"THROUGH NORWAY WITH LADIES."
THERE is no country in Europe, probably none in the world, that can rival Norway in the singular magnificence of its western mountainous coast and numerous deeply-cut fjords. These long arms of the sea, shut in by lofty mountains and tremendous pre- cipices, over whose sides torrents and cascades rush as it were out of the very sky, and pour in thunder into the deep sea below, often end in valleys of surpassing grandeur and wild splendour, 'where the road, following the gorge of the torrent, leads past waterfall, tarn, and farmstead, up to the far-away fjeld, and its desolation. The simplicity and honesty of the people, the hearty welcome and willing service they give to every right-minded and well-conducted traveller, the absence of railways, the delightfully primitive method of land carriage and accommodation, calling upon one's own resources and adaptability to circumstances, give a pleasure and a zest to travel in Norway which is not to be found in the ordinary tourist routes of other lands. Is it to be wondered at that to all who have travelled there is loft the strong desire to go again ?
Mr. Williams went to Norway in 1856, and made an extensive journey by water up the west coast, and on foot into some of the wildest parts of southern Norway. Ile underwent much hard- ship, roughing it a good deal, and sleeping oftimes at a primitive and dirty station, some mountain meter, or making his bed on a fiat rock. Soon after his return he published an account of his journey, Through Norway with a Knapsack, a book read by every Norwegian traveller, written in high spirits and abounding in in- formation. It has done more to open the country to English tourists than any other book we know of.
In the summer of 1874 Mr. Williams made a second visit to Norway, and this time as pioneer to a party of five young ladies and their governess. It is a pity that the present work, which is an account of their journey, should have been so long delayed. Through Norway with a Knapsack, to which continual reference is made, was by no means wanting in fun and humour, and so much amusement being furnished by a solitary expedition, we expected it would be greatly increased in a journey with six companions. Here we found ourselves mistaken, and on closing the book ex- claimed, " As to Norway, good, but what about the ladies ?" What they did, and how they did it, whether they enjoyed their journey or not, what wise and witty sayings fell from their lips,— of all this, and of anything * Through Norway with Ladies. By W. Mattiou F.O.S.
London: Stanford. 1877.
of a personal or individual interest, we are told nothing. We hear of them occasionally, we aro reminded by the bare mention of " the ladies " collectively, that they were there, and that is all. The consequence is a marked absence of the fun and merriment that experience teaches us is to be had out of a journey in Norway of this kind, and from which we feel unfairly shut out.
Apart from this, Mr. Williams has given us an interesting book. Starting northwards from Bergen, and paying a short visit to Trondhjem, he took his party by one of the excellent Danish boats to TromsO, calling at many stations, and getting a glimpse of the Lofodens. Tromso is the most important Arctic town ; it has increased from 2,000 inhabitants, in 1856, to 5,000, in 1874, and is by no means the uncivilised place many people imagine. There are large and well-appointed shops, where various articles were bought at about London prices. Hero the midnight sun was first seen, on the last day— or night, which is it ?—of his appearance, July 21-22 :— " There wore many Lapps sauntering about the streets ; they were all Fjeld Lapps, and had evidently just arrived on their annual visit to the town. Some wore languidly negotiating with the Norwegian shop- keepers for the barter of reindeer skins, reindeer hair, ornamental fur shoos, feathers of ptarmigan, &c. ; for-wadmal of Norwegian or Swedish manufacture, for meal, coffee, gunpowder, tobacco, hardwares, &c. The gentleness and timidity that I before observed are displayed even in their
commercial proceedings Some were indulging in wild dissi- pation, drinking coffee and eating buns at stalls, or rather tables and benches, placed on purpose for them in the main street. Their enjoy- ment of those luxuries was huge and obvious, and very delightful to contemplate. There was a happy, out-on-the-spreoish expression on their faces. Like children at a holiday feast, they held up their buns and displayed them to each other before taking a bite, smiling slyly all the while ; and when they saw me watching them, at first looked down blushingly, but after a little while, when I made grotesque signs, ex- pressive of enjoyment of good things, they became quite sociable, and grinned heartily in full appreciation of my small pantomimic joke. Whenever I met them afterwards, they saluted me with a grin of recog- nition, just as little children do to whom one has sung a comic song. The more I see of these little people, the more they appeal to my philo- progenitivonoss. Would they were cleaner!"
The party proceeded, rounding the North Capo, and reaching Vadso, the furthest limit of the voyage. In addition to the pre- paration of " stokfisk " and cod-liver-oil, which is carried on at every Arctic town, a novel whale fishery has been established at Vadso. A whale is shot from a small steamer, which tows the carcase ashore, where the whole is utilised, the refuse from the blubber and bone being converted into " waal-fisk guano."
Returning to Trondhjem, the land journey commenced by rail to Stiiren, along a short railway which Mr. Williams hopes Mr. Ruskin will see ere he dies, so utterly unvandalised is it. From Storen actual " skyds " or posting began. No work on Norway would be complete without a mention of the carriole, and a capital sketch of one is given here. It is obvious, and a glance at this sketch shows it well, that the carriole is simply the sleigh put on wheels. We have often seen the two conveyances exactly alike, save in runners and wheels, side by side at the stations and farms. When travelling in company, carriole-driving is very tedious, as there is no possibility of conversation. We greatly prefer the generally despised stolkjaer, which will carry two, and a fair amount of baggage. Leaving the Christiania road at Dombaas, that through the Romsdal was taken, and Mr. Wil- liams was in some trepidation lest he had raised expectation too high in his former book (which may with advantage be read beside this one) as to its beauty. But he soon found he was safe. Indeed, we think it is impossible to over-rate the marvellous grandeur and glorious wildness of this pass, and seen in fine weather, it alone is well worth a journey to Norway. From the Romsdalsfjord our travellers next took steamer with the excellent Captain Dahl, and explored the Stor Fjord and its branches. Mr. Williams rightly says the scenery of the Stor Fjord, although we consider it equal to anything on the famed Hardanger, cer- tainly does not possess the characteristic severity of its branches. He writes,— " About a quarter of an hour past Hove, and on the opposite side, Captain Dahl directed our attention to a boat-house at the foot of a precipitous rook, and then to some telescopic objects about 1,500 feet above it. Those wore farm-buildings, or rasters, on a little patch of land, or flattened-out oasis, a verdant shelf above the rook. One moving object was visible, a child, but we could not perceive whether it was free in its movements or tethered. The local practice of tethering children to heavy boulders may appear somewhat uncouth to English mammas, but after seeing a few dozens of the eagle-nest farms of this district, the most conservative of womankind—Mrs. Gump herself—would admit its necessity. Tho first of those to which our attention was directed (and such direction is really demanded, as we might otherwise pass a score without seeing them) was, as already stated, about 1,500 feet high ; but in the course of the day wo passed others still more curious, some of them 2,000 feet or 3,000 foot above the deep fjord, with a mountain wilder- ness behind them, and the fearful precipice in front. An incompro- hensiblo track, a winding staircase of giddying lodges, somewhere on the face of the precipices, loads to a little boat-house on the fjord, an invariable adjunct to those farms. This, in many cases, is the only available means of communication between those strange Robinson-
Crusoe settlements and the outer-world The Rubinson Clrusoos who own and till those solitary oases are wonderfully versatile in their practical attainments. They build their own houses, make their own furniture, are coopers, basket-makers, boat-builders, and in fact, jacks- of-all-trades, or could not exist so far removed from communication follow-creatures. their :Row-creatures. They rarely send for the doctor, and yet are remarkably long-lived."
The less precipitous sides of these fjords are scored with avalanche- tracks, At one place we recollect a little farm-house and build- ings situated under the brow of a somewhat overhanging ledge of rock, and actually behind a snow-avalanche path. Of the Geiranger Fjord, Mr. Williams truly says it is rivalled only—we think surpassed—by the Naerofjord, the entrance to which, guarded on either hand by the giant mountains " Skraedder " and " Skomager," " Tailor" and " Shoemaker," is finer than the approach to Geiranger, and its waterfalls and cascades are grander and more imposing. After leaving Hellesylt, a long and arduous land-journey, in very bad weather, to Faleidet ensued, and thence, still in rain, to the Sogne Fjord. Indeed, so much bad weather was experienced, that the title of " Through Norway with Waterproofs " can hardly fail to suggest itself to the reader as a suitable one for this book. From the Sogne Fjord, Christiania was reached by steam to Laerdalsiiren, and the road over the File Fjeld, and steam down the Rands Fjord.
Much space is devoted to considering the action of glaciers and the general effects of glaciation over the country, on the west coast especially. Mr. Williams brings forward a theory of his own with reference to the extent of the ancient ice-covering, and controverts Mr. Geikie's opinion that it extended from the Scandinavian coast right across to Scotland. That the ice-sheet must have thinned very rapidly on reaching the sea seems to be indicated by the fact that although the northernmost of the Lofoden Islands, being those nearest the mainland, are glaciated to a height of 1,000 feet, the line of glaciation descends gradually until the southernmost rocks in this group, fifty or sixty miles from land, are found to be angular and unglaciated. It is im- possible in our present limits to do justice to all the evidence, some of it very strong, that Mr. Williams brings forward in his support. Closely allied with this subject, and equally interest- ing, is his theory of the submarine deposition of till," which is ably set forth ; and powerfully upheld by the absence, with only one known exception, of any trace of moraine along the whole Arctic coast, and in Scandinavia generally.
An excellent map accompanies the book, and some fairly well executed engravings of characteristic scenery. It is to be depre- cated that so well-informed a Norwegian traveller should persist in spelling " pige " (girl) with two g's, and also that he should write " komager " as the Norsk for shoes. " Skomager " is a shoe-maker, and he produces " skoo," shoes. We also regret that Mr. Williams, at times, indulges in the objectionable habit of suddenly dropping into the present tense, and this for no reason whatever.
On the whole, we have read this book with pleasure and interest, and we do not doubt that it will deservedly do much to direct the attention of tourists to Norway, where we can confirm Mr, Williams's experience that with leisure—an important factor—a large party, comprising several ladies, may travel with intense enjoyment, without much hardship, and at a very moderate cost.
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