Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1893-11-16

IN MS Scant attire US lnCOnBruou5 Specta-
Gle as skirtless ballet-dancer dropped
among Himaayan heights.
Through the entire length of the
Hardanger Fiord and its lesser outreaching
upper fords there are the most extra.
ordinary variety of scenery possible to find
in an equal distance Every station has
It's glen or chasm or wider dial. Each OF
these pours its riversor tumultuous torrent
into the ford. Where the mountains
widen out into amphitheatres, there are
the circling vales fringed at the top by
horizon-lne of polished or Jagged rock,
with a lesser circle of savage debris below;
then feathery rim of pine; below this,
the emerald of the farms, with their
clusters Of softened gray old structures;
and then the foaming river shooting, from
the depths of the vale, with the whitish
yellow line of the mountain road beside 1t
and following all its torturous windngsi
and finally, the hamlet. brown and gray,
at the very edge Of the blue waters Of the
ford.
Such valley scenes give sky as blue as
ltaly's; suggestions of inaccessible and
frozen heights; the misty pearline tints
that lay In Tuscan wales lime the rime Of
Tripened grape soft and iansloronls
luxuriance such as half-shrouds and half
reveals the valleys of Cuba; and all the
mellow quaintness of Netherland hamlets
ut one glance. Where the station"
cluster Of messy structures sets at the
mouth of shad0wy gorge, there are cliffs
not hundreds but thousands of feet abovei
glitter Of foam like cameo setting to
the black background and now and then,
far up the purpling gorge shaft of glitter
ing light as If the focused beauty of some
half-hid upland dale shot for an instant
between weird. cloud-reaching walls.
Now for miles we sail between preci-
pices from 5000 to 5000 feet in height. The
silence here is painful. From water to sky
there is neither branch of tree nor blade
of grass. Not even wild fowl scream and
circle here; and we are told tho water be-
meath us is deep-deeper far than the noisy
sea outside the skerries-as the crags are
lofty above. Suddenly we turn and face
vale of almost tropical beauty. Scarcely
is this contemplated before our course
carries our sight to shore of crags with
valley line above, beyond this, feathery
line of forest; then an edge of rock
touched by the bright sunlight into masses
| of FURNISHED bronze; and far and high
beyond, is glittering line of quivering
| sapphire blue where the trackless ice-tields
| of the Folgefond seem thrnbbing and
| pulsing their yet fadeless fires in the
| ghostly upper light.
| And so on and on, to 0dde-tle tongue
of land; where You seem to have come to
| the edge of chaos-world; and where the
| hathiNtt INV lhE puNRNN ~
gorge and crag and floss and height looks
la2ily out from its slumberous inns and
\ shops back along the blue way you came
| upon one of the finest blended scenes OF
wave and mount and sky to be found in
all our good old globe. What is true oil
this grandest of all Norway iiordS is true
in particular or in more intense and I'm
pressive type, of Trondhjem, Of Geiranger
of Sogne, and Of all the lesser tiords.
Trondhjem shows vaster perspective:
and drcarier reaches of sight but still
possesses its measure Of the wondrous yer
satility of Hardanger, while it seldom pro
vides the tender valley views. Geirangel
is maze of lovely wales and glens, Of
cataracts above the clouds, of precipices
cliffs and towering crags, of hamlets upor
mountains with mountains above these
and Of waterfalls. highest, slenderest
fiercest and most tilmy in all the world
and so great In number that they are still
unnamed and uncounted.
Tie Sogne Fiord cannot but be regarded
as the most stupendous and often ap
palling continuous spectacle so far accessi
habitable globe. II is practically SCI
waterway of more than 100 miles Il
length, and with branches and ramiti
cations of twice that distance split through
almost solid mountain walls from 1000 l.
6,O00 feet in height. Its waters are til
deepest Of all the Norwegian tiords, Will
the shores afford infreqnent anchorage
II by any means the water:bed of tn
Sogne Fiord could become dry, tourist
could in many places look upon almos
perpendicular rocks from 5000 to 1000
J feet above their heads. Few valleys ope
} upon the Sogne; but tremendous chasm
! are constantly appearing. The peasantr
here huddle In almost inaccessible places
! long distances apart; and move to and #
between their tiny hamlets in boats bui
with rude sleeping accommodations. A
/ various places you will see bits Of shelvin
, rock to which their boats are tied at nigh
Near these are tiny caves or rock fissur'
, used rs huts and US kitchens in these TRIP
Of overnight duration.
. The scenery grows more grand and in
posing as you proceed up the ford. reacl
: ing perhaps its most sombre sublimity i
] | the Nero Fiord, one of its branche
5 Another arm is the Fjaerlands Fiord, nea
. which are the vastest snow-caves and ic
4 fields of Norway and the romantic villal
j OF Balholmen. scene Of Frithofs Sag
: where
Birch trees covered tho mountain tops; on II
: sunny hill-slopes
/ Rlpened the golden barley, and rye wav'
!. taller than glants;-
and from its extreme eastern branch, II
!, Ardols Flord, the third great waterfall
!, western NprWdy, tue iui6hby febIiioS
2 reached; while through every opening
u the north are seen the gigantic masses
the Jostedals glacier, the largest in Euro
7 aud covering an area of 500 square mile
= In the amazing multiplicity of the
u scenes of beauty and grandeur, there
! one that will remain fadeless in h
y travellers memory. 1t is that one whS
Y in the darkless night of these northe
y latitudes as your steamer creeps alof
l. down there in the almost blackened al
Y abyssmal silence between these part
o mountain walls. you look through tbs
I. riffs towards heaven, and, knowing 4
n night time hour, are given an indefinat
/ hint, in the splendor of the light st
a lingering tenderly upon mighty mounta
u peaks. of that promised region of endlt
e Morning Lands. EDGAR L. WAKEMAE.