Morning journal and courier., 1888-09-04

for She North Cape-Grand and Im-
 pressive Scenery = Torghatta - The
 Midnight Sun-The North Cape.
 NORTH CAPE, Norway, July %.
 To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 After delightful journey by rail of about forty-one hours through country abound ing in lakes and mountains, trayersing for an entire afternoon the lovely valley of the "Glommen" skirting the shores of Mjosen, the largest lake in Norway, through miles and miles of forests of pines straight and bristling as the little wooden trees in toy farm, we arrive in Throndhjem, the north ernmost city of the continent to rejoice in cathedral. This building, commenced about 1145 A. D., has gradually developed by ad- dition and construction from a little village church to massive structure towering far above the heads of the neighboring towns and covering territory some four hundred feet in length by two hundred and fifty feet in width. The building is yet in process of construction, the interior, save the chapel and chancel, being one grand tumble of scafoldings, machinery and unplaesd blocks of blue stone, which another century can scarcely hope to see in place.
 
 situated in the fjord of the same same, sur rounded by peaks almost mountainous, while the glistening walls of fort on the hills to the northeast of the town, and 8 large fort on an island few hundred yards from shore, rising abruptly from the deep, ever-blue waters of the fjord, gives to the whole scene an extremely picturesque and beautiful effect. After an excellent table d'hote dinner, eElivened by music from the regimental band, and supper at the Hotel Brittania and pleasant walk through the scrupulously clean streets of the town at ten o'clock on Wednesday evening, July 18th, by the bright light of the sun still high in the heavens, we boarded the steamship Sir jus, and casting of from the quay. were with little or no bustle or confusion among ! the one hundred passengers, fairly off on our | way to the North Cape. The wharf or quay | is lined with people to witness the only ex- citement of the town, the summer departure of tourists for the Cape. Occasionally a country girl clad in the picturesque and be- coming Norwegian costume, with red bodice, l yari colored apron and pretty hood, mingles | with the crowd. A band of musicians play | in a neighboring pavilion. The gay flags of | all nations decorate the ship; three photo ! graphers from elevated places aim their ca meras at the multitude, and with the rattling f of chains, the creak of the screw and part | ing gun, the steamer passes down the fjord, | and when again we look back only the white ! forts and the lofty roof of the cathedral, soft and beautiful in the hay, golden light of the gorgeous evening sun, remain to us of our ! psetty town. Soon even these are hidden by a projecting point of land and we are alone \ f,f thc ion l ford, with their grand cloaks of mountains I now rising abruptly to the skies, now reach l ing far away in gradual verdure-clad accents ! until their brilliant green mingles with the l golden blue of the heavens Now the moon pale and sickly, as though from some woefuI spree, rises to show his shamed face, while the sun, beaming and golden, disappears be hind lofty peak, and even as we retire tht bright light of midnight dawn streams 1T ! through the portrhole.
 ! The trip is a succession of charming seen, cry through fjerds or straits all the way, tho fiords which seem but indentations in thu ! huge sides of mighty mountains. Amor ! when 1t seems as though we have by son
 mistake entered into blind passage ant must needs retrace our steps, suddenly VI
 swing around some headland sharply onl. to diverge again on some other narrow shoe of water with endless succession of eve changing views. Now the mountains ar many of them snow-olad, the snow line be yond the Arctic circle being only some fv
 hundred feet above sea level; now tiny rivu lets of melting snow swell into pretty falls , which sparkling in the sunlight sport dash ing and splashing over the rocky sides of th mountains, until at last they are lost in tn l blue waters of the neighboring ford. Lit i. 1 tie fishing hamlets are passed with thei
 fleets of tiny fishing boats, mocking in forn : and face their ancestor Viking boats, wit } peaked prows and sterns, and square sail , planted almost amidships. Here in the slop , | of some mountain side rests 8 little cottage l, | it's pretty red-tiIed roof blending harmoni ously with the peculiar dark green of tn
 foliage. Now some huge boulder on th , shore with great white target-like ring indi
 cates where to tie their fisher boat, while oc
 casionally white blanks floating in the water l seek to allure from secreting depths the UT
 l wary salmon to impending nets.
 , Torghatta is visited, massive pile of roc !. rising some twelve hundred feet in the ail t which through some strange freak of natul g has been pierced completely through frol east to west, forming great yaulted passae z hundred yards in length and hundre d feet or more in height, beyond which u ' blue waters are seen, . lovely panozan