Morning journal and courier., 1893-11-11


 lesser iords. Most of these are marvels of beauty aud grandeur as individual types. All are mountain walled and near l ly land-looked. Their protection by the outer skerries and islets and the unoeas- ing tremendous counterforce of mountain torrents from the ics- fields prevent tidal rise of their natural surfaces of more than three feet. Of the four named, the Gel | ranger Is the nsrrowest. the Hardanger | the most beautiful, the Trondhjem the most Interestingly diversified, and the Sogne and Its divergent arms the longest and most savage and often appalling In Its | grandeur.
 Through Its accessibility from Bergen | the Hsrdanger ford is likely to be the first Norwegian ford seen ty the tourist. It is about seventy miles in length. Twoolssses
 of steamers ply upon 1t, ss we'll ss upon the other fords named, the swift, cApa- oious and elegant mail steamers which touch at few landings, called "stations," 1" and the local passenger and freight boats which take no heed of time, even from its They are very comfortable, scrupulously clean, and the incidents of the voyage are more varied and charming. Besides, the magnificent scenery of the fords Is thus more leisurely enjoyed.
 More than hundred calls for psssen- gers or freight are made on the voyage to 0dde at the head of the ford. This brings you In closer contact with the life along It's numberless valley ststions; and along the Hsrdsnger ford this is of much account, as the peassntry of the Hardsn- ger district are perhaps the most chsrac- teristic in dress and customs yet remain ing In Norway. The human interest along the Hardsnger Is continuous. Groups of
 the pesssntry, especially where setting out for or returning from funerals, weddings or summertime festivities are always ss picturesque ss may be seen in Brittany or
 Normandy. The men are all clad in dark garments and the women are gay with
 gltnt and color. The Hardsnger female
 costume in the field often consists of one garment displaying the outlines of the from with considerable freedom, though
 there will always be bit of color in ker- chief about the neck or head. But when these HsrdsDger matrons and lasses be- deck themselves for sad or merry occs- sions there are certain old and gsudily painted pine chests in every housenold to be safely drawn upon for requisite hnery. It is then their black, blue or brown woolen skirts reach the plenitude and i'm measurable Holdings of the Newhaven fish wife or the Connemara knitter on market day. Their waists and sleeves are snowy white, and never were elsewhere seen such vast. spotless and flowing aprons as they possess. Their bright bodicss, which are always open for the display through a square yoke of snowy plsiss, bits ot em- hroidery and monstrous silver breaches, are quaintly wrought with silk, with beads, or with silver aud gilt, while the tremendous white caps of the married wo- men, winged and blsring and wide, are held in place ovsr light wooden frames. The girls often wear only the faxen head dress which nature gave them, braided with bright ribbons, although some will be seen with tiny beaded caps perched iauntily upon their heads. As the Irish country lsssies often carry their shoes and stockings to the edge of the village on market day, and innocsntly put their pret- ty feet and legs into them at convenient halting- places by the roadside, so these thrifty Hsrdsnger peasant women make parcels of their most precious garments and fnery, and complete their amazing toilets near the place of merrymsking or before entering the village church, uncon- scious of observation and innocent of alarm.
 Then there are the oncoming and de- barking of passengers; the curious forms of freight landed and received; the con | tinuous crossing and recrossing of the | waters by peasant parties from valley to valley and hamlet to hamlet; the tourist crowds rushing for inns or engaging car rioles for mountain tours; amiable collec- tions of Stolkjaeres drivers with their pa- tient ponies and their numbering carts; deans and psrsons enroute to distant par ishes; American and English hunters and fishers with their marvellous outfits and belongings, comprising everything gave evidences of game taken, setting out for the fields or being rowed to more promis- ing fields of sport; grave old bonders ! wise, but round from good digestion and calm and benign from messursless content, making you feel that there is something substantial about Norway aside from her crags and ice; lumber owners from the | cities vl.iting the mills and seeking and l sorting their logs; engineering parties at work upon the endless task of bringing | the valleys and fiords nearer together; ge- | ologists and paruralists innumeIable, with | impoverished stores of specimens, but 90 | enthusiastically exuding with theories and 1 coDjectures about the glacier age and the | morsines that no peace shall come until | their discoveries, in book form, finally | drift to the terminal morsines of nters. | ture the great libraries cobwebbed shelves | and everywhere the freDzted amateur pho togrspher, pale with energy and loss of | sleep, and the lean, lank, lone, lorn cyclist
 bent with rheumatism, bumped from
 bronchitis, and in his scspt attire as h. | congruous & spectacle ss a skirtless ballet dancer dropped among Himslsysn heights. l Through the entire length of the liar. danger ford and it's lesser outreaching up. per fords there are the most extraordinary
 variety of scenery possible to find in sn equal distance. Eve station has it's glen | or chasm or wider dal Each of these | pours it's river or tumultuous torrent into
 the ford. Where the mountains widen
 out into smphithesters there are the cir
 cling wales fringed at the top by horizon
 line of polished or jagged rock, with {
 lesser circle of savage debris below; ther
 festhery rim of pine; below this the em
 erald of the farms, with their clusters o
 softened gray old structures; and then th'
 foaming river shooting from the depths o
 the vale, with the whitish yellow line O | the mountain road beside 1t and following
 all it's torturous vindings; and finally, thu
 hamlet, brown and gray, at the v-ry eds
 of the blue waters of the ford.
 Such valley scenes give sky ss blue s
 Itely's; suggestions of inaccessible ant
 frozen heights; the misty pesrlins tint
 that lay in Tuscan wales like the rime 0
 ripened grape; a soft and lsnguorous lux
 uriance such as hslf-shrouds and half-re veals the valleys of Cuba; and all the mel
 low uusintness of Netherlsnd hsmlets, 6 one glance. Where the station" cluste of mossy structures sets at the mouth O shsdowy gorge there are cliffs not huu
 dreds but thousands of feet above; 8 gilt . ter of foam like & cameo setting to tn black background; and now and then, ia up the purpling gorge shaft Of gittterin , light, as if the focused bsauty of som
 half hid upland dale shot for sn instan
 between weird, cloud reaching walls.
 Now for miles we sail between precipice = from three to five thousand feet in height . The silence here is painful. From wate
 to sky there is neither branch of tree nc D blade of grass. Not even wild fowl screal
 and circle here; and we are told the wste l beneath us is deep-deeper far than th
 noisy sea outside the skerries-ss the cras r face @ vale of almost trop'csl beaut, l. Scarcely is this contemplated before or n course carries our sight to a shore of crsI n with a valley line above; beyond this
 festhery line of forest; then su edge , rock touched by the bright sunlight in F. masses of furnished bronze; and far ar d high beyond Is glittering line of quive IF ing sapphire blue where the trsckless ic , fields of the Folgefond seem throbbing ar 10 pushing their yet fadeless fires in u le ghostly upper light.
 n And so on and on to Odde-"the tong
 of land; where you seem to have come !, the edge of. chaos world; and where t , brown hamlet, low lying and backed l. gorge and crsg and foss and height, loo B. lszily out from its slumberous inns ai " shops back along the blue way you car
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