The record-union., 1893-12-09

nothing TO compare with it in any part of
the explored globe.
We loitered at the Sletta Foss, where
the Rauma itself tum bles into the valley,
between Stuef1allen and Ormein Stations,
at the triple Nermedals Foss, and passed
days of pleasure and wonder between Or
meln and Horgheim, where there are
nundreds OF these water marvels, varying
from 800 to ], 900 feet in fall, and where at
one place L counted fifty-three in full
view at one time, saw the filmy Donte-
fossen, which, directly at the roadside.
tum bIes 3, 700 Norsk feet, and, when op-
posite the giant Romsdai horn or peak.
near the picturesque station of RGdnin-
gen, led by merry Lars, we took mount
ain path towards the upland Alnesdal
District, still above which Lars promised
10 bring me to some of the widest and
lonellest saeters of Norway.
1t IS no easy task to climb to these sac
ters. Some are from twenty to sixty
miles from the valley hamlets and farms.
IhoSe we sought were, perhaps, no more
than twelve miles distant from the Roms-
dal highway, but certainly more than
twice that distance by the circuitous and
tortuous way. The path was plain enough
to Lars, as to all these Norwegian Alpine
climbers, and TO the ponies used to carry
supplies to the saeterS and bring back
again their pack loads of butter and
cheese, but stranger TO these ravines
and crags would have been irretrievably
lost after a half days wandering. AS it
was we were obliged to pass a night be-
side lonely tarn shut in by black walls,
with snow-clad peaks for the only out
look beyond.
Here Lars genius for surmounting
difficulties was illustrated. We had
brought little food. During the last
two hours assent Lars had gathered here
and there every branch of wood that came
in sight, as well as bunches of juniper
branches. These, with his tollkniv,
which every peasant carries, and some
bits of strong cord which every postboy
possesses with which to mend broken
harness, he had arranged in compact
branches, bestoWing them on his head,
shoulders and body until he was COM
pletely hidden from sight. With the dry
wood he built CHEEKY fire. The juniper
branches provided our bed, which was
laid in snug angle of projecting rock.
A travelling rug and stout carriole
blanket formed our covering, and here
beneath the glittering stars we "slept
swate rings round our heads,' as the
Irish mother would say of her healthfully
sleeping child.
The next morning our ascent was re-
sumed through hollowS, over ridges
where Ice and snow lay concealed beneath
thin layers OF black sediment and slime,
around soundless tarns still and dark as
the walls lnclosing them, past copses of
stunted hr, and with never a sight of
living thing. The most amazing sight to
me III these upper regions was the fire.
quent patches in sunny hollows of straw
berries. In some places the ground was
literally red with them. | noticed, too,
that in these pockety spots the heat,
even at this high altitude, was almost
sitting.
All the way Lars had been telling me
IN answer to my inquiries about saeters
and saeter folk. Some things thus learned
were very interesting. In the first place
about the middle of June until the 10th
OF September, which brief period COM
prises the entire Norwegian summer,
every COW in Norway, not needed for a
scant home supply Of milk, is sent to the
mountain Saeter. With the COWS go all
other cattle. all goats and sheep, and oc-
casiOnally these will be accompanied by
swine which are quite as much at home
among the crags as the sheep and goats.
The saeter themselves comprise huts or
cabins and rude dairieS comb bined, where
the Saeter folk, who are invariably women
and girls, live entirely alone in this DESC
late isolation, while caring for the herds,
milking the COWS, goats and even ewes,
and converting the milk into butter and
CQ66S6 lOI ju0 NluIcT STORE III GQ0 valley
homes, often scores of miles away.
There is great commotion throughout
Norway when the annual June exodus
Of the saeter girls and their herds begins.
Every farm IS IN utmost confusion. The
entire household is busted getting to-
gether and packing up what will be nee
essary for use i'll the temporary mount
ain home. There are churns and milk
pals, pots and molds, frying pans and
III i DE- Of fl,A
scant cutlery. For food there is a bit of
sugar and coffee, much flour and meal,
crates OF hadbrod, some bacon, perhaps
some dried or picked fish, and, more in
weight than in all else, salt for the cattle.
The girls themselves find room for odd
bits OF embroidery and q few knick-
knacks, while Il Bible and some worn
volumes of old Morse tales are never for
gotten. Besides these things there are
pounds Of wool to be spun, or other
pounds of yarn to be knit. a few blank
cts or sheepskin for bedding, and but
little more than the clothing upon their
backs completes the meager outfit.
When all is in readiness these strange
ocessiOnS-something like the annual
outgoing OF the tloclls and their herders
OF the Apulian plains in Southern Italy
set forth from every gard or farm in
Norway. The belongings for the saeter
are slung in baskets upon the backs of
sure-footed ponies, or old horses that
have known the same journey for de-
cadeS. The farmer marches in advance
blowing unearthly blasts from the lur,
not over musical horn made from birch
bark. Then come the cattle. No need to
drive these. Like the gypsies who can
not be kept from the road and the tent at
the first bursting of spring-time buds,
they have tired Of their reindeer-moss
fodder OF the winter, have scented the
juicy blades that are springing to life in
the tiny Tar wales above them, and, with
genuine manifestations of Joy, crowd
close uDOn the farmer and his blarinp lur
Then follow the saeter girls, picturesque
in their bright bOdices, white caps and
short skirts, but each bearing upon her
shoulders a yoke, from which depend
baskets, kettles and all manner of para
phernalia, almost equaling in bulk and
weight the packs upon the ponies backs.
Towards evening OF the second day we
came to the saeter of kron. From dis
tance nothing could be distinguished but
"a low, wide hut at the side of a gentle ra-
vine, here and there between the rocks
splatched with bits Of verdure. The hor-
lion line was close and serrated with
masses,of lichened stone, here and there
intersected by other gullies and ravines.
Through these, Lars said, the herds wan
dered long distances In their daily graz
ing jauntS. No human beings were at
first III sight about the saeter. Shortly
fiaxeu-haIred maiden, huge OF girth and
limb, stood at the hut door, and, shading
her eyes with heI great bare arm and not
her hand, looked long and earnestly at
US. Lars gurgled at this, ana made won
derful gestures in return. Suddenly the
girl-Iillie, Lars called her-rushed at US
in a sort OF bounding galIop. and seizing
my postDoy guide hugged him ecstati
calIy. wrestling with him, turning him
round aud about, and again hugging
him, while tears OF JOY flowed down her
honest face, perfect torrent of questions
and interections meantime being poured