spiritual apathy; but I believe they will in

the end be the instrument of bestowing religious liberty upon Sweden.

There was no end to the desire of these people for knowledge. They

overwhelmed us with questions about our country, its government, laws,

climate, productions and geographical extent. Next to America, they

seemed most interested in Palestine, and considered me as specially

favoured by Providence in having beheld Jerusalem. They all complained

of the burdens which fall upon a poor man in Sweden, in the shape of

government taxes, tithes, and the obligation of supporting a portion of

the army, who are distributed through the provinces. Thus Dalecarlia,

they informed me, with a population of 132,000, is obliged to maintain

1200 troops. The tax on land corresponded very nearly with the statement

made by my female postillion the previous day. Dalecarlia, its mines

excepted, is one of the poorest of the Swedish provinces. Many of its

inhabitants are obliged to wander forth every summer, either to take

service elsewhere, or to dispose of the articles they fabricate at home,

in order, after some years of this irregular life, to possess enough to

enable them to pass the rest of their days humbly at home. Our

fellow-passengers told me of several who had emigrated to America, where

they had spent five or six years. They grew home-sick at last, and

returned to their chilly hills. But it was not the bleak fir-woods, the

oat-fields, or the wooden huts which they missed; it was the truth, the

honesty, the manliness, and the loving tenderness which dwell in

Dalecarlian hearts.

We had a strong wind abeam, but our little steamer made good progress

down the lake. The shores contracted, and the white church of Leksand

rose over the dark woods, and between two and three o'clock in the

afternoon, we were moored in the Dal River, where it issues from the

Siljan. The Elfdal peddlers shouldered their immense packs and set out,

bidding us a friendly adieu as we parted. After establishing ourselves

in the little inn, where we procured a tolerable dinner, we called upon

the _Domprost_ Hvasser, to whom I had a letter from a countryman who

made a pedestrian journey through Dalecarlia five years ago. The

parsonage was a spacious building near the church, standing upon the

brink of a lofty bank overlooking the outflow of the Dal. The Domprost,

a hale, stout old man, with something irresistibly hearty and cheering

in his manner, gave us both his hands and drew us into the room, on

seeing that we were strangers. He then proceeded to read the letter.

"Ho!" he exclaimed, "to think that he has remembered me all this time!

And he has not forgotten that it was just midsummer when he was here!"

Presently he went out, and soon returned with a basket in one hand and

some plates in the other, which he placed before us and heaped with fine

ripe cherries. "Now it is autumn," said he; "it is no longer midsummer,

but we have a little of the summer's fruit left." He presented us to his

sister and daughter, and to two handsome young magisters, who assisted

him in his parochial duties.

We walked in the garden, which was laid out with some taste along the

brow of the hill. A superb drooping birch, eighty feet in height, was

the crowning glory of the place. The birch is the characteristic tree of

Sweden, as the fir is of Norway, the beech of Denmark, the oak of

England and Germany, the chestnut of Italy, and the palm of Esrypt. Of

northern trees, there is none more graceful in outline, but in the cold,

silvery hue of its foliage, summer can never find her best expression.

The parson had a neat little bowling-alley, in a grove of pine, on a

projecting spur of the hill. He did not disdain secular recreations; his

religion was cheerful and jubilant; he had found something else in the

Bible than the Lamentations of Jeremiah. There are so many Christians

who--to judge from the settled expression of their faces--suffer under

their belief, that it is a comfort to find those who see nothing

heretical in the fullest and freest enjoyment of life. There was an

apple-tree in the garden which was just bursting into blossoms for the

second time. I called the Domprost's attention to it, remarking, in a

line from Frithiof's Saga:--"_Hösten bjuder sin thron til varen_"

(Autumn offers his throne to the spring). "What!" he exclaimed in joyful

surprise, "do you know Tegner?" and immediately continued the quotation.

There was no resisting the hospitable persuasions of the family; we were

obliged to take supper and spend the evening with them. The daughter and

the two magisters sang for us all the characteristic songs of Wermeland

and Dalecarlia which they could remember, and I was more than ever

charmed with the wild, simple, original character of the native melodies

of Sweden. They are mostly in the minor key, and some of them might

almost be called monotonous; yet it is monotony, or rather simplicity,

in the notation, which sticks to the memory. The longings, the regrets,

the fidelity, and the tenderness of the people, find an echo in these

airs, which have all the character of improvisations, and rekindle in

the heart of the hearer the passions they were intended to relieve.

We at last took leave of the good old man and his friendly household.

The night was dark and rainy, and the magisters accompanied us to the

inn. In the morning it was raining dismally,--a slow, cold, driving

rain, which is the climax of bad weather. We determined, however, to

push onward as far as Fahlun, the capital of Dalecarlia, about four

Swedish miles distant. Our road was down the valley of the Dal Elv,

which we crossed twice on floating bridges, through a very rich,

beautiful, and thickly settled country. The hills were here higher and

bolder than in Westerdal, dark with forests of fir and pine, and swept

south-eastward in long ranges, leaving a broad, open valley for the

river to wander in. This valley, from three to five miles in width, was

almost entirely covered with enclosed fields, owing to which the road

was barred with gates, and our progress was much delayed thereby. The

houses were neat and substantial, many of them with gardens and orchards

attached, while the unusual number of the barns and granaries gave

evidence of a more prosperous state of agriculture than we had seen

since leaving the neighborhood of Carlstad. We pressed forward in the

rain and raw wind, and reached Fahlun towards evening, just in time to

avoid a drenching storm.

Of the celebrated copper-mines of Fahlun, some of which have been worked

for 600 years, we saw nothing. We took their magnitude and richness for

granted, on the strength of the immense heaps of dross through which we

drove on approaching the town, and the desolate appearance of the

surrounding country, whose vegetation has been for the most part

destroyed by the fumes from the smelting works. In our sore and sodden

condition, we were in no humour to go sight seeing, and so sat

comfortably by the stove, while the rain beat against the windows, and

the darkness fell. The next morning brought us a renewal of the same

weather, but we set out bravely in our open cart, and jolted over the

muddy roads with such perseverance, that we reached Hedemora at night.

The hills diminished in height as we proceeded southward, but the

scenery retained its lovely pastoral character. My most prominent

recollection of the day's travel, however, is of the number of gates our

numb and blue-faced boy-postillions were obliged to jump down and open.

From Hedemora, a journey of two days through the provinces of Westerås

and Uppland, brought us to Upsala. After leaving Dalecarlia and crossing

the Dal River for the fifth and last time, the country gradually sank

into those long, slightly rolling plains, which we had traversed last

winter, between Stockholm and Gefle. Here villages were more frequent,

but the houses had not the same air of thrift and comfort as in

Dalecarlia. The population also changed in character, the faces we now

saw being less bright, cheerful, and kindly, and the forms less tall and

strongly knit.

We had very fair accommodations, at all the post-stations along the

road, and found the people everywhere honest and obliging. Still, I

missed the noble simplicity which I had admired so much in the natives

of Westerdal, and on the frontier of Wermeland,--the unaffected kindness

of heart, which made me look upon every man as a friend.

The large town of Sala, where we spent a night, was filled with

fugitives from Upsala, where the cholera was making great ravages. The

violence of the disease was over by the time we arrived; but the

students, all of whom had left, had not yet returned, and the fine old

place had a melancholy air. The first thing we saw on approaching it,

was a funeral. Professor Bergfalk, who had remained at his post, and to

whom I had letters, most kindly gave me an entire day of his time. I saw

the famous _Codex argenteus_, in the library, the original manuscript of

Frithiof's Saga, the journals of Swedenborg and Linnæus, the Botanical

Garden, and the tombs of Gustavus Vasa and John III. in the cathedral.

But most interesting of all was our drive to Old Upsala, where we

climbed upon the mound of Odin, and drank mead out of the silver-mounted

drinking horn, from which Bernadotte, Oscar, and the whole royal family

of Sweden, are in the habit of drinking when they make a pilgrimage to

the burial place of the Scandinavian gods.

A cold, pale, yellow light lay upon the landscape; the towers of Upsala

Cathedral, and the massive front of the palace, rose dark against the

sky, in the south-west; a chill autumnal wind blew over the plains, and

the yellowing foliage of the birch drifted across the mysterious mounds,

like those few golden leaves of poetry, which the modern bards of the

North have cast upon the grave of the grand, muscular religion of the

earlier race. There was no melodious wailing in the wind, like that

which proclaimed "Pan is dead!" through the groves of Greece and Ionia;

but a cold rustling hiss, as if the serpent of Midgard were exulting

over the ruin of Walhalla. But in the stinging, aromatic flood of the

amber-coloured mead, I drank to Odin, to Balder, and to Freja.

We reached Stockholm on the 22nd of September, in the midst of a furious

gale, accompanied with heavy squalls of snow--the same in which the

Russian line-of-battle ship "_Lefort_," foundered in the Gulf of

Finland. In the mild, calm, sunny, autumn days which followed, the

beautiful city charmed us more than ever, and I felt half inclined to

take back all I had said against the place, during the dismal weather of

last spring. The trees in the Djurgård and in the islands of Mälar, were

still in full foliage; the Dalecarlian boatwomen plied their crafts in

the outer harbour; the little garden under the Norrbro was gay with

music and lamps every evening; and the brief and jovial summer life of

the Swedes, so near its close, clung to the flying sunshine, that not a

moment might be suffered to pass by unenjoyed.

In another week we were standing on the deck of the Prussian steamer

"_Nagler_," threading the rocky archipelago between Stockholm and the

open Baltic on our way to Stettin. In leaving the North, after ten

months of winter and summer wanderings, and with scarce a hope of

returning again, I found myself repeating, over and over again, the

farewell of Frithiof:--

"_Farväl, J fjällar,

Der äran bor;

J runohällar,

För väldig Thor;

J blåa sjöar,

Jag känt så väl;

J skär och öar,_

_Farväl, farväl!_"

THE END.

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Washington Illustrations,

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Portraits.

ADAMS, JOHN, MUNROE, JAMES,

ANDRE, MAJOR, PAULDING, JOHN,

ARNOLD, GEN., PHILLIPSE, MISS,

BURGOYNE, GEN., PUTNAM, ISRAEL,

CLINTON, GEO., ROCHAMBEAU, COUNT,

CLINTON, JAMES, SCHUYLER, GEN.,

CLINTON, SIR HENRY, STARK, GEN.,

CORNWALLIS, LORD, ST. CLAIR, GEN.,

ELLSWORTH, OLIVER, STEUBEN, BARON,

GATES, GEN., SULLIVAN, GEN.,

GLOVER, GEN., SUMPTER, GEN.,

GREENE, GEN., STERLING, LORD,

HAMILTON, ALEX., THOMAS, GEN.,

HOWE, SIR WM., WASHINGTON AT 25,

JAY, JOHN. WASHINGTON AT 40, BY C. W. PEALE

JEFFERSON, THOS., WASHINGT'N, BY TRUMBULL,

KING, RUFUS, WASHINGTON, BY PINE,

KNOX, HENRY, WASHINGT'N, BY WERTMULLER,

KOSCIUSKO, WASHINGTON, BY P. PEALE

LEE, HENRY, WASHINGTON, BY STUART,

LEE, CHARLES, WASHINGTON MONUMENT, BY H. K. BROWN,

LAFAYETTE, WASHINGTON MONUMENT, BY CRAWFORD,

LIVINGSTON, R. R., WASHINGTON BUST, BY HOUDON,

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MARION, GEN., WARD, ARTEMAS, GEN.

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MORRIS, GOVERNEUR, WASHINGTON, WM.,

MORRIS, ROBT., WOLCOTT, OLIVER,

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SITE OF WASHINGTON'S BIRTHPLACE, NEW YORK IN 1768,

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MOUNT VERNON, Front View, BAY OF NEW YORK,

(Vignette), PHILLIPSE MANOR HOUSE,

BRADDOCK'S BATTLE FIELD, WEST POINT IN 1780,

LAKE CHAMPLAIN--MILLER, HEAD QUARTERS AT TAPPAN,

LAKE GEORGE--MILLER HEAD QUARTERS AT NEWBURGH,

VALENTINE'S HILL, OLD CITY HALL, NEW YORK.

Historical Scenes.

WASHINGTON AS A SURVEYOR--DARLEY. BATTLE OF PRINCETON--TRUMBULL.

WASHINGT'N AT FORT NECESSITY-- SCENE IN FARM HOUSE--McNEVIN.

McNEVIN SURRENDER OF BURGOYNE--TRUMBULL.

WASHINGTON AT WINCHESTER--DARLEY. BATTLE OF GERMANTOWN--

WASHINGTON IN DISMAL SWAMP-- SCHUESSELLE

McNEVIN. WASHINGTON AT VALLEY FORGE--

WASHINGTON'S FIELD SPORTS-- DARLEY.

DARLEY. WASHINGT'N AND LEE AT MONMOUTH--

WASHINGTON GOING TO CONGRESS-- DARLEY.

DARLEY. WASHINGTON TAKING LEAVE OF HIS

FORTIFYING BUNKER HILL--DARLEY. OFFICERS--DARLEY.

WASHINGTON SUBDUING CAMP BRAWL. WASHINGTON'S INAUGURATION--

ARRIVAL OF KNOX--DARLEY. DARLEY

DECLARAT'N OF INDEPENDENCE. WASHINGTON RESIGNING HIS COMMISSION--

CROSSING THE DELAWARE--DARLEY. TRUMBULL.

BATTLE OF TRENTON--SCHUESSELLE.

_IN PRESS._

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Voyages to Various Parts of the World.

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History of American Privateers.

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A Manual of Political Economy.

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+----------------------------------------------------+

| Transcriber's Note: |

| |

| Some inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in |

| the original document have been preserved. |

| |

| Periods added to dollar amounts |

| |

| Typographical errors corrected in the text: |

| |

| Page xii Guldbrandsde changed to Guldbrandsdal |

| Page xiii FINNARK changed to FINMARK |

| Page 13 Lubeck changed to Lübeck |

| Page 15 afterward changed to afterwards |

| Page 15 laboriously changed to labouriously |

| Page 19 Tornea changed to Torneå |

| Page 24 decended changed to descended |

| Page 25 labor changed to labour |

| Page 30 Freya changed to Freja |

| Page 33 fiord changed to fjord |

| Page 39 Trondjem changed to Trondhjem |

| Page 47 Angesjö changed to Angesjö |

| Page 57 Skelefteå changed to Skellefteå |

| Page 61 Pitea changed to Piteå |

| Page 62 dosed changed to dozed |

| Page 65 Tornea changed to Torneå |

| Page 74 civilized changed to civilised |

| Page 75 Muonioniski changed to Muonioniska |

| Page 109 conducter changed to conductor |

| Page 110 Muonivara changed to Muoniovara |

| Page 119 Lippivara changed to Lippavara |

| Page 127 civilization changed to civilisation |

| Page 129 fiord changed to fjord |

| Page 144 labor changed to labour |

| Page 147 plateaux changed to plateaus |

| Page 149 Lippajärva changed to Lippajärvi |

| Page 149 Palajock changed to Palajok |

| Page 152 civilized changed to civilised |

| Page 156 drunkeness changed to drunkenness |

| Page 157 cotemporary changed to contemporary |

| Page 160 Isaki changed to Isaaki |

| Page 162 civilization changed to civilisation |

| Page 166 Jokijalki changed to Jokijalka |

| Page 173 Korpykilä changed to Korpililä |

| Page 179 Mansbyn changed to Månsbyn |

| Page 189 Skelefteå changed to Skellefteå |

| Page 223 cotemporary changed to contemporary |

| Page 248 radient changed to radiant |

| Page 250 odors changed to odours |

| Page 259 Romdal's changed to Romsdal's |

| Page 286 Dronthiem changed to Drontheim |

| Page 287 Dronthiem changed to Drontheim |

| Page 310 lagest changed to largest |

| Page 313 Tromsö changed to Tromsöe |

| Page 328 heartly changed to heartily |

| Page 330 DRONTHIEM changed to DRONTHEIM |

| Page 330 Dronthiem changed to Drontheim |

| Page 336 practised changed to practiced |

| Page 342 naive changed to naïve |

| Page 343 civilization changed to civilisation |

| Page 353 lifve changed to lifvet |

| Page 360 daguerrotypes changed to daguerreotypes |

| Page 361 bodice changed to boddice |

| Page 364 inn-door changed to in-door |

| Page 366 Naerdöl changed to Naerödal |

| Page 368 except changed to expect |

| Page 372 labryrinthine changed to labyrinthine |

| Page 377 Hemsedel changed to Hemsedal |

| Page 378 Bjöborg changed to Bjöberg |

| Page 381 Naes changed to Næs |

| Page 393 quickeuing changed to quickening |

| Page 406 develope changed to develop |

| Page 407 Westerdale changed to Westerdal |

| Page 410 herregåra changed to herregård |

| Page 411 nothern changed to northern |

| Page 413 unmistakeable changed to unmistakable |

| Page 430 Sijan changed to Siljan |

| Page 431 nothern changed to northern |

| Page 431 pedlers changed to peddlers |

| Page 436 practised changed to practiced |

| Page 443 SURRENDERR changed to SURRENDER |

+----------------------------------------------------+