The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1893-12-23


sequestered waterfall or unseen home
nest upon the erags; while the very
cragsman whom we had set out to
visit had been, in the days before the
steamers whistle awoke the sleeping
echoes of the sombre Nero Ford,
one of the crew of Peters fathers
boat.
1t was well we had provided food
and blankets. The enthrallment of
the savagely majestic scenery of the
ford, the loiterings at chasms, gor-
ges and narrow valley openings,
where odd and fantastic hamlets and
half hanging clusters of farm build
ings toppled at the edges of preci-
pices, or seemed trembling from the
furies Of roaring torrents; and above
all, the meetings and partings with
quaint peasant groups to whom the
shadowy ford was the only high
way ever known, and who always
shook hands with US as though we
were old and dear friends they had
not seen for decade and never ex-
pected to see again, shouting aud
waving "Favels" to us as long as we
were in sight-brought us only to
the real beginning of our cliff jour
ney when it was already fairly night
down there at the bottom of the mar
row walls of the ford.
The place into which Peter dex-
terously guided our boat was the
most forbidding and gruesome | ever
had the fortune to enter. From the
middle of the stream the opening
was wholly unobservable; but my
guide informed me that hundreds
more like it could be found among
the tremendous walls of the Norwe-
gian fiords 1t was practically a
vertical assure 1900 feet high, and
perhaps as deep below the waters
surface. One edge was almost as
smooth and rounded as hewn pillar
for all its mighty height. The 9th
er correspondingly followed, would
have closed against it, had the same
inconceivable nature force which
separated it set it again in
place, with perfect lamination
and without an inch of vari-
ance or waste space. The two edges
of these formations reaching above
the clouds were not fifteen feet apart
at the entrance; but away in there
were weird and awful depths; for
while sight could not penetrate them
the whispers, murmurs, plaintive
songs and hoarser threnodies of fall
ing waters, told the wondrous story
of erosions, displacements, boat
ties, and all the elemental struggles
which the dead centuries had known.
Not fifty feet frsm the entrance
our boat grated against a shelving
rock. 1t was almost as level as a
floor, and but few inches above the
water. Beyond this the rock had
perhaps centuries before been eaten
away or had given away, forming a
covered hollow like half ola truncat-
ed cone. This spot, resembling a
section Of the pre- historic bee hive
huts of Ireland, was to be our rest
ing place for the night--a place
which had probably sheltered more
human beings before me than the
greatest and oldest hotel in Norway
and / thus learned of another inter
esting custom of Norwegian peas
antry As l have before pointed out
the fiords are their real highways.
journeys of hundreds of miles are
still made by entire families or par
ties too poor, or too thrifty, to seek
shelter and food at the ford side
hamlets They have for centuries
used these nature-built stations.
Their food, fuel, and sheep skins for
covering are brought with them in
their boats; and water the sweetest,
purest. coolest water in the world, is
leaping or trickling from every rock
Peter had no sooner built a CHEEKY
fire-for each hating party from i'm
memorial custom contributes to the
public supply, and there is always
fuel at hand-than he explained
torch in hand, some of the curious
characteristics of this quaintest hos
pice | had ever beheld. A genuine
Norwegian inn without landlord, sta
ton without master, hotel without
host On the same rocky level, but
just around projection of the ifs
surewall, was tiny paddock will
little walls, kneehigh, built of loose
stones. The source of certain un
accountable sounds / had alread,
heard with dire forebodings wer,
now made clear Three tiny Nor
wegian cows were munching theil
green fodder, and two of the TIMES
calves | had ever seen stood gravely
beside them. These might belong
to the cragsman we were about t.
visit, Peter told me. In any event
here the peasantry, who often chang
ed the grazing places of their littl'
herds, penned the animals at night
and the wise little things, conscious
as their masters of the danger o
night-roaming or misstep, neye
budged from the few square yards o
rock to which they were meekly LEI
from the boats.
EDGAR l.. WAKEMAN