The record-union., 1893-12-09
Especial Correspondence of the RECORD
UNION. Copyright 1898.
LONDON, November %, 1898.

LONDON, NONSLnD6E Aos 1c5O'
To the traveller in Norway the impress
sion is constantly recurring that the
country possesses the greatest amount OF
majestic scenery and the fewest people
OF any hab1table land on the face of the
globe. Perhaps this feeling is strongest
with the wanderer on foot along the
mountain highways. What might be
termed the superabundance of natures
tremendous spectacles often saddens and
even appalls the spectator, who finds
scant relief III human contact or even IN
that scenic contrast which provides re-
pose from awe-inspired emotions.
These panoramas of nature have been
provided in such vast proportions and
are so endless in number, that something
like headache and heartache follow the
unrelieved emotional tension. One in
voluntarily cries out, in the surtelt OF 1t
all, for respite, just as one who has
passed with unwrecked mind through
the mountain-hight spiritual and sound
tornadoes of Wagner's 'Parsifal," at
Bayreuth, feels that reason might be
easily dethroned ii the human gayeties
of Berlin and Paris were not conve-
niently near to assist in speedy restora-
ton.
Without a companion / should have
despaired of tramping more than from
enc dreary station to another. Indeed L
find l love best the lands OF peoples, of
activities and homes. The mileposts, as
would be remarked in dear old Ireland,
are too far apart in Norway. There are
too much of frozen field and glacier
peaked mountain between clusters OF
homes. And when, after always jour
neying long and far, you come upon hu-
man kind Vbila Won parfaiDlV meet hon.
est folk hespitable folk, and, universally,
folk possessing extraordinary virtues OF
mind and character, you still detect the
inetfable sadness and appalling loneli-
ness OF surrounding nature reflected in
their faces, as you Will lind, the world
over, vacuous meagerness transmitted
from changeless surroundings into the
natures and faces Of all human standstills
and stay at homes.
Whenever l close my eyes and see Nor
way and her people IN retrospect, both
seem to blend in soliditied strata of per-
spective. Down there, almost on the sea
level in the lower valleys, are the Scant
folk with solemn faces and solemn ways,
so measured and exacting in toll or pleas
ure, that they suggest huge lichens which
have clung through the storms OF ages to
the mountain bases Of stone. The next
stratum is an intermingling of forest.
rock, moraine and waterfall, the latter so
stupendous and fleecy that they seem
like shattered descending glaciers ar
rested in their headlong course and frozen
into white SO wondrous that no earthly
art can attain its purity. Above this is
thin layer of humans and herds, the very
color of the snoW-streaks and rock-grays
interspersed, the saeter folk and their
fiocks, that pass the briet summer thou
sands of feet above their kin and kind.
Then come the measureIeSS fields, rock
and icefields of utter solitude and desc
lation, the whole crowned by countless
ghostly peaks Of ice, far above the clouds,
an awful realm of frozen Silence between
the last vestige of nature-life and the eter-
nal Infinite.
l had penetrated to the mysterious
''eagle-nest' farms above the clouds, and
now l desired to see something of saeter
life in the same lofty regions. Descend
ing the lOrdly ROmsdal, the most won
derful OF all Norwegian valleys, partly by
carriole and partly on foot, from Haiaker
to Veblungsn@s, L came upon the jolliest
skydsgut, or postboy, L had found in all
Norway, tow-headed, big-eyed, open
mouth Lars Petersen, or Peter Larsen, L
am not sure which. Tramping alone had
become insutferable. For a tri1ling con-
sideration l purchased the companion
ship and willing services of Lars Tor a
period OF ten days. He had been taught
English at school, had been four years
a pOSIDOys coming III contact IN InaC Pc
riod with thousands of Englishmen and
Americans; though not 10 years of age, he
was as strong as an OK and nimble as
deer, and, while ripping and running
over with gurgling and boundless good
nature, had Mark Tapley sort OF philos-
ophy for all unpleasant emergencies and
ready backdoor out of every exasperat-
ing diliculty.
The Romsdal is a tremendous gorge or
gully from 1000 to 1000 feet deep, and
from fifty to sixty miles in length, cut
ting through some of the highest mount
aims, and the greatest snow and icelields
OF Norway. Along most of its length
walls rise on either side precipitously up
wards of 5000 feet, and over these pitch
waterfalls. not by the half-dozen or dozen,
but by the score. most Of them having
sheer fall Tor their entire descent. These
feed and increase the volume of the Rau-