The woman, and some children, were staying there. sæter is built of wood, and of the usual size. We paid the woman four skillings, for allowing Ole to boil our water at the sœter.

It appears that Messrs. Boyson and Harrison stayed at the Fleskedal Soter one night, with three other gentlemen going to Lyster. We were told that for one bed, for two of the party, the other three sleeping as they could, and for some fladbröd, butter, and milk, they were charged two specie dollars, or nine shillings English money, when they left. An English gentleman, accompanied by a reindeer hunter, came to the Fleskedal Soeter the day before we arrived, and stayed all night. Early in the morning he had shot a reindeer in the mountains.

The English sportsman returned to the soeter for a pony, but could not get one, and went to obtain one somewhere else. He said he should reserve the reindeer's skin for himself, and send the carcass to a friend at Bergen. Ole said he would probably have to pay two or three dollars, and if he had sent it down to Skögadals Soeter, the carrier would have met the steamer for Bergen, and it would have gone at a much cheaper rate.

Leaving Fleskedal Soeter at about four o'clock, we had a delightful walk along the mountain slopes. At one point, in the depths of the valley below, on the opposite bank of the Utladal Elv, we could see the Bondegaard of Vormelid. A deep dark shadow seemed to hang about it in the far distance below. What a solitary abode. Few footsteps would ever pass its threshold. Imagine the winter solitude of this homestead. The silence broken by the wolf's howl. Ole said the bears had destroyed the cattle of the former owner. He was nearly ruined. The

A MOUNTAIN SHADOW.

403

bridge across the torrent was broken down, and the house deserted. Ole signaled as we approached the Skögadals Elv. The gipsies were soon on the alert to give us welcome. The carrier brought two horses, and we crossed the river. Our tents were reached at seven o'clock.

The gipsies appeared to have slept most of the day. They had not even quarrelled. We began to think they must be ill, until we found they had diligently inspected nearly every single article we possessed, which were afterwards carefully arranged upside down. We decided to move very early the next day, and Ole had the gröd at once prepared for breakfast the next morning.

Before retiring to rest, we strolled on the turf near our tents, and watched the secluded valley by moonlight. Vast ranges of snowy mountains were before us silvered by the moon. As we looked down the valley, we could not help observing, a large shadowed outline, representing the figure of a woman, singularly distinct, and formed by the conformation of a hill above the ravine. It was Sunday, and no music was given at the sœters.

THE

CHAPTER XXXV.

"That gipsy grandmother has all the appearance of a sowanee" (sor-
ceress)."All the appearance of one!" said Antonio; "and is she
not really one? She knows more crabbed things, and crabbed words
than all the errate betwixt here and Catalonia; she has been amongst
the wild Moors, and can make more drows, poisons, and philtres than
any one alive. She once made a kind of paste, and persuaded me to
taste, and shortly after I had done so, my soul departed from my
body, and wandered through horrid forests and mountains, amidst
monsters and duendes, during one entire night. She learned many
things amidst the Corahai, which I should be glad to know."
BORROW's Bible in Spain.

MEISGRIE WE

-THE

SLIPPERY ROCK AN
CROSS
RIVER
A
ACTIVE GUIDE THE CARRIER'S AID-THE LAME HORSE-MELKE-
DALSTINDERNE - THE STONY WAY-THE NEDREVAND-OLE'S NIGHT
QUARTERS THE LAKE BY MOONLIGHT-EARLY RISING-EISBOD ON
THE POET -THE
THE BYGDIN LAKE THE POET'S HOUSE-VINJE
POETICAL MORTGAGE-PLEASANT ACQUAINTANCE-OLD NORWEGIAN
POETRY-THE REINDEER HUNTER-ESMERALDA CONDONED.

Ат twenty minutes past two o'clock we were up. Calling Ole and our gipsies, we had our gröd and milk for breakfast. Our expenses at Skögadal amounted to nine marks eighteen skillings, as follows

WE CROSS A RIVER.

405

Some little delay occurred in getting the carrier and his horse. He was the husband of the woman of one of the sœters. She was a tall powerful woman, with a red face, and sharp temper, much older than himself. It was whispered that he had married her for her money. If he had, she had certainly the best of the bargain. Our tents and heavy baggage, were soon packed up in a meisgrie or crate, and slung up on the wooden packsaddle of the carrier's horse. The Norwegian meisgrie is a capital contrivance. It is a kind of network made of birch twigs, which laces up with a long tie, one foot eleven inches long. It is very strong and very light. Wishing the soeter women farewell, and they seemed sorry to lose us, especially the music, we soon reached the river.

Our people and baggage were soon forded across. We remained behind with our three donkeys, having a tether rope stretching across the river. Fastening it with a noose round the Puru Rawnee's neck, she was first pulled across, plunging and struggling to the other bank. The Tarno Rye was assisted through the stream in a similar manner. The Puro Rye saved us the trouble by jumping into the stream, to follow his companions. There was a loud outcry by the gipsies that he would be drowned, but he fought through the torrent famously, and reached the other bank in safety.

The view was beautiful as we looked up the Skögadal. The Melkadalstind towered above the mountain ranges, which closed the upper portion of the valley, leaving no outlet, but a stony col on the distant ridge. The occasional wooded sides of the valley, with firs, birch, and dark foliaged alder, relieved the valley from all appearance of desolation. The white foam of two torrents, and

occasional patches of snow, on the mountain sides, at the head of the valley, contrasted well with wooded slopes which margined the winding stream.

We had now crossed the river, and, following over the

VIEW OF MELKADALSTIND, FROM THE VALLEY OF SKÖGADAL, SKÖGADALS ELV.

broken ground of its right bank, we at length reached the head of the pleasant valley of Skögadal. Again we had to cross the Skögadals Elv, now a narrow impetuous torrent, rushing forth from a glacier, at some distance to our right.