couch and occupied the room for ten minutes, and that we should not quit the house till he was paid.' And to this gross imposition he and his travelling companion were actually obliged to submit. We have heard of similar tricks having been practised in other parts of Europe.

In Sweden the high roads are good, and, exclusive of the expence of purchasing a carriage at the outset, the travelling remarkably cheap, the average not being much more than a penny per horse per mile. The dinner bill is upon a similar scale of economy, seldom amounting to more than a shilling for three or four kinds of meat. The breakfast is not dearer, though it consists of coffee, bread, butter, smoked salmon, and strawberries. The scenery in South Gothland is flat and dreary; the increase of wood, and of the number of little bays, called "fiords," along the coast, characterize the approach to Norway; and from the top of a mountain near its frontier town, Frederickshall, one of its finest landscapes meets the view.

On the right an extensive lake supplied by five rivers, whose confluent waters here unite to form the noble river Glomen, presents to the eye its leafy banks, and three or four picturesque islands covered with luxuriant fir-trees; the surface was calm as we surveyed it, and a few northern birds reposed peacefully on its bosom. On the left, in the foreground, the Glomen rushes violently down a precipice in three successive cataracts, being hidden from the view, before the waves have regained a tranquil state, by a forest rising on the projecting angle of a chain of hills. In the distance, through a defile of woody mountains, we overlooked a fiord, at the extremity of which the town of Frederickshall is seen in miniature, with a back ground of dark green forests on the heights above. A break in these disclosed the channel where the sea gains admission, and forms the fiord, here, as always, the characteristic of a Norwegian scene.'-pp. 88, 89.

This picture does credit to Mr. Elliott's powers of painting in language. It is at once distinct and comprehensive. An artist would have little difficulty in transferring it to canvass. Christiana, the capital of Norway, is, like Copenhagen, in a declining state, although the place where the Storthing, or Norwegian parliament meets. Scarcely any vehicles are ever seen in its streets, and it seems as if all the inhabitants had been swept away by a plague. The streets are ill paved, and if we rightly understand the author, he could not find a bookseller's shop in the whole town. The author, however, had here the pleasure of becoming acquainted with Professer Hungstein, who appears to have recently made some valuable observations on the variation of the needle.

Yesterday I visited Professors Hungstein and Esmark; the one a great geologist in this berceau of the science; the other an adventurous and scientific traveller. Professor Hungstein has lately returned from Siberia, where he went for the purpose of making observations on the variation of the needle. He thinks he has proved, that there are two magnetic axes cutting each other in the centre of the globe; that their northern poles

are, the one near the spot where Parry and Franklin fixed it; the other in Siberia and their southern poles, of course, at the vertically opposite points. To illustrate this, he arranged the experiments made by travellers in different parts of the world, especially those of navigators, and showed that the variation of the needle depends always on its distance from these two poles. But observations were wanting in Siberia. He stated his belief that the needle would be found to deviate from the north in a certain manner at certain places, in that country. Having sketched a map of supposed variations, he undertook the journey, under the sanction of the emperor of Russia, to ascertain the truth of his theory, and had the satisfaction to find his hypothesis verified by the result. I obtained permission to copy the map he has drawn of magnetic deviations throughout the world, and regard it as one of the most interesting things seen in my From Professor Hungstein I have gained some new ideas-the only real wealth.'-pp. 94, 95.

tour.

From Christiana to Dramen, a town about thirty miles southwest of the capital, the road lies along the shore of a fiord celebrated for the beauty of its scenery, consisting of a succession of hill and dale, which almost fatigue the eye by the richness and variety of their charms. A traveller who went to Norway for the purpose of exploring its picturesque resources, could not fail of paying a visit to the famous waterfall of Riuken. Having left at Kongsberg every trace of civilization, he pursued his route through forests of lofty firs, which have rarely felt the axe of the woodman ; and over mountains, which are often without the slightest marks of even a bridle-road. The scene at the waterfall is indescribably grand. The Maen rushes through a rock blackened by time, and falls from a height of four hundred and fifty feet perpendicularly, into a cauldron of the same dark material. The foam, or riuken, rises so high, as to conceal from the distant spectator the depth of the fall, which he could duly appreciate only when lying on the ground, and looking over the edge of the precipice at its highest point.' The earth seems to tremble under the continual fall of the torrent. Mr. Elliot mentions a singular circumstance which occurred to himself and his companions, the truth of which we suppose we must not doubt, though it appears to us to be irreconcileable with the ordinary laws of optics. The sun,' he says, ' burst from behind a cloud, and shining upon the falling water and the playful spray, cast obliquely on the dark back-ground a perfect double rainbow, approaching nearly to a circle.'

From the Riuken he proceeded to Bergen, crossing the chain of mountains called in the maps the Hardanger Fjeld, which, he observes, had never been passed but in one direction, and then only by three Englishmen and one Norwegian. He and two Englishmen, by whom he was accompanied on this occasion, resolved to attempt a pass which had been yet quite unexplored. The dis

* Fjeld, or fi-eld, as it is pronounced, being a dissyllable, is a term applied to the high land on a chain of hills, or sometimes to the hills themselves.'

tance to Bergen was two hundred miles, more than one half of which was over trackless mountains. They had neither animals, nor clothes, nor provisions, suitable to such a journey. The peasantry could afford no information about it. Having passed through a great extent of forest, they at length reached the point where vegetation almost ceases, supposed to be about three thousand five hundred feet above the level of the sea. The forests which they had passed seemed now to be lost in vallies, and the clouds were beneath their feet.

The peasants told us that the Hardanger rising above their heads, opposed an insuperable barrier between them and the natives of the western districts. No man would venture to guide us over upwards of a hundred miles, where no road was to be seen; and where, in many places, the snow had accumulated from the first subsidence of the waters of the flood. A transient fear crossed our breasts, that we might be compelled to relinquish a trip to the dangers and interest of which we were now wrought up. It proved, however, but transient. We learned that, some miles off, a mountaineer maintained a solitary, but friendly communion with the winds and woods. He was believed to know something of the Alpine waste. A summons brought this wild child of Nature. He said he had succeeded in a former attempt to cross the Hardanger, and knew the bearings of Bergen; so he agreed for seven dollars to accompany us. Some unleavened bread and bacon were added to our little store; and, the necessary preparations being made, we started from Tessungdale, at one in the afternoon of Thursday, the 22nd of July.

The party consisted of Messrs. Fowler and Gurney, myself, our servant, the guide, and a man who accompanied the horses. Of these we had four, one of which carried the provisions. Like the horses of Switzerland, those of Norway are very small. They seldom exceed twelve or thirteen hands in height; but they are hardy and sure-footed. On the rocks they scramble like goats, sometimes perhaps to the alarm, and always to the surprise, of the rider.

Four miles from Tessungdale, we passed a couple of huts, and then commenced the arduous ascent. Firs and birch gradually disappeared, as before. Our guide tore from the last stragglers of the forest a few branches, which were fixed on the backs of the horses, and served afterwards to kindle a fire in time of urgent need. At four o'clock, the trees were all left behind. Wild flowers, however, appeared in great profusion ; especially the heart's-ease, the encubalus, the strawberry blossom, many species of chrysanthemum and campanula, and a great variety of others peculiar to Norway, with whose names I am unacquainted. We were particularly struck with a shrub resembling in its leaf the sage, and with a sweet flower like honeysuckle. The mosses and heaths are very numerous. Before five, the rein-deer moss appeared, and prepared us to see a herd of those beautiful animals shortly afterwards dart across our way. They were the first I ever beheld: nor is it improbable that we were the first persons who had ever intruded on their mountain privacy. At six we

saw some ptarmigan; and at nine heard a cry like that of the eagle. The sun set in the N. N.W. For two hours we pursued our course by twilight, over a country wilder than imagination can conceive. Barren

rocks and broad morasses were varied only now and then by heaths and lichens, thinly scattered. Yet sometimes a hill would rise to view, gilded with rein-deer moss, like crystals of the flower of sulphur, and shining with a beauty peculiar to itself.

The weather was inclement. It rained hard, and the cold was intense. Our servant had dropped behind with fatigue; and for two successive hours the guide had been saying, that we were within a mile of a hut, which would afford something like shelter for the night. The minutes dragged heavily along. Hope and fear succeeded each other in rapid alternation; and the promised haven seemed to retreat before us. At length, an hour

before midnight, we reached it, and perhaps never entered the home of our fathers with so much thankfulness, as we did this pile of stones; for suspecting that the guide had lost his way, we were anticipating continued exposure to the tempestuous elements.

The stones forming the hut, if such a title it could merit, were rudely and irregularly put together. A hole in the centre let out the smoke, and admitted the fresh air. The former had no other exit; the latter had free entrance on every side. Four women and three children were lying on two litters, which nearly filled the hut. The intermediate space was occupied by a calf. Ranged round the sides were bowls of milk and cream, the produce of a herd of cows, whose lowing indicated an unaccustomed intrusion. The smell and filth were almost intolerable; but our minds were braced to the encounter. Three horse-blankets were laid on the wet ground, and our feet were turned towards the smoking embers of the fire. Thus, wrapped in cloaks, we slept a little; but the rain beat in so violently, that it was not possible to repose for any length of time.

The morning dawned, disclosing the full wretchedness of the hovel which darkness had covered with a friendly veil. The squalid filth of the women was exceeded, if possible, by that of the naked children; and we agreed that the bleak mountains, under a sky emptying its watery freight before a cutting wind, were preferable to such a resting-place.

'After breakfasting on some smoked bacon and some husky rye cakes, whose dryness and inequalities, but for a thick layer of cream, would have impeded their progress down the throat, we renewed our journey at nine in the morning. Two hours' halt was granted to the patient animals. After ten hours of hard marching, over trackless mountains, on the limits of perpetual congelation, and in a drenching rain, we accomplished three-andtwenty miles. With the exception of a herd of rein-deer, perhaps a hundred in number, who fled as we disturbed their mossy meal, and the plovers, whose plaintive cry consorted well with the discomfort of our condition, scarcely a sign of animal or vegetable existence was to be seen.'--Pp. 116-120.

The succeeding night they were obliged to content themselves with the miserable shelter which a pile of stones afforded, and to sup upon the blackest rye bread, unleavened and full of husk, with cheese and half cooked bacon. The only habitation, if such it can be called, which they encountered the following day, was another hollow pile of stones, where they found three women engaged in manufacturing cheese from the produce of a herd of cows, which grazed at some distance among the mountains. Here they ob

tained a full meal of coarse rye flour boiled in cream, a diet which the women called "floottegroot." They had come from the western side of the Fjeld, and purposed to stay two months, unless the snow fell and deprived their cows of provender. They were dressed in white woollen gowns, black drawers of the same material, and white socks. Their hair was tied up with worsted, and their grotesque costume was completed by the addition of a waistcoat with metal buttons and short sleeves. Among the few birds which attracted the attention of the travellers in those regions, were the small hawk peculiar to Norway, the large falcon, the eagle, and the white owl. The rocks were in many places peopled with lemmings, whose natural history is curious.

This creature is as large as a rat, with pointed head, short round ears, small black eyes, straight whiskers, and two long cutting teeth in each jaw. The fore legs are very short; and the toes, of which there are only four, (a sharp claw or spur being substituted for the fifth) are covered with hair. The skin is of a dusky hue, with a tinge of yellow prevailing more towards the stomach, which is yellow and white. They appeared in hundreds, perhaps thousands, running in and out of holes under the rocks. Sometimes they descend from their elevated abodes, and migrate into Lapland, in swarms defying numerical calculation, and destroying, like locusts, every green thing. The Norwegians and Laps have many superstitions connected with these curious animals; amongst others, they fall from the clouds. I object only to the word fall; for that they dwell above the clouds I can attest from ocular demonstration. Some of their habits, however, are singular enough to feed the credulity of the ignorant Nordlanders. The father of Mr. Broder Kruitzdon, from whom I received great kindness at Christiana, once saw an army of lemmings crossing a river. The foremost plunged in, ranging themselves one in advance of the other, so that the head of each was supported on the back of another, while the links of this living chain were formed by the dovetail of their little legs. In this manner they constructed a continuous bridge from bank to bank, on which the Lilliputian army passed over. The one holding to land on this side then let go and the rearmost ascending, one after another, crawled over the backs of their fellows till many had attained the shore. During this movement, the rest of the line being gradually carried down the stream, like a string of boats fastened at one end, each was conveyed to the opposite bank, and resumed his place in the line of march.'-pp. 124, 125.

Still ascending, the party soon reached the region of glaciers, one of which, supposed to be some hundred feet in thickness, and ten miles in circumference, they beheld majestically reposing upon the top of an inaccessible mountain, along whose cleft uneven side a cataract rolled. Upon passing this part of the Hardanger, they began to descend, and reached a succession of hills of granite, extending about ten miles, utterly naked, devoid even of moss or lichens, and dreary in the extreme. At length they lighted, as if by magical assistance, upon a scene which compensated them for all their past labours.