Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1893-11-02

M
brief sketches of Norwegian scenes and
folk, there is strong and irresistible i'm
pulse upon me to make the sort of confess
SION few travellers in foreign lands are very
willing to do / have no Morse blood in my
veins. ! am not a Morse scholar. have
not had the time to even casually read the
scant literature of travel in Norway.
never possessed a guide book to that
country. ! have acquired only a few hun
dred words and a few score sentences of
the Norwegian language, and those COM
pulsorily through temporary exigency;
and my wanderings in this land of Won
drous sterility and marvellous fertility, of
dreadful heights and awful depths, of
savage grandeur and sunniest hooks, have
only comprised three short runaway trips
from the British side OF the North sea.
Yet so much can be seen in so little time
In Norway; its scenic wonders are so i'm
pressively and startlingly massed; its
government and social systems are so
plain and simple to the stranger; and
above all, It's people are so responsive
hospitable and kind, and so like a good
book set open before your eyes for the
reading that out of the little opportunity
/ b We had for observation and association,
when look back to the stern north land
and its crags, valleys and homes there is
such a sense of panoramic completeness of
sight, scene and feeling the task of remin-
iscence has in il something like the tender
pleasure Of telling about olden scenes and
friends.
My first visit to Norway was made from
Hull to Bergen, and thence on Nor
wegian coastinG steamer in and out of the
tlords along the wondrous coast to Vadso.
The next gave me time for interior wan
derings in the Bergen and Hardanger dis
tricts; and the last afforded opportunity
for knowing the scenes and people round
about Throndhjem; while some consider
able land journeys were made towards tho
0sterdal from the north and into the Hal
lindal from the west. When the coast tour
was made, had no intention of ever see
ing Norway again. and every iset, oTag,
ford. town and landing was an object Of
eager interest. | am not sure but this
method of visiting Norway has superior
advantages to the traveller whose time is
limited, 0s his diversity of observation is
extraordinary; while at the same time he
is practically at ease within, or upon, his
floating inn.
1t Is only the fringe OF Norway that can
be thus threaded bit by bit, but what
mighty fringe 1t isl Did the reader ever
think for moment what the actual coast
line of Norway must be? The subject
came up on shipboard, and some people
capable of close calculation. and who
think before they venture opinions. con-
coded it might be from 1000 to 5000 miles.
My curiosity led me to speak to the cap
tain about il when opportunity offered.
'Well." he replied cautiously, 1.-THE same
question has been repeatedly asked me
ever since / have been i'll the coast service
The main coast line is upwards of /, 200
miles long. There are nearly a thousand
islands in the 'Skjergaard' (outer coast
protecting isands) with fully 1900 miles
of coast-line, from Bukken Fiord to the
North Cape and around to Waranger
Fiord, in the Arctic ocean. The fiords
cutting into mainland, some from 80 to
100 miles in length, each with smaller
tiords, some shorter, some longer, reach
ing in every direction from the larger
fiords must have as great coast.line as
the .Skjergaard.' We don't know as we
are right; but we never have been able to
figure Norway's actual coast-line at below
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 June and 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
Bergen which good King Olaf founded,
reaching out to commerce and the sea its
long, low rows of huge-roofed warehouses,
its narrow streets its odd-looking red
homes, its peaked roofs and gable ends, all
climbing the steep hills and forming a
warm, almost Flemish picture against the
hard old mountains behind.
In a moment almost ii is shut from
sight, and then the interminable maze OF
islands again. Now we are at the very
edge of one whose verdureless top and
ragged teeth could be leaped upon from
shipboard. Then q little archipelago is
threaded where folk live by fishing and
farming; the nets and gear lining the
rugged shores; tiny strips of grass or grain
angles of rock; and low, strongly built
habitations, often with sod roofs, are clus,
tered wherever place to set them can be
found. Here men, women and children
are barefooted, bare-legged. bare-breasted
and bare-armed. They seem content, and
as we pass they wave their hands and
smile.
Countless fiords are passed. Some have
wide low-lying mouths Others show
close, black walls reaching to the clouds
Through the latter sheen of light carrie:
the eye to the purply, 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
armament above. But through many
most tantalizing glimpses are caught
Strange, pointed boats are plying across
the silent waters of the ford. A villag,
seeming 10 rest upon the water itself show!
beneath the face OF towering cliff. Ar
upland dial entrance is indicated by th,
pinkish mist which, showing above thu
ford edge, hints of deep swift streams o.
slumberous silent lakes beyond, witt
pleasant valley life around
And so, on and on and almost endlessly
on, challenged by these strange wild ant
beautiful scenes You may go tireessly
habitation, comfort and pleasant compan
iunships, all yours; past sturdy ole
Throndhjem, the northernmost city o
importance in Europe, with the wild ant
racing Md, tearing and bounding from
the mountains in majestic waterfalls, out
lining its curious almost island site, AM
its crumbling old cathedral towering aboy
its red roofs and peaked gables; past Bod
with its sod-roof huts and barn-lik
modern buildings, past Torghettan will
its world-famous rocky tunnel past tn
marvellous "bird-mountain," Svmrholt,
strange, weird perpendicular promontor,
of clay slate where millions of white seq
fowl cluster like wreaths and strings O
pearls; past the far north Lofoden Island
around which huddle countless Norwegian
tishing-smacks, and where more thai
20,000.000 of cod are annually taken; roun
the bleak, black, drear and dreadful Mort
Cape, its messy back strangely lighted b.
the yellow light of the northern sun; an,
finally sweeping past measureless height
of brown, bare stone, ever backed b.
glacier fields untrodden by foot of mar
and the vast mouths of Porranger an
Tana Fiords black and dun and awful a
the entrance to Vathek's Eblis, you Skin
the desolute peninsula of Wariak-Niag
and, sailing from the east out of til
Arctic ocean, flOat gently through tn