Morning journal and courier., 1893-11-18
wAKEMAN,s WANDEKINGs.

him his job.-Indisnspolis Journal. 
 wAKEMAN's WANDERINGs. Peeps at Norway-PeculiarIti of Travel in Norway-Mighty Stone Roads-The Drammens Wei of Ber- gen, the Rock Road of Bjerkak CT and the Famous Zigzas Descent of StaIheimsklev- - Norwegian Ponies and CarrIoles Posting Stations, Stolid Landlords and Entertaining Daybooks.
 LONDON, Nov. 2. To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER: Travel in Noway hss some unusual and many exceedingly interesting phszes. It was eurprizing thing to learn that more than one hundred thousand tourists now visit this northern land every summer. The country possesses comparatively few miles of railway. Consequently all routes of travel are practically by highways and | waterwsys. More than quarter of a century since 1t was seen that tourists, and particularly European tourists. in search of scenic marvels, were t!ring of Switzer- ] land; were turning their faces towards the midnight sun; and were even penetrating to the most remote fields and slscier-fslds. Norway immediately set about making travel within her rugged boundaries not only possible to all by extensive road building, but systematic and reliable as between all carriers and landlords and the tourist public.
 This road building, involving enormous l expense and many splendid feats of engl- | nsering, hss had much the same effect upon the people of Norway as in Austrian Ga l ieia. Not co many years ago Austria built nearly two thousand miles of stone of Galicia, or Austrian Poland. Previous | to that time, materially, no more wretch ! ed, God-forsaken land existed on the face | of the earth. In less than ten years time these roads did more for tho six million people of Austrian Poland in material and social advancement than sll the churches, all the books, all the newspapers, all the battles, all the railways and All the gov ernments had ever accomplished for them
 from the days of Misczyslaw and Boleslas ! to the day these roads were done.
 The isolation of the Norwegian peassn- l try was never So universal ss that of the
 Austrio-Polish pesssntry. They have ever
 had their many and mighty fords; while g
 semi sesfariug life always provided diver
 sifed resources and the beneficial friction
 of change. And yet until this rosd-build
 ing on mighty scale was begun, it ofter | bar nI hat hn fnl n n
 hamlet, or of 6 valley district, were az rs
 mote from those of another dal not ter
 miles distant, where totally different re
 sources were relied upon and wholly diff
 ferent traditions and customs were 1T
 vogue, ss though the Tstras or Atlai
 mountains stood between.
 l This later almost universal means of In
 tercommunicstion over these grand stont
 roads, and the roads combined with th,
 fords, has made Norwegian folk nor,
 homogeneous; developed the scanty re
 sources of this stern north land; and nor,
 than all else intensified the trsditiona ] loneinga of these fine and sturdy folk fo
 complete national liberty and indepen dence. Combined with the surpsssin,
 scenery and interesting peasant life, 1t als'
 brings millions of dollars to Norway eGcl
 year, distributed in city, hamlet, "sts
 tion," and even in lonely mountain ssete
 by vast horde of tourists, whose meth
 ods of travel over mountain, through val ! ley and over ford arc alone s most inter
 eating subj ct of study.
 The grand Norwegian roads, while the!
 are more numerous and expensively buii
 in proportion to population than those O
 any other European country, have DO ! that peculiar sentimental interest attach
 ing to the highways Of many other Euro l pean regions, and to be found in all tn
 Latin countries. They possess no roadsid
 shrinss; nor are lowly pilgrim bands eve
 ssen upon them. The pilsrinages her | are all to natuIe's mighty shrinrs Thre
 examples will indicate their stupendou
 character aud added impressivsness iron
 winding along, or within some of the mos
 beautiful and majestic tcsneIy all Europ affords.
 The Drammens Wei tor Drams way, be cause built from the revenues from Bquo , licenses,) of Bergen. is one of the fines road ways In the world. It is cut out 0 the sides Of the mighty F:oe!fjs'd risin above the city. Five tremendous bend , are required to reach the summit. For 1, entire distance, where not blasted from th ' solid rock, the bed consists first of heav bouldsrs, then huge slabs Of granite, an l finally thick covering of cement an gravel. The escarped sides are of soil
 masonry, often twenty, thirty and Eft feet high along their facsdes, to secur sufficient roadbed above; and the cute
 edges of nearly the entire Wei are protec
 ed by huge pointed rocks set upright {
 regular intervals. The outlook from an
 of its bends, comprising the red-roofe
 city, the frozan heights to the north, th !. bay, the seawsrd countless islands and th
 thunderous ocean beyond, Is not surpasse |. in Europe.
 @ Near Bjsrksgsr, in the Trondbjem al d trict, is another wonderful roadway. FC T. it's entire length of several miles 1t hI
 been blasted from solid rock. The nece r sary dislodgements wsrs often so gre, o as to give the appearance of some might A eonvulsion of nature. The steep moul 2 tain slope rises thousands of feet sbo' you to the one side, while below you, e the other, Is tremendous gorge. near = a thousand feet in depth, with a wild to . . rent rsving and bowling on Its way to tl ;. distant ford. At the outer bends of u
 road overlooking the gorge and torrent tl
 scenery is indsscribably somber and gran n Huge upright mssses of rock are set y masonry along the outer edge. And that tho little Norwegian ponies chatter
 break neck speed. as you breathlessly eli sd to your ricksty osrriole.
 ," Descending from the upland ride, fro 1g Vossevangen, through the famous Nsrot to to Gudvsngen, the last few miles of 70 ,n journey will bring you to a still grea'
 combined marvel eff road building a ,ra magnificent scenery. The head of dy valley is walled by mountain mas in about two thousand feet high. Err =, kl,fa altitude mountain kons of Hva q