Omaha daily bee., 1893-10-29

W ~" IZNEN1 -
close calculation, and who think before they
venture opinions, conceded IL might be from
1000 to 5000 miles. My curiosity led me to
speak to the captain about IL when oppor-
tunity offered.
"Well,r he replied cautiously, "the same
question has been repeatedly asked me ever
since | have been in the coast service. The
main coast line is upwards Of 1900 miles
long. There are nearly 1000 islands in the
'Skj@rgaard (outer coast protecting lslands)
with fully 4,0W miles of ooast-liue, from
Bukken ford to the North cape and around
TO Waranger iiord, in the Arctic ocean. The
fiords cutting into mainland, some from so
to 100 miles in length, each with smaller
fiords, some shorter, some longer, reaching
In every direction from the larger fiords,
must have as great a coast-line as the
'SkjRrgaard.' We don't know as we arc
right; but we never have been able to figure
Norway's actual coast line at below 1000
miles" That Is nearly one-third the dis
lance around the globe.
scenes of Desolatlon and Grandeur.
In this summer time trip along the Norway
coast-for there is practically no night in
June and July-the travellers sight may
fairly be said to rest upon coast scenery one
half the length of this vast distance. The
entire course is one of ever-changing scenes
Of desolation and grandeur, quaintness and
beauty. Nothing could be quainter in the
Netherlands than the red-tiled city OF
Bergen which good King Olaf founded,
reaching out to commerce and tho sea its
long, low rows of huge-roofed warehouses;,
its narrow streets, its odd looking red homes,
its peaked roofs and gdbled ends, all climb
ing the steep hills aud forming n warm,
almost Flemish picture against the hard old
mountains behind.
In q moment almost IL is shut from sight,
and then the interminable maze of Islands
again. Now we are at the very edgc of one
whose verjureles3 top and ragged teeth
could be leaped upon from shipboard. Then
a little archipelago is threaded where folk
live by fishing and farming; the nets and
gear lining the rugged shores; tiny strips of
| grass or grain showing here and there be-
tween black angles of rock and low, strongly
built habitations, often with sod roofs, arc
clustered wherever place to set them can be
found. Here men, women and children are
barefooted, barelegged, barebreasted and
bar earned. They seem content, and as we
pass they wave their hands and smile.
Narrow Channels and Countless Fiords.
More than once we pass through channels
80 narrow between appraised faces OF island
walls that it is shadowy and dark upon TIM
steamers deck. Myriads of sea fowl dip
and plunge at us. as if to descend upon the
ship, and Shrek deafeningly for the moment
airy intrusion. Some are gulls, with their
hoarse, strangled gurgle; and men and
women standing aft against the sail ex-
citedly throw pieces or bread for the FAM
ished fowl TO wrangle over in mid air, laying
wagers as to the greatest number of
throws" taken by the gulls before the
plOuu louIllto Nv uIC viz v OluIh
awakening almost bitter ~rivalrics and be-
coming dangerous to purse and person.
Again we sail close beneath a b~eetliug shore
side cliff whose leaden-colored wall rises
sheer into the air for more than 1000 feet,
and whose edge cuts the sky above appar-
entity as level ana sharp as the edge of a
dressed block of black marble. Seaward,
countless islets rimmed with foam form pur-
pie reliefs in settings of spotless white.
Countless fords are passed. Some have
wide, low-lying mouths. Others show close,
black walls reaching to the clouds. Through
the latter a sheen of light carries the eye
to the purply, almost shadowy haze above
the sonndless waters beneath; and so far
as can be seen there are here but I he
waters beneath, the mighty encircling walls
and then the clouds and the armament
above. But through many, most tantallzing
glimpses are caught. Strange, pointed
boats are plying across the silent waters of
the ford. A village seeming to rest upon
the water itself shows beneath the face of
a towering cliff. An upland dial entrance is
indicated by the pinkish mist which, show
ing above the ford edge, hints of deep, swift
streams or slumberous, silent lakes beyond,
with pleasant valley life around. A great
stone road winds in and out like some huge
scaly serpent, but always upward. Upon its
outward reappearing curves tiny chalets
seem poised. Far in some family seen
pockety recess is a tint of green. The red
and brown splatches upon it are mountain
side peasant homes. That puff of white
like n mammoth fleece of wool, ten, twenty,
perhaps thirty miles away, is where a river
leaps from an indiscernible gorge. A thou
sand feet higher, but nearer on the ford
side, is a penciling of wavering white-a
waterfall pounded by the airs resistance
into hesitaut waving folds of mist hundreds
of feet before they touch the rippleless ford
where they fall. Above and beyond all this,
blending into indistinguishable threads and
lines of sky and cloud, are ranges of eternal
ice and snow.
To the NOrthernmost Cities in Europe.
And 50, on and on and almost endlessly on
challenged by these strange, wild and beau
tiful scenes. you may go tirclessly, habita.
ton, comfort and pleasant companionships,
all yours; past sturdy old Throndnjem, the
northernmost city of Importance IN Europe.
with the wild and racing Ned, tearing and
bounding from the mountains in ma jestlc
waterfalls, outlining its curious, almost
island site, and it's crumblIng old cathedral
towering above Its red roots and peaked
gables; past Bodo with its sod-roof huts and
barn-like modern buildings; past Torghat-
tan with It's world-famous rocky tunnel; past
the marvellous bird mountain Sv2rholt, q
strange, weird, perpendicular promontory of
clay slate. where millions of white sea fowl
cluster like wreaths and strings of pearls
past the far north Lofoden islands, around
which huddle countless Norwegian fishing
smacks, and where more than 20, 000, 900 cod
arc annually taken; round the bleak, black,
drear and dreadful North cape, its messy
back strangely lighted by the yellow light
of the northern sun, and finally sweeping
past nfeasureless heights of brown, bare
stone, ever backed by glacier fields untrod-
den by foot OF man, and the vast mouths of
Porranger and Tana fiords, black and dun
and awful as the entrance TO Vatheli's Eblis,
you skirt the desolate peninsula of Wariak-
Mag, and, sailing from the east out of the
Arctic ocean, float gently through the sombel
Warringcr ford, dropping anchor before
Vadso, the northernmost inhabited place in
Europe.
Squatty Humans with Habits Like Beasts.
Here are perhaps 1000 souls who subsis
almost wholly upon the industries connected
with the whale fisheries. You will fine
Films and Lapps In abundance, but all the
commercial dealings of the place are carried
on by Norwegians. The entire country
roundabout differs little in appearance from
the eastern shore of Labrador, as 1 recall it
Everlasting stone in every conceivable
formation stretches back in forbiddine
mountain reaches to the frozen silences o
Nowhere. Humans, squatty or thin, are
, Eclad like animals, have faces like animals
and habits like beasts. Here and there ar,
seen tufts of siclly grass, brittle moss and
trees gnarled, stunted, tempest-blown and
: frozen into utter insignifcance. Everywhere
: is the nauseating stencil of fish In every
I stage OF omnipresent onensiveness. Blu
over all the often burning rays of the SUI
which here, in its brief days of fadelessness
seems more torrid and deadly than | hay,