The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1892-03-16

weather or other conditions, further
more. they touch at comparatively
few places, and one of course goes
the routine trip on a personally
conducted basis" quite independent
of his preferences or possible change
of plan. One lives generally in an
air almost as thoroughly English or
American as at home, and sees little
of Norway beyond the sea, sky and
mountains in passing. The other,
and to my fancy the much more in
terestlng way, is to go by the Nor
Weglan mail steamer, which makes
very much longer trip, and touches
at very many more places, giving one
a chance to see something of the
people, their customs, occupations,
etc, as we'll as much more of the
scenery. Such a steamer | took, the
Sverre Sigurdsson, an English built
steamer about the size of the Kinau.
but much better fitted up and every
way more comfortable. It has never
been my lot to travel by any vessel of
any kind where they took so much
trouble to make the passenger feel
comfortable, contented and at home.
Really it seemed as though they ran
the steamer to certain extent in
the interest Of the passenger,
which is a point of view
apparently uncommon with pas
senger steamship companies and
one that l would recommend to
the Hawaiian companies. Although
our steamer was not a tourist, but
freight and local traffic steamer, the
captain, who was a thorough gentle
man, took great deal of trouble to
insure our seeing everything of in
terest and to make everything
pleasant.
The steamer was coaster, like our
island coasters, and touched at all
the little fishing villages along the
coast several times daily, where the
mails were to be delivered and freight
discharged or received. Generally
we remained only short time, but
at the larger places several hours, SO
That We had chance to go ashore
and look about the town, or even
make little trip into the surround
ing country.
Norway, unlike any other country
that l know of, is literally cut to
pieces by numberless fiords or long,
narrow arms Of the sea, that wind in
among the mountains to the very
heart of the country. Labyrinthian
and deeply land locked, they are or
dinarily as smooth as glass, lying en-
bosomed among the mountains like
deep blue mirrors, rejecting with
marvellous perfection aud brilliancy
every detail of form and color of the
surrounding shores; and as the in.
terror is thus cut up by these fiords,
the coast line is broken by number
less islands of all shapes and sizes,
forming perfect maze of channels
that wind in and out in endless con-
fusion, SO that it is possible to make
almost the whole stretch from Trond-
HEM to the North Cape, a distance
of 700 to 800 miles, in smooth, land
locked water, and the whole voyage
is one continual, rapidly changing
panorama of mountains, glaciers,
waterfalls, and fishing villages, with
the beautiful blue sky above and the
deeper blue of the water beneath.
Sometimes the confning shores
would recede and the strait would
widen to a small inland sea, the dis
tant shores of which changed only
slowly, little by little, and then again
they would close in, so narrowly,
that there was scarcely room for our
steamer to pass, and we could almost
touch the banks as we cautiously
steamed through. Very often we
seemed to be quite shut in by the
mountains SO that there seemed no
chance of escape but by retracing
our way, but some sharp turn sud-
denly opened up to us farther ex
tension and new landscape, and it
seemed as though some tabled giant
were opening the gates one by one
ever just in advance of u.s.
Our captain very kindly went out
of his way to land us on the island
of Torghattin, that we might see
that strange freak of nature, a noun
tain with a great hole tunneled
through it, said in legendary lore to
have been made by the arrow of one
of the gods jealous of a certain
maiden at whom it was aimed. Ma
turally the mountain materially
broke the force of the arrow, fact
on which the maiden is to be coDgra-
tulated. This tunnel in the smallest
place is sixty feet high and else
where over 200. 1t forms fine
spy glass through which to inspect
smiling fields, the surf fringed shore
and the blue sea beyond.
j. M. LYDGATE.
ITO be continued)