The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1894-01-20

exceedingly distinctive and curious,
when it is remembered that, contras-
ted with the age Of civilization in
Southern Europe, the Morse are com
paratively new corners in this Arctic
land. There are what might be
termed onIea zones of buildings and
edifices, each giving an almost uni
versally different example of struct-
ural style and material. In the re-
mote and desolate north all ancient
structures are of stone. In southern
Norway oak and beech have been
utilized. In the central districts ev-
erything has been, and is still, built
of pine
If one has grown to believe that
oak represents all that is enduring
and almost everlasting among the
nobler woods serviceable to man, his
ideas must be modified when he has
come to know the ancient pine built
structures of central Norway. One
gazes with admiration and wonder
when the strong, perfect beams in
the old Sir Walter Raleigh house at
Youghal, Ireland, in the ancient
houses of the gentry in other por-
tions of that country, and in almost
awed admiration upon the oaken
stalls, screens and timbers of Eng
lish cathedrals, and particularly
those in the very ancient parish
churches like those of Stoke Poges,
where Gray wrote his "Elegy," of
Grasmere, and of Crossthwaite, at
Keswick. These have stood staunch
and true for two, three, four and per-
haps five hundred years. 1t is no
uncommon thing in Norway to find
eagle-nest farm buildings, city ware
houses, bonders' or large farmers
storehouses, as well a. homes, and
curious old pier-houses beside the
fiords, built wholly of pine, still well
preserved, which are quite as old;
while the strange, little old churches
of central Norway, also entirely con-
strueted of pine, possess a surprising
number of their original timbers
placed where they stand to-day long
before the venerable Minister of
York or the mellowed cathedral of
Salisbury assumed anything like
their present forms.
In visiting an "eagle- nest" farm
above the clouds beside the gloomy
Faero Fiord noticed that the old
est portion of the farmers home-a
long rambling structure which seem
ed to have had built upon it new
annex for each generation or century
was by far the stoutest, sturdiest
and best. | questioned the farmer
as to its age. The family legendary
memories and finally the family re-
cords agreed that it must have been
built sometime in the sixteenth cen
tury, OF perhaps three hundred and
fifty years ago. In the Thelemarken
district are many quaint old wooden
mills which l found to be from $50
to 250 years old. In bonders' home
l visited in the Trondhjem country,
the low, wide living room, around
which had been added other huger
modern apartments and two-story
high halls. was over 400 years old,
and as perfect from decay in any of
its timbers as the day it was built;
and when among the saeters of Roms-
dial and Gudbransdal heights, even
found saeter huts, the habitations of
the saeter-girls who tend the noun
tain herds in summer, which had been
built from 150 to $50 years ago.
/ soon began to notice that if the
oldest portion Of all these structures
was not the best, it was still, consid-
ering its age, incomparably the best
preserved; and another curious fact,
that such portion vas invariably of
different construction, became ap.
parent. The pine timbers in these
structural portions of greatest anti
guilty were invariably placed on end,
in the formation of walls, and never
laid together horizontally. This an
cient method of building, / finally
learned, is what the Morse call "reis-
vark,' ~ that is, raised work, or STOOD
up work. and in this peculiar meth
cd Of building lies the secret of the
astounding antiquity of the famous
wooden churches of Norway Every
portion is constructed from Norwe-
gian pine, SO enduring beyond any
historically known oak that it has
withstood the furles of Norwegian
storms, the rigors of almost Arctic
winters and again the searching heat
of almost tropical summers, through
periods ranging from five to eight
hundred years.
The appearance of both these cur
ious old churches and the older class
of mills and storehouses would indi-
cate almost an Oriental origin. II
have been repeatedly impressed with
the quite startling similarity. Com
ing suddenly over some lonely noun
tain path upon a cultivated valley,
where, as in the Thelemarken and
Hardanger districts, little innovation
has found its way, the various groups
of farm houses and out buildings,
dark and weather beaten, or here and
there newly stained with kind of
red tar much used upon buildings in
Norway, have strongly suggested
Oriental affinities in color and archi-
tectural style. The most prominent
object in all these huddled structures
is always the farm "storhaus," which
rises story above story, each upper
story projecting beyond the one be-
meath it, like huge pagoda turned
bottomside upward and stood upon
its roof Continuous hanging bal
comics often extend entirely around
each story. Curious outside stairs
ascend to each. The quaintest of
carving of demons heads and SER
penis often ornament every available
portion of outer space; and fantastic
carved wooden horns project from
the corners of the caves, or seem
ready to blare from the peaks of the
roof In out-of the-way places water
mills of equally curious and almost
barbaric design will be found. These
structures are all very ancient; but
the hattened arches of the Moors.
the peculiar natural and reversed
forms of the Chinese pagcda, and
that profusion Of grotesque carvings