The record-union., 1893-10-28

1t IS only the fringe of Norway that can
be thus threaded bit by bit, but what
mighty fringe it Isl Did the reader ever
think for a moment what the actual
cOast-line of Norway must be? The sub
ject came up on shipboard, and some
people capable of close calculation, and
who think before they venture opinions,
conceded it might be from 1000 TO 5000
miles. My curiosity led me to speak to
the Captain about it when opportunity
offered.
"Wel," he replied cautiously, 1.-THE
same question has been repeatedly asked
me ever since / have been in the coast
service. The main coast line is upwards
of l,20O miles long. There are nearly
thousand islands in the 'Skj8rgaard
louter coast-protecting islands) with
fully 1000 miles of coast-line, from Buk-
ken Fiord TO the North Cape, and around
to Waranger Fiord in the Arctic Ocean.
The tiOrds cutting into mainland some
from 50 to 100 miles In length, each with
smaller lords, some shorter, some longer,
reaching in direction from the larger
fords, must have as great coaSt-line as
the 'SkjSergaard.' We don't know as we
are right, but we never have been able TO
figure Norway's actual cOast-line at be-
low 5000 miles"
That is nearly one-third the distance
around the globe. In this summertime
trip along the Norway coast-for there
is practically no night in juneau July
the travellers sight may fairly be said to
rest upon coast scenery one-half the
length of this vast distance. The entire
course is one Of ever-changing scenes OF
desOlation and grandeur, quaintness and
beauty. Nothing could be quainter in
the Netherlands than the red-tiled city of
Berger which good King Olaf founded,
reaching out to commerce and the sea its
Homo n
its narrow streets, its odd-looking red
homes, its peaked roofs and gable ends,
all elm bing the steep hills and forming a
warm, almost Flemish picture against the
hard old mountains behind.
In a moment almost it is shut from
sight, and then the internlinable maze of
islands again. Now we are at the very
edge Of one whose verdureless top and
ragged teeth could be leaped upon from
shlpbOard. Then little archipelago is
threaded where folk live by fishing and
farming, the nets and gear lining the
rugged shores, tiny strips of grass and
grain showing here and there between
black angles of rock. and low, strongly
built habitations, often with sod roofs,
are clustered wherever place to set them
can be found. Here men, women and
children are barefooted, barelegged bare
breasted and barearmed. They seem con-
tent, and as we pass they wave their
hands and smile.
More than once we pass through chan
nelS so narrow between upraised faces of
island walls that it is ShadOWy and dark
upon the steamers deck. Myriads of
sea-fOwl dip and plunge at US as if to de-
scend upon the ship, and shrek deafen-
ingly for the momentary intrusion. Some
are gulls, with their hOarse, strangled
gurgIe, and men and women standing ait
against the sail excitedly throw pieces of
bread for the famished fowl to wrangle
over in midair, laying wagers as TO the
greatest numbers Of throws taken by
the gulls before the bread touches the
water, the sport often awakening almost
bitter rivalries and becoming dangerous
TO purse and person. Again we sail close
beneath beetling shore-side cliff whose
Ieaden-cOlored wall rises sheer into the
air tor more than two thousand feet, and
whose edge cuts the sky above apparently
as level and sharp as the edge Of dressed
block OF black marble. SeaWard, count
less islets trimmed with foam form pur-
pie reliejs in settings OF spotless white.
Countless hords are passed. Some have
wide loW-lying mouths. Others show
close, black walls reaching to the clouds.
through the latter sheen of light carries
the eve TO the purpIy, almost shadoWy
haze above the soundleSs waters beneath,
and so far as can be seen there are here
but the waters beneath, the mighty en-
circling walls and then the clouds and
The hrmament above. But through
many most tantaliZing glimpses are
caught. Strange, pointed boats are ply
ing across the silent waters of the ford.
village seeming to rest upon the water
itself shows beneath the face of a tower
ing cliff. An upland dal entrance is in
dicated by the pinkiS mist which, show
ing above the tiord edge, hints of deep,
swift streams or slumberous, silent lakes
beyond, with pleasant valley life around.
= great stone road winds in and out like
some huge scaly serpent, but always up
ward. Upon its outward reappearing
curves tiny chalets seem poised. Far in
some talntly-seen pOckety recess IS tint
of green. The red and brown splatches
upon it are mountain-side peasant homes.
That puff of white like a mammoth fleece
OF wool, ten, twenty, perhaps thirty miles
away, is where river leaps from an in
discernable gorge. y thousand feet higher,
but nearer on the ford side, is a penciling
OF wavering white-a waterfall pounded
by the airs resistance into hesitant way
ing folds Of mist hundreds of feet before
they touch the rippleless ford where
they fall. Above and beyond all this,
blending into indistinguishable threads
and lines of sky and cloud, are ranges of
eternal ice and snow.
lessly on challenged by these strange,
wild and beautiful scenes, you may 90
tlreleSsly, habitation, comfort and pleas
ant mpan1onshlps, all yours; past stur-
dy old Throndhjem, the northernnIost
city of importance in Europe, with the
wild and racing Md. tearing and bound
ing from the mountains in majestic wa
tertalls, outlining its curious, almost
island site, and its umbling old cathe-
II F1ol
peaked gables; past BodO with its sod-roof
huts and barn-like modern buildings;
past Torgh8tan with its world-tamous
rocky tunnel; past the marvellous ''bird
mountain" Sv@holt, strange, weird
perpendicular promontory of clay slate
where millions of white Seafowl cluster
like Wreaths and strings of pearls: past
the far north Lofoden Islands around
which huddle countless Norwegian fish
ing smacks, and where more than twen-
W million Of cod are annually taken:
round the bleak, black, drear and dread
ful North Cape, It's messy back strangely
lighted by the yellow light OF the north
ern sun, and finally sweeping past meas
nreless nights of brown, bare stone, ever
backed by glacier fields untrodden by
foot of man, and the vast mouths of Por-
ranger and Tana Fiords, black and dun
and awful as the entrance to Vathek's
EbliS, you skirt the deSolate peninsula of
Wariak- Mag, and, sailing from the east
out of the Arctic Ocean, float gently
through the somber Waringer Fiord,
dropping anchor before Vadso the north
ernmost inhabited place in Europe.
Here are, perhaps, 1000 souls who sub
sist almost wholly upon the industries
connected with the whale fisheries. You
will ind Firms and Lapps in abundance,
but all the commercial dealings of the
place are carried on by Norwegians. The
entire country roundabout differs little
in appearance from the eastern shore OF
I nhradnr as | recall it Everlasting