Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1893-12-07

LONDON. Nov, 20.-TrnvelerS in Norway
who have written of Norway and its peo.
pie have invariably spoken Of two charac-
teristic subjects, but III SO brief manner
as always to pique and never to satisfy the
readers natural interest. These are what
have been termed for better name the
''eagle-nest FARMS" and the ''saeters'' or
mountain summer diaries.
so far as know no traveller writing in
our language has ever visited the former,
and while few have actually seen saeter
It's environment and the strange and lonely
life at the same have never been adequately
described.
In sailing along the Norwegian coast
from Bergen to the Lofoden Islands, one
who is closely. obseryant of the mainland
scenery, and particularly if powerful
field glass is used, will be surprised at the
number of utterly lonely and isolated
habitations, seemingly perched against the
gray crags at great attitudes midway be-
tween sea and sky. The larger number of
these are at least 1000 feet above the sea.
10 the eye IL seems uncomfortable that
place for even their foundations could be
secured. The picture is always the same.
A. line of black wall thousands of feet
nigh a.dent of purple or depression of
misty blue where the speck OF a home is
built; and then black and sombre crags
behind and above; and above and beyond
these the ghostly glacier fields.
because from distance their eerie loca-
ton, and the ragged, huddled structures,
which often surround the main habitation
REGAL the nest of the eagle at the edge of
oeetiing crags, they have come to be
called eagle-nest farms" Sometimes the
eye will follow black line of assure
descending from these habitations to a
caFernous, rock-gorged gap beside the
water. In this case little boat. house may
be seen upon. the rocks; and somewhere
near, a winding, puce-like line will trail
upwards and into the darkening depths.
rms tells that the eagle.nest farmer is a
fisherman, too, or has this means of COM
munication With the outer world; but how
he reaches his home-perch above; how he
subsists in his desolate habitation; and
what manner of folk these are, who find
contentment in lives of such endless soli-
tude, danger and nsture-grndged sus-
terance. were conjectures which haunted
me until found means to know.
Above the cliff walls of the larger and
sterner iiords which penetrate the main
land from the coast, the eagle-nest farms
are even more numerous than along the
outer coast. This is particularly true of
portions of the Hardanger. Sogne and
Throndhjem fiords. In the lordly Nero
Fiord, branch of the Aurlands, branch
Ia, the Sogne, and in few instances in the
Throndh1em, they are at such lofty alti-
t,lds that they appear like specks of snow
or ice, or like posing birds upon edges
OF the cliff, l had noticed few located
at prodigious heights between Styye and
Holmenas, ON the northern wall-crests of
this ford, which, all the way beyond
Drysdal to the waterfall of the Ytre
Baaken that tumbles 5000 feet, is like
some black and terrible waterway 10 the
realms of the Eblis; and on landing al the
picturesque station of Bake, where snow
capped mountains rise thousands of feet
sheer above the village, leaving not a snare
foot between habitations and the towering
walls OF stone, determined that even ii
the endeavor should end in broken neck
nest farm.
-Four days passed at Bakke four DAYS of
contemplation of scenery so sombre and
awful that 1t continually suggested the
internal before l found any one either
competent or willing to act as a guide.
linen good fortune came to me IN the per
son OF strapping young fellow, a native
OF Grindedal, who had been lured away
from his own mountain home to Australia
and tired of rowing life in the antipodes
was returning as best he could, with look
or eager inconsistencies in his ewes almost
savage in its intensity. The little he was
TO receive as boatman, guide and inter
prefer, would on our return pay his pas
sage on the ford steamers around through
Aurlands Fiord to Fejes, and still leave
him as many dollars as q peasants hard
labor for whole year will give for saving
IN Norway. So we were q happy pair as
we rowed in our small boat, hired al
Bake, to the northeast towards Styye
and Drysdal' $ ice-tields above the clouds.
could not have found in all Norway a
more hitting companion for this particular
adventure. Not so very long ago the old
method of stages by row-boat along many
OF these tiords was still in vogue Travellers
were then taken from one station to another
IN cumberous sharp.pointed boats. The
crew Of each would return with other pas
sengers to its home-station; and frequently
these crews, from stress of travellers haste.
or when hired by the week or month,
would make voyages the entire length of d
ford and its various lesser branches,
This often brought the real Vikings of
our generation, that is, the dwellers on
Vlks, or creeks, along the iiords, into
acquaintance with the peasant folk of
another ford; and the father of my guide,
whose name was Peter Erickson was the
master of such boat when Peter was q
lad. Those who dwelt at Feies had Come
to not only know the lowly Of Bake, but
many had acquired the almost unconscious
cunning of the Indians wood-craft, or The
coastsailors' unexplainable eighth sense
OF instructive pre-consciousness of location
in fair weather or foul. This made clearer
to these boatmen than an ordinance chart
every hidden chasm, sequestered waterfall
or unseen home-nest upon thecrags; while
the very cragsman whom he had set out
to visit had been. in the days before the
steamers whistle awoke the sleepinu
echoes of the sombre Nero FiOrd, one oi
the crew of Peters fathers boat.
1t was well we had provided food and
blankets. The enthrallment of the saw.
agely majestic scenery of the ford, the
lnlLerlnUS rhaSn1q nd
valley openings, where odd and fantastic
hamlets and half hanging clusters of farm
buildings toppled at the edges of preci.
pieces, 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 highway ever known, and who
always shook hands with us us though We
were old and dear friends they had moi
seen for decade and never expected 1,
see again, shouting and waving "Fayels'
TO us as long as we were in sight-broughl
us only TO the real beginning of our elf
journey when il was already fairly nigh
walls of the ford.
The place into which Peter dexterousl,
guided our boat was the most forbiddiny
and gruesome ] ever had the fortune h
enter, From the middle of the stream til,
opening was wholly undesirable; but m,
guide informed me that hundreds more I'M,
II could be found among the tremendou.
walls of the Norwegian tiords. II wa,
practically vertical assure 1000 feet high
and perhaps as deep below the waters sur
face. One edge was almost as smooth ant
rounded as hewn pillar for all its might,
height. The other correspondingly hol
lowed, would have closed against It, bat
the same inconceivable nature.force which
separated it set iI again in place, with per
feet lamination and without an inch o