The record-union., 1893-12-02
especial Correspondence of the RECORD
UNION. Copyright 1898.
LoNDoN, November Is, 1893.

LONDON, November Is, 1893.
Travellers in Norway who have written
OF Norway and its people have invariably
spoken of two characteristic subjects, but
IN so brief a manner as always TO pique
and never to satisfy the readers natural
Interest. These are what have been
termed for a better name the ''eagle-
nest FARMS" and the ''saeters" or mount
ain summer dairies.
SO far as [ know no traveller, writing in
our language. has ever visited the for
mer. and while few have actually seen
e saeter, its environment and the strange
and lonely life at the same, have never
been adequately describe.
In sailing along the Norwegian coast
from Bergen to the Lofoden Islands, one
who is closely observant of the mainland
scenery, and particularly if powerful
heldglass is used, will be surprised at the
number of lonely and isolated habita-
tons, seemingly perched against the gray
crags at great altitude midway between
sea and sky. The larger number OF
ehese are at least 1000 feet above the sea.
To the eye it seems inconceivable that
place for even their foundations could be
secured. The picture is always the same.
a line of black wall thousands of feet
high, dent Of purple, or depression Of
misty blue, where the speck of a home is
built, and then black and som Der crags
behind and above, and above and beyond
these the ghostly glacier-tields.
Because, from a distance, their eerie To-
cation, and the ragged, huddIed structure,
which often surround the main habita-
ton, recall the nest OF the eagle at the edge
OF the beetling crags, they have come to
be called "eagle-neSt farms" Sometimes
the eye will follow black line Of tissure
descending from these habitations to a
cavernous, rock-gOrged gap beside the
water. In this case a little boat-house
may be seen upon the rocks, and some
where near winding, puce-Hke line
will trail upwards and into the darkenlng
depths. This tells that the eagle-nest
farmer is a fisherman, too, or has this
means Of communication with the outer
world, but how he reaches his home
perch above, how he subsists in his desc
late habitation, and what manner of folk
these are who find contentment in lives
OF such endless solitude, danger and ma
ture-grudged sustenance, were conject-
nres which haunted me until | found
means to know.
\ bove the cliff walls of the larger and
sterner tiords which penetrate the main
land from the coast the eagle-nest farms
.
outer coast. This Is particularly true Of
portions OF the Hardanger, SOgne and
IhrOndhjem fiOrds. In the lordly N9rO
fiord, a branch of the Aurlands branch
OF the Sogne, and in a few instances in
the 1hrondhjen, they are at such lofty
attitudes that they appear like specks of
snow or ice, or like polSlng birds upon
edges of the cliff. I had noticed few
located at prodigious nights between
StyVe and IOlmenas, on The northern
wall crests of this ford, which, all the
way beyond Dyrsdal to the waterfall Of
the Htre Baaken that tumbleS 1900 feet,
is like some black'and terrible waterway
to the realms of Eblis, and on landing at
the picturesque station of Bakke, where
snow-capped mountains rise thousands of
feet sheer above the village, leaving not
a spare foot between habitations and the
towering walls of stone, | determined
that even if the endeavor should end in a
broken neck L would first have seen a
Norwegian eagle-nest farm.
Four days passed at Bake, four days
of contemplation Of scenery so somber
and awful that it continually suggested
the internal before l found any one either
competent or willing TO act as "a guide.
Then good fortune came TO me in the
person of a strapping young fellow, ma
tive of Grindedal, who had been lured
away from his own mountain home to
-AuStralla, ana Ilf6U OF d rowing lie III The
antipodes was returning as best he could,
with look of eager homesickness in his
eyes almost savage in its Intensity. The
little he was to receive as boatman. guide
and interpreter, would, on our return,
pay his passage on the ford steamers
around through Aurlands Fiords to Fees,
and still leave him as many dollars as
PEASANTS hard labor for a whole year
will give for saving in Norway. We were
a happy pair as we rowed in our small
boat, hired at Bakke, to the northeast to-
wards Styve and DyrsdaPs icetields
above the clouds.
could not have found in all Norway a
more fitting companion for this particu-
lar adventure. Not so very long ago the
old method of stages by rowuoat along
many of these fiords was still in vogue.
Travellers were then taken from one sta
ton to another in cumberOus sharp
pointed boats. The crew of each would
return with other passengers to its home
station, and frequently these crews, from
stress of travellers haste, or when hired