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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Three in Norway, by 
+James Arthur Lees and Walter J. Clutterbuck
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Three in Norway
+       by Two of Them
+
+Author: James Arthur Lees
+        Walter J. Clutterbuck
+
+Release Date: July 7, 2011 [EBook #36597]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THREE IN NORWAY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Louise Hope, Chris Curnow, thanks to Tor Martin
+Kristiansen for the illustration images, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+book was produced from scanned images of public domain
+material from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber’s Note:
+
+This e-text comes in two forms: Unicode (UTF-8) and Latin-1. Use the
+one that works best on your text reader.
+
+  --If “œ” (only in English words) displays as a single character,
+  and apostrophes and quotation marks are “curly” or angled, you have
+  the UTF-8 version (best). If any part of this paragraph displays
+  as garbage, try changing your text reader’s “character set” or
+  “file encoding”. If that doesn’t work, proceed to:
+  --In the Latin-1 version, “œ” is two letters, but Norwegian words
+  like “öl” have accents and “æ” is a single letter. Apostrophes and
+  quotation marks will be straight (“typewriter” form).
+
+A handful of words were printed with unusual diacritics (macron, breve).
+These are individually explained at the end of the e-text.
+
+To reduce visual clutter, italic markings have been omitted from
+currency notations such as “1s. 2d.” Illustration captions have been
+supplied from the List of Illustrations; they were not used in the
+printed book except for the full-page plates. The title-page
+illustration is “The Colony at Breakfast in Memurudalen”, repeated
+later in the book.
+
+Unless otherwise noted, all Norwegian names and words--including those
+that are obviously wrong--were printed as shown. For details, see the
+end of the e-text after the list of typographical errors.]
+
+
+
+
+  NORWAY
+
+
+
+
+  ‘_A man is at all times entitled, or even called upon by occasion,
+  to speak, and write, and in all fit ways utter, what he has himself
+  gone through, and known, and got the mastery of; and in truth, at
+  bottom, there is nothing else that any man has a right to write of.
+  For the rest, one principle, I think, in whatever farther you write,
+  may be enough to guide you: that of standing rigorously by the fact,
+  however naked it look. Fact is eternal; all fiction is very
+  transitory in comparison. All men are interested in any man if he
+  will speak the facts of his life for them; his authentic experience,
+  which corresponds, as face with face, to that of all other sons of
+  Adam._’
+
+    THOMAS CARLYLE
+
+
+
+
+  [Plate: RUNNING THE RAPIDS BELOW GJENDESHEIM.]
+
+
+
+
+                 THREE IN NORWAY
+
+                      _by_
+
+                 _TWO OF THEM_
+
+  With Map and Fifty-Nine Illustrations on Wood
+          from Sketches by the Authors
+
+
+                 [Illustration]
+
+
+                     London
+            LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
+                      1882
+
+             _All rights reserved_
+
+
+
+
+  London: Printed By
+  Spottiswoode And Co., New-Street Square
+  And Parliament Street
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+                                                PAGE
+
+          INTRODUCTION                            xi
+
+ CHAPTER
+       I. The Voyage                               1
+      II. Christiania                              6
+     III. By Rail and Lake                        14
+      IV. By Road                                 21
+       V. The First Camp                          28
+      VI. Misery                                  39
+     VII. Happiness                               45
+    VIII. Fly Sæter                               56
+      IX. Sikkildal                               62
+       X. Besse Sæter                             72
+      XI. Gjendin                                 82
+     XII. The Camp                                89
+    XIII. Gjendesheim                             98
+     XIV. John                                   105
+      XV. Back to Camp                           115
+     XVI. Trout                                  120
+    XVII. Reindeer                               127
+   XVIII. Success at last                        137
+     XIX. Gjendeboden                            146
+      XX. A Formal Call                          153
+     XXI. Fishing                                167
+    XXII. Memurudalen                            180
+   XXIII. A Picnic                               191
+    XXIV. The Skipper’s Return                   200
+     XXV. The Gjende Fly                         210
+    XXVI. Disaster                               224
+   XXVII. A Change                               230
+  XXVIII. Rapid Running                          242
+    XXIX. Rus Vand                               257
+     XXX. Luck                                   273
+    XXXI. Not lost, but gone before              286
+   XXXII. A Last Stalk                           295
+  XXXIII. Homeward Bound                         303
+   XXXIV. Bjölstad                               315
+    XXXV. Down to Christiania                    327
+   XXXVI. Home again                             336
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+  _PLATES_
+                                                             PAGE
+
+  Running the Rapids below Gjendesheim              _Frontispiece_
+  On the Track near Sikkildals Lake                 _to face_   59
+  On the Top of Glopit. Returning from Rus Lake         „      172
+  Baking by Night in Memurudalen                        „      178
+  The Camp in Memurudalen                               „      182
+  Death of the ‘Stor Bock’ at the Iceberg Lake,
+      Tyknings Hö                                       „      267
+  Good Sport, Bad Weather. The Skipper’s two
+      ‘Stor Bocks’                                      „      279
+  Cheerful! The Huts at Rus Lake                        „      289
+
+
+  _WOODCUTS IN TEXT._
+
+  Norwegian Arrangement of Dishes at Table                      10
+  Midnight Study of Stockings at Dalbakken                      26
+  The Start on Espedals Lake                                    29
+  The Skipper’s first Cast                                      30
+  Our Camp on Espedals                                          31
+  Black-throated Diver                                          36
+  View of Bredsjö by Night                                      40
+  Sunset at Fly Sæter                                           54
+  Desperate Conflict between Esau and the Mosquito              58
+  Sæter Girls in a Boat on Sikkildals Lake                      65
+  Old Siva carrying a Canoe up the Sikkildals Pass              73
+  Greenshank                                                    77
+  Ring Dotterel                                                 78
+  Scaup                                                         80
+  Our first View of Gjendin Lake                                83
+  Two of our Retainers: Ivar and his Pony                       87
+  The Skipper returns to Camp disgusted with life               93
+  Throwing for a Rise                                           99
+  The Skipper takes Miss Louise for a Cruise
+      at Gjendesheim                                           102
+  The Huts at Rusvasoset                                       109
+  John returns from fishing in Summer Costume                  121
+  John and Esau: ‘How’s that for high?’                        122
+  The two ‘Meget Stor Bocks’ (very big Bucks)
+      on Memurutungen                                          128
+  Hot Soup and Northern Lights                                 134
+  Esau and Ola return in Triumph                               141
+  A careful Finishing Shot                                     143
+  The Colony at Breakfast in Memurudalen                       159
+  An Exciting Moment in Rus Lake Shallows                      168
+  Esau’s Best Day among the Trout                              170
+  Esau stalking near Hinaakjærnhullet                          188
+  John diving for his knife in Rus Lake                        198
+  The Skipper about to astonish the Reindeer                   203
+  Öla performing the Funeral Rites                             205
+  Canoeing after Duck in a Storm                               236
+  Andreas: our Retriever                                       237
+  Ola and Andreas capturing a wounded Grouse                   238
+  John and the Skipper upsetting in the Canoe                  240
+  Making a Portage by the Sjoa River                           244
+  A Norwegian Fire-place                                       246
+  Jens and his Pony on their way over Bes Fjeld                252
+  A Stormy Crossing at Rusvasoset                              259
+  Gloptind Rock, at the Western End of Rus Lake                275
+  The old stone Hut near Gloptind                              280
+  A Night at Rusvasoset, after a Day at Haircutting            284
+  Rus Lake from the Western End:
+      Nautgardstind in the Distance                            290
+  Glissading home after a blank day                            293
+  Rus Lake from the Eastern End:
+      Tyknings Hö and Memurutind in the distance               294
+  Off! A Reindeer recollecting an engagement                   295
+  Old Buildings in the Courtyard at Bjölstad                   316
+  Barley Sheaves: A Norwegian ‘Atrocity’                       323
+  Three at Home Again                                          341
+
+
+  _MAP._
+
+  The Jotun Fjeld                              _at end of volume._
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+HISTORY.
+
+‘Canadian canoes are the only boats that will do’ was our conclusion
+after a thorough inspection of every existing species of boat, and long
+consultation with ‘Sambo’ of Eton about a totally new variety, invented
+but fortunately _not_ patented by one of our number.
+
+Our party consisted of three men, who shall be briefly described here.
+First, ‘the Skipper,’ so called from his varied experience by land and
+sea in all parts of the world, but especially in Norway, whither we were
+now intending to go in search of trout, reindeer, and the picturesque.
+The Skipper is lank and thin, looking as though he had outgrown his
+strength in boyhood, and never summoned up pluck enough to recover it
+again. His high cheek-bones and troubled expression give one the idea of
+a man who cannot convince himself that life is a success, which is
+perhaps pretty nearly the view he actually takes of existence.
+
+Secondly, ‘Esau,’ who received this name in consequence of the many
+points in which his character and history resemble that of the patriarch
+who first rejoiced in it: for our Esau, like his prototype, is
+‘a cunning hunter and man of the fjeld;’ and we are sure that if he ever
+had such a thing as a birthright, he would willingly have sold it for a
+mess of pottage. Esau is short and joyous, and is one of those people
+who never indigest anything, but always look and always are in perfect
+health and spirits. It is annoying to see a man eat things that his
+fellow-creatures can not without suffering for it afterwards, but Esau
+invariably does this at dinner, and comes down to breakfast next morning
+with a provoking colour on his cheek and a hearty appetite. His office
+in this expedition was that of Paymaster; not because he possessed any
+qualifications for the post, but because the Skipper had conclusively
+proved that such employment was too gross and mundane for _his_ ethereal
+soul, by constantly leaving the purse which contained our united worldly
+wealth on any spot where he chanced to rest himself, when he and Esau
+went to spy out the land two years before this.
+
+Lastly, ‘John,’ so called for no better reason than the fact that he had
+been christened Charles: he had never yet visited the wilds of
+Scandinavia. John is an Irishman, whose motto in life is ‘dum vivimus
+vivamus:’ he is tall and straight, with a colossal light moustache. He
+generally wears his hat slightly tilted forward over his forehead when
+engaged in conversation; and the set of his clothes and whole deportment
+convey an idea that he is longing to tell you the most amusing story in
+the world in confidence. He is no gossip, and the anecdotes of his
+countrymen, of which he has an inexhaustible supply always ready, are
+merely imparted to his listeners from philanthropic motives, and because
+he longs for others to share in the enjoyment which he gleans from their
+mental dissection.
+
+The general idea of the campaign was that the Skipper and Esau should
+leave England in the early part of July; fish their way up a string of
+lakes into the Jotunfjeld, getting there in time for the commencement of
+the reindeer season; establish a camp somewhere; and then that John,
+starting a month later, should join, and the three of us sojourn in that
+land until we were tired thereof. How we accomplished this meritorious
+design we have tried to relate in the following pages.
+
+
+GEOGRAPHY.
+
+The map of Norway, apart from Sweden, presents an outline something like
+a tadpole with a crooked irregular tail. The Jotunfjeld is an extensive
+range of the highest mountains which are to be found in Northern Europe:
+before 1820 A.D. they were totally unexplored, and at the present time
+they are still perfectly wild and desolate, their summits covered with
+eternal ice and snow, and even their valleys uninhabited. That part of
+the Jotunfjeld which we intended to make our goal and headquarters is
+situated about the middle of the tadpole’s body, and nearly equidistant
+from Throndhjem and Christiania.
+
+
+LANGUAGES.
+
+It is customary when writing a book on any foreign country to scatter
+broadcast in your descriptions words and phrases in the language of that
+country, in order to show that you really have been there. We propose to
+depart from this usage in the course of this work; but if at any time
+the exigencies of narrative seem to demand the use of the foreign
+tongue, we have little doubt that the English language will provide an
+equivalent, which shall be inserted for the benefit of the uninitiated.
+
+
+MATHEMATICS.
+
+Foreigners have a curious prejudice which leads them to adopt different
+systems of coinage and measurement from those in favour in England.
+But shall a Briton pander to this prejudice by making any use of their
+ridiculous figures? Decidedly not. What matters it to us that a
+Norwegian land-mile contains seven of our miles, and a sea-mile four? we
+speak only of the British mile. What care we that the Norwegian kröne is
+worth about 13½d.? Shall that prevent us from always calling it a
+shilling? Never! And shall the fact that it is divided into ten 10-öre
+pieces (which are little nickel coins worth about five farthings each)
+restrain us from alluding to them as the ‘threepenny bits’ which they so
+much resemble? Not while life remains.
+
+
+EXTRA SUBJECTS.
+
+Some of the statements that will be found in these pages may strike the
+reader as being, to say the least of it, improbable. We therefore wish
+to explain that all the incidents of sport and travel are simple facts,
+but that here and there is introduced some slight fiction which is too
+obviously exaggerated to require any comment.
+
+
+
+
+THREE IN NORWAY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE VOYAGE.
+
+
+_July 8._--At ten P.M. on the platform of the Hull station might have
+been seen the disconsolate form of Esau, who had arrived there a few
+minutes before. To him entered suddenly an express train, with that
+haste which seems to be inseparable from the movements of express
+trains, adorned as to the roof of one of its carriages by a Canadian
+canoe. From that carriage emerged the lanky body of the Skipper, and
+general joy ensued.
+
+Then in the hotel the Skipper related his perilous adventures; how he
+had crossed London in a four-wheeler with the canoe on the quarter-deck,
+and himself surrounded by rods, guns, rugs, tents, and ground-sheets in
+the hold, amid the shouts of ‘boat ahoy!’ from the volatile populace,
+and jeers from all the cabs that they met (there are many cabs in
+London); how the station-master at King’s Cross--may his shadow never be
+less!--had personally superintended the packing of the canoe on a low
+carriage which he put on to the train specially; and how the G.W.
+charged four times as much as the G.N. He had seen John the day before,
+and on being asked to ‘wander about, and get some things with him,’ the
+Skipper had replied that it was quite impossible, as his time was
+occupied for the whole day: but when John said, ‘I wanted your advice
+chiefly about flies, and a new rod that I am thinking of buying,’ he
+replied, ‘Sir, I have nothing of the slightest importance to do; my time
+is yours; name the moment, and place of meeting, and I will be there.’
+Then they twain had spent a happy day; for decidedly the next best thing
+to using your own rod is buying one for another man--at his expense.
+
+Poor Esau had no charming experiences to relate: he was a little
+depressed because an intelligent tyke at Doncaster had looked into the
+horse-box in which his canoe was travelling, hoping no doubt to see some
+high-mettled racer, and had asked if ‘yon thing were some new mak o’
+a coffin.’
+
+
+_July 9._--We walked about Hull and made a few last purchases. In the
+course of our wanderings we chanced to come to a shop, in the window of
+which many strawberries, large and luscious, were exposed for sale. We
+immediately entered that shop without exchanging a word, and the Skipper
+said to the proprietress, ‘This gentleman wants to buy a quantity of
+strawberries for a school feast;’ while Esau remarked, as he fastened on
+to the nearest and largest basket, ‘My friend has been ordered to eat
+strawberries by his doctor.’ After this a scene ensued over which it
+were best to draw a veil.
+
+At six o’clock we were safely aboard the good ship ‘Angelo,’ and saw our
+baggage stowed. It consisted of three huge boxes of provisions, weighing
+more than 100 lbs. each, two portmanteaus, two smaller bags, a tent,
+a large waggon-sheet intended to form another tent, a bundle of rugs and
+blankets, a large can containing all cooking utensils, four gun-cases,
+seven rods, a bundle of axes, a spade and other necessary tools, and the
+canoes with small wheels for road transport. Those wheels were the only
+things in the whole outfit that turned out to be not absolutely
+necessary. We did use them, but only once, and might have managed
+without them.
+
+When the aforesaid was all on board, there did not appear to be much
+room for anything else in the steamship ‘Angelo;’ registering 1,300
+tons; yet this vast pile was destined to travel many miles over a
+desperately rough country in the two little canoes.
+
+We were warped out of dock about eight o’clock, and steamed down the
+Humber with a west wind and a smooth sea. It was showery up to the
+moment of our departure, but as Hull faded from our sight it became
+fine, and with the shores of England we seemed to leave the cloud and
+rain behind.
+
+
+_July 10._--The day passed as days at sea do when the weather is all
+that can be wished, and the treacherous ocean calmly sleeps. The
+passengers were as sociable as any collection of English people ever
+are, and we spent the time very pleasantly chatting, smoking, eating
+enormously, and playing the ordinary sea games of quoits and
+horse-billiards.
+
+The Skipper was much exercised in spirit because Esau had told him that
+he believed a certain passenger to be an acquaintance of a former
+voyage, named, let us say, Jones, and that he was a capital fellow. So
+the Skipper went and fraternised with Jones, and presently, trusting to
+the ‘information received,’ remarked, ‘I believe your name is Jones?’
+and was a little annoyed when Jones replied, ‘No, it’s not Jones; it’s
+Blueit, and I never heard the name of Jones as a surname before.’ Then
+the Skipper arose and remonstrated with his perfidious friend, who with
+great good temper said, to make it all right, ‘You see that man by the
+funnel? That is a Yankee going to see the midnight sun; go and talk to
+him.’ Now the Skipper has been in America a good deal, and likes to talk
+to the natives of those regions, so he sailed over to the funnel and
+tackled the Yankee. Presently, with that admirable tact which is his
+most enviable characteristic, he observed, ‘I understand that you have
+come all the way from America to see the midnight sun: it is a very
+extraordinary phenomenon. Imagine a glorious wealth of colour glowing
+over an eternal sunlit sea, and endowing with a fairy glamour a scene
+which Sappho might have burned to sing; where night is not, nor sleep,
+but Odin’s eye looks calmly down, nor ever sinks in rest.’ As he paused
+for breath the Yankee saw his opportunity, and said, ‘No, I was never in
+America in my life. I am a Lincolnshire man, and am going over to
+Arendahl to buy timber. I have seen the midnight sun some dozen times,
+and I call it an infernal nuisance.’ Here the Skipper hastily left, and
+came over and abused Esau until he made an enemy of him for life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+CHRISTIANIA.
+
+
+_Sunday, July 11._--We reached Christiansand about six, and set sail
+again at eight. There was what the mariners called a nice breeze with
+us. Esau declared it to be a storm, and was prostrate at lunch, owing as
+he said to attending church service, which was conducted under
+considerable difficulties, members of the congregation occasionally
+shooting out of the saloon like Zazel out of her cannon, or assuming
+recumbent postures when the rubric said, ‘Here all standing up.’
+However, we came along at a great pace, and arrived at Christiania about
+nine at night, after a first-rate passage.
+
+The Fjord was not looking as beautiful as usual, as there had been a
+great deal of rain, and the storm clouds and mist were still hovering
+about the low hills, so that no glories of the northern sunset were
+visible.
+
+We arranged that the Skipper should go straight to the Victoria Hotel
+for rooms, as we heard that the town was very full, and Esau was to
+follow with the luggage. Now there was a young Englishman on board, very
+talkative, extremely sociable, remarkably kind-hearted, and overflowing
+with the best advice. He had gone round the whole ship entreating every
+one to go to the ‘Grand,’ as he intended to do, because it was by far
+the best hotel.
+
+Just as the Skipper had engaged our rooms at the ‘Victoria,’ in rushed
+this guileless child of nature, panting from the speed at which he had
+come from the quay, and the Skipper had the gratification of witnessing
+his discomfiture and listening to his apologies for having lied unto us,
+which of course he had done in order to get rooms for his own party at
+the ‘Victoria.’
+
+We say nothing against the ‘Grand’ because we know it not, but any one
+who has once tried the ‘Victoria’ will go there again: the man who is
+not at home and happy there must be a very young traveller.
+
+This hotel possesses a spacious courtyard, surrounded by galleries from
+which bedrooms and passages open, very much like that historical
+hostelry in the Borough at which Mr. Pickwick first encountered Sam
+Weller.
+
+These galleries, and indeed most portions of the hotel, are made of
+wood, and the building is not of recent date, for now no houses in
+Christiania are allowed to be constructed of timber only.
+
+In the centre of the court is a fountain which keeps up a gentle
+plashing, very pleasant to listen to on a day when the thermometer is at
+90 in the shade, as it generally is about this time of year in
+Christiania. All round the fountain are small tables and chairs, ready
+for the little groups who will assemble at them after dinner for the cup
+of coffee and glass of cognac which form an indispensable part of a
+Norwegian dinner. The dinner itself is, during the summer months, always
+served in a large oblong tent in the same courtyard at 2.30, and a very
+pleasant meal it is, if you are not too much wedded to English habits to
+be able to secure an appetite at that hour. At short intervals down the
+table large blocks of ice are placed, which perform excellent service in
+helping to keep the tent cool.
+
+Then there is another delightful resort, the smoking-room, which is
+upstairs on an extension of the gallery overlooking the courtyard. It
+also is covered by a sort of tent, in the roof of which divers strange
+and gruesome birds and beasts disport themselves, or seem to do so: we
+have reason to believe that they are stuffed, as we notice that the
+flying capercailzie never seems to ‘get any forrader;’ the fox stealing
+with cautious tread upon the timid hare, unaccountably delays his final
+spring, but perhaps he is right not to hurry, for the hare does not
+appear to be taking any measures for her safety, but sits calmly
+nibbling the deeply dyed moss which it were vain to inform her is not
+good to eat. But there are other birds which we _know_ are stuffed, for
+we helped to stuff them, and these are the sparrows, which come gaily
+flying in at the open side of the smoking balcony; hopping on the chairs
+and tables, pecking at the crumbs on your plate, and behaving generally
+in that peculiarly insolent manner which can only be acquired, even by a
+sparrow, after years of study, and the most complete familiarity with
+the subject. These birds are a source of endless delight to Esau, who
+certainly gives them more than can be good for them; they eat twice as
+much as the capercailzies, though the latter are considerably larger.
+And if the sparrows are not enough entertainment, there are tanks of
+gold-fish and trees of unknown species in pots; but neither of these
+perform very interesting feats.
+
+In this room it is the custom of the ordinary traveller to have his
+breakfast and supper. Breakfast is very much like a good English one,
+except the coffee, which is not at all like English coffee, being
+perfectly delicious; but the supper is a meal peculiar to Norway, and is
+generally constructed more or less on the following principles:
+
+Caviare, with a fresh lemon cut up on it.
+
+Norwegian sardines, garnished with parsley and bay leaves.
+
+Cray-fish boiled in salt water.
+
+Prawns of appalling magnitude.
+
+Bologna sausage in slices.
+
+Chickens.
+
+Slices of beef, tongue, and corned beef.
+
+Reindeer tongue.
+
+Brod Lax (spelling not guaranteed), meaning raw salmon smoked and cut in
+thin slices.
+
+Baked potatoes.
+
+Good butter, and rolls which no man can resist, so fresh are they, and
+light, and crisp.
+
+Drink: ‘salon öl,’ which is the best Norwegian beer.
+
+  [Illustration: Norwegian Arrangement of Dishes at Table]
+
+This supper does not come in in courses, but the whole of it is placed
+on the table at once; not spread out all over the surface of the board
+as at home, but arranged in small oval dishes all round the consumer,
+and radiating within easy reach from his plate, making his watch-chain
+the centre of a semicircle, and thus entirely dispensing with that
+creaking-booted fidget, the waiter. Such an arrangement cannot fail to
+coax the most delicate appetite. There is no coarse _pièce de
+résistance_; no vast joint to disgust you; but like the bee, you flit
+from dish to dish, toying, now with a prawn, now with a merry-thought,
+till you suddenly discover that you are unconsciously replete, and you
+rise from the table feeling that it was a good supper, and that
+existence is not such a struggle after all.
+
+Altogether the ‘Victoria’ is a most charming inn, either to the
+wave-worn mariner wearied by the cruel buffetings of the North Sea,
+or to the weather-beaten sportsman returning straight from the bleak
+snow-fields of the interior of Norway. We never stayed there for more
+than two days, but for that time it is an uninterrupted dream of
+delight.
+
+
+_July 12._--We had a very hard day, buying all sorts of things to make
+our stores complete: jam, butter, whisky, soap, and matches, Tauchnitz
+books, and several other necessaries. The butter is most important, as
+the best variety that can be got up country is extremely nasty; the
+worst is unutterably vile, though it is quite possible to acquire almost
+a liking for the peculiarities of the better kind after starvation has
+stared you in the face. We were much put out at not being able to get a
+small keg of whisky, as we fear that the bottles will fare badly in the
+rough travelling we shall have.
+
+Accounts of Christiania may be found in many excellent guide-books, with
+which this simple story cannot hope to compete, so we will not attempt
+to describe the town, since, though our knowledge of all the grocers’
+shops is voluminous and exhaustive, we are totally ignorant of the
+interior arrangements of either the churches or police stations.
+
+The Skipper was very anxious to get some violet ink, because he is
+firmly convinced that it is the only sort fit for a gentleman to use.
+‘A man,’ he said, ‘is known by his ink;’ so we went into many shops and
+asked for that concoction, always in the English tongue. Then we arrived
+at a shop where they did not speak our language; and here suddenly,
+to the intense surprise of Esau, the Skipper broke forth into a long
+harangue in Norse, concluding with an extremely neat peroration. The
+shopkeeper listened with respectful admiration, and then said, ‘No,
+this is a stationer’s shop, we do not keep it.’ Then Esau gave way
+to irreverent laughter, and the shopkeeper concluded that we were
+attempting a practical joke, and we had to fly. The Skipper was not
+angry, but very much hurt. It afterwards transpired that he had got
+up the whole of that magnificent burst of eloquence out of ‘Bennett’s
+Phrase Book,’ and then it had failed for want of two or three right
+words; truly very hard.
+
+We took our canoes to the railway station, and despatched them to
+Lillehammer this afternoon; they had been a source of great interest to
+all beholders since our arrival, especially to the Norwegians, who have
+all a sort of natural affinity with any kind of boat, and seem very much
+pleased with the combined lightness and strength of their build. As far
+as we can learn they are the first of the kind that have yet been
+brought to this country.
+
+At the station they were surrounded by a crowd of inquiring Norsemen,
+all of them wondering much what the name of ‘Nettie’ on the bows of the
+Skipper’s craft could mean, and spelling it over very slowly and
+carefully aloud. When we came away, one of them, evidently a linguist,
+had just translated it into his own language, and was proceeding to
+conjugate it as an irregular verb.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+BY RAIL AND LAKE.
+
+
+_July 13._--We were engaged till late at night putting the finishing
+touches to our packing. The last thing we did was to put our most
+gorgeous apparel, and any articles not likely to be needed during our
+camp life, into two portmanteaus, with strict orders to the Boots to
+keep the same until our return. This morning, after an early breakfast,
+on descending to the courtyard we found these portmanteaus roped down on
+the roof of the omnibus which was to take all the luggage to the station
+_en route_ for Lillehammer. This we rectified, and then set off to walk
+to the station ourselves.
+
+Now Esau is possessed by an insensate craving for anchovy paste, which
+he considers a necessity for camping; he said, ‘It imparts a certain
+tone to the stomach, and aids digestion;’ and added that ‘no
+well-appointed dinner-table should ever be without it,’ which sounds a
+little like an advertisement, but which he asserted was a quotation from
+the rules laid down for his diet by Dr. Andrew Clark. In Christiania
+these rules are not strictly adhered to either by Esau or the
+inhabitants of the place, for anchovy paste is not to be obtained there:
+this we know, because we went into every shop in the town, and asked for
+it without success. And in this supreme moment, when we were walking to
+the station with only a few minutes before the train should start, he
+insisted on diving into a wretched pokey little shop, which had escaped
+our notice yesterday, and demanding ‘anchovy paste’ in a loud English
+voice. The Skipper devoutly thanked Providence it could not be bought,
+as he declared the smell of it alone was enough to put a man off his
+breakfast, and that he had such a morbid longing for hair grease, that
+he could not have prevented himself from putting it on his head.
+
+We got our baggage safely booked, and ourselves also, after a scene of
+riot that was nothing like a football match, but something like
+Donnybrook fair, and at last found ourselves in a compartment with five
+other passengers, all of whom had a most inconsiderate amount of luggage
+with them in the carriage, while we contented ourselves with four guns,
+seven fishing-rods, two axes, one spade, four hundred and fifty
+cartridges, two fishing-bags, and a pair of glasses. We calculated that
+we saved at least one and fourpence by taking these things with us; and
+although our fellow-passengers were rather profane at first they soon
+settled down, and we had time to digest the fact that we were one and
+fourpence to the good. It was very warm in there; outside the
+thermometer was 92° in the shade; but we survived it, and after that no
+mere heat has any terrors for us.
+
+Two of our fellow-passengers were an Englishman and his wife, who had a
+maid travelling with them through to Throndhjem; and when getting the
+tickets the booking clerk informed them that there were no second-class
+through tickets issued, ‘but,’ he added, ‘this will do as well,’ and
+handed them one first and one third through ticket, which we thought an
+extremely ingenious way out of the difficulty.
+
+A railway journey is not interesting anywhere, and less so in Norway
+than other countries, as there is not even the sensation of speed to
+divert your mind, and keep you excited in momentary expectation of a
+smash. Uphill the pace is slow because it cannot be fast; downhill it is
+slow for fear of the train running away.
+
+There are only two trains a day, one very early, one rather late,
+but timed to arrive at its destination before dark, for there is no
+travelling by night. Directly darkness comes on the train is stopped,
+and the passengers turned out into an hotel, where they remain to rest
+till dawn. From Christiania to Eidsvold is about a three-hour journey,
+and during that time the guard came to look at our tickets 425 times.
+He wanted to incite us to commit a breach of the peace, or to catch us
+offending against some of his by-laws, and was always appearing at a new
+place; first at one door, then the other, anon peeping at us through the
+hole for the lamp, and again blinking from the next carriage, through
+the ice-water vessel. But we were aware of his intention, and did
+nothing to annoy him, and always showed the same tickets till they were
+worn out, and then we produced strawberry jam labels, which seemed to be
+quite satisfactory.
+
+We reached Eidsvold at twelve, and went aboard the steamer ‘Skiblädner,’
+where we found the canoes already nicely placed, lashed on the
+paddle-boxes.
+
+We had a delightful voyage up the Mjösen, on the most beautiful of
+Norwegian summer days, in the best of Norwegian steamers. The Mjösen is
+the largest Norwegian lake, about fifty-five miles long, and the
+guide-books say it is 1,440 feet deep, but we had not time to measure
+it, as we were busy admiring the scenery on the saloon table most of the
+way. This steaming up the Mjösen is a very pleasant way of spending a
+fine day: the shores are nowhere strikingly beautiful, but always pretty
+and charming; the steamer goes fast, so that there is a sensation of
+getting on and not losing time. There are intervals of mild excitement
+whenever we come to a village, and take up or disembark passengers;
+generally speaking they come out in boats, but occasionally we come to a
+larger and more important place where there is a pier, or even a
+railway, and at these the excitement is greater and the crowd quite
+worthy of the name. The folks all take off their hats directly we get
+within sight, and continue to do so till they fade away or sink below
+the horizon; and we in the steamer all do the same. But the great
+attraction is undoubtedly dinner, which is uncommonly well served in the
+saloon, every luxury that can be obtained being placed before us,
+concluding with wild strawberries and cream of the frothiest and most
+captivating appearance.
+
+Both on this boat and her sister the ‘Kong Oscar’ they take great pride
+in doing things well, very much as the old mail-coaches which occupied a
+parallel position in England used to do. The ‘Kong Oscar’ is rather the
+faster boat, but we consider the captain of the ‘Skiblädner’ to be
+lengths ahead of his rival, being a first-rate old fellow; on the other
+hand, the ‘Skiblädner’ handmaidens are not comely, whereas they of the
+‘Kong Oscar’ are renowned for their beauty, not only in Norway, but in
+certain stately homes of England that we wot of. Esau lost his heart to
+one of them two years ago, and still raves about her, though the only
+way in which he endeavoured to win her affection was by sitting on a
+paddle-box with his slouch hat tilted over his eyes, gazing at her with
+mute admiration from a respectful distance, while she, alas! was totally
+unconscious of his passion. He never told his love, because he could not
+speak Norse.
+
+We arrived at Lillehammer about eight o’clock, and went to the Victoria
+Hotel, from the flat roof of which, after an excellent dinner, we
+enjoyed a pipe and one of the prettiest views, in a quiet homely style
+of prettiness, that any one could wish to see: just at our feet the
+wooden village, with its many-coloured houses and their red roofs; then
+some green slopes, and 100 feet below the vast extent of the Mjösen
+lying calm and still and looking very green and deep, with the
+landing-stage and deserted steamers apparently quite close below us. On
+the opposite side of the lake highish hills covered with fir trees, and
+to the right the river Laagen with its green waters hurrying down from
+the mountains in a broad and rapid stream as far as the eye could reach.
+Just across the road in front of the hotel there is a nice little stream
+which turns a saw, and rejoices in a cool splashing waterfall, the
+soothing sound of which refreshes us by day and night. The same torrent
+can be seen higher up the mountain in a place where it makes some rather
+fine falls, which only look like a long white rag fluttering amongst the
+trees at this distance. This was the view we had at midnight, when it
+was, apparently, no darker than immediately after sunset, and a good
+deal lighter than it generally is in London at midday; the while the sky
+was covered with the rich glow of colouring which can only be seen in
+the Northern summer.
+
+There were two Englishmen with us on the roof, with whom, aided by
+coffee, we roamed over the greater part of the civilised and uncivilised
+world--Australia, Canada, Japan, Turkey, and Ceylon, and we all agreed
+that none of them can ‘go one better’ than a summer night in Norway.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+BY ROAD.
+
+
+_July 14._--We arose pretty early, wishing to get over thirty-eight
+miles of ground before evening, which with the canoes would be a long
+day’s work; as we had the natives to contend with, who by reason of
+their dreadfully lazy habits are most difficult to ‘bring to the
+scratch.’
+
+We have decided, after long experience, that nothing that you can do has
+any effect in hurrying them; but that it is quite possible to make them
+slower by losing your temper, or taking any vigorous measures of
+acceleration. They seem to get more deliberate and aggravatingly slow as
+they grow older.
+
+Norwegian boys are distractingly restless and full of energy, and look
+as if they have had nothing to eat, which is generally the actual fact,
+judging by an English standard of what constitutes food. At the age of
+fifteen they become better fed, and their energy departs altogether,
+and after entirely disappearing it keeps getting less every year.
+A full-grown man does not seem to need much food, certainly not as much
+as an Englishman, and prefers that of the worst kind, conveyed to the
+mouth at the end of a knife-blade. We have never noticed any description
+of food which he does not make sour, rather than eat it when sweet.
+Bread, milk, cream, and cheese, jam and cabbages, for instance, are
+articles which he prefers fermented or sour. He reminds one of the
+cockney who complained that the country eggs had no flavour, or of the
+Scotchman who, replying to the apologies of a friend in whose house he
+happened to get a bad egg, said, ‘Ma dear freend, ah _prefair_ ’em
+rotten.’
+
+But his laziness and love of nasty food are almost the only bad
+qualities that we have discovered in him. He is ridiculously honest,[*]
+and his kindness and hospitality are beyond praise. This morning,
+however, the laziness was the quality chiefly conspicuous, and though we
+ordered our conveyances last night and got up early (for us), we did not
+succeed in starting till twelve o’clock.
+
+    [Footnote: Save, perhaps, on three points--fishing tackle,
+    strong drinks, and straps or pieces of cord, which may be
+    committed to memory as ‘a fly, a flask, and a fastener.’]
+
+We first despatched the canoes and baggage packed on a kind of low
+waggon, and then got into a double cariole (which is something like a
+gig) ourselves, and drove gaily off along the Throndhjem road. We did
+not, however, follow it far, but turning to the left down a steep hill,
+we crossed the Laagen by a long and rather handsome bridge, and then up
+a winding road on the further side, all looking very pretty on such a
+glorious day. The road became more picturesque the further we got from
+Lillehammer, every turn bringing us to some fresh combination of
+mountain, pine-trees, rock, and waterfall--especially rock. There are so
+many tracts of country in Norway entirely composed of rock, that, as
+Esau remarked, ‘probably no one will ever find a use for it all.’
+
+We lunched at a nice little station called ‘Neisteen;’ a delicious meal
+off trout, strawberries and cream, and fladbrod, for which they charged
+us a shilling each.
+
+‘Fladbrod’ is the staple food of the country folk in Norway; they make
+it of barley-meal, rye-meal, or pea-meal, but the best and commonest is
+that composed of barley-meal. It is simply meal and water baked on a
+large, flat, circular iron, and is about the thickness of cardboard, of
+a brownish colour, and very crisp. The taste for it is easily acquired
+in the absence of other food, and with butter it becomes quite
+delicious--to a _very_ hungry man.
+
+At Neisteen there was a little shop where the Skipper at last obtained
+his violet ink, but Esau was foiled in his dastardly attempt at
+retaliation with anchovy paste.
+
+After this our road lay along a lovely river for fishing, and we were
+much tempted to stop and try a cast in it, especially as we saw natives
+luring fish from their rocky haunts by the time-honoured Norwegian
+method. They first settle how far they want to cast--say thirty feet.
+Then cut down a thirty-foot pine tree; take the bark off it; tie a
+string to the thin end and a hook to the string; stick a worm on the
+hook, and go forth to the strife. When the fish bites, they strike with
+great rapidity and violence, and _something_ is bound to go; generally
+it is the fish, which leaves its native element at a speed which must
+astonish it; describes half of a sixty-foot circle at the same rate,
+and lands either in a tree or on a rock with sufficient force to break
+itself.
+
+But we had no time to spare, especially as for this stage we had a bad,
+shying, jibbing horse, and a perfect fool of a driver.
+
+Near the last station we passed three English people on the road, who
+our driver informed us lived near there. He told us their name was
+Wunkle, but the man at the next station said it was Punkum, and we could
+not decide which of these two common English names it was most likely
+to be.
+
+Kvisberg, the last station on this road, was reached at 9 P.M., but
+before this the road, which had gradually got worse all the way from
+Lillehammer, had faded away and disappeared: and as the road got worse,
+so did the hired conveyances; so that we were gradually reduced from the
+gorgeous double cariole with red cushions with which we started, and a
+horse that could hardly be held in, to a springless, jolting stolkjær
+(country cart), and a pony that required much persuasion to induce him
+to boil up a trot.
+
+Kvisberg is situated, with peculiar disregard for appropriateness of
+position, on the side of an almost unclimbable hill, about a quarter of
+a mile from the place where the road departs into the Hereafter. No
+English horse would take a cart up such a hill, but Norwegian ponies are
+like the Duke’s army, and ‘will go anywhere and do anything,’ only you
+must give them plenty of time. We mounted to the station, a wretched
+little place, and being hungry ordered coffee and eggs, for which repast
+we paid twopence-halfpenny each, and then at ten o’clock got a man to
+carry our few small things the last six miles to Dalbakken, where we
+intended to sleep the night. The walk was delightful, through a
+precipitous thickly wooded gorge, at the bottom of which the river which
+we had followed all day went leaping and foaming along, though it was
+now reduced to a mere mountain torrent.
+
+About a mile from our journey’s end we were overtaken by a Norwegian
+student on a walking tour, who spoke a little English and walked with us
+the rest of the way, as he too was bound for Dalbakken.
+
+  [Illustration: Midnight Study of Stockings at Dalbakken]
+
+We reached it at midnight, and were not much gratified to find that it
+was a very small poor building, and that our luggage had not arrived. We
+had been hoping against hope that it might have done so, as we had not
+seen it anywhere on the road. The next pleasant discovery was that four
+other travellers had arrived before us and taken all the rooms. This
+fact was first conveyed to our minds by seeing four pairs of socks
+hanging out of the upstair windows to dry; at which sight we began to
+suspect that things were going to turn out unpleasant for us; but at
+last we got a room with one very small bed between us. We tossed for
+this bed, and the Skipper won; so Esau passed the night on the floor, on
+a sheepskin, and was very comfortable--at least he said so next morning.
+The natives here were much impressed by all our habits and belongings,
+but especially by our sleeping with the window open; wherefore the old
+woman of the Sæter[*] below kept bouncing into the room at intervals
+during the night to see us perform that heroic feat; and though it was
+flattering to be made so much of, still fame has its drawbacks.
+
+    [Footnote: A Sæter is a mountain farm, to which all the cattle
+    are driven during the summer, so that the lowland pastures can
+    be mown for hay.]
+
+The general appearance of the place caused us to expect nightly
+visitations from other foes, not human, but to our surprise there were
+none.
+
+Dalbakken is only three quarters of a mile from a lake called Espedals
+Vand, where we propose to commence our cruise. It is beautifully
+situated on a small flat bit of ground halfway up the north side of the
+gorge: the hills on the south side not far away are so steep that they
+could not be climbed by all the branded alpenstocks that Switzerland
+ever produced. Looking to the east the gorge is very wild and grand,
+covered with pine trees and steep crags, and no dwelling in sight; while
+to the west, in which direction Espedals Vand lies, it is more level and
+open, and slopes gradually downwards again, Dalbakken itself being the
+highest point in the track.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE FIRST CAMP.
+
+
+_July 15._--We slept well, and at eight o’clock the Skipper, always
+first to wake, got up, and looking out of the window saw thence the four
+bad men who had taken the rooms before us and hung their socks out of
+the window, just starting on their journey, and looking as if they did
+so with an easy conscience.
+
+Some men can carry with a light heart and gay demeanour a weight of
+crime that would wreck the happiness of less hardened ruffians.
+
+Then he turned his gaze in the opposite direction, and oh, joy! our
+luggage and boats were in sight, and arrived directly afterwards.
+The man in charge said he had travelled all night with them without
+sleeping, and to judge from his appearance we imagined that his
+statement was correct. He had been sitting on the Skipper’s bag for
+thirty-eight miles, and from the state of its interior we calculated his
+weight to be about twenty-two stone. He was very ill-tempered after his
+mere trifle of a journey and vigil, and asked for more money on hearing
+that he had three quarters of a mile further to go. This was very sad,
+and we thought showed an unchristian spirit; but we sternly urged him
+forward, and all ended happily on our arrival at Espedals, when we paid
+him his money and a shilling extra.
+
+  [Illustration: The Start on Espedals Lake]
+
+It only took us a quarter of an hour to get to the lake, and after
+unpacking there and dismissing the men we put the canoes into the water,
+and then put water into the canoes until they sank; while we sat on the
+shore watching the trout rising all over the rippled surface of the
+lake, occasionally eyeing our sunken canoes in an impatient, longing
+sort of way, but never attempting to start on our great voyage.
+
+  [Illustration: The Skipper’s first Cast]
+
+These tactics to an inexperienced ‘voyageur’ might look like the acts of
+an ordinary lunatic; but it should be explained that the long exposure
+to the sun which the canoes had undergone had caused them to leak badly,
+and they required soaking to swell up the joints, before they could be
+intrusted with our valuable property and persons. Besides this we were
+hungry, and thought it a good opportunity for lunch, and had to make
+some previously arranged alterations in the baggage with a view to
+lightening it. As long as the land journey lasted, strength was the
+chief object to aim at, but now lightness was of more importance. About
+one o’clock, when we had got all our things aboard and were just
+starting, a strong head-wind arose. This was always our luck. We decided
+to make only a short voyage. The waves were fairly big, but the canoes
+weathered them bravely, though they were very low in the water, and we
+had to keep the pumps going (_i.e._ mop them out with our sponges)
+during the whole voyage.
+
+  [Illustration: Our Camp on Espedals]
+
+We landed not more than a mile and a half from the end of the lake, and
+found a very nice camping-ground about ten yards from the shore on the
+south bank, with what the poets call ‘a babbling brook’ close to it;
+pitched the tent, and had a simple dinner of bacon, eggs, and jam, the
+last dinner during our trip at which trout did not find a place. Then we
+sallied forth in the canoes to fish. Esau was the last to leave the
+shore, and as he paddled off he noticed the Skipper’s rod in the
+familiar Norwegian shape of a bow, and found him struggling with two on
+at the same time, both of which he landed, and found to be over 1 lb.
+each. ‘First blood claimed and allowed,’ to quote the terse language of
+the prize ring. Not a bad beginning, but we only got a few more about
+the same weight. They came very short, but were remarkably game fish
+when hooked, and in first-rate condition. We turned in about eleven,
+when it began to rain a little, and slept with our heads under the
+blankets, the mosquitoes being in countless multitudes.
+
+
+_July 16._--It was a lovely morning, and the lake looked its best, but
+it is not strikingly beautiful compared with many that we have seen. It
+has high rugged hills on both sides, and pine woods down to the water’s
+edge, and some small islands dotted about the upper end of it; but the
+lake is rather shallow, the pine trees rather stunted, and there are a
+good many wooden huts and sæters on the hill-sides, which, although they
+appear to be mostly uninhabited, detract from the wildness of the
+scenery.
+
+The natives have one or two boats on the lake, and do some fishing on
+their own account. To-day we saw a man engaged in the atrocious
+employment of fishing with an ‘otter.’
+
+Any natives who see our camp when rowing past come to shore to inspect
+us and our belongings. They all adopt the same course of procedure. They
+land, and stare, and say nothing; then they pull up their boat and make
+it safe, and advancing close to the tent stare, and say nothing either
+to each other or us. Then Esau says confidentially, as if it was a new
+and brilliant idea (he has done exactly the same thing some scores of
+times), ‘We’d better be civil to these fellows; perhaps they could bring
+us some eggs, and they look pretty friendly.’ The natives are all the
+time staring and saying nothing. Then Esau remarks in Norwegian, ‘It is
+fine weather to-day; have you any eggs?’ To this the chief native
+replies at great length in his own barbarous jargon, and Esau not having
+understood a single syllable answers, ‘Ja! ja! (yes), but have you any
+eggs?’ Then aside to the Skipper, ‘Wonder what the deuce the fool was
+talking about?’ Soon the natives perceive that their words are wasted,
+and relapse into the silent staring condition again, and after a time
+and a half, or two times, they depart as they came. Sometimes they
+return again with eggs in a basket, when we pay them well and give them
+some fish; at other times they look upon us as dangerous lunatics, and
+avoid us like the plague.
+
+Esau learnt this habit of asking for eggs when we were on a fishing
+expedition near the south coast of Norway. On one occasion there we
+arrived at a small village, with an enormous quantity of trout that we
+had caught in the adjoining fjord; and found a small crowd of about
+fourteen or fifteen seafaring men, idly lounging round an open space
+between the cottages. He first went round and presented each of those
+men with two trout solemnly, without a word, as though it were a
+religious ceremony. Then he began at the first man again and said, ‘Have
+you eggs?’ and receiving a reply in the negative, he went on to the
+next, and to each one of the group asking the same weird question.
+
+The men, who had been chatting busily amongst themselves up to the
+moment of our arrival, became silent; they did not laugh, but only
+looked at one another; and one of them shyly felt in his pocket to see
+if there were any eggs there whose existence he might have chanced to
+forget.
+
+Presently, as we could get no eggs, we moved off sorrowfully but not
+discouraged; and the men remained looking after us silent and uncertain.
+Thus the interview ended, and we regained our boat.
+
+The beach here was capital for bathing, and we enjoyed a delightful tub
+this morning, the more pleasant indeed because at Dalbakken we slept in
+our clothes, and only had a soap-dish to wash in next morning.
+Immediately after bathing we lit a fire, and the cook commenced
+operations; the office of cook being held alternately by each of us for
+one day. The man from Dalbakken brought us some milk, so we indulged in
+coffee. When we have only ‘tin milk’ we drink tea; for though tin milk
+will do fairly with tea, we think it wretched with coffee. After
+breakfast we each took our canoe, and went fishing wherever the spirit
+moved us, taking lunch with us. On a day of this sort, if the fish are
+rising we have a great time, and if they won’t rise, we lie on the bank
+in the sun and smoke, or sketch, or kill mosquitoes, and have a great
+time in that case also, so that the hours pass in a blissful round of
+enjoyment, and all is peace. Having each one his own ship we are quite
+independent, only taking care to return to camp about six o’clock to get
+dinner ready. After that there is nearly always a rise, and we fish till
+about eleven, when we generally turn in, though it is by no means dark
+by that time; and on a few occasions when the fish were rising very
+well, we have fished on all through the night and into the next day,
+losing count of the almanack, and conducting life on the principles of
+going to bed when tired, and eating when hungry, so that, like the
+Snark, we might be said to--
+
+  Frequently breakfast at five o’clock tea,
+    And dine on the following day.
+
+There was very little wind to-day, and these fish being very shy, and
+apt to come short, it was almost impossible to get them without a ripple
+until evening, when large white moths began to show on the water, and
+the trout became bolder; consequently we did not make great bags, though
+the fish caught were very good ones.
+
+At night there was one of the most lovely sunsets ever seen. The sun
+went down right at the other end of the lake, so that we had an
+uninterrupted view, with all the glorious colours of the sky reflected
+in the water; and we agreed that the effects about half-past ten this
+evening formed as good a symphony in purple and orange as a man could
+expect to find out of the Grosvenor Gallery.
+
+
+_July 17._--The morning began with a dead calm, but this soon gave place
+to such a wind down the lake that we were induced to strike the camp,
+pack the canoes, and proceed on our voyage into the unknown.
+
+  [Illustration: Black-throated Diver]
+
+We started soon after eleven, lunched near Megrunden,[*] and saw there
+two black-throated divers on the lake, which Esau pursued for some time,
+but of course never got near them. Some of the dives they made to avoid
+his advancing canoe seemed to be about half a mile in length. Just below
+Böle we caught several fish, but kept paddling on with our favourable
+wind, casting every now and then in likely places, and soon came to a
+rapid with a rough bridge thrown across its upper end. The rapid was
+very shallow, so that we did not dare to attempt to run it with loaded
+boats, and had to make a portage. Even then we got a few bumps in
+running it, but arrived at the bottom all right. Now the scene changed;
+we were in a smaller and narrower part of the valley; buildings had
+entirely disappeared; there was nothing to be seen but gloomy pine
+forests and black-looking mountains: the weather also was quickly
+changing, and evidently intending to be wet and stormy; so we pushed on
+rapidly, one coasting on each side of the lake till we reached its
+further extremity, where Esau was nearly swamped crossing the waves, as
+the wind began to blow harder every minute. Soon the rain was upon us,
+while we looked for a camping-ground but found none, as the shores were
+everywhere very swampy for a quarter of a mile inland. At length we came
+to a second rapid, where the natives have thrown a clumsy weir across
+for some unknown purpose, and here we found a fairly dry spot, made our
+portage in heavy rain and wind, with a great deal of groaning, misery,
+and brandy and water; pitched the tent, and after struggling for about
+half an hour, got a dyspeptic fire to fizzle, and so cooked some fish
+and eggs, and then had tea in the tent. After this we were a little more
+comfortable, as it was very nice and dry inside; but it was midnight
+before we had finished all our portage, got the canoes down into the
+next lake, and made everything snug for the night, so that we were quite
+exhausted, as our day had commenced at seven A.M. The mosquitoes were
+more numerous here than at any place we have yet seen.
+
+    [Footnote: The various places mentioned on the voyage are not
+    villages, as one might imagine from the dot that marks them on
+    the Ordnance map, but generally only a single one-roomed log hut,
+    and for the most part not inhabited or habitable.]
+
+
+_Sunday, July 18._--It rained all night, but as Tweedledum said of his
+umbrella, ‘not under here,’ and a ditch we made last night kept our
+floor quite dry. Lighting a fire for breakfast was a toilsome business,
+but at last we found some wood dry enough to burn. It continued raining
+in a nice keep-at-it-all-day-if-you-like kind of manner, so we resided
+in the tent, and read, and indulged in whisky and water for lunch to
+counteract any ill effects of the reading--for some of it was poetry.
+
+Our tent was about three-quarters of a mile from the end of Bred Sjö,
+and after lunch we both went in one canoe to reconnoitre the next rapid,
+which is a long one down to Olstappen Vand. We found that it is quite
+impracticable for canoes; the river simply running violently down a
+steep place till it perishes in the lake; about a mile of rapid with
+hardly enough decently behaved water in the whole of it to hold a dozen
+trout. But there _were_ a dozen, for we caught them, one wherever there
+was a little turnhole. How we were to get down that river was concealed
+in the unfathomable depths of the mysterious Future.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+MISERY.
+
+
+_July 19._--It rained all night again and all day. This was dreadful,
+and not at all like Norway.
+
+We have always made a rule that we may fish on Sunday, but not shoot.
+Some people draw an even finer distinction, and say it is allowable to
+shoot with a rifle, but not with a gun: this we have always thought too
+subtle. Now yesterday was Sunday, and Esau having observed two divers on
+the lake while the Skipper was out fishing, went and secreted himself
+with a gun where he expected them to come over, hoping that they would
+be alarmed by the other canoe on its return. This soon happened, and
+they flew within forty yards of him. Both barrels were discharged, and
+Esau returned to camp, muttering something about ‘birds of that kind
+having immortal bodies if they hadn’t immortal souls.’ The result of
+Sabbath-breaking was no doubt this miserable weather.
+
+The camp to-day presented a most cheerless prospect. The canoes were
+drawn up on land and turned bottom upwards; the kitchen stowed away
+under a soaked sack; a very third-rate camp fire smouldering before the
+tent, surrounded by old egg-shells, backbones of fish, bacon-rind, and
+some apology for firewood; our two rods standing up against the gloomy
+sky with the wind whistling through their lines, and all the scenery
+blotted out with rain and mist, and scudding, never-ending clouds that
+drifted down the valley, and gave very occasional glimpses of extremely
+wet mountains. The cook, clad in a macintosh with a spade in his hand,
+watching a pot which was trying to boil on the spluttering fire, his
+trousers tucked into his socks, and his boots shining with wet, would
+have given any one a pretty good idea of the meaning of the expression
+‘played out.’
+
+  [Illustration: View of Bredsjö by Night]
+
+The mosquitoes were bad here, and we spent much of our leisure time
+making war against them. Esau’s favourite way of ‘clearing the road’ was
+to bring in a smoking log of pitch pine, close up the ventilation, and
+fill the tent with smoke. It forced us to quit, but not the mosquitoes,
+as they appeared to fall into a deep and tranquil sleep, from which they
+awoke refreshed and ready to renew the attack just a few minutes before
+the tent again became habitable for human beings. Prowling round the
+tent and squashing them with our fingers was perhaps the best plan, but
+we were obliged to sleep with a rug over our heads and covered up at
+every point, to avoid their intrusion at night.
+
+
+_July 20._--Still rain, and nothing but rain; it stopped for an hour or
+two last night, and the lake looked uncommonly pretty among its dark
+surroundings, but the downpour soon began again.
+
+In our desperation yesterday afternoon we arranged with a native, whom
+the Skipper discovered, to bring a horse and sleigh to-day to meet us at
+the next rapid, and help us down with our baggage to Olstappen.
+Therefore we got up early and were down at the rapid about ten o’clock,
+where we found our man waiting. The rain at this period was the worst
+variety we have yet seen, and it has tried all kinds during the last
+four days. We packed everything on the sleigh, covered it with our
+ground sheets, and then put the wheels on our canoes, and followed down
+the track.
+
+There is a saw-mill halfway down the river which is simply perfect.
+It is perched on piles over the middle of the stream, where it dashes
+through a rift in a huge black cliff, and the water goes tearing past
+down a long shoot made of logs, and plunges down at the end churned into
+a mass of white foam, with noise and spray that quite bewilder one.
+
+We got down to Olstappen at last, not without a good deal of hard work,
+and paid our man 4s. 6d. On our way we met a Norwegian tourist, who was
+on a walking tour with his sister, and had left her rained up, so to
+speak, in a Sæter, and was strolling about in the forest to wile away
+the time: he spoke a very little English, and we had a long talk with
+him; as he had a fellow-feeling for us, and was quite ready to curse the
+rain with us or any one else.
+
+The Norwegians, men and women, seem to go a good deal on walking tours,
+and probably know infinitely more of their fatherland than does the
+average Briton of this island, the superiority of which he seldom fails
+to impress on the long-suffering foreigner.
+
+At midday we launched our canoes on Olstappen, which is a fine wide
+lake, and not so rainy as Bredsjö, being several hundred feet lower.
+We paddled across to the mouth of the Vinstra River, a rather perilous
+undertaking, for where the wind met the river there was a nasty sea on,
+and we shipped some water, but got safe to land. We could not find a
+decent camp till we had walked a quarter of a mile from the lake up the
+river. There we found a nice sheltered place, pretty, and close to the
+river, made our portage, and pitched the tent, and with tea our drooping
+spirits began to revive (who is proof against a hot meal of trout and
+bacon, buttered eggs, and tea?), even though our clothes and equipments
+were all wet through, and we had a damp change of raiment, sleeping
+rugs, and boots. But now the wind had changed, and we looked forward to
+the morrow as the wearied traveller always _does_ look forward to the
+morrow.
+
+There were many sandpipers at the mouth of this river; we caught one
+young one, and had serious thoughts of taking its innocent life for our
+tea, but better feelings prevailed, and we released it as an offering
+for fine weather, and caught four trout instead.
+
+
+_July 21._--Hurrah! the rain stopped during the night, and this morning
+actually the sun shone out now and then. We heaped up a huge fire and
+dried all our belongings, and then had nearly a whole day before us free
+for fishing.
+
+A voyaging day is a big business. We calculate that it takes us two and
+a half hours to pack up from an old camp, breakfast, and get aboard
+ship; but to pitch the camp in a new place takes much longer. First you
+have to find a suitable place, often a matter of great difficulty in a
+country like this, where level spaces a yard square are very rare; dig a
+trench; pitch the tent, and arrange everything in it; collect firewood,
+and make a place for the fire; see that the boats and everything about
+the tent are safe from harm should the stormy winds begin to blow; and
+then cook dinner. All this cannot be done under three hours of hard
+work; so that if in addition you propose getting over a considerable
+amount of ground, it is sure to be a long and toilsome day. But the
+following day you wake up with a glorious feeling of duty performed and
+pleasure to look forward to.
+
+The Skipper, with a hankering after cleanliness, washed a lot of
+clothes, and himself, having left the rain to perform the latter
+operation for the last two or three days; but Esau, not being troubled
+with any such absurd remnants of civilisation, went up the river
+reconnoitring in his natural condition. He came back to dinner in a
+perfectly rapturous state, having caught a remarkably nice bag of fish,
+got a beautiful view of the Jotunfjeld Mountains, and found a waterfall,
+which he said was the best in Norway, and therefore in the world. The
+Skipper had tried the lake in the afternoon without success, so after
+dinner we both went out and soon discovered the reason. Seven boats full
+of natives were out with a huge flue net, which they shot in a circle,
+and then beat the water enclosed till all the wretched fish were in the
+net. We saw them get thirty in one haul, and besides this there was a
+boat ‘ottering;’ and although we captured a few fish, it was obvious
+that with all this netting it would be impossible for the lake to be
+good.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+HAPPINESS.
+
+
+_July 22._--This was a really fine day, such as we consider proper to
+Norway; no uncertain half-and-halfness, but a day when an untiring sun
+shone down from an immaculate sky; and everything looked lovely. Our
+tent was on a nice bit of turf close to the Vinstra River, which is
+about as broad as the Thames at Eton, but with probably twice the volume
+of water, and certainly three times its rapidity; it rushed past our
+door at such a pace that no boat could stem it; and as far as we could
+see up the reach it came down in an equally swift torrent, so that all
+day and all night there was a swilling, rushing sound very pleasant to
+hear, and creating a sensation of coolness in warm weather. Esau
+considered it just the _beau ideal_ of a trout stream, for any fish
+hooked in it gave a lot of trouble before he was safe in the bag. It
+ran into the lake about a quarter of a mile from our tent, forming a
+good-sized delta at its mouth. At the further side of the delta there
+were some fishermen’s huts (from which emanated the seven boat-loads of
+natives whom we saw yesterday netting), and thence a track leads up the
+banks of the river to a lake called Slangen, two miles away.
+
+The inhabitants of these huts came in a boat this morning to see our
+camp while we were at breakfast inside the tent. They poked their heads
+in, grinning and staring, and saying nothing. Then we did the honours,
+showed them our most interesting possessions--American axes, fly-books,
+knives, rods, &c., with all of which they were greatly impressed; then
+one picked up a bar of yellow soap that was lying on a box, and they all
+‘wondered much at that;’ then we talked to them for a brief space,
+chiefly out of ‘Bennett’s Phrase Book,’ and considered the interview at
+an end, but they _would_ not go, and remained silently staring at all
+our movements. So at last we ignored their presence altogether, which we
+have found the most effectual way of getting rid of a Norwegian peasant,
+and they gradually departed one by one till only one was left. To this
+man we gave a cup of our now cold coffee, which was not at all good,
+especially when compared with the delicious coffee which is always
+forthcoming even in the meanest Norwegian hut. He drank this, for they
+consider it a breach of etiquette to refuse proffered food; and
+immediately left, as if he remembered an engagement, having first
+thanked us in a rather constrained manner.
+
+We were glad when our callers were gone, for we had found them
+‘difficult,’ as the French say; but we took advantage of their arrival
+to make arrangements with one of them to bring three ponies and sleighs
+to the other side of the delta to-morrow morning, when we hope to renew
+our journey.
+
+After this we both went up the river on opposite sides; for the Skipper
+had become inflamed by a wish to see the waterfall which Esau discovered
+yesterday.
+
+One of the great advantages of Norway consists in being able to leave
+your tent and all other belongings quite to themselves, even when you
+know that there are several people about, and shrewdly suspect that the
+place where you have made your camp is a hay meadow belonging to one of
+them. We had a dim idea that such was the case here, not because there
+was any grass, but because there were very few stones, and a Norwegian
+mows down everything for hay except the stones. The Skipper came back
+with a very pretty bag of fish; he had been up to the fall, and thought
+it quite deserved all Esau’s commendation; and his opinion is worth more
+because he has seen many of the great American falls and other stock
+sights of the world. It is not marked on the Ordnance map; there is no
+path to it, or near it, but you come on it suddenly by following the
+river up through the pine forest, and on turning a corner see the whole
+body of the Vinstra shooting over a cliff in one mad leap of perhaps a
+little more than a hundred feet. Of course the height and volume of
+water are insignificant compared with many falls, but the beauty of its
+situation can scarcely be excelled; and to us its greatest charm is its
+solitude and freedom from paths, tourists, and all the other unpleasant
+attributes of show places.
+
+Esau following up the north bank of the river was not so successful
+fishing, and after crossing the Slangen River (which joins the Vinstra
+about a mile above our camp) he struck across the forest to see his
+beloved fall again, and try to sketch it. He came back in a bad temper,
+saying that he thought Ruysdael and Turner could make something of
+it--the former to do the water, and the latter the spray, mist,
+rainbows, and roar--and he wanted to write home and get them to come out
+on purpose; and when the Skipper suggested that they had given up
+painting, he said it was a great pity, for he had not time now to do it
+himself.
+
+There is a corduroy bridge over the Slangen River, close to its junction
+with the Vinstra, and over this bridge we shall go to-morrow: we had
+intended to cruise up the Slangen and fish Slangen Lake, but we found
+that it would be impossible to continue our journey from the further end
+of it if we did so, and therefore decided to omit that part of the
+programme, though we are sorry to leave out Slangen, as it is a
+beautiful lake.
+
+We have probably been repaid for the miseries of the last week by the
+beauty of our waterfall, the volume of which has doubtless been much
+increased by the exceptional rain of the last few days.
+
+Early to bed--
+
+
+_July 23._--And early to rise. We breakfasted soon after seven, and then
+packed everything, and crossed the mouth of the Vinstra in two Norse
+boats, assisted by two or three men who had come to help our horses and
+sleighs on the journey. We had terrible difficulty in getting the canoes
+placed in what we considered a safe position on the sleighs, but it was
+done at last, and the motley caravan started about 10.30.
+
+First the noble owners; then a man who had got nothing on earth to do
+with the affair, then two women laughing and yelling like lunatics, then
+a sleigh drawn by a large pony, and carrying two boxes, cans, guns, and
+canoe; next some boys urging the large pony to herculean exertions; then
+the organiser of the transport department, who was apparently a
+professional fool, by the inordinate laughter which his every action
+caused; then some more women, and a smaller pony and sleigh, with the
+other canoe and all the rest of the luggage excepting one bag; lastly,
+another man leading an extremely small pony and sleigh with absolutely
+nothing on it, the man carrying the remaining bag for fear of tiring the
+pony. This mob of loafers had arrived in boats from Svatsum, which is a
+small village five miles distant at the north end of Olstappen. But they
+only accompanied us for a quarter of a mile, when they all departed
+except the three men, who remained to manage the ponies.
+
+The pace was not very great, about a mile an hour, for these little
+ponies insisted on stopping to rest every hundred yards when the path
+was good, and every twenty when it was bad.
+
+We followed the river till we crossed the Slangen bridge; after that the
+path began to rise and get rapidly worse. We strolled along very
+leisurely, sitting down from time to time to rest and admire the view.
+The scenery was occasionally very beautiful, with the Jotun Mountains
+gleaming white in the background; and the forest itself was an endless
+delight, with its hoary moss-covered pine trees, and many-coloured
+carpet of berry-bearing plants, and the delicious odours with which a
+Norwegian forest in summer always abounds. In a fir tree here Esau came
+upon a family of cole titmice, and another of creepers, all very busy
+swinging themselves about, and creeping up and down the tree in search
+of dinner. They appeared to take a certain amount of interest in his
+proceedings, but showed no fear, and after watching them a long time he
+put the point of his rod up to one of the titmice, which actually pecked
+it rather angrily, but seeing that it made no impression took no further
+notice, but returned to its occupation of collecting food. In the next
+tree was a little spotted woodpecker which they call a ‘Gertrude bird.’
+The story is so prettily told in ‘Forest Life in Norway and Sweden,’
+that it shall be inserted here.
+
+‘This woodpecker--or an ancestor of hers--was once a woman, and one day
+she was kneading bread in her trough, under the eaves of her house, when
+our Lord passed by leaning on St. Peter. She did not know it was our
+Lord and His apostle, for they looked like two poor men who were
+travelling past her cottage door. “Give us of your dough for the love of
+God,” said the Lord. “We have come far across the fjeld, and have fasted
+long.”
+
+‘Gertrude pinched off a small piece for them, but on rolling it in the
+trough to get it into shape, it grew, and grew, and filled up the trough
+completely. “No,” said she, “that is more than you want;” so she pinched
+off a smaller piece and rolled it out as before, but the smaller piece
+filled up the trough just as the other had done, and Gertrude put it
+aside too, and pinched a smaller bit still. But the miracle was just the
+same, the smaller bit filled up the trough as full as the largest sized
+kneading that she had ever put into it.
+
+‘Gertrude’s heart was hardened still more; she put that aside too,
+resolving as soon as the stranger left her to divide all her dough into
+little bits, and to roll it out into great loaves. “I cannot give you
+any to-day,” said she. “Go on your journey; the Lord prosper you, but
+you must not stop at my house.”
+
+‘Then the Lord Christ was angry, and her eyes were opened, and she saw
+whom she had forbidden to come into the house, and she fell down on her
+knees. But the Lord said, “I gave you plenty, but that hardened your
+heart, so plenty was not a blessing to you. I will try you now with the
+blessing of poverty; you shall from henceforth seek your food day by
+day, and always between the wood and the bark” (alluding to the custom
+of mixing the inner rind of the birch with their rye-meal in times of
+scarcity). “But forasmuch as I see your penitence is sincere, this shall
+not be for ever; as soon as your back is entirely clothed with mourning
+this shall cease, for by that time you will have learnt to use your
+gifts rightly.”
+
+‘Gertrude flew from the presence of the Lord, for she was already a
+bird, but her feathers were even now blackened from her mourning, and
+from that time forward she and her descendants have all the year round
+sought their food between the wood and the bark; but the feathers of
+their back and wings get more mottled with black as they grow older, and
+when the white is quite covered the Lord takes them for His own again.
+
+‘No Norwegian will ever hurt a Gertrude bird, for she is always under
+the Lord’s protection, though He is punishing her for the time.’
+
+Whether this is the true reason or not, the fact remains that the bird
+is never harmed by any one, and is as tame as possible.
+
+We continued climbing slowly up the hill till about one o’clock, when we
+came out above the forest on an open plateau covered with rocks, grass,
+and low scrub: this was the Fjeld. At Finböle Sæter we stopped to
+refresh on milk. The road--which had gradually dwindled from a decent
+path to a sleigh track, then a footpath, a cow-path, and a goat-path,
+just sufficient to swear by, or at--now lost itself altogether. The men
+had been complaining that it was a ‘dole vei’ (bad road) soon after the
+start, now they said it was ‘schlamm’--a very expressive word; and Esau
+agreed with them, and said it was ‘damm schlamm,’ which does not sound
+like proper Norsk; but it was such heart-rending work to see our beloved
+canoes bumping and jolting along, every moment in imminent danger of
+getting staved in, that to indulge in a few such Norwegian idioms was
+only human; and we decided to walk on and spare ourselves the agony of
+the sight: so, taking the bearings of ‘Fly Sæter’--which was our
+destination for the evening--we rambled on across the fjeld--a splendid
+walk, with some of the most beautiful mountains in Norway all round us.
+
+We got on very well with the assistance of an Ordnance map and compass,
+till we came to the river Hinögle, after passing Hinögelid Sæter. The
+bridge here was not in the place marked on the map, so that after
+crossing it we had some trouble in finding Fly Sæter, and might perhaps
+have perished miserably like the Babes in the wood, had we not
+opportunely met a mediæval fisherman in a red night-cap, looking like
+one of the demons in ‘Rip van Winkle,’ who was going thither and
+conducted us. We arrived at seven o’clock, and appeased our hunger with
+the usual meal of trout and coffee, and _such_ cream!
+
+  [Illustration: Sunset at Fly Sæter]
+
+The sæter was a long low house, with three little rooms and only two
+windows. Its legitimate tenants were a very nice man and his equally
+nice wife and three children; but there were some occasional visitors
+here to-night in the shape of ourselves, our three men, the mediæval
+angler, and another traveller, twelve altogether to be apportioned among
+four beds; and to make matters worse, the rooms were continually invaded
+by sheep, pigs, and goats, of which there were a large stock.
+
+The Norwegians are so uniformly kind to all their animals, that their
+tameness is really troublesome; they insist on going where they like,
+and following one about begging for food like dogs, causing the Skipper
+to exclaim,--
+
+‘Ite domum saturæ, venit Hesperus, ite capellæ;’ which he translated--
+
+Out of the house in the evening! Get out, ye goats of the sæter!
+
+We slept in the cheese-room very comfortably, one on the floor, the
+other on a good hay bed, and were warm for the first time for several
+nights, as we have not had sufficient blankets in the tent. Where the
+other ten people slept we did not inquire, but hoped they were happy.
+Our men and sleighs did not arrive till 10 P.M., at which time a most
+glorious sunset was going on, so that we could not attend to them at
+once. The sky, at first blue and yellow, gradually deepened into purple
+and orange, and finally the most brilliant red and almost black clouds,
+the hills all the time glowing with exquisite tints. After it was
+concluded we turned to the men, and were much delighted to find that
+nothing was smashed so far: the men had been very careful, and took
+eleven hours to perform a journey of ten miles.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+FLY SÆTER.
+
+
+_July 24._--The morning was again beautifully fine, and the coffee at
+the sæter was passing delicious, even for this country, where coffee is
+always good. No doubt the chief reason of this is that it is never
+roasted and ground till just when it is wanted, not only at the hotels,
+but at the smallest sæters. The grinding of coffee and the frying of
+trout are grateful sounds to the wearied traveller, and if the walk
+across the fjeld has failed to give him an appetite, he has still the
+chance of obtaining one from the fragrant aroma of the roasting berry.
+
+This sæter is in a most beautiful situation, perched on a little flat
+bit of ground on the mountain side, and looking down on a
+wide-stretching sea of grey undulating hills, with lakes lying among
+them dotted about near and far, and all the lower ground covered with
+the everlasting pine forest. To the south can be seen the river Hinögle,
+which runs out of the Heimdal Lakes, threading its way with gleams of
+white through the dark green and grey of the forest and fjeld. To the
+north far below in the valley is Aakre Vand, a beautiful irregularly
+shaped lake dotted with fir-clad islands; while beyond, high up, there
+can be just distinguished Aakre Sæter, and frowning over it the dark
+mass of Aakre Kampen, a mountain of considerable height. Aakre Vand is a
+lake that we had intended to fish after Slangen Vand, but as there
+seemed to be no possibility of getting our property from one to the
+other we gave up the notion. According to all accounts it is a good lake
+for fish, and its shores are untainted by the habitations of man.
+
+We started about 9.30, having paid 5s. 6d. for the board and lodging of
+ourselves and our numerous retinue, including the price of a sack-full
+of hay for our beds, as this was the last place at which we expected we
+could get any.
+
+After watching for a short time our valuables jolting, plunging, and
+splashing over the uneven ground, covered with rocks, junipers, and
+occasional logs and brooks, the wear and tear on our heart-strings
+became too severe, and we decided to walk on to Sikkildals Sæter, about
+four miles, and leave the baggage to its fate under the guidance of our
+three charioteers. It took us till eleven o’clock to get within half a
+mile of the sæter, and there we sat down and watched the track intently
+for two hours: then two hours more--and we began to lose patience; then
+another hour--and we began to lose hope also. Something must have
+happened; either a canoe was smashed, or washed away crossing a stream,
+or one of the sleighs was upset and broken, or they were bogged, or the
+man carrying the bag had fainted, or his pony become unmanageable and
+dashed through a shop window; or, most dreadful thought, the men had got
+at our whisky and become hopelessly drunk.
+
+  [Illustration: Desperate Conflict between Esau and the Mosquito]
+
+Another hour passed, and our small remaining stock of good temper went:
+we were very hungry, and all our food was on the sleighs, and the
+mosquitoes seemed to be even more hungry than we were. Hope deferred,
+with nothing but mosquitoes to distract one’s thoughts, maketh the heart
+very sick indeed: and these were most annoyingly large mosquitoes; the
+finest brand that we have yet inspected, and with more strength of
+character than the ordinary kind. We were so much annoyed with the world
+in general, and each other, that we were obliged to separate, and Esau
+retired for a short time to attempt a sketch. He came back very angry,
+because just at the critical moment a mosquito had knocked his hat off,
+and he had had a desperate and perspiring conflict with it under a
+tropical sun; but eventually the brute was vanquished and its head cut
+off, which he said he would have stuffed, to hang up in his ancestral
+halls. He certainly bore on his face the marks of the struggle, so that
+there seemed to be no reason to doubt the story.
+
+  [Plate: ON THE TRACK NEAR SIKKILDALS LAKE.]
+
+Our state of despondency waxed worse and worse; we had not the slightest
+confidence in our head driver; he was undoubtedly the Svatsum village
+fool, for he talked all day, and the other men went into roars of
+laughter at whatever he said, though the Skipper said _he_ couldn’t see
+anything funny in most of his remarks; but possibly the Skipper was
+jealous because this man made better Norsk jokes than his own. Besides
+this, the fact that neither of us understood the language, detracted
+from the merits of the jests.
+
+Years rolled away, and at six o’clock something came slowly into sight.
+‘Out with the glass!’ (the spy-glass). ‘Yes, by George! it is the men
+and sleighs at last. Out with the other glass!’ and we finish the ‘wee
+drappie’ that we were saving to the last extremity. They soon arrived at
+Sikkildal Sæter with us, and we found that nothing had gone wrong, but
+the men had been _very_ careful, and so had taken nine hours to make a
+journey of four miles. The track certainly would be a disgrace to a
+Metropolitan Vestry, and they managed well to arrive with everything
+uninjured. We consider the village fool to be a most painstaking and
+praiseworthy idiot.
+
+At Sikkildal Sæter we got some food and called at a small house close to
+it, where a Mr. B., a Norwegian barrister, was staying for the summer.
+He is the owner of the Sikkildal Lakes, and we wanted permission to camp
+on his land and fish in his lakes. He understood English as well as all
+the upper classes in Norway do; and was very civil, giving us the
+permission most willingly.
+
+We have heard from a good many people that the wealthier Norwegians do
+not like the English, and will not do anything to oblige them; but in
+all our wanderings we have met with nothing but the greatest kindness
+and hospitality from all classes. Several people have gone out of their
+way to voluntarily offer fishing and shooting, and in no instance has
+the slightest incivility been shown. Certainly Norway will compare with
+England very much to advantage in this respect, though of course we do
+not mean to say that similar conduct would be possible in England.
+
+At about seven in the evening we got all our cargo shipped again and
+started up the lower Sikkildals lake--having first paid our charioteers
+3_l._ for the trip from Olstappen, three men, horses and sleighs,
+sixteen miles over the rockiest, brookiest, and juniperiest country in
+this world; and offered them whisky and water all round, including two
+men from the sæter who came to our assistance when the smallest pony,
+not being accustomed to the deceitfulness and treacherous wiles of this
+life, got up to its neck in a bog close to the lake, and the man with
+the bag followed it. However, they were extricated with no damage done,
+as our provisions were all securely soldered up in tins. Curious to
+relate, our three men did not like whisky, but just sipped for
+‘manners,’ and only the two old men from the sæter would drink it; but
+these two old men liked it very much, and drank all they could get--that
+is to say, their own glasses full, and the other fellows’ glasses full,
+and just a drop after that, and then just a taste to top up with. Then
+we shook hands all round, and feeling in charity with all men, sailed
+joyously away up the lake.
+
+It was a real Norwegian night, with the warmth and light of the departed
+sun still lingering on the mountain tops, and a midnight twilight
+glowing in the valleys. We had a beautiful full moon to help us on our
+way, so we went right to the upper end of the first lake, and found a
+camping-ground halfway between the two lakes, which are about a hundred
+yards apart. The portage took us some time, but we were full of energy
+from the cool night air, so refreshing after the long hot summer day. We
+dug out a nice level place for the tent, and got everything settled and
+ourselves in bed about midnight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+SIKKILDAL.
+
+
+_Sunday, July 25._--We arose soon after seven; not because it is our
+nature to get up at that time, still less because we think it our duty
+to do so; but because the sun made the tent so intolerably hot that
+there was no pleasure to be derived from staying in bed any longer.
+Naturally after this we were very cross, which the Skipper says all
+really pious people are on Sunday morning; and he abused Esau
+shamefully, because the latter wanted the eggs buttered and the Skipper
+wanted them fried. Esau laid down the axiom that ‘no gentleman ever eats
+fried eggs,’ in a peculiarly offensive manner, and proceeded further to
+make ill-natured remarks with reference to violet ink; and the Skipper
+retorted with the observation, ‘Wish you’d brought that anchovy paste.’
+Esau: ‘Why?’ Skipper: ‘Because it’s just the stuff to grease your boots
+with in a place like this; smells strongish, and keeps the mosquitoes at
+a distance.’ Altogether we made ourselves as disagreeable as possible to
+each other--just as we do in our happy homes on the Sabbath morn in
+England. Fortunately Sunday only comes once a week.
+
+Breakfast over, the Skipper devoted himself to the occupation of
+greasing his boots and shaving, which he seems to do at the same time,
+so that one brush may be used for both the soap and the grease; while
+Esau did some washing.
+
+We had some trouble in getting good firewood, for Sikkildals Vand is
+more than three thousand feet above sea level, and consequently we were
+above the region of pine forests, and had only the stunted birch and
+juniper from which to obtain our supply. We divide the altitudes rather
+differently from the system adopted by other great explorers. The lowest
+belt is that of pine forests and strawberries, then comes the zone of
+stunted birches, above that only juniper and bitter willow are found;
+and the highest belt of vegetation contains only rocks,
+reindeer-flowers, and moss, and then eternal snow.
+
+Now birch trees do not make good firewood, for when they die they appear
+to get water-logged, and never burn well. The juniper is the most
+invaluable of all trees, for it will burn quite green; but at Sikkildals
+Vand it is very scarce, and so it took us quite a long time to collect
+enough dry wood to last our stay out, but it was done at last. We
+carried one canoe across the spit of land between the two lakes, and in
+it the Skipper went forth to get fish for the larder, while Esau took
+the other canoe down the lower lake to get some milk from Sikkildals
+Sæter.
+
+The scenery here is very fine. The lakes are narrow, and highish
+mountains rise on each side: those on the south side had snow upon them,
+though this would disappear before the end of the summer, as we are not
+yet in the regions of perpetual snow; on the north side there is a very
+remarkable mountain called Sikkildals Horn, with a perfectly
+impracticable front of overhanging rock, very high and rugged. There was
+a constant rumbling and booming proceeding from it, as rocks from time
+to time broke off and came crashing down; but our tent--though seemingly
+under this cliff--was well out of their reach. At the further end of the
+upper lake we could see an apparently impassable mountain ridge. Beyond
+this, about four miles further according to the maps, was Besse Sæter,
+a farm, or ranch, only one day’s journey from our final resting-place.
+How we were to cross that mountain with our canoes and baggage, was a
+matter only to be determined by prophets and other beings of a higher
+order of intelligence than ours. Our friend Mr. B. thought it was almost
+impossible; the Skipper boldly asserted that it _was_ impossible, and
+requested to be allowed to die here; while Esau, with the sanguine
+joyousness begotten of total ignorance, said of course it could be
+managed. We determined to move to the end of the lake the next day, and
+try the pass on the one following--barring earthquakes.
+
+Esau had a most interesting voyage. His fishing was not very successful
+at first, and he paddled steadily on towards the Sæter, overtaking a
+boat quite full of girls, dressed in the very picturesque native costume
+which the people in these primitive regions still adhere to, especially
+on Sundays. The girls about here are rather pretty than otherwise, and
+these were a particularly good selection, and of course all in their
+cleanest and smartest clothes for Sunday. They _would_ stop to watch him
+fishing, till he got quite shy, and gave up throwing till they rowed on.
+
+  [Illustration: Sæter Girls in a Boat on Sikkildals Lake]
+
+Soon he came to a brood of pochards under the leadership of the old
+duck, and spent half an hour trying to capture one by rapid paddling, in
+which endeavour he was nearly but not quite successful. There were a
+good many teal and pochards on the lower lake, and plenty of sandpipers
+on the shores of the upper one.
+
+At last he reached the Sæter, and found there all the girls of the boat,
+and at least another boat-load and five or six strangers--quite a crowd:
+possibly they had been having a church service, but probably not, as
+they all seemed in the best of tempers, and were most amiable.
+
+He got the milk, and coming back tried a few casts, and found that the
+fish were rising properly; the result was nineteen good trout in about
+an hour and a half. We had not been catching many fish lately; so after
+his return to camp we concluded that this was the hour and we were the
+men to revel in a fiendish glut of capture. So there was a regular
+stampede in that camp, and after dinner we _all_ went out armed to the
+teeth with rods and fly-books, and clothed in landing nets and Freke
+bags, with our teeth firmly set and a bloodthirsty look in our eyes,
+intending to struggle with the great trout in his native element or
+perish in the attempt. . . .
+
+About ten o’clock that night there might have been seen toiling wearily
+back to camp under a cloudy sky and with a chilly blast a-blowing, two
+forlorn youths, ‘sans’ fish, ‘sans’ hope, but still armed to the teeth
+with the weapons of the chase.
+
+However, we had now tried both lakes, and got some knowledge of their
+capabilities. The upper one is, we think, the better of the two, but
+more difficult to catch fish in. The Skipper got some in it to-day, and
+they were larger fish than those of the lower lake, and a different
+sort, more like the silvery trout of the Jotunfjeld, whereas the others
+are the ordinary brown or yellow trout.
+
+This afternoon Mr. B. and his wife with a friend came up in a boat to
+see our camp, at which they seemed much pleased. We took them short
+cruises in the canoes, showed them our various arrangements, and
+endeavoured to be agreeable.
+
+The friend was the manager of the government stud for this district, and
+spoke English fairly. He told us that the government provides a certain
+number of good stallions, which are turned out on the fjeld and run with
+the peasants’ mares, and that they take great trouble to provide the
+best that can be got, so as to improve the breed. He considered that
+there are very decidedly good results.
+
+
+_July 26._--A beautiful fishing morning, just beginning to blow up for
+rain. The Skipper fished his way down to the Sæter for more provisions,
+and had first-rate sport, catching twenty-two beautiful fish, mostly
+over a pound. He had such an exciting time of it that lunch was
+forgotten till three o’clock, a fact which spoke volumes for the
+excellence of the sport, for we generally acquire a very keen appetite
+every three or four hours so long as the sun is performing his daily
+duty (of standing still while we circulate feebly round ourselves). He
+came back to the tent, presenting rather a distended appearance, having
+stuffed most of his pockets full of potatoes, and a packet of salt in
+his hat; and while with his right hand he folded to his bosom a bottle
+of cream, and another of milk, in his left he grasped a rod, a landing
+net and paddle, and the rest of him was hung with fish. The Skipper
+objects to making two journeys where only one is necessary.
+
+Esau thinks that ‘flesh-meat’ is a necessary of life, so he took his gun
+up the upper lake, and returned with the noble spoil of five sandpipers
+which he had shot out of the canoe by creeping along the edge of the
+lake, a most entertaining pastime.
+
+There is an old ruined fisherman’s hut at our end of the lake, and this
+had apparently been taken as a habitation by a family of stoats, which
+Esau espied at their gambols on his return. Cartridges are precious
+here, but the instinct of destruction of a stoat was too much for him,
+and having chirped till two of them stood close together and a third
+just behind, he fired into the crowd and mortally injured the lot. Poor
+little things! It is rather a shame to kill them, for there is so little
+game that they cannot do much harm, probably feeding chiefly on mice and
+lemmings, which are very numerous; and they always look uncommonly
+pretty playing about the rocks. No more graceful animal exists than a
+stoat.
+
+After dinner had been cooked and despatched we went forth to fish again,
+and had some good sport; but presently lowering clouds settled down over
+the surface of the deep, mosquitoes gathered round us in swarms, and a
+few spots of rain drove us home to the snug retreat of the tent, where
+hidden away under the warmth of our bedding we smoked in thoughtful
+silence, and gloated over the day’s doings and our larder stocked with
+fishes.
+
+
+_July 27._--The day commenced with showers, and as there are no
+inhabitants here to whom we can give the surplus fish, we did not like
+to catch any more--for it is against our principles to waste food
+wilfully, woeful want being too near and probable a state to be trifled
+with--consequently we determined to move on, but first to bake some
+bread.
+
+This, in a temporary camp, is done by putting the kneaded dough into a
+tin pot made on purpose without solder; this pot is then placed in a
+hole in the ground in which we have previously kept a good fire for
+about half an hour; before putting the pot in, all the embers and ashes
+are cleared out, and then raked back on to the top of the tin and all
+round it, and a small fire is kept going on the top. If well managed
+this bakes excellent bread in about twenty minutes, but of course it
+requires considerable experience and care to turn out really
+satisfactory bread. When we get to our permanent camp we shall make a
+proper oven.
+
+To-day, when we had baked successfully, packed up our things, and were
+taking advantage of a break between the showers to start, we were hailed
+from the bank, and saw there old Peter Tronhūus, the tenant of Besse
+Sæter (whither we are going) and father of Jens Tronhūus, our former
+hunter, who is now getting what we require in the shape of food, ponies,
+and men, and whom we expect to meet at Besse Sæter. Peter had a great
+deal to tell us about all our affairs, which seem to be prospering under
+Jens’ auspices. He talks English very badly, so the interview lasted
+some time, and then we pushed off and paddled straight away to the
+extreme end of the lake, where we found an inferior place to pitch the
+tent, very damp and unwholesome in appearance, sadly in need of sanitary
+inspection, but no doubt good enough for one night. We fished with fly
+and minnow all the way, but took nothing, there being a good deal of
+thunder round about; but Esau shot some more sandpipers.
+
+Our tent is pitched at the commencement of an extremely vague track,
+which we believe to go over our mountain pass to Sjödals Vand
+(pronounced Shoodals), and to-morrow we hope to follow its wanderings,
+if two men and horses--with whom we have made an arrangement to
+transport us--turn up. These two men and horses are the sole inhabitants
+of this very thinly populated district, so that we are at their mercy,
+and if they do not come we must inevitably die of starvation after we
+have eaten all our provisions and candles.
+
+Late in the evening Herr B---- and a scientific friend who had just come
+to stay with him, came down the mountain to our tent. They had been for
+a short walking tour to Lake Gjendin--our future goal--where it seems
+that a tourist’s hut of a superior sort has lately been built, and at
+this hut several kinds of food are kept, such as tinned meats and beer.
+B---- and his friend have therefore been there shopping. The news of
+this hut is rather unpleasant to us, for Gjendin was chosen chiefly for
+its wildness and remoteness from civilisation, and now we are haunted
+with the idea that there may be tourists, and consequently no fish or
+reindeer. On the other hand, it has been erected so short a time that it
+can hardly have affected the country round about yet, and it will
+certainly be convenient for us from a commissariat point of view.
+
+We were just beginning supper when they arrived, but they would not
+stop, for which we were secretly glad, as there was only enough soup for
+two; so we had a whisky ‘skaal’ (health-drinking) instead, and they went
+on their way full of beans and benevolence, as Mr. Jorrocks hath it.
+
+We ‘whisky’ every one who turns up at camp, and as a rule they like it.
+We are not much of drunkards ourselves, so we can afford to give it to
+other people.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+BESSE SÆTER.
+
+
+_July 28._--Our two men arrived while we were at breakfast this morning,
+and brought two sleighs in the boat with them; these they deposited on
+the shore, and then one of them departed into some secret haunt of his
+own in search of a horse. The last we saw of him was a wee dot
+struggling up over the mountain crest; and we began to feel what a
+hopeless sort of task was before us.
+
+When we had finished our breakfast there were certain remnants of food,
+and these we offered to the other man, because he seemed to want
+something to do. We left him in the tent with a frying-pan containing
+two trout fried in butter, and a tin pot nearly full of soup. Some time
+afterwards we looked in, and saw him eating greedily off his
+knife-blade, and after a further interval we noticed that he had
+finished; then we examined the culinary utensils out of which he had
+been feeding, and found he had left the trout untouched, but the butter
+they were fried in he had utterly consumed off the blade of his knife,
+and also all the soup through the same medium. But there was not more
+than a gallon and a half of the latter, so we did not grudge it.
+
+  [Illustration: Old Siva carrying a Canoe up the Sikkildals Pass]
+
+Apparently he was like a giant refreshed after his meal, and seizing one
+canoe he carried it up to the top of the mountain, and then came back
+for the other and did the same with it; after this he returned again and
+borrowed our axe, saying he wanted to make the path better for the
+sleigh. He disappeared among the stunted birches, and we heard him
+chopping and slowly getting further up the track for about an hour. We
+naturally supposed that he was clearing away trees that obstructed the
+path, but when we came to traverse that path ourselves, soon afterwards,
+we discovered that he had only been filling up holes in the road by
+felling trees across it. Now a road that can be improved by this process
+is in a very bad state and this one was decidedly improved.
+
+Just before we started an English tourist came down the mountain and
+arranged with Siva (one of our men) to go down the lake in his boat.
+He was the first of our fellow-countrymen whom we have seen since
+Lillehammer, and proved to be the only one we met all through our trip
+in the mountains.
+
+After some time we perceived three dots wending their way down the path
+again, and presently they arrived, proving to be our other man and two
+extremely shaggy ponies; and after the complicated Norwegian harness had
+been put on we began the ascent. The path was as bad as bad could be for
+a short distance, but when the level was reached it became much better
+than we had had hitherto; it was only the first climb up from the lake
+that presented any difficulty. The canoes could only have been
+transported as they were, on a man’s back.
+
+It continued showery, but we had a very pleasant walk, and launched our
+canoes on Sjödals Vand at about three o’clock. A short paddle across the
+lake, not more than three quarters of a mile, and we were at Besse
+Sæter.
+
+Sjödals Vand is a long straggling lake, very much exposed to the wind,
+and not in any way beautiful except for its wildness, as its shores are
+almost treeless and rather flat. Its most remarkable characteristic is
+the colour of its water, which is a light greenish blue, like a
+starling’s egg, and stands out in striking contrast against the yellow
+shore and dark mountain heights which surround it.
+
+Besse Sæter is only three miles from Gjendin Vand--the haven where we
+would be; and the snow-capped mountains, which have been gradually
+getting nearer all the way from Olstappen, are now magnificently
+towering above us on three sides.
+
+The Sæter is a hut, built as they all are, entirely of wood, and only
+inhabited during the summer months. The hut in which we are living is
+not strictly speaking a sæter at all, but has been built for the
+convenience of travellers, and the Tronhūus family are entrusted with
+the duty of taking care of those who come hither while wandering about
+this, the wildest and grandest part of Norway. The real sæter is a
+larger building about a quarter of a mile from this hut, and higher up
+the mountain. And further away still there is yet another building, or
+collection of buildings, also called Besse Sæter.
+
+Our hut has three rooms, two of which--a bedroom and eating-room--are
+occupied at present solely by us: in the other room dwell two girls,
+apparently guests of the Tronhūus. Peter Tronhūus himself and his
+numerous family live in a one-roomed hut just opposite this. At present
+the family appears to consist of two men, five women, and two children,
+relationship to each other unknown.
+
+Peter and his son Jens--who was with us on a former expedition--are both
+away at present; the latter engaged in procuring various articles for
+us, such as potatoes, men, ponies, and dogs, about which we wrote to him
+from England; and he is expected back to-morrow.
+
+In spite of the crowd of people living here, everything is beautifully
+clean and tidy, and our eating-room looks very nice, with its floor
+always covered with fresh juniper sprays, and a cheerful fire burning in
+that most charming of fireplaces, the primitive Norwegian corner-hearth,
+which is being rapidly superseded everywhere by horrid tall, black, iron
+stoves, that look like coffins set up on end, and smell like flat-irons
+and rosin when they are lighted.
+
+We shall have to make this place our home until Jens turns up; and we
+are not at all sorry to do so, for they take the greatest trouble to
+make us comfortable, and the trout, fladbrod, and coffee are simply
+perfection. Besides, we are only a short day’s journey from Memurudalen,
+where we intend to camp, and there is nothing to be gained by getting
+there before August 1, the opening day of the reindeer season.
+
+After supper we sallied out, the Skipper with rod, Esau with gun, to see
+what we could catch. Esau landed on the marsh at the head of the lake,
+to try and circumvent some duck he had descried; in this he failed, but
+shot a greenshank, of which there were several flying about.
+
+The Skipper fished the river without success. Sjödals Vand is a fine
+lake, but not much good for fishing, because of the great amount of
+netting that is carried on in the summer by the dwellers in the Sæter;
+nevertheless there are good fish in it, as we have seen many of two and
+three pounds weight, that they have caught in the nets.
+
+  [Illustration: Greenshank]
+
+
+_July 29._--A friend of ours began the opening chapter of his virgin
+novel with the words ‘It was a thoroughly cussèd morning towards the
+latter end of July.’ The same applied exactly to this morning: but the
+arrival of Jens encouraged us; and Esau walked outside to look at the
+sky; where, thrusting his hands in his pockets and lodging an eye-glass
+in his eye, he focussed the heavens generally, with a cruel, inquisitive
+stare; and shaking his head knowingly, indulged in a prophecy concerning
+the weather--‘that the wind now being in the west, there would be
+continuous sunshine for three weeks at least.’ Then he walked in again,
+and we all shivered over the fire.
+
+Jens arrived at breakfast-time, and after greetings had been exchanged,
+reported all his achievements on our behalf. He had secured for us a
+stalker, one Öla, a hewer of wood and drawer of water, by name Ivar (his
+last office seems likely to be a sinecure, but we can work him double at
+the first-mentioned employment), a horse, and a sack of potatoes; all of
+which will arrive at Memurudalen in time for August 1. We hoped for a
+dog for Ryper, but he had not been able to get one.
+
+  [Illustration: Ring Dotterel]
+
+Esau is always bemoaning the law which prohibits him bringing dogs from
+England; it is suspected that he has a large collection of useless
+animals there, that he wishes to import into Norway and sell to the
+guileless and unreflecting native. Unassisted by any of the canine
+tribe, however, we have now accumulated what we call ‘a good larder of
+bird-meat;’ for certain wild fowl were observed to-day to secrete
+themselves in the marsh at the head of the lake, whither we followed
+them with all our dread artillery, and we now have a lot of teal,
+greenshanks, sandpipers, and a ring dotterel stowed away and engaged in
+preparing themselves by decomposition for our consumption. Some of these
+birds are almost unknown to the table of the ordinary Briton; but if he
+will consider that our daily food depends entirely on what we shoot or
+catch, we hope, as the writers of books say, ‘the kind reader will
+excuse’ the sandpipers and dotterel.
+
+We were wet through on the marsh, and not at all sorry to return to a
+comfortable fire in a warm room, instead of the streaming sides of a
+cold and cheerless tent. Shooting as we did above our knees in water,
+the rain did not make any appreciable difference in our great wetness.
+After the point of saturation is past, we have discovered that the human
+frame is as impervious to moisture (external) as a macintosh.
+
+This summer so far has been remarkably wet and cold for Norway, but we
+have now the inexpressible consolation of knowing that they are in worse
+case at home; for we have received our first batch of letters and papers
+from England, which have been a fortnight _en route_.
+
+
+_July 30._--Prophets are without honour in these parts; they are also
+without truth, honesty, or any good quality or proper feeling. This day
+is worse than usual, and the good people here have been going about with
+blanched cheeks, whispering with bated breath of a great flood which
+occurred in the time of one Noah. We spent all the morning trying to
+teach the cows, goats, and poultry to walk two and two in case of any
+emergency arising, and the Skipper--who was engaged in building what he
+called a Nark--was repeatedly coming into the Sæter to ask how many
+yards there were in a cubit. However, at lunch-time the land was still
+visible, so we sallied forth into the marsh again, and secured some more
+teal; and then Esau went off in his canoe after some scaup ducks on the
+lake; and brought home two, after following them--according to his
+after-dinner account of the struggle--for about six hours, while they
+swam, and flew, and dived; and he paddled, and swore, and shot. They
+appear to have roamed over the whole extent of this vast lake, seeking
+safety from his unerring barrels. And he now points to a little hill,
+far below the distant horizon, beneath which he affirms that he brought
+the last victim to bay and slew him. He was absent on the expedition an
+hour and a quarter; a canoe will go about five miles an hour; and the
+lake is seven miles long. But we did not come out here to do arithmetic.
+
+  [Illustration: Scaup]
+
+We settled not to go to Gjendin ourselves to-day, as the weather was so
+very unfavourable, but we packed and despatched some of our luggage this
+evening, and purpose following it to-morrow.
+
+Before doing this we had a long interview with Jens Tronhūus, with the
+main object of settling all accounts. Now a long interview between three
+men who cannot speak two words of each other’s languages is a somewhat
+intricate business, and would be decidedly amusing to beholders. How we
+got through it is beyond the wit of man, but nevertheless the fact
+remains that everything is beautifully arranged; we thoroughly
+understand each other; both sides are satisfied; and we concluded
+everything without the aid of that potent mediator, Whisky, the Great
+and Good.
+
+Besse Sæter grows upon one: the people are all so simple and kind, and
+cook our food so well, that we shall be quite sorry to leave, even
+though trout and reindeer are in prospect.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+GJENDIN.
+
+
+_July 31._--The morning appeared rather fine, so we packed the rest of
+our baggage, and climbed the track which leads over the shoulder of the
+mountain between Sjödals Vand and Gjendin (pronounced ‘yendin’). It is
+rather steep, but nothing approaching the villany of the tracks near
+Sikkildals Sæter, so the transit did not take long, and we got to
+Gjendesheim about twelve o’clock.
+
+Gjendesheim is a very good two-storied wooden building, with a large
+dining-room, and about eight tiny cupboards of bedrooms; it has been
+erected just where the Sjoa River runs out at the eastern extremity of
+the lake, for the benefit of travellers, who can get food and lodging of
+a sort there, and generally boats to take them up the lake. Ragnild--the
+woman who presides over it--is very nice, kind, and attentive, and talks
+English well. Her latter qualification hardly gets fair play, as not
+many English people come here; and indeed the Norwegians who visit the
+lake are not very numerous. From the book we can only see two English
+names before us this year; and yet Gjendin is perhaps the most
+beautiful, certainly the wildest and grandest lake in Norway, and is
+well worth a visit from any tourist who has time at his disposal.
+
+  [Illustration: Our first View of Gjendin Lake]
+
+It is eleven miles long; very deep; very blue, and on all sides rising
+sheer out of the water for from 1,000 to 4,000 feet are vast black
+mountains with snow-clad summits; for it lies in the very heart of the
+highest mountains in Norway. It may not unfairly be likened to an
+unfrequented and awfully desolate Lake of Lucerne.
+
+At 3,200 feet altitude it is of course above the fir trees, and only in
+a few sunny nooks along its sides can even stunted birches, juniper, and
+willow earn a precarious living. It is at these places alone that there
+is any exit from the lake; for along the greater part of its length
+there is no level place large enough to pitch a tent; no vegetation
+except berries and moss; and no possibility of scaling the frowning
+cliffs by which it is surrounded. But there is a great fascination in
+such a scene; and although its first appearance is almost repellent,
+every moment of gazing seems to increase its beauty and awe-inspiring
+grandeur.
+
+At lunch here a great event happened; we had Salon öl (bottled beer),
+and immediately bought the whole remaining stock, consisting of six
+bottles. These we degraded by packing with the inferior baggage in the
+canoes, and commenced the final stage of our journey, or
+voyage--whichever is the right term.
+
+About two miles from Gjendesheim, on the south shore, we came to a
+waterfall which runs out of a small lake lying a short distance away up
+in the valley. At the mouth of this fall was a small neat hut in which a
+Christiania professor had just taken up his abode for a few days’
+stalking; we stopped a few minutes to talk to him, and then paddled on,
+trying a few casts now and then until we came to Memurudalen--our
+intended camp.
+
+It is about halfway up the lake on the north shore, and is a very pretty
+little valley, profusely supplied with edible berries, surrounded by
+thick birch covert, and with more grass than we ever expected to find at
+this altitude; but it is by far the most favourably situated bit of the
+Gjendin shores, as it is sheltered from the cold winds and gets the sun
+all day.
+
+We found a remarkably nice level bit of grass, screened by a rocky bank,
+and with what the Skipper called ‘a brattling brooklet’ in front, about
+two hundred yards from the lake. There we pitched the tent and made
+everything comfortable, but of course we shall not decide whether to
+stay here or not until we have tested its capabilities as reindeer
+ground.
+
+Beyond the purling streamlet, and about thirty yards from our front
+door, the Memurua River goes tearing down, the colour of dirty soap-suds
+from the mud which is ground into it by the mighty Memuru Glacier,
+whence it springs. This glacier is about three miles from us up the
+valley, but not in sight from our tent; in fact, the hills are so steep
+that we are quite shut in, and can see very little except the
+snow-fjelds and peaks just opposite to us across the lake. These peaks
+spring from the highest plateau in Norway, which has an altitude of
+about 6,000 feet, and both the plateau and peaks are almost inaccessible
+to the hunter, as it is a day’s work to climb them, and any one doing so
+would probably have to pass the night on the top. This is annoying, for
+it is a capital place for deer.
+
+An ancient hunter, some years ago, spent a long time in conveying with
+incredible exertions to the top of the central peak, materials out of
+which he constructed a windmill; then he descended and never went near
+the place again, and his windmill scared all the deer away from that
+table-land, so that they frequented places where a man could get to
+them; and the cunning hunter was rewarded by many ‘stor bocks’ (big
+bucks). But now the windmill has been destroyed by time and weather, and
+we fear that the deer again roam there unmolested and unscared.
+
+_Sunday, August 1._--It is our custom to rise on this day singing,
+‘Come, rouse ye, then, my merry, merry men, for it is our opening day,’
+but on this occasion it would not have been appropriate. We were not at
+all merry, because it was Sunday, and raining; we were frozen in the
+night, our men and potatoes have not come, and altogether we could see
+nothing to be merry about, especially as the opening day having fallen
+on a Sunday, we did not feel justified in going out to pursue.
+
+So we devoted ourselves to the pleasures of the table. Last night we had
+dotterel and sandpipers for dinner, this morning greenshanks, which are
+very good birds indeed. There was also a large brew of a meritorious
+composition known as Skoggaggany soup; the name is a little difficult to
+pronounce, but the soup does not taste anything like it; it is merely
+the Norwegian for a scaup duck. In England people have been known to
+call scaups unfit for food, but here, under the perfectly awful
+appetites that we have developed, the Skoggaggany soup has very little
+chance.
+
+After trying unsuccessfully to catch fish, we walked up the valley after
+lunch to look for a hut which is marked on the Ordnance map, and to see
+if there were any better camping-ground than the place we chose
+yesterday. We saw some beautiful reindeer ground, but could not find the
+hut or a camp.
+
+  [Illustration: Two of our Retainers: Ivar and his Pony]
+
+On our return we perceived two men loafing about the tent, who we
+naturally concluded were thieves and murderers, and the Skipper hurried
+on to do battle with them to the death for the possession of our
+greatest treasure, the Salon öl. But on his arrival the robbers did not
+fly, but stood and stared with their hands in their pockets; so he
+lifted his hat and said, ‘Öla?’ (for of course he might have been a Dook
+in disguise); and one of them replied, ‘Ja;’ and cordiality being thus
+established, produced the sack of potatoes and the cook, like a
+conjuring trick, from somewhere behind him, out of his hat or coat
+tails.
+
+Then we went into all kinds of details with him about his and Ivar’s
+wages, which he did not understand, and he replied at great length in
+Norsk, which we did not understand, and so the interview concluded to
+the gratification of all concerned. Öla is a big good-looking man,
+rather too much of a gentleman, we fear: but Ivar is without doubt a
+perfect ass, and will never be able to do anything in the way of
+cookery, except perhaps boil a potato, and even in that enterprise we
+consider it would be six to four on the potato.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE CAMP.
+
+
+_August 2._--The Skipper won the toss (he always does, chiefly because
+the device on Norwegian coins is ‘sorter indifferent like,’ and when
+Esau has called heads or tails, he looks at it carefully, and gravely
+declares it to be the opposite), and was away eight hours wandering
+about the mountains without seeing a living creature except two
+buzzards, and hardly any ‘spoor.’ He returned to camp very tired and
+rather cross, to find a delicious meal nearly ready cooked by Esau, for
+the man whom we ironically call the cook has gone to fetch his horse,
+for which we are to pay 1s. 2d. a day as long as we have it. The cook’s
+wages are to be 2s. 4d. a day, and those of the stalker 3s. 6d. We
+consider the latter cheap at that rate. He is a very tall man; very big,
+very heavy, and very bearded, and we hire the whole of him for the
+trifling sum above stated.
+
+Besides cooking the dinner, Esau had been employed in rigging up the
+waggon-sheet as a continuation of the sleeping tent by planting an
+upright pole securely in the ground in front of the door, and connecting
+its top with the old tent by a birch tree ridge pole: it thus makes a
+very convenient place for all our large stores, and gives us much more
+room in the tent. We had expected the men to sleep in it, but they
+prefer living in a wretched little stone dog-kennel, which looks as if
+fleas would swarm in it, and has been built by drovers, or some other
+dirty people, for their lodging when they chance to come here: it is
+about 200 yards from our tent, and, as the men prefer it, it is very
+convenient for us.
+
+The ground that the Skipper tried to-day seemed a first-rate reindeer
+fjeld; this means an uneven tract of mountain country, too high for
+vegetation, except occasional reindeer flowers and patches of gentian,
+but not high enough to be entirely covered with perpetual snow: this
+fjeld--where it is not snow--is made of rocks large and small, from the
+size of a haystack to that of road metal, some of them firm, but mostly
+loose, jagged, and sharp; the winter snow and frost leave them in this
+condition by continually splitting and re-splitting them: they are dark
+grey in colour, and at a distance look almost black.
+
+What the reindeer can find attractive in such a place, possibly some one
+can tell; we cannot. There is apparently nothing for any beasts of the
+field to eat up there; but if you do happen to find deer before they see
+you, they are certain to be feeding, and Esau thinks they are eating the
+rocks; but the Skipper says it cannot be so, and inclines more to the
+theory that they feed on their ‘young,’ like tame rabbits, or possibly
+on their own blood, like the pelican of the wilderness. As for the
+reindeer flower, which is supposed to be their staff of life, it
+averages about half a stalk to the square acre, but possibly it is
+possessed of many highly nutritious qualities, and a little of it goes a
+long way. Anyhow, they thrive on their food, whatever it may be; they
+are always very fat, and uncommonly good to eat when you chance to slay
+one.
+
+After dinner we tried all this portion of the lake for fish without
+success, and coming back received the awful intelligence from Öla that
+there are no fish in any parts of Gjendin except the extreme ends, and
+the waterfall where Professor N---- is living. This is a dreadful blow
+to us, for we always count upon fishing as our main employment, and fish
+as our staple food; and if we cannot get any here we shall have to
+leave. At present we have some which we brought with us from Sjödals,
+but when they are exhausted there will be a mutiny in this camp unless
+sport of some kind presents itself.
+
+
+_August 3._--A curious accident happened to-day; there was no rain. We
+have in vain tried to account for this phenomenon, and can only fall
+back on the somewhat unsatisfactory theory that it is all used up. Esau
+went after deer on the Rus Vand side, and came back very tired to dinner
+without having seen any, but reported fresh tracks; he was full of the
+glorious view that the fine day had given him. He had been close above
+the Memuru Glacier, which is a very large one, and stretching beyond it
+as far as the eye can reach is a sea of snow mountains, most of them
+peak-shaped, but some domes or irregular precipices with immense
+glaciers lying between them, and here and there the greenish-blue waters
+of a lake distantly gleaming in the sunlight.
+
+It is curious to note how the north and east sides of every peak are
+torn and ragged, with huge masses of rock riven from them by the action
+of the weather, while on the south and west they are comparatively
+regular.
+
+The Skipper spent the day in camp, completing the erection of the
+outside tent. Our abode is now sumptuous in the extreme, as the new wing
+holds all the lumber which formerly blocked up our bedroom. There was
+some discussion as to whether we should call it the ‘Criterion Annexe,’
+until we remembered that there are always policemen about that
+celebrated building, and this decided us not to do so.
+
+
+_August 4._--The Skipper went on to Bes Hö stalking. This is a high
+mountain 7,400 feet above sea level. It is close to us, between Gjendin
+and Rus Vand, and is one of the dome-shaped species.
+
+The Norwegians call their mountains either ‘Tind,’ which means a cone,
+or ‘Hö,’ a round top; ‘Piggen,’ a peak rather more jagged than a Tind;
+‘Horn,’ apparently one steep side and one more gradual; and ‘Kampen,’
+apparently a rough hill with nothing striking about its shape. Most of
+the mountains round here are Tinden, the finest being Memurutind,
+Skagastolstind, and Glitretind, the last over 8,000 feet, only surpassed
+in height by Galdopiggen, which, though in sight of us, is beyond our
+reach.
+
+  [Illustration: The Skipper returns to Camp disgusted with life]
+
+From Bes Hö the Skipper got a good view between the storms of Gjendin
+lying encircled by its enormous steep black banks of snow-capped
+mountains, the whole of its eleven miles of length being visible at
+once. Its colour is a creamy greenish blue, caused by the snow-water
+which comes straight into the lake by scores of torrents, which collect
+it from the various glaciers. The Skipper, who is always bubbling over
+with poetic similes, said it looked like a cupful of very blue milk in a
+crease of brown paper; but, beautiful as this idea is, who can take any
+pleasure in scenery without a little, ever so little, sport to flavour
+it withal? Certainly not the Skipper; so he came back from his long
+tramp disgusted with life, and longing to find that Esau had played the
+fool in his absence, so that he might be able to pick a quarrel with
+him. Unfortunately Esau was provokingly amiable, and had been performing
+acts of virtue, such as making soup, improving the tent, and swearing at
+the cook the whole day, so that the seething volcano of the Skipper’s
+temper had to content itself without an eruption. We did manage to get
+up an approach to a row about the Memuru Glacier, which the Skipper had
+visited to-day: he described its beauty and the extraordinary blue of
+the ice, where the large crevasses near its lower end gave glimpses of
+its real formation--for of course it is covered thickly with snow except
+just where it begins to break up. Then he went on to say how curious it
+was to think that this huge mass, covering square miles of ground, is
+always moving onwards, and that no more powerful agent exists for
+altering the arrangement of the earth’s crust than that cold, placid
+field of ice. Esau said it did _not_ move. He watched it for half an
+hour yesterday and it never stirred, and he even pushed it with his
+stick without the smallest effect.
+
+It is impossible to argue with a man of that kind.
+
+Tyndall and Geikie being disposed of, we had a discussion in the tent
+over the map, with the result that we determined to leave the camp for
+four days in charge of Ivar; and we and Öla would go to Gjendesheim, and
+live there, and drink beer, and catch fish until the 8th, when we
+calculated that John ought to arrive; and we hope by that time some
+reindeer will have sought safety from other guns by flying to the
+sheltering embrace of our fjeld.
+
+We always do our baking just before bedtime, when the men have gone to
+their hutch, and in a permanent camp it soon gets reduced to a
+certainty. We prefer milk to water for mixing with the flour, as it
+makes the bread crisper and shorter, and it does not matter how sour the
+milk is. This is most providential, as we have generally plenty of sour
+milk. We send twice a week to Besse Sæter, distant about eight miles,
+and the long journey does not agree with the milk, so that it is
+generally turned before it arrives here.
+
+Another important article of food is soup, of which we have several
+varieties. When made of scaup duck, it is--as already mentioned--called
+Skoggaggany soup; but our present brew is ‘gipsy soup,’ which is made
+from potatoes, fishes chopped into small lumps, a square of ‘Kopf’s
+compressed vegetables’--a most invaluable article--and all the bones
+from the birds that we happen to be using. We never empty the pot, but
+keep adding water and bones as fast as we consume it, and it simmers by
+the fire all day. But when times are very bad, and we have no meat, and
+are living on fish, our soup is then called ‘prairie soup,’ and is
+composed of every scrap that we can collect--fish-bones; bacon;
+potatoes; milk; dandelion, and sorrel; bread, and biscuits: and whenever
+it develops any unusual flavour, we look suspiciously round to see if
+that boot-lace or candle-end is missing, or if any of the tent-pegs have
+been newly whittled. It is always very good, and we call it ‘prairie’
+because of the dandelion, which is a prairie flower.
+
+There is yet one more kind, known as ‘Argonaut soup,’ the recipe of
+which was introduced from America by the Skipper; but our resources have
+never yet been so low that we could not make something better than this.
+
+_Recipe for Argonaut Soup._
+
+Take a pail of water and wash it clean. Then boil it till it is brown on
+both sides. Pour in one bean. When the bean begins to worry, prepare it
+to simmer. If the soup will not simmer it is too rich, and you must pour
+in more water. Dry the water with a towel before you put it in. The
+drier the water, the sooner it will brown. Serve hot.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+GJENDESHEIM.
+
+
+_August 5._--Such a lovely morning at last that we were quite tempted to
+stay, but nobly stuck to our resolve, heaped everything we possessed
+except rods, guns, and a change of raiment, into the inner tent, and
+covered them with a ground-sheet; then packed the selected weapons into
+the canoes, and sailed from these inhospitable shores.
+
+Not far from camp we saw some fish rising under a cliff, and though it
+was a dead calm, and the sun as bright as sun could be, we stopped to
+try for them.
+
+Esau soon tired of casting, and mentioning that ‘if _he_ could not catch
+those fish no one could,’ paddled off to make a formal call on the
+Professor, and ask if he had got any deer.
+
+The Skipper persevered, and was rewarded with two fish weighing about
+three pounds, and the most perfect fish for shape and condition that we
+have ever seen. This was an important event for us, for it entirely
+demolished Öla’s theory of the non-existence of fish here, and gave us
+new hope for the future, especially as the weather has been so bad all
+the time until now, that we should hardly have caught any even if they
+swarmed.
+
+  [Illustration: Throwing for a Rise]
+
+The Skipper is devoted to the sport of ‘throwing for a rise,’ which he
+thinks the perfection of fishing. It can hardly be pursued with success
+anywhere but in Norway, for only there do fish seem to rise greedily
+after a constant succession of fine, hot, sunny days, with never a drop
+of rain or cat’s-paw of wind.
+
+The great charm to him is the extreme delicacy required. You _must_ put
+on your thinnest cast, your smallest fly, and throw your lightest; and
+unless you throw a very long line you have not a chance for the beggar.
+Then, if he comes at you, you can see him through the calm clear water,
+and watch the whole performance. You get a rather better chance where
+two fish are rising close together, as there is some jealousy and
+competition between them, and each of them is likely to rush at your fly
+without sufficient meditation, lest the other one may get it first.
+
+The Skipper has studied fish from a moral point of view, and says that
+they are very much like men: and he invariably turns his knowledge of
+their habits to good account. Throwing for a rise--in a lake like this,
+where the fish run large--on a calm bright day is decidedly his forte;
+his motto in fishing being ‘far and fine.’ Whereas Esau shines more in a
+rapid stream than elsewhere.
+
+The latter had a great time with the Professor, who he said was a
+capital fellow, and gave him whisky which they drank ‘to better sport;’
+and they both agreed that there were no reindeer to be found in the
+district at present, and the Professor said he was going further north
+if matters did not mend speedily.
+
+After the fishing and visiting were concluded, we hoisted sails of
+primitive construction, formed of a rug and a landing net, which, with a
+fair wind, soon brought us to Gjendesheim.
+
+We think this wind is the chief cause of our misfortune. When we were in
+these parts before, the wind was always against us whenever we
+journeyed; and in that year we had first-rate sport, both in shooting
+and fishing. But this time the wind has always been with us, and we pay
+for the luxury by getting no shooting and not much fishing. ‘No
+mahtterr--a time will come.’
+
+After food the Skipper with Öla went over to Leirungen--a small lake
+about three quarters of a mile distant. Öla carried his canoe, and did
+not like the job. It gives us considerable satisfaction to make Öla do
+any work, he is so abominably lazy.
+
+It seemed that the tide of luck was already changing, as both he and
+Esau--who was throwing a fly on the river nearer home--brought in a few
+nice fish.
+
+Just before bedtime there arrived at the rest-house three Norwegian
+tourists of the sterner sex, and a young lady the daughter of one of
+them. The father was a barrister, and the other two were the Lord Chief
+Justice of what they imagine to be Common Pleas, and a very thin,
+dried-up student of theology. They all talked English, and the young
+lady seemed anxious to practise the language.
+
+
+_August 6._--After a gay breakfast Esau went his way to fish, while the
+Skipper--ever devoted to the fair sex--offered Miss Louise a cruise in
+his canoe.
+
+The sun shone brightly as they moved over the quiet waters, and the fish
+were too lazy to rise, but lay idly thoughtful at the bottom of the
+lake. The Skipper was very polite to his charming companion, as she sat
+in a state of blissful comfort amongst the rugs which he had placed for
+her in the bows of the boat; and no sound was heard but the gentle plash
+of the paddle in the water, and in the distance the Sæter girl calling
+home the grazing cows.
+
+  [Illustration: The Skipper takes Miss Louise for a Cruise at
+  Gjendesheim]
+
+But presently a cloud gathered over the mountain tops, and thunder was
+heard rolling among the distant hills; a gentle breeze stirred the
+surface of the water, and every lazy fish woke up to seek his food. The
+Skipper longed to go and fetch his rod. He hinted at this, and at last
+became impatient; but, by Jove! Miss Louise would not go. There she sat
+and prattled on, charming, pleased with herself, and utterly unmindful
+of the rising fish and the fretting Skipper. Time kept passing on, till
+at length her father brought relief by appearing on the shore to call
+her in to dinner; but then the Skipper had to get his food too, and when
+he had bolted the humble but indigestible crust and cheese, and rushed
+out again to seize his rod, he found it too late, as the lake was now
+dark with clouds, and the fish had left off rising.
+
+Soon after lunch it began to rain like a waterfall, and Esau arrived
+with a lot of fish--spoils from the Leirungen Ocean, and the result of
+Spartan indifference to the attractions of woman. There is a shining
+moral in this tale.
+
+He also brought a romance about a rainbow, which had been so close to
+him that the two ends met at his feet. The rain hereabouts is very
+thick.
+
+The evening proved too wet to fish, and this indefatigable young lady
+captured Esau, and after exhausting all the ordinary topics of
+conversation, began to show him every kind of puzzle that the mind of
+man ever conceived, puzzles with coins and puzzles with string; and she
+puzzled him with matches, and paper, and corks, till the poor young man
+became perfectly dazzled, and only longed for bedtime to put an end to
+his misery. Then she asked him riddles, first English and then French.
+The Skipper, apparently deeply interested in a book at the further end
+of the room, overheard Esau’s answer to the first French riddle; it was
+‘Je le donne en haut.’
+
+Presently, when they went up to bed, the Skipper said, ‘I didn’t quite
+follow your answer to that first riddle of hers. You said, “Je le donne
+en haut.”’ ‘Oh! ah!’ answered Esau. ‘That’s idiomatic French, and means
+a good deal that you don’t understand; I always use it to gals,
+especially when they’re pretty.’ The Skipper coughed, and turned into
+his bedroom without saying ‘good night.’
+
+We have always been told that the Norwegian aristocracy particularly
+dislike the English sportsman in Norway. We think, therefore, that our
+fair friend cannot have been of very noble lineage. But she was very
+nice and rather pretty.
+
+She left early next morning, and Esau said he was glad she was gone, as
+the Skipper was getting entangled with her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+JOHN.
+
+
+_August 7._--We began another day by catching a beautiful bag of fish,
+and about midday were just starting to shoot our way over to Besse
+Sæter, when a man came in sight stumbling down the mountain track
+towards the rest-house. He was red and sunburnt, with a beard of about
+three days’ growth. He was coatless, collarless, and apparently
+exhausted. On his nearer approach we saw he was an Englishman, and
+presently when a few yards from us we recognised--John! Not the smart
+young beau we have always seen him in London; no longer the devotee to
+society and his club, but an almost unrecognizable John, so sunburnt and
+hot and hungry. Formal greetings were exchanged: ‘Dr. Livingstone,
+I presume?’ ‘Mr. Stanley, I believe?’ and we rushed into each other’s
+embrace.
+
+Then we besought him to refresh himself on fladbrod, milk, and coffee;
+which he did, largely. After this he became calm enough to give us a
+brief summary of his adventures since he left England.
+
+He had done the journey from Christiania in very quick time, and had
+left all his luggage twenty miles behind at Hind Sæter, which is the
+nearest place to us to which wheeled vehicles can get. From thence he
+had started at five o’clock this morning. How he found the way is a
+marvel, but by great good fortune he met a man when he was about three
+miles out of the track, who put him right; otherwise he would probably
+never have arrived anywhere.
+
+He has brought additional stores for the camp, as arranged before we
+left England, and we had left a note in Christiania asking him to call
+at the shop in Vaage, and try to get a small stove for the tent, or at
+any rate find out the price of one. Vaage is our nearest village, about
+fifty miles distant.
+
+When John arrived there, seeing the shop as he drove past, he descended
+from his cariole and entered. The shop was full of people buying all the
+necessaries of life; for in these villages there is only one shop, which
+is a general store for everything. John was a little confused at his
+first experience of a Norwegian shop, but at last pulled himself
+together, and seeing a stove standing in the middle of the room,
+intended for heating the place, he walked up to it, and stroking it
+gently with his hand, looked round at the people generally and remarked,
+‘Hvor meget’ (How much)? Dead silence not unmingled with awe followed
+this observation; for those simple rustics thought there was a maniac
+among them. This perplexed John, and as everybody was staring at him,
+and he began to find himself in a remarkably tight place, he concluded
+to make another remark, so asked in Norsk, ‘Have you any whisky?’ The
+storekeeper having no licence looked horrified, and said, ‘Nei.’ So John
+pursued his advantage by inquiring, ‘Have you any aquavit?’ ‘Nei’ was
+again the answer, and an ominous whisper of ‘landsmand’ (the policeman)
+was plainly audible. John thought he had asked enough about stoves to
+quiet his conscience, and guessed it was time to quit that shop. So
+rapidly regaining his cariole, he vanished before any of the crowd had
+made up their minds what to do.
+
+We kept to our plan of going to Besse Sæter, starting as soon as John
+had finished his lunch, and got several teal and a greenshank on the
+way. On one little bit of water we spied three teal near the bank, and
+having both together made a most skilful stalk, got them all.
+
+Arriving at Besse Sæter we found one of the two rooms occupied by two
+Swedish ladies, who were travelling about by themselves for the sake of
+their health. One of them spoke English well, and told us they had been
+up several of the high mountains round, and intended to wander about all
+the summer.
+
+We three had to be content with the other room, and two beds; odd man
+out for the whole one. Those who only had half a bed reported it rather
+a crowd in the morning.
+
+_Sunday, August 8._--Our object in coming to Besse Sæter was to break
+the journey to a place called Rus Vand, where a Norwegian owns a lake
+and hut: it is distant about two hours’ walk from Besse Sæter, and we
+had a letter of introduction to Mr. Thomas, the owner, which we were
+anxious to deliver, so as to obtain leave to fish in the lake, the
+western end of which comes to within walking distance of our camp in
+Memurudalen; and the fishing is remarkably good.
+
+Therefore this morning we started to clamber up the steep mountain side
+that has to be crossed between Besse Sæter and Rus Vand, and skirting
+the shores of Bes Vand--which lies on a small plateau at the summit--we
+soon found ourselves scrambling down over the loose stones, and through
+the willow scrub that covers the uneven slopes approaching the east end
+of the lake.
+
+From our side of the river--when we reached its banks, while a boat was
+crossing to fetch us--we saw several men, and a couple of
+English-looking setters, a pointer, and a target fixed up about 200
+yards from the huts, so that the place presented a very sporting
+appearance.
+
+Mr. Thomas received us very kindly, and at once gave us permission to
+fish in his lake. Both he and his wife spoke English perfectly, as did
+another lady staying with them, and as most emphatically did _not_
+another sportsman also living there.
+
+These two ladies and two gentlemen were all living in a little
+two-roomed hut, each room being about nine feet square, and the doorway
+about five feet high and two wide; the gentlemen’s bedroom being also
+the kitchen. How the ladies managed to turn themselves out in such
+faultless apparel was a mystery, but it was done, for we saw it.
+
+  [Illustration: The Huts at Rusvasoset]
+
+It is a very plucky thing for ladies to come up here and live for a
+month, even now when there is a wheel-road (of a sort) to within fifteen
+miles, but the same thing was done by English ladies ten years ago, when
+there was no road nearer than forty miles. Are their names not written
+in the chronicles which adorn the walls of the hut, and carved on the
+profile fishes which decorate the floor?
+
+In the other hut--which is little more than a boat--there are living
+Jens Tronhūus, our old stalker; ‘Siva,’ the man who carried our canoes
+up the mountain at Sikkildal, and another native, also the dogs; besides
+bottles and churns, grindstones, pack-saddles, saws, axes, and all the
+other heterogeneous articles which accumulate in a place of this kind.
+It looked full.
+
+We found the party just sitting down to breakfast after a rather
+unsettled night, as they had been roused about half-past two in the
+morning by some one hammering at the door, and found it was a young
+Norwegian, named, let us say, Coutts, who was making a walking tour, and
+was more or less lost. They succoured him with coffee and other
+refreshments and sent him on his way with Jens to guide him. Coutts’s
+intention was to struggle on to Besse Sæter, but we had seen nothing of
+him there.
+
+We stayed some time at the huts, talking and looking at all the
+memorable objects that were there under our _régime_ (as we had occupied
+these huts and had the fishing to ourselves two years previously). There
+was Esau’s celebrated ‘biggest trout whatever was seen,’ carved on the
+floor; the Skipper’s favourite cast, and the ice safe that we cunningly
+devised and constructed in the lower hut. The Thomas’s are in even worse
+case than we, for like us they have seen no deer, and they have so many
+more mouths to feed. However, they have any quantity of fish, for
+Rusvasoset is as good a place as the Sjoa at Gjendesheim, which is
+saying a great deal.
+
+About one we commenced the homeward journey. Two of Jens’ sisters had
+come with us, nominally to see their brother, but really--John
+asserted--for the purpose of flirting with _him_. He was extremely
+polite to one of them--though of course he could not speak to her--and
+would insist on carrying her shawl and other impediments; and he
+confided to us afterwards that ‘women were generally a good deal taken
+by that sort of mute homage.’ She was a dear little girl, and we called
+her the ‘Sæter darlen;’ which we believe to be the only Norwegian pun we
+ever attempted.[*]
+
+    [Footnote: John said this pun might be elucidated with advantage
+    to the British public, as he did not believe any one could
+    possibly see it. Who cares? Down it goes, and we can assure any
+    one who likes to wrestle with it that it is something very good
+    indeed.]
+
+The walk home to Gjendesheim is a long one, and although it was Sunday
+Esau insisted on making a détour over the marsh with his gun, as he said
+he had lost his knife there yesterday and wanted to look for it. He
+arrived late at Gjendesheim with a satisfied air on his face; without
+his trusty steel, but with his pockets thrust full of too trustful teal,
+that had adventured themselves within his reach.
+
+At Gjendesheim we found the young Norwegian who had roused up the
+Thomas’s at Rus Vand, and perceived that he was not without some
+peculiarities of character. Although the weather was as wet and cold as
+weather could be, he was attired in a suit of white duck clothes like an
+English mechanic; even his hat was of white duck, and Esau declared
+afterwards that his boots were made of the same material; that he had a
+cigar-case and cigars of it, and ordered white ducks for his dinner. The
+appearance of his head caused us to be very anxious about any little
+articles of value that we had about us, for it looked as if it had been
+shaved all over about two days previously to our making his
+acquaintance. He looked very strong, tough, and active, and no doubt was
+so, for he had just performed a most extraordinary walking feat. He is
+going over all the Jotun Mountains by himself, and yesterday morning he
+started from a place an unknown number of miles away at 6 A.M. He walked
+all day and all night, till it got dark, at which time he was somewhere
+near Glitretind, in a country he had never seen, with only a vague
+notion of where he wanted to get to and a pocket compass to do it with.
+The country about there is perfectly awful to walk over even by day; but
+he kept at it through the dark, following a torrent up till he crossed
+the watershed, and following another torrent down till he got to Rus
+Vand, and staggered into the hut there at 2.30 A.M. almost fainting, for
+he had had nothing to eat all day: true, he might have got fladbrod at
+the sæters during the day, but he said he did not care for fladbrod:
+certainly, he had plenty of chocolate in his knapsack, but he was tired
+of chocolate. At Rus Vand he got some coffee, as Thomas told us; and
+then he walked over the mountain with Jens to Besse Sæter, intending to
+sleep there: but we were snoring at our ease in all the beds of Besse
+Sæter, and he hated sleeping on floors, so he walked on again to
+Gjendesheim, arriving there at half-past five this morning.
+
+Then he produced his knapsack, which he said weighed twenty-five lbs.:
+it seemed to be chiefly filled with packets of most delicious chocolate,
+some of which he gave us.
+
+We thought him a first-rate fellow, but certainly a little peculiar.
+He has been all over the world, and is great at natural history, having
+stuffed many birds in foreign countries for the museum at Christiania.
+
+The Skipper had the next room to his, and told us that at bedtime he
+washed himself all over, cleaned his teeth, and brushed his hair: he
+then stayed in bed till eleven o’clock next morning, when he rose and
+went through the whole performance again. Now we did not mind him
+washing, or brushing his teeth; we even respect him for doing it; but
+brushing his hair was a simple insult to common sense, and a wicked
+waste of time; for not a bristle on his head--whether hair, moustache,
+or beard--was more than an eighth of an inch long, and all of it was
+much stiffer than any hair-brush yet made. It was suggested that perhaps
+he was only combing his hair-brush with his head; and with this
+explanation we had to rest content.
+
+We luxuriated on meat to-night, for they have actually caught and killed
+a sheep.
+
+We fish with considerable success now at every odd moment of the day, as
+the canoes are moored to the shore, not six yards from the house; and it
+takes no time to get into them and push out into the deep lake, or hover
+about the brink of the long rapids where the lake begins to be a river.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+BACK TO CAMP.
+
+
+_August 9._--The morning was again very wet, but we are men of great
+decision and firmness; what our friends call ‘obstinate’ if they are
+civil, and ‘pig-headed’ when they want to be disagreeable, as friends
+usually do.
+
+Therefore we started for the camp after lunch: that is to say, the
+Skipper and Esau started, as John remained to await the arrival of his
+baggage, for which Ivar had been despatched. At present his wardrobe is
+not very extensive, and he will perhaps be more comfortably fixed after
+the arrival of his valise. He has one coat, one flannel shirt without
+collar, one pair of trousers, socks, and boots, one pipe, one cap; one
+fishing rod, line, and fly-book; one watch-chain, and a newspaper of
+July 23.
+
+About two miles from Gjendesheim on the north side of the lake there is
+an apparently perpendicular cliff, half a mile long and over 1,000 feet
+high: this is called the Beseggen, and at the top of it lies Bes Vand,
+so close to the edge of the cliff that it seems impossible to believe
+that the lake is 1,000 feet above Gjendin, with nothing but a narrow
+strip of rock to hold it within its bounds, and yet the books say it is
+so, and we always believe anything we find in a book. The cliff looks
+perfectly unscaleable, but we believe it has been descended twice by an
+Englishman who used to live here, and once by a Norwegian youth.
+
+Bes Vand is so high that fish will not live in it; the professional
+liars of these parts say it freezes solid every winter, and kills any
+that have been put into it. It is a little difficult to believe this
+statement, as it is a large and deep lake; but John says that a man who
+will believe a guide-book can believe anything; so we all do our best to
+swallow it (the statement, not the lake; we have hardly enough whisky to
+make the latter palatable).
+
+Gjendin is liable like all mountain lakes to be suddenly visited by
+squalls, so that we generally like to paddle pretty near the side, but
+on this voyage it was not safe to do so; for under the influence of the
+rain, which was coming down as if it had never done so before, stones
+and boulders were rattling and crashing down the sides of the lake, and
+plunging into it, in a most alarming manner; and as far as we could see,
+the steep black rocks were thickly streaked with white lines, denoting
+torrents rushing down in places where ordinarily none were to be seen.
+
+Just as we were passing the Beseggen, a dull boom like that of a distant
+cannon was heard, and looking up we could see far above our heads a huge
+spout of muddy water shoot out from the cliff, carrying with it masses
+of stone and _débris_ of all sorts; evidently some bank had given way
+under the increased pressure of this enormous rainfall. We thought for
+one brief moment that it might be Bes Vand let loose on us, for even in
+fine weather it can always be seen leaking through fissures in the rock,
+so narrow is the division between the two lakes; but we did not stop to
+ascertain where it came from.
+
+It soon became necessary to land and empty the canoes, by reason of the
+heavy rain, the bottom boards being completely under water, though we
+had only been afloat for half an hour.
+
+Just before we got to Memurudalen the sun came out; Esau had a chase
+after a black-throated diver that came up from a dive quite close to his
+canoe, and then we both fell to fishing and got several good fish. This
+is just our luck: we had left camp for the last few days on purpose to
+get fish for food; we had caught many and salted them, and brought back
+40 lbs. weight with us in a large tin can, and then, behold! we caught
+fresh fish in a place where we were assured by Öla that there were none,
+not even salted ones.
+
+We found the camp looking uncommonly pretty and comfortable, and all our
+things perfectly dry and nice. The sun shone, and blue sky appeared, so
+that hope, contentment, and joy reigned supreme, for we knew that it
+could not rain any more now for at least a month, from the way it
+stopped quite with a jerk as the supply ceased.
+
+John spent his day at Gjendesheim in eating, drinking, and fishing,
+especially the two former amusements. Truly that is a glorious country
+where a man can over-eat himself three times a day, and never have
+indigestion!!
+
+
+_August 10._--Esau stalked with the usual result, ‘Ingen dyr, ingen
+fresk spör, ingen gammle spör,’ as the Norsk jäger would remark; which
+means ‘no deer, no fresh tracks, no old tracks;’ and he returned to camp
+to find the Skipper had erected a flagstaff on the little mound beside
+our tent, and from this staff now floats proudly ‘the flag that braved
+a thousand years &c.,’ which we brought with us for this purpose:
+a smaller one always adorns the ridge of the tent. We do not know
+exactly the use of this flag; we say it is hoisted to annoy the
+Norwegians, but this reason will not bear criticism, for that is the
+last thing we should think of doing, and it certainly never seems to
+have that effect on any one who has yet seen it. But we think that no
+gentleman’s residence is complete without a red ensign, therefore on
+high days and holidays that rag will flaunt itself in the breeze; and
+every day will now be a holiday, for the fine weather has begun at last.
+
+The Skipper had made all sorts of improvements in our domestic
+arrangements, and after tea we completed the alterations in the bedroom
+which were necessary before John arrived. This he did in a boat with
+Ivar about nine o’clock, pretty well tired with his row against a head
+wind. He was received with much kindness by the barbarous islanders, but
+it took us until late at night to get everything comfortably and
+conveniently placed under canvas; for John made no slight addition to
+our already ponderous stores, in the shape of two more boxes containing
+tea, coffee, candles, sugar, jam, and at last Esau’s long-desired
+anchovy paste.
+
+We placed the three beds side by side in the inner tent, John being in
+the middle for the sake of greater warmth, for the nights are very cold.
+Among the things that we obtained through Jens were two sheepskin rugs,
+invaluable for protection against cold. Till we got them we were more or
+less wretched every night, but since they came our sleep has been
+perfectly luxurious. John has only two ordinary Scotch rugs, and feels
+the cold a good deal, so we, from our impervious sheepskins, give him
+any coats, shirts, or trousers that we do not want.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+TROUT.
+
+
+_August 11._--Last night at sunset we ‘could not see a cloud, because no
+cloud was in the sky;’ the distant mountains looked as black as coal,
+and the heavens were yellow-ochre colour; whereupon Öla committed
+himself to the statement that the fine weather would now be a permanent
+institution. Consequently our life has once more resumed its proper
+phase of perpetual picnic, and we roam about without coats or
+waistcoats, or any other garments that seem superfluous unto us; and to
+John all garments except a landing-net and boots appear to be
+unnecessary incumbrances. Reversing the natural order of things, we put
+on all our available clothes when we go to bed, and peel for the day
+when we get up.
+
+It is difficult to believe that only two days ago we were shivering with
+cold, wrapped in gloom and india-rubber clothing, and wet through all
+day, when now the horizon is dancing with heat, the lake is perfectly
+calm, with the high snow mountains mirrored in its blue depths, and we
+are delighting in every little bit of shade, having pawned our
+macintoshes and thrown the tickets into the glacier torrent.
+
+  [Illustration: John returns from fishing in Summer Costume]
+
+That same stream has been a source of great annoyance to John during the
+night. He wants to have it turned off, because its roaring kept him
+awake, and he was going first thing after breakfast to see the turncock
+about it; but, of course, it is hopeless. The municipal arrangements
+here are much the same as in London, and that official cannot be found
+when wanted; so he will have to content himself with damming it.
+
+The hot sun has brought out flies in great profusion; the fish are
+rising freely, and man goeth forth to his labour rejoicing, and cometh
+home with a heavy bag and a light fly-book, for the fish here seem to be
+all good-sized; and as we have to use the finest tackle and smallest
+flies, the odds are rather in favour of the finny prey.
+
+  [Illustration: John and Esau: ‘How’s that for high?’]
+
+We all went fishing, and made a very pretty catch among us, the Skipper
+securing the greatest weight, and Esau the largest fish, weight 3½ lbs.
+The Skipper also made some interesting notes on the moral and physical
+characteristics of these Gjendin trout. He said there seemed to be three
+methods of feeding in vogue among them. Some were moving in a large
+circle about two hundred yards in diameter, and rising at very short
+intervals as they went--these never came within ten yards of the shore.
+Then there were some that were travelling along about a yard from the
+shore, and these seemed to be rising even more frequently than the
+others, as there were more flies close to the rocks than out in
+mid-ocean; and there were a few cunning old beggars that had got a
+comfortable hole under a rock which they did not like to leave, and only
+rose at longer intervals, as especially tasty morsels floated by.
+
+All the fish, to whichever class of risers they might belong, often took
+the moving artificial fly in preference to real dead ones that were
+lying on the surface of the water close by: from which we opine that
+they resemble us to the extent of liking fresh food better than stale;
+for our flies had no attractive tinsel to commend them to the notice of
+an epicurean trout, being the best imitations we can manage of the
+predominant fly, which is a small dark-coloured winged ant, with a
+little reddish orange about the long black body.
+
+These flies have but a brief and disastrous existence. They only flew
+for the first time this morning, most of them had died by noon--for the
+lake was strewn with their corpses--and the survivors were all worried
+and consumed by fish before nightfall. Luckily there are plenty more
+where they came from, and the process can be repeated on new flies
+tomorrow.
+
+It is very interesting to catch a fish off these rocks on a perfectly
+calm day like this; for in the clear water you can see the whole of the
+struggle, from the moment the fish rises till he is lying panting and
+exhausted in the net. How beautiful a big fish looks when he first comes
+ashore! How brightly he shines in the sunlight, and how sleek is his
+portly person!
+
+Even if you cannot see your fish rise and take the fly, you can soon
+tell by his behaviour whereabouts the needle will come if you succeed in
+getting him on to the weighing hook. A large fish very seldom rises with
+any dash or swagger, but just a smothered ripple; perhaps a glimpse of
+his nose as he sucks in the fly; and he moves as if he were a nobody:
+then when he feels the hook, there is none of that dash and wriggle that
+you find in a small fish, but generally a rush like a rocket towards the
+middle of the lake, making you tremble for the safety of your reel line,
+and after that a stately diving and calm, dignified resistance for five
+or ten minutes till he has to give in. Sometimes, though not so often,
+the rocket business will be repeated more than once, and a fish that
+does this deserves to escape, and often gets his deserts. There is
+something very fine about the proud bearing of a big trout in
+difficulties; for here in the lake he has not the same chance as his
+relations in the running water at Gjendesheim.
+
+The largest fish seemed to be those feeding in a circle, and it was one
+of these that Esau caught, which he said was the father of all fish. He
+lost another much larger--no doubt the grandfather of all fish. He said
+it weighed five pounds. It is an extraordinary piscatorial fact that the
+largest fish always do get away.
+
+In the afternoon Esau commenced excavating the long-promised oven from
+the face of the little hill against which our tent is pitched. It stands
+about a hundred yards from our hall door, and is constructed chiefly of
+large stones and mud--clay not being obtainable--with a flue cut in the
+hill-side: a single stone acts as the floor of the oven, under which the
+wood furnace is kindled, and a sod of turf, from time to time renewed,
+does duty as a door.
+
+Dinner at seven.
+
+John wishes that the _menu_ should be occasionally inserted for the
+benefit of gastronomic readers:--
+
+  _Vins._       _Potage._       _Legumes._
+  Tea.          Prairie.        Potatoes,
+  Beer.                         Fried and Boiled.
+                _Poisson._
+                Fried Trout.
+
+                _Entrées._
+                Sardines.
+
+                _Gibier._
+            Teal.  Greenshank.
+
+               _Entremets._
+      Compôte of Rice and Wimberries.
+             Jam.  Marmalade.
+                  Whisky.
+
+After this Esau finished the oven, and accomplished a bake of bread
+therein, which proved so successful that on returning from fishing at
+about ten at night, we all turned our attention to the production of the
+staff of life, nor desisted from our labours till eleven o’clock, by
+which time there was a goodly show of rolls and loaves spread out, and
+we went to bed feeling that we had spent a glorious day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+REINDEER.
+
+
+_August 12._--We wonder whether our friends in Scotland and Yorkshire
+have such a day as this: if they have, it is rough on the grouse.
+
+There is not a breath the bottle-green wave to curl, and the sun shines
+as if Odin had redeemed his other eye.
+
+The Skipper and Öla went forth to pursue, and walked over an enormous
+distance into the previously unknown region of Memurutungen. Up on the
+mountains life on a day of this kind is bliss; there is more air there
+than in the valley, and it is delightful to be far away from the busy
+world--consisting of your two pals and Ivar--below; surrounded by the
+snowy peaks and sky, with not a living thing save perhaps an eagle in
+sight.
+
+  [Illustration: The two ‘Meget Stor Bocks’ (very big Bucks) on
+  Memurutungen]
+
+In the middle of the day they came on fresh deer tracks, at which of
+course their flagging interest revived; and presently they descried on a
+snow fjeld about a mile away, two deer ‘scooting’ over the opposite
+mountain side. These they followed, and made a long détour to get the
+right side of the breath of wind that occasionally made itself felt up
+there, for the reindeer has probably the most acute scent of all the
+deer tribe. In the midst of this détour they suddenly came in sight of
+two other bucks, about 300 yards away, much finer animals than the first
+two; in fact, they had the best heads the Skipper ever saw. But luck was
+against him; they were wrong for the wind, and a puff came just at the
+moment, which carried the unwelcome intelligence to those deer that
+their hated enemy was upon them, and they departed round a corner at a
+rapid trot, and were no more seen. Then Öla looked at the Skipper with a
+sorrowful shake of the head, and said, ‘Meget store bocks!’ (very big
+bucks), and the Skipper replied with a still more portentous shake,
+‘Meget, meget.’ So they were left with their mouths wide open,
+muttering, ‘Meget, meget store bocks.’ And after following the tracks
+some time without seeing anything more of the deer, they gave up the
+chase and returned to camp, getting home in a very exhausted state about
+6.30.
+
+During dinner old Peter Tronhūus arrived in camp with a packet of
+letters and papers, and a fore-quarter of venison from Rus Vand. Mr.
+Thomas had been like ourselves reindeer-less until yesterday, when he
+found a large herd, and was lucky enough to get two out of them.
+
+Peter also told us that two friends of Thomas’s who had been staying
+with him were walking over the mountain to see our camp, and would then
+go to Gjendesheim with him in the boat in which he had come.
+
+Presently these two men arrived extremely hot, and looking as if they
+would like beer; so we appeased them with one of our few remaining
+bottles, and after showing them all the sights of the camp took them out
+on the lake in the canoes. One of them spoke a little English, the other
+only French and Norwegian. The latter asked the Skipper, in the Gallic
+tongue, ‘if we had entrapped many fish?’ and ‘if we had not fear to
+venture on the lake in such small boats?’ and informed him that ‘there
+were many savage ducks about this year.’ The other one, regardless of
+his own life and safety, and also of Esau’s--in whose canoe he was
+sitting--_would_ keep throwing up his arms and exclaiming, ‘It gives us
+moch playsure to make a travel in the Canadian căno.’ But we think they
+were proud and thankful when the experiment was over, and they were safe
+in Peter’s boat. These strangers displayed unwonted courage, for the
+ordinary native has a wholesome dread of our frail craft. The hardy
+Norseman’s house of yore was doubtless on the foaming wave, but that was
+before the days of Canadian canoes.
+
+At dinner John informed the company that his bath in the lake yesterday
+was the third of a series the first of which took place in Montenegro,
+the second in Algiers, and now this in Norway. He calls this a humble
+tribute to the geniality of the English summer, and thinks that he may
+be termed ‘a polyglot ablutionist.’ Some of the sojourners in this camp
+say it may be so, but it does not speak highly for John’s love of water
+when undiluted with whisky.
+
+Subsequently we found that the bath which he swaggered about only
+occurred because he fell off a rock into the lake, and so dabbled about
+afterwards while his clothes were drying, which does not take long in
+this weather. This also accounts for the condition in which he returned
+to camp, ‘sans bags, sans shirt, sans everything,’--barring his boots.
+
+Late at night Esau, who was up last, put his head into the tent to
+remark that there was a first-rate comet on view, but he was received
+with such execrations from the other two lazy people in bed that he
+thought it prudent to say no more about it, and not to look at it any
+more himself.
+
+
+_August 13._--We spent the morning making a meat safe. This meat safe
+consists of a hole in the ground, neatly flagged with flat stones, and
+walled with the same, and furnished at the top with a wooden frame, into
+which fits a lid with hooks underneath it for birds. The whole is
+covered with a piece of muslin to keep off the villanous bluebottles.
+The muslin was brought to make into mosquito nets inside the tent, but
+in this happy spot the ‘skeeter’ is unknown, the sand-fly very rare, and
+the great green-eyed Möge--which bites a lump out of your leg and then
+flies to the nearest tree to eat it--is conspicuous by its absence.
+
+We have always been very careful not to prepare in any way for game
+before it is killed, but this usually successful plan has been a failure
+this year, so now we are desperate, and have made a safe which will hold
+a reindeer, and probably with a little more bad luck shall even go out
+stalking with ropes in our pockets ready to tie up the animal when
+killed. We caught Öla a week ago carving a piece of stick into the
+double-ended thing that butchers put between the legs of sheep to keep
+them apart (name unknown), but we promptly seized it, and made it into
+the handle of a frying-pan. But who can escape his destiny? We hoped
+that we had averted misfortune, but the deed was done, and no doubt it
+was owing to this that the Skipper failed to get a shot at the ‘store
+bocks.’
+
+When John and Esau had finished the safe and succeeded in catching
+enough nice fish for the requirements of the camp, they were seized with
+the desire of making a good bath. We have no first-rate bathing-place
+near the camp, as the glacier-river has made the lake too shallow round
+its mouth, and it is some distance to where the shore becomes bold and
+rocky.
+
+They selected a nice little stream on the hill just above the tent, and
+toiled like navvies there for about four hours under a blazing sun,
+excavating and paving with flat stones, making a most palatial bath in
+the bed of the stream; when behold! just as it was completed, to use the
+graphic language of one of the constructors, ‘May I be dodderned, and
+doggoned, and dingblamed by Pike, if the blooming stream didn’t cease to
+run!’ It did just supply about a pint of water before it quite stopped,
+into which Esau’s watch flew as he flung on his coat with some slight,
+and perhaps excusable, show of temper. A pint of water is not enough for
+a man to bathe in, but it is quite sufficient to saturate a watch,
+especially if a stone obligingly smashes the glass and makes a hole in
+its face obliterating the vii. viii. and ix. at the time of its
+immersion. However, he dug the mud out of the works, filled them with
+Rangoon oil, and is under the impression that that watch can be made to
+go again, and that a new face and glass and silver case will make it
+look all right. He is of a sanguine disposition.
+
+They returned to camp saying that it would be all right as soon as the
+first rain came, but they reckoned without their host; the stream came
+from a little snowdrift on the mountain, and next time that Esau went up
+there he found that the heat of the last few days had melted it all
+away; hence its sudden stop. It never ran again. Perchance some future
+traveller will find the bath ages hence, and rejoice in its luxurious
+arrangements. In anticipation of this John wrote the following beautiful
+lines on the most prominent rock:--
+
+  ‘Stranger, pause and shed a tear:
+  There used to be a streamlet here;
+  But seeing Esau strip to lave
+  His sordid body ’neath its wave,
+  All filled with shame and blushing red,
+  The streamlet left its gravel bed;
+  Its only wish from him to flee,
+  It ran away and went to sea.’
+
+The Skipper returned rather late with some very good fish from our old
+lake Rus Vand, and dinner was consequently at the extremely fashionable
+hour of 8.30.
+
+                  MENU.
+
+                _Poisson._
+           Truite à la Norvège.
+
+                _Gibier._
+        Teal en matelote de Bacon.
+  Pommes de terre sautéd in a frying-pan.
+
+                _Potage._
+               Skoggaggany.
+
+Potage is frequently eaten last, for it keeps hot longer than the other
+dishes, and as we always feed in the open air in fine weather, they cool
+more quickly than in civilisation.
+
+  [Illustration: Hot Soup and Northern Lights]
+
+About nine o’clock a splendid display of northern lights was produced
+for our benefit, and we stayed up till twelve o’clock baking bread and
+gazing at the ever-changing beauties of this glorious sight. In the
+course of conversation it transpired that the same thing happened last
+night in a milder form, and it was this that Esau had announced as a
+comet. To-night he was immensely delighted with the show, because he
+says it will bring good luck; quoting ‘Aurora bright, dear harbinger of
+dawn.’ He said this was Shakespeare, and if Shakespeare called Aurora a
+‘deer harbinger,’ that ought to be enough for us. The other two agreed,
+but did not believe Shakespeare ever wrote that, or anything like it.
+‘What play was it in?’ ‘Play!’ said Esau, with the utmost contempt, ‘you
+awful duffers, it’s in the sonnets; I dare say you never read all of
+them.’ This was unanswerable, for of course no one ever did read all the
+sonnets. But in revenge John composed some poetry about Esau, after the
+manner of Walt Whitman, he said.
+
+If Walt Whitman ever wrote anything like this, he ought to be made to
+read it. We give a few lines:--
+
+  ‘’Twas he who culled the bluest berry sweet,
+  And with his jodelling made the heights reply
+  To airs that oft have graced the music hall:
+  Anon when work or sport was put aside,
+  The fragrant omelette he would deftly roll;
+  No better man to fry the curling trout,
+  None with more appetite to make it scarce.
+  When tired nature seeks repose in bed,
+  To lie when others rise and calmly rest,
+  He most surpassed the seven Sleepers’ selves.
+  This is the sort of rubbish men can write
+  Who to inanity devote their minds;
+  But nought save great experience will suffice
+  To do the trick; no amateur can hope
+  To vie with those who’ve studied it from youth.’
+
+And so on for pages.
+
+On examining the diaries which we all keep, the following remarks on the
+aurora were found:--
+
+NO. 1.--BY THE SKIPPER.
+
+‘The heavens were illuminated by most brilliant northern lights, which
+flickered in a great arch over the starry sky.’
+
+NO. 2.--BY ESAU.
+
+‘A most glorious display of northern lights, huge bands of light across
+the sky; waving, flickering, and disappearing, then suddenly shining out
+again more brilliantly than before, while all the time straight
+streamers of light were shooting upwards from the horizon.’
+
+NO. 3.--BY JOHN.
+
+‘The glow of a remarkably fine aurora borealis, whose silvery shimmering
+shafts flickered incessantly all over the heavens in the most fantastic
+shapes.’
+
+It will be observed that we all agree in the flickering, consequently
+you may bet it _did_ flicker. But for this fortunate fact it would be
+hard to recognise the three descriptions as identical, and yet this is
+the way history is written.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+SUCCESS AT LAST.
+
+
+_August 14._--This was a most eventful day in our quiet life, and one
+fraught with episode. For the first time there was a breeze, so the
+Skipper went out fishing, and John to practise canoeing in a wind, which
+is an art requiring considerable dexterity in these Canadian canoes.
+They are beautiful sea boats, and beat the ‘Rob Roy’ hollow for any
+purposes where room for baggage is required. In our two, which are only
+small, we have transported between 800 and 900 lbs.; but their worst
+feature is decidedly exhibited in a wind, for the broad flat bottom and
+absence of keel cause them to drift very fast, and make it difficult to
+keep them straight. It can only be done by paddling from amidships
+instead of from the stern.
+
+Esau went out stalking, full of hope from the aurora and the favourable
+wind.
+
+The Skipper was lucky and caught some very good fish, and then returning
+to camp constructed a most lovely wimberry tart. He had just finished
+the enclosure of the same in the oven, and was proceeding to remove the
+flour and ashes and other debris from his hands, while John reclined at
+his ease under an awning with our latest ‘Field’--three weeks old--when
+they heard a hail overhead, and behold a swarm of visitors from Rus
+Vand! Mr. and Mrs. Thomas, Miss A----, and their friend F----, who is
+the most celebrated deerstalker in the country. He is reported to never
+miss a shot, and occasionally shoots flying ryper with a rifle.
+
+They tumultuously demanded lunch, and the Skipper with John had a pretty
+busy time of it for about twenty minutes, and the wimberry tart had to
+be left to its fate in the sultry climate of the oven. Our larder just
+now is not well supplied with anything except fish; so that the utmost
+exertions could only produce a meal which to people who have had
+reindeer for several days must have seemed poor indeed. Fried trout,
+Skoggaggany soup, tea, beer, bread, biscuits, and marmalade, was the
+bill of fare, for there was no time to do anything in the ‘gibier’ line,
+birds taking some time to pluck and clean. However, to our guests there
+were some points of this meal decidedly worthy of attention, viz. the
+beer, marmalade, and bread: they have none of these at Rus Vand, as
+their attempts at bread have hitherto been failures, while ours has been
+very first-rate ever since the oven was built, and was much appreciated.
+
+We have been informed that the proper thing in these days, when writing
+a book, is to recommend some condiment or patent medicine to the notice
+of the confiding public. As there is no chance of our meeting any Arab
+sheiks in Memurudalen, we have to fall back on this episode of the
+bread, and seize the opportunity to sing to the world the praises of
+‘Yeatman’s Yeast Powder,’ by far the best that we have tried, and
+invaluable on an expedition of this kind for bread, pastry, and
+pancakes. Now let old Yeatman send his hundred guineas, care of Esau,
+and we will see that they are devoted to a proper use.
+
+To return to our guests. We made an awning on what we call the
+lawn--size six feet by fourteen feet--out of two rugs and some birch
+poles, and lunched under that, as the sun was cruelly hot. There was a
+good deal of the ordinary picnic about the meal, as we have only four
+plates, cups, knives, &c., and had to eat fish out of the frying-pan,
+and drink beer out of a jam pot, and a condensed-milk tin with the top
+cut off and the sharp edge turned down. But all these drawbacks were met
+in the true picnic spirit, which ‘de minimis non curat’ so long as there
+is something to eat. Our two last bottles of beer were sacrificed, and
+it went to our hearts to have to pour away our beloved Skoggaggany soup
+when the cups were wanted for tea, for our visitors did not ‘go for’ the
+soup with the same alacrity that distinguishes us. Possibly it occurred
+to them that the middle of a blazing hot August day was not the most
+suitable time for highly seasoned, substantial, nearly boiling liquid to
+be poured down their throats.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Thomas and Miss A---- all spoke English well, but their
+friend young F---- could neither speak it nor understand it: however, he
+wished to be genial and polite, and replied ‘Oh yase, tank you,’
+whenever any remark was made to him. In consequence of this amiable
+trait, John, who thought he could talk our language as well as the
+others, supplied him with beer, whisky and water, tea, soup, and
+marmalade all at the same time, to each of which articles when offered
+he had replied ‘Oh yase, tank you.’ This made a sad run on our limited
+supply of crockery.
+
+Lunch ended, the Skipper volunteered as usual to take the party one by
+one for a cruise in his canoe. This with the ordinary English lady would
+be a matter of considerable risk, but all Norwegians--ladies as well as
+men--are accustomed to boats, and very nearly all of them can swim. But
+the trip was quite dangerous enough, for both the ladies insisted on
+kneeling in the right position and paddling themselves, and there was a
+good sea on, with a distant threatening storm. While Mrs. Thomas was
+pursuing her adventurous career, her husband danced on the bank after
+the manner of a hen with ducklings crying, ‘Come back! come back! you go
+too far out!’ but we grieve to record that she did not care a little
+bit, and was so delighted with the canoe that the Skipper had some
+difficulty in persuading her to return. May she live long to paddle that
+canoe, for it now belongs to her.
+
+About four o’clock the call came to an end, and our friends departed
+over the mountain to Rus Vand, at the west end of which they expected to
+meet their boat. Before going they made us promise to go and see them
+next Tuesday, and will send a boat to convey us down the lake.
+
+  [Illustration: Esau and Ola return in Triumph]
+
+Soon after six Esau came into camp in an offensively jaunty manner,
+followed by Öla with the heads and skins, and what the lawyers call the
+appurts, to wit, the heart, kidneys, feet, and liver of two reindeer
+bucks. Then was there great rejoicing in that little colony, and dinner
+was served and disposed of with light hearts, even the neglected
+wimberry tart being a complete success, for owing to its gigantic size,
+its long baking in a cooling oven had not been too much for it, and it
+was finished to the last crumb of paste and spoonful of juice.
+
+Our custom is, when a man returns with deer, that he shall lie on the
+sheepskin of indolence if so disposed, while the other fellows prepare
+dinner; and after the meal is finished and men are beginning to lean
+back and fill their pipes, he is expected to relate his adventures
+without interruption; after this he is never to refer to them again
+unless specially requested. Now for Esau’s story.
+
+‘We went on to Memurutungen and began to find fresh tracks and signs of
+deer almost directly, so were on the tiptoe of expectation all the
+morning. About midday Öla found two deer on a small patch of snow, five
+or six miles from camp, in a very favourable place for approaching them,
+with the wind as right as it could be. We made a lovely stalk; but when
+after an hour’s creeping we got to the spot, we were just in time to see
+them disappear, slowly feeding over the hill. We followed as fast as
+possible, and soon came in sight of them again, for as the deer always
+feed against the wind there is no danger of alarming them by following
+on their tracks. A few minutes of breathless crawling like serpents, and
+we were within 100 yards, nearer than I ever got to reindeer before. One
+of them soon gave me a nice side shot, and when I fired he almost fell,
+but recovered himself, and they both ran down the hill towards a little
+glacier. I fired again at him and missed; and then ran as hard as I
+could towards the glacier, cramming in cartridges as I ran. They were
+both out of sight for a moment behind some rocks, and then the unwounded
+one came into view again, and I had a nice shot at him at about 150
+yards, and was lucky enough to send a bullet just above his heart, which
+killed him instantly at the edge of the glacier.
+
+  [Illustration: A careful Finishing Shot]
+
+‘I ran straight on, and following round the shoulder of the hill, saw
+the other one standing about 100 yards away, unable to go any further.
+I was in about the same state myself, so sat down, took as careful an
+aim as I could, and fired a shot which finished him. How he had ever got
+so far is a mystery, as the first shot only missed his heart by about an
+inch. The second went in touching the hole made by the first, and killed
+him at once.
+
+‘We gralloched them, and built the meat up with stones to preserve it
+from ravens, and the great bugbear of hunters, the “jarraf,” as they
+call it; filfras is its English name. I think it is identical with the
+North American wolverine or glutton.’
+
+The lecturer concluded his observations amid great applause.
+
+Let it be understood that the running which is done in pursuit of deer
+is a gymnastic performance of the utmost difficulty, for these mountains
+are almost entirely composed of loose stones with sharp, clean edges.
+These stones vary in size, but otherwise are all similar, and have no
+more tendency to stick together and lie quiet than the lumps in a basin
+of sugar. So that running over them means--for an extremely active
+man--a pace of perhaps four miles an hour; for a deer about six or
+seven. Consequently the deer always when disturbed try to get on to
+snow, for there they can go a great, but unascertained pace--apparently
+somewhere about eighty miles an hour.
+
+We find that after all we were quite right to make the meat-safe before
+killing the deer, for we only made it to hold one, and now we have
+killed two, and so are quite properly behindhand with our arrangements,
+and shall be obliged to make another.
+
+After dinner Esau went down to the lake and tried a few casts from the
+shore. He speedily hooked a fish, which he thought the biggest ever
+made, and never got a sight of it for twenty minutes. He thought this a
+grand top up for a truly successful day, but on landing it, it only
+weighed a pound, but was hooked in the tail, hence the struggle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+GJENDEBODEN.
+
+
+_Sunday, August 15._--Still the same beautiful weather. We spent the
+morning fishing and bathing. Esau distinguished himself by falling into
+the lake off a cliff, just as he had finished dressing after a bath;
+nearly swamping his canoe, full of fish, rugs, and other valuables.
+There was such a sun that he merely hung his things on the rocks and
+went on fishing without them until they were dry, which took a very
+short time. He always had savage tendencies, and would like to live
+without clothes, but we consider this is not dignified, and will not
+tend to promote discipline among our retainers. The Skipper got the best
+bag, as he generally does on a calm day.
+
+After lunch we packed our rods, fowling-pieces, and change of raiment
+into the canoes, and started on a voyage of discovery up the lake,
+intending to spend the night at Gjendebod--a hut at the western end
+somewhat similar to Gjendesheim at the eastern, though not so large or
+so well built, for the upper end of the lake does not get as many
+visitors as the lower.
+
+The expedition commenced with a disaster, owing, no doubt, to its being
+Sunday. As John and Esau in the larger canoe were crossing the glacier
+stream, something caused the boat to almost swamp, but fortunately right
+again with a good deal of water in it. Esau said it was John’s
+clumsiness; John said it was Esau’s recklessness in crossing at such a
+rapid place, and much recrimination ensued. They went to shore and
+emptied the water out, and then continued the voyage, nothing being wet
+except the rugs used to kneel on. Only the Skipper lingered on the
+voyage to fish; the other two paddling against a heavy head wind
+completed the journey of five miles in about an hour, and had dinner
+cooked and ready by the time the Skipper made his appearance with a
+beautiful basket of trout.
+
+Our dinner was made from the shoulder of venison sent us by Mr. Thomas.
+It was utterly ruined in the cooking, for we are getting fastidious
+after our own luxurious meals, and think as poorly of Gjendebod cookery
+as a certain friend of ours did of English, when he complained that ‘in
+all the houses of the rich and great which he had ever known, he had
+never seen a decent hot dinner served except when they had it cold for
+lunch.’
+
+We found here a young Norwegian who spoke English well, and gave us some
+very interesting information, chiefly about the winter life in Norway;
+also a very intelligible account of the land system of the country,
+which we intend to send to Mr. Gladstone for use in his next Irish Land
+Bill. We think it peculiarly adapted for Ireland, because, though we all
+understood it perfectly at the time, we cannot agree about any of its
+main features on comparing notes afterwards.
+
+Presently there arrived here Coutts--our Gjendesheim acquaintance who
+had made the extraordinary walk over the mountains. His hair had either
+not grown since we last saw him, or else he had sand-papered it off
+again. He had just achieved another remarkable feat. This was a climb to
+the top of ‘Stor Skagastolstind,’ a mountain which has only been
+ascended twice previously; first by an Englishman who spends most of his
+time in doing such things, and afterwards by a Norwegian, the last time
+being two years ago. Many others have tried and failed. The ordinary
+traveller will find the feat of pronouncing its name fluently in the
+course of conversation quite difficult enough; but it can be done by the
+exercise of an iron will, and if not attempted more than once in a day,
+no fatal effects need be apprehended. Once we met a very
+careworn-looking man who told us he had been trying to make a pun on the
+name, but we felt no pity for so foolhardy a wretch.
+
+The authorized procedure for those who accomplish the ascent, is to
+enclose their name and some coins in a bottle, and build a little cairn
+round the bottle, leaving their handkerchief with it, and bringing down
+the corresponding articles left by the last man. Coutts showed us the
+handkerchief and bottle which he found on the top, but the coins he must
+have spent in drinks on his way home, or else did not like to trust us
+with them, as he could not produce them. He had, of course, left his own
+handkerchief, and John, who is short of these useful though not
+indispensable articles, was seized with a great longing to risk his life
+and go to the summit of that mountain for Coutts’s. At least, he was
+very keen about it immediately after the description of the ascent and
+hiding of the treasure; but since he became calmer we almost persuaded
+him not to go, as he hates walking, especially uphill walking; it takes
+two days to ascend the peak, one to get down again; and the whole
+performance is slightly more difficult and hazardous than the ascent of
+the Matterhorn.
+
+It will probably be unnecessary to remark that Coutts did not for a
+moment condescend to follow the path chosen by former climbers, but
+having after considerable search found one at least twice as dangerous,
+he chose that, as he had not time to look for a worse one.
+
+
+_August 16._--After breakfast we found a drover, who was living in a hut
+here, and impressed him to come out with us after Ryper--his function
+being that of the dog. There are many of these drovers in the mountains
+during the summer. They get cattle--how, we do not know; whether they
+buy them, or merely drive them on commission for the owners; then they
+feed them on the common lands, and drive them to some town at the end of
+the summer. The huts that they live in are wretched little places. There
+is one about two miles from our camp, built of rough stones against a
+rock which forms two of the sides, without any door or window, and only
+a hole to creep in at. No Englishman would keep his dog in such a place,
+unless it were dead; but we are told that a drover lived there for a
+month this year before we came, and it is considered of sufficient
+importance to be marked on the Ordnance map, otherwise we should never
+have seen it.
+
+Our drover, however, was rather a great man, living in a hut with a real
+door and a window, and a live woman inside to cook for him and iron his
+shirt--at least, we imagined she must be doing this, as he had not got
+one on.
+
+Ryper shooting began by law yesterday, but our Sabbatarian proclivities
+prevented us from going forth to the chase. The true reason is that we
+superstitiously believe it will rain again if we shoot on Sunday, though
+no one will confess that this is the feeling by which we are possessed.
+
+We crossed the lake in the canoes--the Skipper and Esau to shoot, John
+and Herr Drover to beat. There was a narrow belt of birch trees between
+the lake and the willow belt in which we hoped to find the birds, and
+before we got through this, our ears were gladdened by the sound of two
+shots from Esau, who had walked on to two old birds and got them both;
+but, alas! disappointment was in store for us. We walked up hill and
+down dale, dry ground and marshy, willow belt and birch belt, but never
+saw another ryper for five hours, and then we put up one old cock who
+fled away with a derisive crow before we got within sixty yards of him.
+It is hopeless work hunting ryper without dogs. We found plenty of
+places where they had fed or sat, or been running on wet ground; but
+they hate flying unless they are compelled, and on a day of this sort
+lie like stones, though we have seen them after windy weather get up
+almost as wild as Yorkshire grouse. But we feel that we have done our
+duty in trying to shoot ryper, and so now can go back to our fishing and
+stalking with a quiet conscience.
+
+And if we got no more ryper we found such a quantity of ‘möltebær,’ that
+there is every prospect of Esau being seriously ill for some days, which
+would be a distinct gain as far as the consumption of our stores goes.
+The ‘möltebær’ is a berry like a large yellow raspberry, very good
+indeed to eat, with a sort of honey flavour about it. The Norwegians
+think it better than the strawberry, though we hardly indorse this
+opinion. It is a beautiful scarlet before it is ripe, and a dirty pale
+yellow when ready to gather. It grows low down, and is difficult to
+find, as it conceals itself in low, swampy, and rather dark places.
+
+When we returned from the pursuit of the disobliging ryper, there was a
+fair breeze down the lake, so we hoisted sails and were soon back at
+Memurudalen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+A FORMAL CALL.
+
+
+_August 17._--This was the day appointed for our visit to the Thomas’s
+at Rus Vand, but though we told Öla as usual to call us at 7.30, he
+never came until about half-past eight. His watch is a curiosity among
+bad watches; he sets it by one of ours every night, and it has always
+gained or lost several hours before morning: on one occasion it actually
+lost nearly a fortnight while we slept. The Skipper says it ‘ain’t worth
+a smothered oath;’ and this morning, as we specially wished to get up
+early--and did get up, owing to Öla’s watch, more than usually late--he
+is getting lower in his valuation, and estimates it at a ‘whispered
+d----.’
+
+We have begged Öla to pawn it, or refrain from winding it up, but
+without effect, and Esau lent him his--which has never moved since its
+bath, and is fixed at 5.20. This was very successful for two days, as it
+made Öla call us about six o’clock, and we had lots of time to go to
+sleep again afterwards; but after that the discontented fellow came and
+asked for one that would go faster, and of course we have nothing that
+will compare with his own either at trotting or cantering.
+
+First thing this morning the Skipper was seen shaving his meagre chin
+with no little care, and reflecting himself with considerable interest
+in a slip of looking-glass that he keeps under his pillow. We all made
+elaborate toilets, but the Skipper was especially beautiful by reason of
+his necktie, and the least thread-bare of his two coats, which he wore
+with what he considered a careless grace.
+
+We started up the mountain at half-past ten, and arrived on the shores
+of Rus Vand very hot and tired in about two hours. There we saw a dim
+speck on the distant horizon which we imagined to be the boat coming to
+take us down the lake. So we began to fish till it should arrive; and it
+was a considerable time before we realised the fact that the speck we
+had seen was indeed the boat, but it was _going_, not coming, for the
+soulless wretch who had control of it had presumed to think, and his
+thoughts being of course the mere unreasoning impulses of a brutish and
+degraded mind, had caused him to suppose we were not coming. This was a
+terrible blow, but at last we bravely decided to walk on to the
+hut--about eight miles. During the next six pages of this book we walked
+and walked and walked, with hunger and thirst raging inside us,
+a broiling sun over our heads, and the most frightful language
+proceeding from our lips; tramping along cattle tracks, wading through
+mountain torrents, and stumbling over willows and rocks, till about
+half-past three in the afternoon, when turning the last corner we came
+on the two huts, and our olfactory nerves were greeted by the welcome
+scent of adjacent cooking food.
+
+Thomas was most profuse in his maledictions of the idiot who had left
+the west end of the lake without waiting for us, and we had great
+difficulty in persuading him not to shed his blood there and then. Thus
+far the misery.
+
+But now a change came o’er the scene. Behold the wearied travellers
+lying on the sward, in the cool shadow cast by the hut; surrounded by
+iced whisky punch, brandy and water, rum and milk, and claret, and
+drinking them all at once under the entreaties of our hospitable
+entertainers. Anon a sumptuous feast was spread under the canopy of a
+tent pitched just above the roaring waters of the Russen River where it
+leaves the calm of the lake for the turmoil and trouble of a hurried
+descent to busier regions. That trout, reindeer, roast ryper, and the
+various smaller birds will be remembered by all of us as long as we
+live.
+
+The Skipper confessed afterwards that all along that burning shadeless
+cattle track--with its atmosphere perfectly blue with execrations--he
+had thought that life was but a ‘wale of tears’ at the best of times;
+but when after dinner cigars and black coffee were produced, he began to
+believe we had had rather a pleasant walk after all.
+
+We left the hospitable hut about six, in the boat, Thomas himself and
+Jens coming with us. Jens rowed, and we four fished all the way up the
+lake, so that the water was stiff with minnows and flies. John with a
+minnow caught one three-pound trout and some smaller ones, and the
+Skipper and Esau several good fish with the fly, but we had no time to
+really try to catch fish, but kept rowing steadily on and getting what
+we could on the way. Thomas got out halfway up the lake to fish from the
+bank, and John at once trampled on a spare rod which had been brought in
+the boat, and reduced it to matchwood. Then to witness John’s polite
+protestations and apologies from the boat to Mr. Thomas on shore was
+truly gratifying to us as spectators. When they were concluded we rowed
+on to the end of the lake, climbed over the dreadful mountain--which was
+by no means a pleasant task in the dark--and reached camp at half-past
+ten--just twelve hours employed in making a formal call. Think of that,
+ye gentlemen of England who grumble at having to leave a card on the
+people the other side of the square.
+
+
+_August 18._--We all stayed at home to-day, as the weather--although
+still perfectly fine--was not favourable for any sort of sport with
+which we are acquainted except kite-flying; and the tent was constantly
+in such imminent danger of being blown from its moorings, that we feared
+if we went away, we should not be able to find it when we came back. It
+was great fun during breakfast to watch Ivar sailing after our goods and
+chattels whenever a sudden gust of wind sent them scudding over the
+ground till brought to a standstill by a juniper or a rock. Before
+starting in pursuit he always opened his mouth to its utmost
+width--which is enormous--and then extending his arms and legs till he
+looked like a demoniac wind-mill, he swooped down on the quarry, never
+failing to secure the fly-away article, dish-cloth, or towel, or
+whatever it might be.
+
+The Skipper was the only one who attempted fishing, and he had but poor
+sport, and soon returned to camp to assist in the operations there going
+on. The most important of these was the construction of a new game
+cellar in the ground near the old one. Esau was ‘bossing’ this thing,
+while Öla worked. Esau, being very lazy himself, takes a fiendish
+delight in getting any work out of Öla; and now his portion of the job
+seemed to be standing with an axe in his hand revolving things in his
+great mind while Öla undertook the labour. The Skipper and John devoted
+themselves to baking, and produced an enormous quantity of bread and
+biscuits; and when these were finished the united strength of the
+company engaged itself on a meat pie.
+
+The division of labour in this enterprise is always managed thus. Esau
+is butcher--an employment in which he revels, and at which he is
+decidedly an adept. He cuts up reindeer in convenient slices for placing
+in the pie-dish; adding thereto slices of bacon, and two or three
+hard-boiled eggs, with some liver, heart, and birds if we have any to
+spare. Meanwhile the Skipper concocts the dough for the crust from
+flour, butter, and boiling water; and after rolling the same on the top
+of one of the boxes with an empty beer-bottle, neatly lines the smaller
+of the two low tins with it; fills it with the various ingredients and
+plenty of pepper, salt, and some water, and then covers it with a thin
+disc of paste perforated with holes, and adorned with fantastic images
+of reindeer and birds. Now the pie is ready for the oven--which all this
+time John has been stoking indefatigably with arm loads of wood; and
+when he announces that the oven is fit the pie is borne in solemn
+procession to it, and safely enclosed by the sod which acts as the oven
+door, and conceals it from our gaze for a time, which varies according
+to the size of the pie and heat of the oven.
+
+We have some difficulties to contend with in the top of our oven, for
+the sods which fill in the holes thereof are liable to crumble with the
+intense heat and fall down in fine dust on our food gently stewing in
+its cosy nest. The only way to obviate this is to water the top of the
+oven every morning as if it were a spring garden, and then the clods
+never get dry enough to play their evil little games. The Skipper
+compares the baking of a pie to burial by cremation (if that is not a
+bull). Certainly it always comes out etherealised; a thing of beauty and
+a joy for at least two days. Esau called this pie after its resurrection
+‘a harmony in yellow and brown quite too too utter and distinctly
+precious;’ and John added, ‘Begorra, me jewel, it is that same, bedad.’
+
+  [Illustration: The Colony at Breakfast in Memurudalen]
+
+We shall now be free to do what seems good in our eyes for several days
+without the trouble of baking: altogether our stock of provisions is
+enormous. This is always the way in camp life; first a week of existence
+on the verge of starvation, and then a time of milk and honey and tables
+overflowing with plenty.
+
+
+_August 19._--Some of the bread that John makes is rather heavy.
+Yesterday we were constrained to point this fact out to him. He
+pretended not to be able to see it, and in support of his theory ate at
+supper a quantity of the rolls that we had condemned. The consequence
+was that about two o’clock A.M. we were roused from our peaceful
+slumbers by John jumping spasmodically out of bed and rushing to the
+tent door, uttering at the same time most ghastly yells. At the door he
+appeared to be awake, so we said, sitting up in bed with our hair on
+end,--
+
+‘_Now_ then, John. What’s the row?’ To which he answered very quietly,--
+
+‘Why, my line’s caught on that rock over there. I wish you would stop
+the boat a minute.’
+
+Then he went gently to bed again and continued his unbroken slumbers.
+
+A sleeping man is selfishly regardless of the disquiet he brings on his
+fellow-creatures, and John, although he must have dreamt all sorts of
+funny things, did not dream that he was disturbing our night’s rest.
+
+The other night when we were returning from our visit to Rus Vand, John
+casually seated himself on a rock at the extreme top of the mountain. It
+was quite dark except for a subdued glow of light caused by the setting
+moon behind the mountains on the other side of Gjendin Lake. Now the
+Skipper and Esau take a good deal of interest in moons, because they are
+considerably affected by the pallid luminary when at the full;
+consequently they were aware that she had already passed her highest
+point for that night, and would not show above the peaks until the
+following evening; but John did not know this, and so when we asked his
+reason for sitting down on a very sharp and cold stone 5,000 feet above
+sea level, with the quicksilver right through the bottom of the
+thermometer, at a time when all honest folk were in bed, he replied,--
+
+‘You fellows go on; I’m going to wait here and see the moon rise.’
+
+We never disturb a man when he feels poetical, lest it should break out
+in some more dangerous form; so we left him on his ‘cold grey stone,’
+and made the best of our way to camp.
+
+When we had about half finished our soup, he came struggling and wading
+in through the shrubs and swamp, and sat down to supper without making
+any remarks about the scenery, neither did he touch upon the subject of
+silver shafts, or shimmering sheen, or a network of frosted filigree
+chaining down the ripples. He was evidently disappointed about
+something, and we possessed too much delicacy of feeling to ask what was
+wrong, and so the matter dropped. But at breakfast this morning the
+Skipper happened to tell a story about a man he knew, who waited on the
+quay for some friends who had arrived in a steamer that day. This man
+had ordered a sumptuous banquet directly the steamer was signalled, then
+waited three hours expecting a boat to come off every minute, but at
+last perceived that a curious flag was flying on the steamer, and on
+inquiry found that she was quarantined for a fortnight. Then Esau could
+not resist the opportunity, and remarked,--
+
+‘Just like waiting for the moon to rise when she ain’t due over the
+mountains for twenty-four hours,’ and the harmony of the meeting at once
+ceased to exist.
+
+The Skipper went after deer, but only had a very long walk without
+seeing any. We have now got the kitchen into a great state of
+perfection, so that within ten minutes of his return a recherché repast
+was on the table. This is rather a difficult thing to manage, as we
+never know to within a couple of hours what time the hunters will
+return; but it can be done by having the chops, steaks, or birds ready
+in one frying-pan, the trout in the other, the potatoes partially
+cooked, and the tea or coffee made: the leaves or grounds of the latter
+we remove always after eight minutes’ brewing, so that it does not alter
+by standing. The table of course is ready laid.
+
+Once and only once there was a long delay, owing to a misfortune with
+the water that had been boiled for the tea; but the explosion of wrath
+from the famishing hunter on that occasion was so dreadful, that the
+utmost endeavours have since been successfully used to prevent its
+recurrence.
+
+      MENU.--August 19.
+
+         _Potage._
+      Mulligatawny.
+
+         _Poisson._
+  Truité à la Maître d’Hôtel.
+
+         _Entrées._
+        Venison Pie.
+
+         _Rots._
+       Venison Pie.
+
+         _Gibier._
+        Venison Pie.
+
+        _Entremets._
+         Pancakes.
+
+Our procedure with pancakes is for every man to fry and toss his own;
+the frying of the first side is easy enough, but the tossing requires
+skill, for we do not allow the mean practice of helping the delicacy
+over with a knife, indulged in by some weak-spirited cooks.
+
+John’s first became a mangled heap of batter under his repeated efforts,
+and was finally eaten by him in that condition; his second ascended
+towards the heavens most gracefully when he tossed, and was absent for
+some minutes, but unfortunately he failed to hold the pan in the right
+place on its return, and it fell on the ground, where it was immediately
+seized and devoured by Ivar. The third was a complete success, and so
+were the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh; the eighth stuck to the pan,
+and was a failure; and after that he got along all right to the
+thirty-fourth, when he had another partial failure, owing to
+over-confidence. This made him more careful, and all the rest were quite
+perfect. When we had finished we gave the rest of the batter to the men,
+who fried it all in one huge pancake, about two inches thick.
+
+We notice that all the diaries agree for once; the following note occurs
+in all:--
+
+‘Pancakes for dinner to-day; the other two fellows over-ate themselves.’
+
+We told John this morning of his adventure with the boat and fishing
+line during the night, so he ate all the new bread at lunch, thereby
+laying its restless spirit long before bedtime; no doubt he and his
+dinner will slumber more peacefully to-night.
+
+It may be remembered that we brought a lot of fish slightly salted with
+us from Gjendesheim. Ever since our return here we have caught plenty of
+fish every day, and as we prefer fresh food to salt, the Gjendesheim
+fish which were placed in a little barrel have been neglected. Five or
+six days ago we noticed an unpleasant odour, and found that it proceeded
+from this barrel, the fish being in an advanced stage of decomposition,
+and the men told us they were making ‘raki fiske,’ a thing which they
+informed us in Norwegian is ‘real jam.’ We were very angry, and gave
+orders that the whole thing should at once be thrown into the glacier
+torrent. After this the affair faded from our minds, but yesterday we
+again noticed a suspicion of the same smell, and this morning it was so
+powerful that we began to invent theories to account for it.
+
+John, who is a man of great scientific attainments proved to his own
+complete satisfaction, that it proceeded from the bodies of prehistoric
+reindeer which had been engulfed by an avalanche ages ago and entombed
+in the glacier until now, when at last their decaying corpses were being
+washed down the stream.
+
+He said Huxley had often observed the same thing and told him about it.
+
+Esau’s theory was that the glacier itself was decomposing. ‘Look what a
+long time it had been standing exposed to the air, and most likely in a
+damp place; everybody knew that snow water was not good to drink,
+witness the goître of Switzerland; and why was it not good? Simply
+because it was putrid, and now that the hot sun was shining upon it, no
+wonder it smelt a little.’
+
+He concluded his remarks by inquiring who Huxley might be, and was just
+setting off up the valley with a bottle of Condy’s fluid to pour over
+the glacier, when the Skipper, who had wandered down to the Memurua
+River instead of arguing, suddenly rushed back with his fingers tightly
+holding his nose, and shaking his fist at Öla, said something that began
+with ‘Dab,’ and went on with other unknown words.
+
+At last we gathered from his expressions that the barrel of ‘raki fiske’
+had not been thrown into the torrent at all, but our villanous retainers
+had secreted it near the stream, intending to have a feast as soon as it
+should have become rotten enough to please their cultivated taste. Truly
+a Norwegian has the nastiest notions of food. Now the ‘raki fiske,’
+barrel and all, is buried a yard deep, a long way from here, and life is
+again pleasant, but we have little doubt that Öla and Ivar will come
+back and root about and dig it up after we have left the country say a
+month hence: it ought to be in perfect condition by that time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+FISHING.
+
+
+_August 20._--The first thing this morning we sent Öla to Gjendesheim
+with some venison for the people there, who have been very kind in
+sending milk, eggs, rice, onions, &c. to us. We have more meat than we
+shall be able to eat if the weather continues as fine and hot as it is
+at present.
+
+We three walked over the mountain to spend the day at Rus Vand, taking
+our lunch with us. We got there about half-past ten, and the fish were
+then rising well, so we separated and commenced fishing, the Skipper and
+John taking the north side of the lake, Esau the south. After catching a
+few fish the rise stopped, as it always does on these lakes about
+midday.
+
+  [Illustration: An Exciting Moment in Rus Lake Shallows]
+
+There is no doubt that on a Norwegian lake the fisherman should above
+all things ‘make haste while the fish rise.’ It is all very well for the
+ancient sportsman to remark, ‘Take your time, my young friend, there are
+as good fish in the sea as ever came out of it.’ It is no doubt true
+enough; but at this time of year they will not rise to fly for more than
+about a couple of hours twice a day, and if you do not make the best of
+your opportunities then, where are you? Put yourself in the place of the
+fine old veteran three-pounder who has got into the habit of taking his
+meals at regular hours for fear of spoiling his digestion, and has
+selected the hours between 10 and 12 A.M. and 4.30 and 6.30 P.M.,
+because he knows from long experience that these are the most likely
+times to find flies on the water. He has come in from roaming in deep
+waters to the shades of the rocky coast, and has a certain appetite to
+allay after his bath and morning stroll. There he waits, and thinks of
+old times, and of how fat and shiny his tummy became the last hot summer
+there was, when flies were plentiful, and he had not to resort to this
+abominable device of catching small trout and eating mice[*] to keep him
+in daily food, as he nearly always has to do now that the summers are so
+wet, and he is no longer active enough to compete with his younger
+relations in the struggle for existence. ‘What times those were, and how
+he wishes he were a year or two younger again, and not crippled with
+useless length; and, by George! now he comes to look at his reflection
+against that stone, he’s getting quite yellow and bilious under the
+belly, and----’ But he can’t stop to moralise, there is a luscious March
+Brown of unusual solidity skating right over his pet rock, and he can’t
+let it pass. So up he comes and gulps it down, with a lazy flop of his
+tail that leaves quite a swirl on the lake surface. ‘Why, the thing’s
+got no flavour, and how I’ve hurt my jaw with it!’ Poor old chap, his
+day is over, and after ten minutes’ struggle he has left his favourite
+haunt to be occupied by another tenant, and is safe in the landing net,
+a good three-pound fish, but, like most of those who have reached this
+size, not quite in as good condition as he was at 2½ lbs., and just a
+shade longer than he ought to be. Don’t stop to gaze at him, put him in
+the bag with all speed--it is necessary to hurry up and fish on while
+the rise lasts.
+
+    [Footnote: We have found as many as three mice in the stomach of
+    a Rus Vand trout.]
+
+But all this time the hours have been slipping away, and we have
+lunched, and smoked, and sketched till the rise began again soon after
+four, and though there was a strong cold west wind, the change seemed to
+encourage the fish to feed more greedily than usual, for trout are
+terrible Radicals, and rejoice in any alteration of the existing
+condition of things.
+
+  [Illustration: Esau’s Best Day among the Trout]
+
+Our old experience of Rus Vand taught us that one side was
+sporting-looking and interesting, while the other was bleak and ugly;
+but Esau, who took the ugly side, had much the best of it to-day, as the
+place seemed alive with fish, and he kept catching them all the time, so
+that his little ten-foot rod was continually to be seen in the form of a
+hoop, from which position it reassumed the perpendicular in a way that
+reflects no little credit on Mr. Farlow.
+
+When we met again at the end of the lake on our way home, we found that
+we had twenty fish, weighing just 44 lbs., of which Esau had caught
+fifteen weighing 32½ lbs., the Skipper four of 9 lbs. weight, and John,
+who was very unlucky, only a single two-and-a-half-pounder. The smallest
+of the bag was a little over a pound, the largest three pounds, which
+was reached by more than one; and nearly all were caught in water so
+shallow that the dorsal fin of the fish was often visible in his mad
+rushes hither and thither; this made it extremely difficult to prevent
+the tail-fly being hung up on a rock whenever the fish was hooked on the
+dropper, and not a few were lost in this manner. All were caught on two
+patterns of fly, namely----No, philanthropy has limits, and no man can
+expect to be told patterns of flies. Go to Norway, and the time and
+trouble spent in acquiring that knowledge will be amply repaid by the
+pleasure that no one could fail to derive from a visit.
+
+No doubt, with the usual discontentedness of man we shall regret for
+ever that we did not all go to the ugly side of the lake, of which Esau
+was obliged to leave the best piece untouched as he came back, from
+sheer inability to carry any more fish over the rough ground. But the
+ways of fish are inscrutable; we hardly ever caught any number on that
+side before, and probably shall not do so again. It was just Esau’s day.
+Kismet.
+
+After weighing our catch, we cleaned them and cut off their heads to
+lighten them for the journey over Glopit, and even without this extra
+weight we were a good deal troubled and felt overburdened on the uphill
+side, which is terribly steep and rough, only just practicable for a man
+on foot.
+
+When we got back to camp we found that Öla had not returned from
+Gjendesheim, which caused us some sorrow, as Esau wanted to go out
+stalking on the morrow, and could not go alone. At least, he would be
+extremely unlikely to see any deer, for the reindeer being exactly the
+same colour as the mountains among which they live, it is almost
+impossible to see them before they see the enemy and depart hastily.
+
+These native hunters are wonderful at the profession, and seem to know
+by instinct when they are in the vicinity of deer, as if they could feel
+their presence in the air. No doubt they really see indications that we
+should never observe, for they always begin to go cautiously, crouching
+and peering over rocks when deer are about, long before we amateurs are
+aware from the ordinary signs of footprints, nibbled reindeer flowers,
+or newly moved stones, that there is likely to be any sport.
+
+  [Plate: ON THE TOP OF GLOPIT. RETURNING FROM RUS LAKE.]
+
+
+_August 21._--It was cold and windy last night, so we turned into bed
+early and lay in luxurious comfort while John read out choice bits, all
+of which we know by heart, from the works of Mark Twain. We all think
+Mark Twain the best writer for camp life that has yet been discovered,
+and we have three or four of his books here. Besides these our library
+of light literature consists of Shakespeare, Longfellow, Dr. Johnson’s
+Table-talk, and novels by Whyte Melville, Walford, and Thackeray. But
+Mark and William get more work than all the rest.
+
+It is quite dark now during the night, and we have made a wooden
+chandelier out of a curiously bent piece of birch wood, which holds two
+candles and hangs down from the ridge pole by a string. In the daytime
+it is hoisted up to the roof, but at night we let it down till it swings
+about two feet above our heads as we lie in bed. This contrivance is
+capital for reading, and also affords considerable diversion to the last
+man into bed. The candles are just too high to be reached with a puff
+easily from a recumbent position, and yet we persistently try to blow
+them out without moving. Just as sleep is creeping over two of the
+wearied sportsmen, the last man begins blowing and cussing at these
+candles every night regularly. The scene is generally this. Skipper and
+John just dropping off to sleep. Esau lies down, makes himself extremely
+comfortable, and then--puff, whoo, whew, puff,--gasp for breath, rest a
+moment. Pouf. Chandelier swings round under the impulse of the strong
+wind thus created. Esau makes a brilliant flying shot at one candle, as
+it circles swiftly past. Skipper: ‘Thank goodness.’ Pause. Esau: Poof,
+whoo, whoof. John: ‘Dash it all, get up and put it out.’ Esau: ‘Get up
+yourself.’ Skipper: ‘Let me blow it out.’ Pouf, puff, whoosh. Chandelier
+swings madly round, drops grease on John’s nose. John: ‘Tare an ’ouns.’
+Throws tobacco pouch at it, more grease all over the place, tobacco
+pouch rebounds from tent into Esau’s mouth. Recrimination for five
+minutes. Chandelier at last stationary. Everybody at once: ‘Puff, boo,
+pouf, whew, ---- it, ---- it, pouf, ---- it, ---- the ---- thing -- --
+-- pouf. Thank goodness;’ and we all turn over with a sigh of relief, to
+repeat the performance the following night.
+
+Öla not having turned up, there could be no stalking, so the beautiful
+morning was wasted. The Skipper got so angry about it that he said he
+would go in his canoe to find the absentee, and take at the same time a
+lot of our surplus fish for the people at Gjendesheim.
+
+Leaving the tent on its grassy sunlit lawn he walked down to the edge of
+the great lake, and turning over the smaller of the two canoes, which
+were lying bottom uppermost, launched her and got in with rod and
+fishing bag, and pushed off into the deep. Opposite to the place where
+the canoes were drawn up, and apparently only a hundred yards distant
+though really more than a mile away, were the snow-capped mountain
+steeps that rise almost perpendicularly from two to three thousand feet
+out of the lake; and for these he made, gradually becoming a mere
+twinkling speck till he faded out of sight from the tent. The lake was
+as smooth as glass, only occasionally rippled as some monarch of the
+deep, excited for once in his life by some specially fascinating fly,
+condescended to make a rush for it instead of the gentle suck by which
+he usually took his food, and the Skipper paddled leisurely along within
+twenty yards of the rocks, with his rod bending over the stern, and
+trailing behind a couple of flies in the hope of catching a trout
+without the trouble of angling for him.
+
+It is very pleasant to be alone once in a way in this overcrowded world.
+Not alone as it is possible to be in England, but absolutely alone, with
+no living thing near except the trout, the insects, and one’s image in
+the water. Oh, blessed Norway! when we get back to the turmoils,
+troubles, and pleasures of a London season how we shall long for you!
+There is only one word to express this existence, and that is
+Freedom--freedom from care, freedom from resistance, and from the
+struggle for life. What a country! where civilised man can relapse as
+much as seems good to him into his natural state, and retrograde a
+hundred generations into his primeval condition.
+
+But we forget that the Skipper is coasting up towards Gjendesheim in
+search of the miscreant Öla.
+
+He proceeded for a couple of hours, catching a few fish now and then,
+but presently as midday approached, the sun became too hot to be
+pleasant, the fish would not move, and the Skipper began to get
+impatient and annoyed at not meeting Öla. After a while a black speck
+with two flashing arms appeared rounding a promontory; this was Öla in
+the boat. The Skipper was boiling with rage under the influence of
+various incentives as he approached. Öla, like most Norwegians, was
+calm, placid, and utterly unconscious of the flight of time and the
+shortness of life. The Skipper had been primed to exploding point by his
+two friends before starting, and as he had now paddled five miles from
+home without meeting the adversary, he was, to put it mildly,
+‘indignant.’ So, when he found Öla smoking serenely, and sculling along
+as though his brief span were going to stretch through the unending
+cycles of eternity, he gave way to the most horrible outbreak of temper
+in English, which must have lasted four or five minutes, and then
+telling the caitiff in Norwegian to take the fish to Gjendesheim and
+return to camp by five o’clock whatever the weather might be, he turned
+and left that hardy Norseman open-mouthed and bewildered, looking as
+though he had seen the Strömkarl, or had had an interview with his
+mother-in-law.
+
+Then a great wind arose, and blew against the Skipper all the way home,
+but he arrived in the most beatific frame of mind in spite of it; the
+relief of the storm of temper and bad language had been so great to him,
+that he was filled with a blessed joy. He said it was the most
+invigorating and refreshing pastime he ever indulged in, for Öla could
+not understand a word of it, and therefore no remorse could follow the
+outburst, not a thoughtless expression or hasty word could go home to
+his heart and there rankle, to recoil on some future occasion, but the
+whole vial of pent-up wrath could be emptied on its object without fear
+of retribution.
+
+The explosion must have been something very fine to enable the Skipper
+to make light of the head-wind, for a wind on Gjendin is not to be
+scoffed at in any boat, and least of all in a cockle-shell of a canoe.
+The mountains are so high and steep that the lake lies as it were in a
+trench, and any wind always draws straight up or down the length, and
+soon gets a big sea up. All the Norwegians we have seen say it is the
+height of madness to go on Gjendin at all in such boats, the sudden
+squalls are so dangerous; and neither of our men can be persuaded to go
+a yard in them.
+
+Esau and John, for want of better employment, after fishing a little,
+began to bake, and had laid out a goodly show of dainty confections, two
+dozen rolls, four wimberry tarts, a lot of biscuits, and a venison pie
+of the ordinary size (9 inches diameter). When the Skipper returned it
+was decided to make another, as we imagine the meat has a better chance
+of keeping when hoarded up in pies than when left in its raw state.
+
+So we each took our usual share in the construction of a PIE, before
+which all other pies should be as nought.
+
+It was made in our largest baking tin, 12 inches across, and contained
+nearly a hind quarter of venison, our last six eggs, a heart, a liver,
+and about 1½ lb. of bacon. The crust was put on about nine o’clock, and
+after we had all gazed at it and unanimously agreed that it was the
+‘boss pie,’ we bore it proudly but gingerly to the oven, heated by John
+seven times hotter than before, and now gaping to receive it; a great
+full moon rose up from behind the mountains and seemed to smile on our
+good work; the bright fire shed a red glow over the three figures
+bending o’er the simmering treasure, and a more peaceful, domestic group
+it would be impossible to conceive.
+
+About eleven John and the Skipper turned in, but outside could be seen
+for some time the solitary form of Esau still crouching over the
+expiring embers of the oven, and tending with a mother’s care the
+tempting food that he already tasted in imagination.
+
+  [Plate: BAKING BY NIGHT IN MEMURUDALEN.]
+
+Most of the berries of the country are now just at their best, and
+Memurudalen is a grand valley for all of them, except of course the
+strawberry and raspberry, which will not grow at this altitude. But we
+have ‘klarkling’ (the English crowberry) in great abundance; blau bær
+(wimberry), the finest and best ever seen, in quantities; also ‘skin
+tukt,’ another blue berry rather larger than a wimberry, and with a
+thicker skin and wonderful bloom on it; this we think does not grow in
+England. Then less numerous are a berry something between a raspberry
+and a red currant, but of better flavour than either of them; and the
+great and glorious ‘mölte bær’ (cloudberry); to say nothing of ‘heste
+bær,’ and ‘tutti bær,’ and several others of unknown names. The last one
+grows in England, but we have forgotten its name; they make jelly from
+it here, and prize it highly for its acid taste.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+MEMURUDALEN.
+
+
+_Sunday, August 22._--We woke up this morning with a bright sun shining
+through the canvas of the tent, and making it intolerably hot inside;
+and as we threw open the door of the inner compartment, the fragrant
+aroma of the ‘boss pie’ was wafted to us on the morning air.
+
+We spent the morning in quiet Sunday fashion, chiefly in lying under the
+shade of an awning made with rugs which we call the ‘sycamine tree,’ and
+eating wimberries and cream. Besides this we perpetrated a great deal of
+high art; every one was seized with the desire of sketching the camp,
+and so we sat around on pinnacles like so many pelicans, libelling the
+unfortunate place from every position whence it could be seen.
+
+It is looking very comfortable just now. The tent itself is pitched in
+an angle of a steep little cliff which effectually protects it from cold
+winds at one side and the back, and at the other side we have put up a
+thick fence of birch branches to temper the storm to the sleeping-tent.
+We find it very convenient to have the two compartments: the inner one
+is only used for sleeping in, and always immediately after reveillé is
+plunged in an apparently hopeless confusion of rugs, sheepskins,
+mattresses, and boots, with here and there a book or a hat protruding
+(to use the Skipper’s beautiful simile) like brickbats in a dust-heap.
+After breakfast all the bedding is dragged out to be aired on the rocks,
+and the tent generally tidied.
+
+But the outer tent is always a picture of order and neatness, for here
+we keep our stores, boxes of flour and biscuits, cartridges, cooking
+utensils, tools, whisky, and potatoes. One of the boxes was made
+specially under Esau’s directions to be used as a table: the top and
+bottom are both hinged, and so when the box is put on its front and
+these two lids opened it makes a very good large table; the lids are
+held up by a batten screwed underneath them, and for greater security we
+have added two legs. But at present the weather is so pleasant that we
+always feed outside, a few yards from the tent and nearer to the oven.
+
+On the extreme left, as the penny showman says, you will observe one of
+the meat safes, the other one ‘thou canst not see, because it’s not in
+sight,’ being close to the back of the tent. Also behind the tent may be
+faintly seen the mustard and cress garden, always covered with a sheet
+by day to save it from the heat of the sun, and with the same sheet by
+night, to guard it from the cold, so that the poor thing never gets any
+light, and does not flourish very exceedingly. None of the mustard seeds
+have as yet grown up as big as the one in the parable, but when one does
+we mean to make a lot of salad out of it, enough for all the camp.
+
+Above the middle of the outer tent are three things which look like
+lightning conductors, but are only our rods, which are always stuck in
+the ground there when not in use. At their foot under the rock is the
+egg larder, neatly constructed of stones and turf, with a wooden lid;
+and hanging from the cliff hard by is a very pretty and curious spider’s
+nest made of paper, like a miniature wasp-nest, about two inches in
+diameter.
+
+High up in the centre is ‘the meteor flag of England,’ engaged in its
+customary occupation of ‘yet terrific burning,’ there being absolutely
+no Dutch Boers here. Underneath its shelter are many forked poles with
+cross-bars, all made from the birch with which the valley abounds just
+here, and on which clothing of some sort is always hanging out to dry;
+so that the place looks like a laundry-ground, and deceives even the
+ravens, which come down in swarms from the mountains in search of maids’
+noses to devour. In the midst of these poles may be seen the oven, with
+its flue reaching halfway up the hill, and its two openings, the lower
+one for fuel, the upper for food.
+
+  [Plate: THE CAMP IN MEMURUDALEN.]
+
+Right in front of the tent is the fireplace, a long trench in the
+ground, faced with stones of such a size and shape that they form
+apertures suitable for our numerous pans; and simmering by the fire is
+the perennial soup. Nearer to the front is the wood pile, and nearer
+still the board on which the cooking things are placed after washing up.
+In front again of this is the little stream which supplies us with
+water, now rapidly beginning to fail under the influence of the long
+drought: it may be noticed that the engineers have changed its course in
+several places for greater convenience in getting water, and to give
+more room on the camp side.
+
+The foreground is a mass of juniper, wimberries, skintukt, crowberries,
+and rocks, and then comes about thirty yards from the tent the Memurua
+torrent, all thick and milky from the glacier, cold as Christmas,
+fishless, uninteresting, not drinkable, only useful as a refrigerator
+for milk, and only agreeable to look upon from a distance, but
+faithfully keeping up the unceasing roar that is customary among such
+torrents. This river makes the waters of the lake too cold to bathe in
+and too cheerless for fish to abide in near our camp, but it does not
+come into the picture, partly because it runs in a ravine, but more
+because it was right behind the artist.
+
+The lake itself is to the extreme right, with unclimbable snow-capped
+rocky mountains forming the opposite coast.
+
+To-day we dined at 4 P.M. in order to get an uninterrupted evening’s
+fishing, but the experiment was not a success and will not be repeated,
+for it spoilt the dinner and we caught no fish. On returning to camp at
+night rather cold, very cross, and exceedingly hungry, we agreed that
+the best antidote for these dangerous symptoms would be hot soup, so
+John put the pot on the fire while the Skipper and Esau were attending
+to the tent and domestic duties.
+
+Soon the caldron was heated and brought into the tent, and the eager
+crowd drew near with cups and spoons, and one lifted the lid, while
+another plunged his cup into the steaming savoury mess. And then arose a
+great cry of horror and desolation, and the sleeping valley rang with
+the wail of men in despair, for John had put the wrong pot on the fire,
+and we had been presented with boiling dirty water in which the
+dinner-things had been washed up; while all the time the soup pot was
+quiet, untouched and cold in the corner of the tent where it is kept.
+
+But three hungry men are not to be balked of a meal on which their
+hearts are set by any trifle like this, so we all commenced with a will
+to stoke that fire up and put that other pot on, and we got our soup and
+were snugly packed in bed long before the gentle August moon had sunk to
+rest behind the sheltering mountain tops.
+
+The Skipper, by the way, is very much exasperated with this same moon
+just now. He says she is a fraud, for this morning when we got up, there
+she was high in the heavens.
+
+‘What right,’ he wants to know, ‘has this moon--any moon, in fact--to be
+up there blinking away in the middle of the day when we have plenty of
+sun to light us? forward, dissipated thing! and then probably after this
+week we shall have ever so many nights without any moon at all, and all
+the earth left in total darkness to take care of itself; while here we
+are to-day with an absurdly round moon at one end of this comparatively
+diminutive valley, and a most extravagantly blazing sun at the other.’
+The whole thing is ridiculous, he says, and it must be confessed that
+there is some justice in his complaint; though no doubt there could be a
+good deal said on the other side.
+
+
+_August 23._--While Esau went out after deer the other two crawled up
+the mountain and over to Rus Vand to fish, and had a good day. Two of
+the Skipper’s fish were three pounds each, but, like most of the biggest
+fish, not in that beautiful condition which the smaller ones always
+show. The Skipper is sure that the old worn-out fish creep up to the
+stony shallows at the western end of the lake to die in a sunny spot,
+just as we men creep away in our old age to Bath, Cheltenham, Cannes, or
+Algiers, to breathe our last in a warm place, thereby taking one step in
+the direction of the proverbial future.
+
+Esau arrived in camp about half-past seven, quite exhausted, and
+followed by Öla, also dead beat, and again bearing the heads and skins
+of two deer, a buck and a doe. He was hailed with fervent joy and many
+congratulations: it is certainly great luck to fall in with deer on two
+stalking days in succession, for they are by no means numerous here this
+year. Dinner was served in a marvellously short time.
+
+
+MENU.--August 23.
+
+             _Poisson._
+    Truite à la Fried in Butter.
+
+            _Entrées._
+      Kari of Reindeer Tongue.
+
+              _Rôts._
+           The Boss Pie.
+
+             _Gibier._
+       Ryper à la Spitchcock.
+
+            _Entremets._
+  Jam. Wimberry tart. Marmalade.
+
+             _Potage._
+         Could not eat any.
+
+Then came Esau’s romance.
+
+‘We walked up the Memurua to the great glacier, and then skirted its
+south side. We found many fresh tracks, and about two o’clock, when we
+were seven miles from home, Öla spied three deer chewing stones about
+three quarters of a mile away. The wind was just in the right direction
+to allow us to approach them, and they were in capital ground for
+stalking, full of little hollows and slopes. But there was a serious
+drawback: on one side was a lake, on the other an impassable precipice;
+and before we could get into a place out of their sight we should be
+obliged to cross a narrow strip of ground in full view of them, though
+perhaps half a mile from them. We sat down and had our lunch, and waited
+an hour watching for them to lie down, and at last they did so; then we
+determined to risk the passage of the dangerous strip, and by crawling
+like serpents and aided by luck got across without the deer seeing us.
+Then we had to creep along the side of a scandalous precipice for the
+next half-mile, in no danger of being seen, but with our hearts
+constantly in our mouths as, despite our care, some stone was dislodged
+and went clattering down the rocks, sounding to my strained ears as if
+it must disturb every living thing within a mile. Very slow and
+difficult was our progress, occasionally dangerous, but at last we
+arrived at a spot 200 yards from the deer, which were still lying down,
+and pronounced by Öla to be a buck and two does.
+
+‘This was a very awkward place to shoot from, and I thought I could see
+my way to a better one much nearer, so tried it and found it was just
+possible, and after about a quarter of an hour’s worming, I arrived at a
+place only 100 yards from them. From this I could see both the does
+well, but only the head of the buck, and so had to lie there an hour
+waiting for him to get up. Both the does did so twice, offering
+beautiful shots, but he would not move, and they lay down again. I dare
+not whistle to make him jump up, for fear the does might possibly be in
+the way at the moment. So there I lay, miserably uncomfortable, with
+cramp in every muscle; and at last I tried to crawl to another stone
+about five yards away, from which I thought I could see to shoot at the
+buck. When I got to it and peered cautiously over, I was horrified to
+see the deer some distance away, and running as hard as they could
+towards a small glacier which was close to them.
+
+  [Illustration: Esau stalking near Hinaakjærnhullet]
+
+‘Of course I instantly lost my head, and jumping up fired at the buck
+without much aim, and missed him. Then I recovered my senses and made a
+careful shot at the last doe, knocking her over like a rabbit. The other
+two were just then out of sight in a hollow, but they appeared directly
+going up the hill on the snow at a great speed; and getting a broadside
+shot at the buck I broke his shoulder; after this he went slowly, but
+still kept on up the hill, and when he was about three hundred yards
+away I fired two more shots, one of which hit him in the ribs, and the
+other cut one of his horns off. Then he gave up trying to mount the
+hill, and turned down towards the lake out of my sight. I ran as hard as
+I could across the shoulder of the glacier, and saw him standing down
+below me among the rocks close to the water, and sitting down I fired
+another shot which killed him.
+
+‘This is not a creditable performance in the shooting line; but my solid
+bullets have a good deal to do with the matter: either of the first two
+shots would have stopped him at once if fired from an express with
+hollow-pointed bullets.
+
+‘The doe is a barren one with a beautiful skin, and very fat, and the
+buck is the best we have killed at present this year, a four-year-old,
+what Öla calls a “litt stor bock” (little big buck), which I suppose is
+the next best thing to the mythical “meget stor bock,” whose footprints
+we are always seeing, but who carefully absenteth himself whensoever the
+jovial hunter goeth forth to pursue him.
+
+‘We saw a great deal of fresh spoor to-day, so that we may hope the deer
+are beginning to come to our part of the country: perhaps the poor
+things have been very much bullied in other places. Anyhow, they won’t
+find any better country in Norway than where we went to-day; and the
+scenery there is glorious.’
+
+Esau was so tired that he fell asleep once in the midst of his exciting
+narrative, and as dinner was very late we all turned in almost as soon
+as it was finished.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+A PICNIC.
+
+
+_August 24._--There is a brood of ryper on the brow of the mountain
+above our camp, which we always put up when we walk over Glopit armed
+with rods, but never when we take a gun. There were originally eight of
+them, but one has succumbed to a merlin which hunts up there; and they
+are remarkably tame, so that when we put them up we throw stones at
+them, and fully expect to kill them by that means, but somehow they have
+escaped with their lives until now. This conduct has become unbearable,
+and we have sworn ‘this day that brood shall die;’ so the first thing
+after breakfast Esau and the Skipper toiled up the mountain with pockets
+full of cartridges and guns ready for the slaughter of the innocents.
+It takes just three quarters of an hour to get to the top; and after
+reaching it we tramped over some millions of acres in search of that
+brood, and of course it never obtruded itself on the scene. Finally the
+Skipper went home in disgust, remarking that ‘he wished every ryper in
+Norway was at the bottom of Gjendin;’ while Esau said ‘he would stay up
+there a month or two and find those birds if they were anywhere on our
+sheet of the Ordnance map.’
+
+The Skipper had hardly walked 200 yards towards camp before he trod on
+the old cock, who got up observing kek! kek! kekkekkek_kek_, kurrack:
+kur_rack_; kurrack, krackrackackckkkkk! in an extremely indignant tone
+of voice, and the rest of the family immediately followed him,
+astonishing the Skipper so much that he missed the lot; and though we
+marked them down quite near we could not persuade any of them to risk
+their lives in flight again.
+
+The language used on this occasion scorched the herbage off so large a
+patch of ground, that John down below thought that Glopit had suddenly
+commenced a volcanic eruption.
+
+There are two kinds of birds known as ryper in Norway--the fjeld or
+skarv ryper, which is, we think, identical with our ptarmigan; and the
+dal or skog ryper, which we believe to be the same bird as the willow
+grouse of North America. The former of these is not numerous anywhere,
+but a few are always seen by the reindeer hunter up on the highest parts
+of the mountains, among the snow and rocks. They do not attempt much
+concealment, but their grey bodies and white wings are so exactly the
+colour of their habitation that it is very difficult to see them, as
+they sit perfectly still on the stones. If you do happen to catch sight
+of one, in all probability after looking at him for a little you will
+suddenly be aware that there is a small family of others all about him,
+and will wonder how they escaped your notice at first. They are not very
+useful for sporting purposes, as they are never found in great numbers,
+are too tame to give any trouble, and not particularly good to eat. The
+skog ryper is the bird which takes the place of the British grouse for
+the sportsman in Norway: he lives at a lower altitude than the skarv
+ryper, among the willows, wimberries, and stunted birches. In plumage he
+is not unlike our grouse, but not quite so red in shade, and with a
+white wing. During the summer he feeds on wimberry leaves, heather, and
+occasional bits of willow, and he is then almost if not quite equal to a
+grouse in flavour, but in winter, when there is nothing but willow to be
+had, the flesh becomes bitter and not nice to eat: the poor birds are
+then snared in great numbers, and may be seen hanging in English shops
+as ‘ptarmigan,’ which with their then white plumage they much resemble.
+After a good breeding season these skog ryper are very numerous in any
+favourable place in Norway, but they are so much inclined to lie close,
+that without dogs it is impossible to do much with them. Gjendin is too
+steep and desolate for them, but between the east end of the lake and
+Sjödals Vand there is some first-rate country, and also a little at the
+west end.
+
+After lunch we all manned Esau’s canoe, which is the largest, because he
+is the smallest man; and set off down the lake to Leirungsö, the place
+where the professor’s hut is built at the edge of the waterfall which
+runs out of a small lake there (not the real Leirung’s Vand, which is
+further to the east).
+
+The Skipper had noticed a remarkably fine bed of mölte bær there, which
+we expected to be just about ripe now, and so we had determined to
+picnic (!) there, forsooth, as if our life were not one perpetual and
+perennial picnic.
+
+Leirungsö is nearly four miles from our camp, and the professor’s hut is
+an extremely comfortable and convenient little dwelling, in a most
+charming situation. Only one thing has been wanting, reindeer: he never
+found any, and left his hut a fortnight ago for a place further north,
+where we afterwards heard he had good sport.
+
+After landing, the Skipper and Esau climbed up the valley to the little
+lake in search of something to shoot, while John remained to bathe and
+fish at the fall. There were lots of duck on the little lake, and in the
+rushy swamp at its upper end, and the Skipper put up a large brood of
+ryper, which we marked into a very small patch of willow scrub
+surrounded by bare ground. We walked through and through that patch, and
+threw so many stones into it that we fancy we must have killed and
+buried most of them, for we only persuaded four of them to fly again,
+three of which we secured. Our shooting was soon over, and then we
+gathered a lot of mölte bær, and returned to John, who was getting
+dinner ready; and after a regal repast of kidneys, reindeer pie, and
+mölte, paddled home by moonlight, arriving soon after nine.
+
+We beguiled the journey home by songs and accompaniments by the
+following celebrated artists: Messrs. John, Skipper, and Esau. Among
+other songs was an original composition by John--air, ‘Bonnie Dundee’--
+
+
+ODE TO THE LAST POT OF MARMALADE.
+
+  To the fishers of Gjendin the bold Skipper spoke:
+  ‘There is one two-pound pot that as yet is unbroke;[1]
+  So rouse ye, my gallants, and after our tea
+  Let us “go for” our Keiller’s[2] own Bonnie Dundee.’
+
+    (_Chorus._) Come! up with the Smör![3] Come! out with the Brod,[4]
+    We’ll have one more Spise[5] that’s fit for a god;
+    Come, whip off the paper and let it gae free,
+    And we’ll wade into Keiller’s own Bonnie Dundee.
+
+  You may talk of your mölte[6] with sugar and milk,
+  Your blueberry pasties, and jam of that ilk;
+  They are all very well in the wilds, don’t you see?
+  But they can’t hold a candle to Bonnie Dundee.
+
+    _Chorus as before._
+
+  Oh! the pies they were good, and the oven baked true,
+  With its door of green sod, and its sinuous flue.
+  Oh! the curry was toothsome as curry can be,
+  But where is the equal of Bonnie Dundee?
+
+    _Chorus again, gentlemen._
+
+  There are ryper on Glopit[7] as fleet as the wind,
+  And the Stor[8] Bock roams on the Skagastolstind;
+  There are trout, teal, and woodcock, a sight for to see,
+  But what meal can be perfect without our Dundee?
+
+    _Chorus, if you please._
+
+  Pandecages[9] are tasty, and omelettes are good;
+  Our eggs, though antique, not unsuited for food;
+  You can always be sure of at least one in three,
+  But blue mould cannot ruin our Bonnie Dundee.
+
+    _Chorus, only more so._
+
+  Take[10] my soup, though ’tis luscious, my öl,[11] though ’tis rare,
+  My whisky, though scanty, beyond all compare;
+  Take my baccy, take all that is dearest to me,
+  But leave me one spoonful of Bonnie Dundee.
+
+    _Chorus ad lib._
+
+Esau supplied an encore verse:--
+
+  It has made our lot brighter, and helped us to bear
+  Our troubles, the rain, mist, and cold northern air;
+  And the Gjende fly,[12] green fly,[13] bug,[14] skeeter,[15] and flea,
+  We should ne’er have done Deeing them but for Dundee.
+
+    _Chorus (of big, big D’s)._
+
+
+NOTES ON THE ABOVE COMPOSITION.
+
+    [Footnote 1: ‘Unbroke.’ This is bold poetic imagery, meaning
+    unopened. Breakages were unknown during our expedition, and long
+    experience justifies us in assuring the world that breaking the
+    pot, though an effectual way of getting at the marmalade, is not a
+    satisfactory method. It will be found much better to remove the
+    bladder at the top. This may be depended on.]
+
+    [Footnote 2: Need we explain that ‘Keiller’s own Bonnie Dundee’
+    alludes to the marmalade made by that great and good man? No,
+    a thousand times no!]
+
+    [Footnote 3: ‘Smör,’ Norwegian butter, pronounced Smoeurr--and it
+    tastes like that, too.]
+
+    [Footnote 4: ‘Brod,’ bread. The word does not rhyme to god, being
+    pronounced something like Broat, but it looks as if it rhymed.]
+
+    [Footnote 5: ‘Spise,’ a meal, pronounced Speessa.]
+
+    [Footnote 6: ‘Mölte,’ cloudberry, pronounced Moulta.]
+
+    [Footnote 7: ‘Glopit,’ the mountain between Gjendin and Rus Vand.]
+
+    [Footnote 8: ‘Stor,’ big, pronounced Stora before a consonant.]
+
+    [Footnote 9: ‘Pandecāges,’ pancakes.]
+
+    [Footnote 10: ‘Take.’ This word is only used by poetic licence,
+    and must not be construed literally. When we attempted to ‘take’
+    John’s whisky on our return to camp, there was a good deal of
+    ill-feeling engendered, and he said that no one but himself
+    understood the subtleties of æsthetic metaphor.]
+
+    [Footnote 11: ‘Öl,’ the ale of the country, ‘rare’ both in quality
+    and, alas! in quantity.]
+
+    [Footnote 12: ‘Gjende fly,’ a fly peculiar to this lake, of which
+    more anon.]
+
+    [Footnote 13: ‘Green fly,’ a charming creature like a large grey
+    blue-bottle with green eyes; it bites a portion of flesh
+    sufficient for its wants, and then goes away to eat it.]
+
+    [Footnote 14: ‘Bug.’ Again poetic licence. ‘Cimex lectularius’ has
+    not been encountered during our stay in Norway this time;
+    nevertheless he is not unknown in the country, as the sojourners
+    in one of the Lillehammer hotels, not the Victoria, can testify.]
+
+    [Footnote 15: ‘Skeeter.’ The mosquito is a mournful and
+    disgraceful fact; and so are the sand-fly, the stomoxys, and the
+    flea. Memurudalen is more free from insects than any place we have
+    tried.]
+
+
+_August 25._--Still the same glorious weather, rather too glorious for
+our purling rivulet, which has now dwindled away to a mere thread of
+water, while even the larger stream on the hill behind the tent, which
+we use for bathing, is showing a marked decrease in volume.
+
+The Skipper and Öla went out stalking directly after breakfast, and Esau
+climbed up on to Bes Hö to shoot ryper. John went over to Rus Vand to
+fish, and had a pleasant day. He managed somehow to drop his native
+‘tolle kniv’ into the lake, and of course immediately discovered that
+that knife was the most precious thing he possessed, in fact, the only
+thing he cared about in this world; though until it fell into the lake,
+he had regarded it with very unenthusiastic feelings--feelings of
+tolle-ration, the Skipper said. So he undressed and dived for it for a
+long time, and at last was lucky enough to recover it.
+
+It would have been a pleasing sight to a spectator, if any could have
+been present, to watch John playing at being a seal all by himself in
+Rus Vand, or standing on a rock poised on one leg like a heron, with his
+head sideways and keen eye piercing the cerulean wave. And it was good
+to see his proud bearing as he returned to camp with the ‘tolle kniv’
+slung jauntily at his waist, and carrying over his shoulder the scaly
+spoil snatched from the vasty deep, as we used beautifully to word it in
+Latin verses--meaning the fish he had caught.
+
+  [Illustration: John diving for his knife in Rus Lake]
+
+At 8 P.M. the Skipper had not returned, so we dined, and then sat
+round the fire wondering what could have happened to delay him; and as
+time went on and still he never came, we began to get very uneasy;
+there are so many dangers by which the reindeer hunter may be
+overtaken--avalanches, crevasses, fogs, snowdrifts, broken limbs, or
+getting lost. We could only hope that none of these had happened to the
+Skipper, and at eleven o’clock gave up any hopes of his return that
+night and turned in, there being then a very decided fog a short way up
+the Memurua valley.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+THE SKIPPER’S RETURN.
+
+
+_August 26._--At breakfast-time the drover who had accompanied us to
+shoot ryper at Gjendebod arrived here on his way towards lower and more
+genial regions for the winter. We always feel that we are killing more
+game than we really need, and here was an outlet for our superfluous
+meat, so we gave him half a deer, and he went homewards rejoicing
+greatly.
+
+We had sent Ivar up to the drover’s den in Memurudalen at daybreak to
+see if our missing ones had found their way to it and spent the night
+there, but he now came back without having found any traces of them.
+However, under the cheering influence of the morning sun we soon became
+resigned to their fate, and Esau so far regained his spirits that he
+crossed the glacier torrent with a gun, and penetrated the birchwood on
+the other side, to what he called ‘shoot the home coverts.’ He presently
+brought back a woodcock, which had got up about fourteen times before he
+killed it, and each time he had thought it was a fresh cock, so that he
+had had a regular sporting morning after it, ‘seeing lots of cock get
+up, shooting at two, and killing one of them,’ the wood being so thick
+that it was almost impossible to get even the snappiest of snap-shots at
+the agile bird.
+
+Esau then busied himself with the construction of a rack to hold all our
+guns and spare rods, cleaning rod, &c., with a shelf near the bottom for
+books, and another one whereon each man might keep his little valuables,
+such as pipes and watch, fly-books and reels. This contrivance was
+chiefly formed of birch boughs of peculiar shape, and when finished and
+placed in its proper position at the further end of the tent just behind
+our pillows, it presented a truly noble appearance.
+
+Lunch-time passed, and still the Skipper had not returned, so we decided
+that he must be defunct, and proceeded to write his epitaph, preparatory
+to organising a search expedition to bring in his remains.
+
+Here is one touching little poem:
+
+  He was rather tall and terribly thin,
+    But remarkably roomy inside;
+  We put up these stones to cover his bones
+    Near the place where we think he died.
+
+This is another:
+
+  IN MEMURUHAMEREN
+  (Hills Round the Camp).
+
+  Our Skipper has gone, our great head cook,
+    On a tour that e’en Cook won’t find;
+  In a fissure he’s surely taken his hook
+    Nor left any trace behind.
+
+  With a rod or pole he would fish for perch,
+    Now a rod, pole, or perch of ground
+  Is more than he needs, and in vain we search,
+    For his body will ne’er be found.
+
+  Now his angling is finished, though once every fin
+    Which came within reach he’d attack;
+  He was really so clever at reeling them in,
+    And his terms were to fish, ‘nett catsh.’
+
+  On a lake or pond, or even a moat,
+    He beamed wherever he went;
+  How cheerfully he would tar his boat!
+    How gaily would pitch his tent!
+
+  After ryper or deer he would walk all day,
+    From the top of a hill to the bottom;
+  And we feel it unpleasantly sad to say
+    That the dear old Reaper’s got him.
+
+  But we think it is time that this verse were done,
+    Which to mournfully write we’ve tried
+  In memory o’ our darlin’ one,
+    Who in Memurudalen died.
+
+While we were still lingering over these beautiful and appropriate
+sentiments, and deliberating as to whether they should be cut on a stone
+or only on wood, the corpse suddenly walked into the tent and announced
+that he wanted something to eat. We soon got over our natural
+disappointment at the waste of a good epitaph, and really welcomed him
+quite warmly, much more so when Öla appeared laden with the tit-bits of
+a reindeer buck. Then we set food before the Skipper, and after he had
+feasted he related unto us his story.
+
+‘I left camp yesterday morning determined to beard the savage untamed
+reindeer of the mountains in his lair, and soon came on very fresh
+tracks, which we followed for some time, and at each step seemed to get
+“hotter,” as the children say, and the indications of deer being near
+got more and more encouraging. However, by one o’clock we had seen
+nothing, so sat down behind a little rocky eminence to have our ‘spise.’
+Mine was a particularly good lunch, as I had spread some gravy from the
+‘boss pie’ on my slice of bread and butter, and this with the icy cold
+snow-water was very grateful after a four hours’ walk uphill under a
+scorching sun.
+
+  [Illustration: The Skipper about to astonish the Reindeer]
+
+‘Öla also seemed to devour his food with considerable relish. So we had
+been sitting there some time, happily silent, as we cannot talk each
+other’s tongue, and I was just preparing to move on, and putting my
+knife back in its sheath, when we heard a slight snort quite close
+to us.
+
+‘Öla immediately peeped cautiously over an adjacent stone; then he
+pushed my rifle into my hand and whispering the magic word “Reins,”
+pointed to another stone a few yards away, whither he wished me to
+crawl. To unsling my cartridge-bag lest it should jingle, and creep to
+that stone, was what the novelists call the work of a moment: then I
+raised my head _va-a-ry_ gingerly, and saw forty yards away a single
+four-year-old buck standing broadside to me with his head in the air,
+sniffing suspiciously, and his whole attitude denoting uncertainty and
+caution. This buck, as we found out afterwards from the spoor, had
+walked up to within ten yards of us as we sat at lunch; then he must
+have either heard me or smelt Öla, probably the latter, for Öla seldom
+washes his hands, never his blood-stained hunting coat; and when I
+encountered his gaze he had evidently just decided that this was not a
+good place for reindeer to be about in. This was an excellent frame of
+mind on his part, but he arrived at it a couple of seconds too late: my
+rifle was levelled, and the shot hit him just above the heart. At that
+distance the express bullet smashed a portion of him about as big as a
+hat, so that he rolled over stone dead, and had no time for lingering
+glances or last words. Half an hour more, and he was skinned,
+gralloched, put in a hole and buried under a heap of stones, to remain
+there until we need his flesh and send the horse to bring him home. Then
+we built a little cairn to mark his resting-place for future use, and
+wandered on in search of the rest of his party.
+
+‘Very soon we came on the tracks of four other deer, one of them only a
+calf, but although we followed the spoor all the afternoon we never came
+up with them: probably they were near enough to hear my shot when I
+fired, and at once betook themselves to remote regions.
+
+  [Illustration: Öla performing the Funeral Rites]
+
+‘It had got so late before we gave up the search, and we were such a
+long way from home, that we determined to go to Gjendebod, at the
+Western end of the lake, hoping to get a boat there and return to
+Memurudalen by water. But on arriving there very tired, hot, and hungry,
+we found that the men had taken their boat down the lake, and would not
+return until to-day. This was a great blow, for it is quite impossible
+to walk along the shores of Gjendin, except, as John says, for a
+bird--and even it would have to fly all the way. Climbing up the
+mountain again was out of the question, as it is a seven hours’ walk
+from Gjendebod to our camp, so there was nothing for it but sleeping
+there--a course which was very distasteful to me, as the food is bad,
+and I had no book with me, no tobacco, no hair-brush, and no
+fishing-rod.
+
+‘To-day I started for home directly after breakfast. We wished to
+combine a little stalking with the walk, for we had to pass through some
+first-rate deer country--all that part, Esau, where you got your first
+two bucks; but of course we had not much chance of doing anything, as
+the wind was with us all the way. As you know, deer almost always feed
+up wind, so by walking against it you are safe from their ears and
+noses, and also are likely to be warned of their presence by coming on
+their tracks first. But in walking down wind all this is reversed; you
+come upon the deer without any warning, and they are almost sure to
+smell or hear you long before you discover them. Consequently, as we
+expected, we saw nothing on our way here to-day.’
+
+The Skipper’s buck is a very good one, the best that has been killed at
+present, and there was much joy at his change of luck. But strictly
+speaking his bad luck has pursued him even in this instance, for if he
+had not been obliged to shoot when he did, in all probability the rest
+of the herd would have appeared on the scene, for their tracks showed
+that they were following the lead of this buck. Besides, there is not
+the same excitement in a chance shot like this as there is when you
+first find the deer, and then spend two or three hours in all kinds of
+uncomfortable modes of progression in order to approach them.
+
+However, when we were in this country before the Skipper had all the
+good luck, and Esau the bad, the former getting five deer and the latter
+only two, so that the present state of affairs may be looked upon as the
+working of retributive justice. When this view of the matter was
+suggested by Esau to the Skipper, he said, ‘Retributive justice be
+blowed!’
+
+We celebrated the joyful reunion of loving hearts by a skaal, and so to
+bed, perfectly happy after the events of the day.
+
+
+_August 27._--We sent the men off this morning with the horse to bring
+in some of the meat now lying in the mountains, while we went by canoe
+to Gjendesheim to stay for a couple of days, as we cannot go stalking
+again till the already slain deer are brought home; the fish in the lake
+are not rising well after this long spell of fine weather, and with the
+exception of Esau’s ‘home coverts’ there is no shooting for a
+fowling-piece at Memurudalen.
+
+Very few tourists find their way to Gjendin, but the season for them is
+over, and we expected to have the place to ourselves; but how fallible
+is human prescience! To our astonishment the sportsmen from Rus Vand had
+already occupied the greater part of the house, having abandoned their
+own hut for the same reasons which had led us to forsake our camp, and
+here they were, armed to the teeth with rods and guns.
+
+This seemed unlucky, and although we were outwardly glad to see them, at
+heart we could not help feeling how inconsiderate it was of them to come
+and shoot the fjeld and fish the river just when we wanted to do all
+that ourselves. No doubt they harboured precisely the same feelings
+towards us.
+
+However, we had dinner together, and introduced the ‘boss pie,’ now
+rapidly disappearing, to the notice of our Norwegian friends, and as the
+meal advanced a feeling of genial contentment crept over us, which
+seemed to influence all our senses; we began to talk over sport and
+compare our experiences in various countries and in pursuit of various
+animals: some of us were good listeners, others fond of talking, but all
+animated by a love for the same occupation, so that when at length one
+of the enemy handed round the best of cigars, even the Skipper became so
+mellow and pleasant that before going to bed we arranged for a joint
+shoot after ryper to-morrow; and said ‘Good night,’ feeling that it was
+quite fortunate that we had all come to Gjendesheim on the same day.
+
+One of our new friends is a Russian, an engineer officer; he speaks not
+the English, but we were introduced to him as a man who had shot more
+bears in Europe than any one else living. He has killed forty-two, and
+looks as though he had been hugged by each one of them before it finally
+succumbed. Now he wants to kill a reindeer, and has been attempting the
+feat to-day; apparently he will be _hors de combat_ for the rest of the
+week, as he can hardly move for stiffness: he has not been accustomed to
+the awful walking that stalking round Gjendin entails.
+
+Esau is also rather dilapidated, for he landed at Leirungsö on his way
+down the lake, and walked round the mountain to Gjendesheim, leaving
+John to bring on his canoe. On his way he was obliged to wade across the
+Leirungs River, a wide and rapid stream, and just in the roughest part
+he trod on a loose stone and fell, cutting his knee and making a bad
+dent in his gun-barrel. Of course he was wet through and a good deal
+hurt, but hardly enough to account for the frightful state of his
+temper, till it came out that though he had walked through miles of
+beautiful ground for ryper, snipe, and duck, he had never got a shot at
+anything.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE GJENDE FLY.
+
+
+_August 28._--This was the hottest, most windless and cloudless day that
+has yet been made. The Russian and F---- went out with Esau and the
+Skipper to shoot ryper, accompanied by a pointer, which the Norwegians
+call a bird-hound. A brood was soon found and rose in front of Esau, who
+with his usual promptitude got a right and left; whereupon the Russian
+took off his hat, and bowing profoundly, advanced and solemnly shook
+hands with him, protesting that he had frequently seen marvellous
+shooting, but never, never aught like this; at least, that is what we
+imagined to be the translation of the neat little speech which he made
+in Russian.
+
+A ryper is easier to kill, if possible, than the tamest young grouse
+which gets up under a dog’s nose on the calmest 12th of August; and Esau
+thinks fame is like an eel on a night-line, easily caught, but very
+difficult to hold afterwards.
+
+Satisfied by having witnessed this extraordinary specimen of our skill,
+the Russian gave up the chase, and returned to Gjendesheim completely
+exhausted by the heat; but the others went on till the afternoon, now
+finding a selfish old cock, whose fate no one regretted; now a young
+brood only just old enough to be shot: anon lying down to rest and eat
+berries, or bathing in the Leirungs Lake, but all the time extremely
+happy.
+
+F---- was so exceedingly polite that he would _not_ shoot unless birds
+enough for all of us happened to get up at once, and one brood escaped
+without a shot being fired, in consequence of our unwonted emulation of
+his courtesy.
+
+Near Leirungs we were fortunate enough to drive three large broods into
+the same bit of willow scrub, and had some very pretty shooting as the
+dog set them one by one; but there was hardly any scent, and the heat
+soon proved too much for our bird-hound, so we returned to Gjendesheim
+with a very considerable addition to the larder.
+
+Then followed hours of inability to do anything except lie on our backs
+with lighted pipes in our mouths, far too exhausted to smoke them; and
+at last--dinner; and soon the cooler air brought relief and engendered a
+return of bloodthirstiness, which impelled the gang of sportsmen to
+sally forth and rake the river till it was quite rough with artificial
+flies.
+
+This was a trying time, for by some means we have established a most
+dangerously flattering reputation as fishermen, and were bound to do all
+we knew to retain it. However, all turned out right; the Skipper went
+into the lake and got several beauties, and Esau did the same in the
+river, so that we came in with the best bags by a considerable margin,
+and could now afford to catch nothing for a whole day without being
+dethroned from our pedestal.
+
+The river, Gjendinoset as it is called, just in front of the rest-house,
+is a wonderful piece of water; there are about 150 yards of rapid in
+which the fish lie, then comes a fall, and below that there are nothing
+at present but small fish, though the big ones will soon begin to drop
+down lower for spawning. Consequently we all fish in the first 150
+yards, and to-day between 50 and 60 lbs. weight has been taken out; the
+same quantity yesterday, and probably for some days before; and the
+fishing will be even better a few days later, for the Gjende fly is
+beginning to hatch, and as long as he lasts the fish will rise well.
+
+We have heard so much of this fly that we had been expecting something
+rather gorgeous, a monster dragon-fly, or at least a second-rate
+butterfly, or a decent imitation of a stag-beetle; and we have been
+looking up gaudy Scotch and Canadian salmon flies, which we hoped might
+be passable substitutes; but, alas for the vain hopes of foolish man!
+the Gjende fly has come, and he is only a wretched little black beast
+like a very small, unenterprising, common or garden house-fly of Great
+Britain. He cannot fly decently; he is apparently devoid of sense; he
+has no moral, physical, or intellectual attributes for which a human
+being can learn to respect or love him; but--he _can_ CRAWL. If he
+alights on the water it never occurs to him to rise again, and he allows
+the trout, mad with the excitement of a fortnight’s prospective
+gluttony, to scoop him down their capacious throats by companies. If he
+enters your mouth, which he does with a numerous retinue every time you
+open it, retreat from that untenable position is the very last thing he
+would think of; and with what may be a gleam of momentary intelligence
+he seems desirous of still further increasing his knowledge of the rest
+of your interior arrangements.
+
+With characteristic obstinacy, unmindful of the teachings of logic, he
+invariably acts on the fallacious maxim that ‘an ink-bottle cannot be so
+full that there is not room for just one more Gjende fly.’ The whole of
+the river here at the end of the lake, and for thirty yards on each
+side, is now pervaded by this noisome creature; the water looks as if it
+were covered with a mixture of soot and tar, the rocks are black and
+slippery with him, and the atmosphere is charged with him, so that the
+landscape dimly seen through the cloud looks as if it were dancing.
+
+Gjendesheim itself is unfortunately not quite beyond the zone which he
+infests, so that the windows look loathsome with crawling blackness; the
+tablecloth is strewn with the corpses of those who have imbibed the
+honeyed poison of the paraffin lamp and come to an untimely end, and the
+remains of the ‘boss pie’ would warrant a stranger in the belief that it
+had been composed of currants.
+
+We think Pharaoh must have been a man of extraordinary resolution, or
+else inane mildness of character, otherwise he would have sacrificed
+Moses long before the fourth Plague was concluded.
+
+Fortunately the Gjende fly has no insatiable craving for human flesh;
+the Skipper, indeed, asserted that one fastened on his hand and
+inflicted a wound that swelled enormously and remained swollen for
+several days, but the better opinion is that the creature that
+perpetrated this outrage must have been a viper, though we did not hint
+this to the Skipper, because he is firmly convinced that whisky is the
+only remedy for snake-bites, and that it must be taken in large
+quantities.
+
+If any one stuck up a rod near the river, in two minutes it looked like
+a black fir pole with a bunch on the top; and John, who is a man of
+great entomological knowledge, spent some time in studying this
+phenomenon. He reported that the flies crawled up for fun, intending to
+jump off the top ring, but when they got up it was so much higher than
+they expected that they were all afraid to try, and those at the bottom
+and halfway up kept jeering at the top ones and calling them names, and
+jostling them so much that they could not crawl down again. He also said
+that the swarm in the air was so dense that he wrote his name in it with
+his finger, and it remained visible for nearly a minute.
+
+Probably it is difficult for a man to speak the exact truth with his
+mouth full of (_f_)lies.
+
+When it was too dark to fish we sat round the fire and heard a good deal
+about the various winter sports of Norway, capercailzie stalking, bear
+hunting, elk and reindeer shooting, and running on skier, the snow-shoes
+of the country, which are very different from the well-known Canadian
+shoes, being made of wood, from six to twelve feet long, four inches
+wide in front, three behind, about an inch and a half thick where the
+foot rests, thinner at each end, and turned up and pointed in front.
+Every district has its own peculiar shape; about here the right shoe is
+made six feet long, the left one ten or eleven feet, it being more easy
+to turn if one is shorter than the other: some are made of pine, some of
+birch, and occasionally oak. The men of the Thellemarken are the most
+skilful runners, but it is now quite a fashionable amusement in
+Christiania during the winter, just as skating is in England.
+
+_Sunday, August 29._--Our Norwegian friends departed for the happy
+hunting-grounds of Rus Vand this morning, but before doing so they most
+kindly offered us the hut there any time after this week, at the end of
+which they are going south. We can hardly expect the present glorious
+weather, which has now lasted for three weeks, to go on for ever; and
+when the change comes, a tent will no longer be the abode of comfort and
+luxury that we at present find it, so that the offer of the hut is most
+opportune for us.
+
+We parted with great regret from people who have been so kind and
+hospitable, and many were the expressions of good-will and protestations
+of eternal friendship, as we shall not see them again till we pass
+through Christiania on our return home.
+
+That return home has caused the Skipper hours of anxious thought
+already: there is to be a wedding in England about the end of next
+month, at which, although it is not his own, his presence is urgently
+needed. He knows he ought to go, but hates to leave this blissful life
+just when the best stalking is beginning; consequently he devotes much
+time every day to the consideration of the subject, torn by doubts,
+tortured by terrible misgivings, and harassed by indecision.
+
+To-day, after being more than usually disagreeable under the malign
+influence of his conscience, and seeking for inspiration, first in the
+room at Gjendesheim, walking up and down like Weston; then on the lake
+paddling like a penny boat; and finally roosting on a rock at the top of
+the fjeld with his arms folded like Napoleon, and a gruesome scowl on
+his face, or at least on those portions of it which were visible through
+the mask of Gjende flies, he at last concluded to commit his fate to the
+decision of an unbiassed coin, if such could be obtained from any
+confiding friend.
+
+With great difficulty he persuaded Esau to lend him one öre, value 1/100
+of a shilling, which seems on reckoning to be about half a farthing;
+Esau observing as he gave it, ‘It isn’t that I’m stingy, old fellow,
+though of course I don’t expect to see it again, but it _will_ throw my
+accounts out so.’ N.B.--Esau’s notion of keeping accounts is to put his
+receipts into one pocket, _and his disbursements into another_; if he
+has a vague idea to within 20_l._ or so of how the money has gone, it
+will be more than any one expects; that everything he possesses will be
+spent is a foregone conclusion.
+
+But to resume. The öre coin has no distinct head or tail, so the Skipper
+named one side heads, and tossed. The thing fell on its edge, and rolled
+round the table and about the room till it struck the wall, whereupon it
+fell over ‘heads,’ and decided that the Skipper must go to the wedding.
+
+So he sat down and wrote a letter saying that they must not expect him,
+and that he should stay out here the whole time that was originally
+intended; for as soon as he had dated the letter it occurred to him that
+it would be childish to allow such a weighty matter to be decided by the
+whim of a half-farthing coin, which might very likely be interested in
+the affair in some way, and which, as he truly said, would possibly have
+turned up ‘tails’ if it had not happened to fall on its edge and been
+interfered with by an unauthorized wall.
+
+Having thus acted according to his inclinations, and given his missive
+to Andreas to post when he leaves Gjendesheim next week, the Skipper
+became quite pleasant again, and went forth to his fishing ‘ever and all
+so gaily O.’
+
+The ponies of Norway are wonderfully docile and clever; these qualities
+were well shown to-day in a black one belonging to Jens which came to
+take F----’s baggage over the mountain to Rus Vand. This pony was
+brought down near the door of the rest-house, and left standing there
+without any fastening or any one to look after him. The things were not
+ready, so he waited about two hours, occasionally wiping off the Gjende
+flies with his tail when their weight became insupportable, but
+otherwise never moving. The busy world (consisting of Andreas and
+Ragnild) pursued their usual avocations around him, goats ran against
+him, and insects climbed over him, but there he stood placid and
+motionless as a wooden rocking-horse. At last the baggage was ready, and
+they brought it out and piled it on his back until we feared he would
+break, and then Jens turned his head in the direction of Rus Vand, and
+gave him a gentle push to start him; and he went slowly off up the
+mountain, choosing the best way for himself, for no one went with him;
+in fact, Jens did not follow him for about half an hour, but no doubt he
+was found at the right place in the end. The whole performance reminded
+one of a clockwork toy, and John remarked as we stood and watched him
+out of sight over the pass, ‘Now, that’s what I call a well-trained
+pony.’
+
+During our stay here we had the pleasure of forming the acquaintance of
+an elk-dog. This animal is taken out in a kind of harness to which a
+rope is fastened, the other end of the rope being attached to the
+hunter’s belt; and his legitimate occupation is finding elk in a forest
+by scent, and denoting their presence by his behaviour before the hunter
+gets within range of the elk’s eyes, ears, or nose. Mr. Thomas brought
+him up here hoping to find reindeer with him in the same manner, as he
+had been unable to get a Finmarker[*] broken to reindeer; but the
+experiment has not been successful, for the dog has been so carefully
+trained to elk, that he exhibits a large and lofty contempt for so
+pusillanimous a creature as a reindeer, and will not confess that he has
+discovered the existence of such a thing at all.
+
+    [Footnote: Finmarker is the kind of dog usually employed for
+    finding reindeer: the name being derived from the district of
+    which it is a native.]
+
+But in addition to the fact that he finds no deer, he is a good deal of
+trouble from the fastidiousness of his appetite. It appears that he is
+accustomed to feed on dogs, and when he cannot get dogs he can rough it
+very well for a short time on boys or any other plain fare; but up here,
+where dogs are few and boys are extinct, he is having a very poor time
+of it. The last place where he had a really square meal was at
+Skjæggestad, on the journey up, where he was lucky enough to get a whole
+dog and some portions of boy; since then he has only had limbs snatched
+off adventurous observers, and altogether seems to be pining for want of
+proper nourishment. He is about the height of a colley, but with an
+enormous chest and limbs, a head something like an Esquimaux, a wiry
+reddish yellow coat, and a most unkindly expression of countenance.
+In the absence of sufficient flesh food he appears to be developing a
+liking for man-diet, so we did not remain long in his society, for which
+indeed we only craved after we had perceived through a chink in the door
+of his dwelling that he was moored to a beam by a kind of anchor chain.
+We have often heard that there is a certain amount of danger in the
+pursuit of the elk; if the hunter is always accompanied by a dog of this
+kind we can easily understand it. However, he was a very interesting
+animal, and if we had a National School at Memurudalen we should
+certainly have tried to buy him, as there is any amount of room for
+_débris_ there. What a boon he would be in some of the thickly populated
+districts of England!
+
+In the afternoon we paddled leisurely back to our camp and found it
+looking prettier than ever, but, alas! our little stream had ceased to
+run. However, there is another one not more than forty yards away, so we
+shall not be much troubled by its loss.
+
+
+_August 30._--The sun still shines upon us from a cloudless sky, and
+early in the morning, before any breeze springs up, the lake makes a
+most beautiful picture, with its steep mountain sides and foaming
+torrents so perfectly reflected in the green unruffled water. But,
+lovely as it is, its beauty is rather wasted on us now, for it has been
+just the same for the last three weeks, with the outlines all hard and
+clearly defined, and none of the graduated effects of distance which we
+get from the hazy climate at home: in this clear atmosphere the peaks
+twenty miles away are as bright as those a mile or so beyond the lake.
+Probably this is the reason why we so seldom see pictures of Norwegian
+mountain scenery, and that the few which do appear are often condemned
+as hard, cold, and unsatisfactory.
+
+The most prominent object in looking towards the lake from our camp is a
+curious pyramidal mound, about thirty feet high, close to the water’s
+edge. It is so regular in shape that we have devoted many hours of
+cogitation and argument to the discovery of its history.
+
+John (who is a man of considerable archæological fame) maintains that it
+is a funeral barrow in which some ancient Viking was buried, and he
+wants us to give up our cartridges for the purpose of constructing a
+mine and blasting him out: we have vainly represented to him that it
+cannot be a Viking’s tomb, because there is absolutely nothing to Vike
+up here.
+
+The Skipper says it is a glacial moraine, ‘any donkey can see that at a
+glance;’ and Esau holds to the opinion that it is an artificial mound
+put up for ancient regiments of Gjendin yeomen and Memurudalen militia
+to practise archery at. Possibly none of these theories give the correct
+solution; but, whatever its origin, it makes a capital rifle butt for
+our occasional shooting. Esau was heard to irreverently remark, as he
+aimed at it with the Skipper’s rifle, ‘he guessed an express bullet
+would rouse old Jarl Hakon out of that,’ but nothing particular
+followed.
+
+To-day the Skipper composed an Irish stew as a _pièce de résistance_,
+which, when it came to table, was unanimously voted the best of all the
+excellent dishes on which we have feasted here. After dinner we made an
+enormous fire for the sole purpose of warmth, as the nights are now very
+cold, and during this fine weather after sunset a strong draught sets
+down our valley towards the lake. We have ascertained that a like
+draught blows down each of the other valleys running into Gjendin,
+making the lake a centre. That in ours begins gently directly the sun
+has set, and increases in strength until it amounts to a stiff breeze;
+and as it comes direct from the vast snow fjelds, it is a disagreeably
+chilly blast, which freezes that side of our bodies remote from the
+fire, and leads us to envy the happy condition of a leg of mutton
+attached to a roasting-jack. That, ‘o nimium fortunatum!’ enjoys equally
+in every part the genial warmth, while man has no mechanical arrangement
+by which his immortal soul can be rendered blissful through the medium
+of a temperate body.
+
+In the morning a breeze begins to blow out of the lake into all the
+valleys; illustrating on a small scale the cause of land and sea breezes
+all over the world. The Skipper and John (who is a man of profound
+science) have elaborated a theory explaining the exact reason of this
+interesting phenomenon; but as their explanation is entirely opposed to
+the teachings of Dr. Brewer and the opinions of Professor Tyndall, and
+involves a rearrangement of existing notions concerning radiation and
+the movements of the heavenly bodies, we think it best to exclude it
+from these pages, as this is not a simply scientific work, and we have
+no desire to hurt the feelings of even the above-named misguided
+philosophers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+DISASTER.
+
+
+_August 31._--We have got quite tired of writing ‘Another beautiful
+day,’ and in future shall bring notebooks to Norway with these words
+ready printed at the top of each page.
+
+The Skipper paddled away to Gjendebod, to bring home the deerskin which
+he had left there to dry. He returned with a splendid bag of the best
+trout that ever came out of Gjendin, and that means the best in the
+world; but he was in a state of great indignation because he had been
+charged 5s. 6d. for beds, dinners, and breakfasts for himself and Öla
+when they stayed there a few nights ago. This is the result of living in
+a cheap country for two months: to the ordinary Englishman it would not
+appear an exorbitant hotel bill, especially when the hotel (!) is fifty
+miles from a town, and only open for two months in the year.
+
+Just at bedtime Esau crawled into the tent saying that he had strained
+his back in lifting a stone: he was in such pain that he could hardly
+stand, and was white and shivering. We undressed him and put him to bed,
+and then produced the liniment from the ‘medicine chest,’ by which name
+we dignify the cigar-box which contains our little stock of drugs. Then
+John spent an hour viciously rubbing remedies into his victim’s back, as
+one rubs oil into a bat, so that Esau presently groaned out, ‘Thanks,
+John, I think that will do, I feel a great deal better now;’ and
+certainly he did seem to experience a kind of relief as soon as the
+rubbing stopped. After this we turned in.
+
+
+_September 1._--Esau spent a sleepless night, and this morning could not
+move. Thereupon John nobly closed with him for another half-hour’s
+rubbing, which had a decided effect, and after giving him some
+breakfast, we carried him out and made a comfortable bed for him under
+the Sycamine tree, and there left him with the library and all his
+belongings in easy reach.
+
+At midday John returned from fishing to lunch with the invalid, and we
+wondered how all our friends in England were getting on with the
+partridges, and almost wished we were there for a few minutes, as we
+pictured to ourselves Eddie and Jack both talking sixteen to the dozen
+at lunch over beefsteak pie and beer (fancy beer, John!); old Blank,
+with two young dogs tied to him, perspiring over the downs; and the
+Major sitting with his cigar aboard the yacht at Cowes, and thinking how
+snug his birds were lying down Gorseham way, not to be disturbed till
+his return next month to shoot at them, while all the time the Furzely
+boys were walking them up, and making them as wild as hawks.
+
+After lunch, John accomplished what has long been his great desire, the
+ascent of the sugar-loaf mountain across the Memurua; and after boiling
+a thermometer at the topmost peak, burying a pocket handkerchief
+(thoughtfully borrowed from Esau, who was too unwell to refuse him
+anything), and ‘carving his name on the Newgate Stone with his Tollekniv
+fine tra la,’ he returned in raptures about the view, and overcome with
+sublime and poetical emotions, which did not subside until he had poured
+forth his soul to his two friends at dinner.
+
+The Skipper stalked without success, though he found the tracks of a
+good herd that had only just passed over the ground. Though the day was
+so pleasant, he had not exactly enjoyed his walk, for he could not help
+being filled with gloomy forebodings about Esau; picturing to himself
+the difficulties that would arise in getting men to carry the invalid
+down to Christiania in a litter, with him yelling at every step. But
+behold, how untrustworthy a thing is imagination! when the Skipper
+arrived in camp, he was agreeably surprised to find the object of his
+solicitude sitting up and actually stirring the rice for the curry, so
+marvellous had been the effect of John’s lubrication; assisted by the
+support to his back of a kind of splint composed of birch bark, a towel,
+and two straps.
+
+
+_September 2._--John ate new bread again for dinner yesterday, and the
+Skipper was aroused in the middle of the night by a claw reaching out
+from the adjoining bed, which clutched his pillow and rug and tried to
+drag them away; the whole of this being accompanied by blood-curdling
+groans and hideous yells. He became more peaceful after a short time,
+but the Skipper is now in mortal fear lest John should again suffer from
+indigestion, and again stretch out that gruesome claw, and grabbing him
+by the hair, drag him forth from the tent, and with demoniac shrieks
+stamp the life out of his frail body, while he makes the quiet valley
+re-echo to his triumphant mocking laughter. This, the Skipper asserts,
+would be only one step beyond his conduct of last night.
+
+The latest scientific observations have caused us to re-classify the
+different altitudes thus:--First, the country of high cultivation and
+wild strawberries; above that the zone of uncleared pine forests and
+most of the berries; then the belt of stunted birches and black game;
+higher still, that of cows and goats; and above that, the country where
+reindeer flourish and snow lies all the year round. This takes us to the
+summit of all things earthly, and in this zone there is hardly any
+vegetation. Beyond it is the region of eagles, but in the present
+incomplete state of human knowledge we have been content to explore this
+highest zone by letting our spirits soar aloft without our bodies.
+
+Gjendin is just at the highest point of the stunted-birch belt, and when
+the wind gets into the N.W. the thermometer, without waiting to reflect,
+falls a great distance very hurriedly. John, having no sheepskin,
+suffers a good deal from the cold at night; and the haughtiness of his
+spirit is so far broken that he now sleeps in two pairs of trousers,
+three shirts, and a coat, besides all his rugs. A few short weeks ago he
+turned from us with an air of aristocratic nausea when we were getting
+into bed clothed in a single shirt and pair of trousers, donning for his
+part a linen nightshirt, an effeminacy previously unheard of in camp
+life.
+
+These things are changed now, and it is difficult to persuade him not to
+go to bed with his boots on; but it has to be prevented on account of
+the new bread.
+
+The monotony of an uneventful day was only broken by the occasional
+rubbing of Esau’s back, amidst the victim’s agonised appeals for mercy,
+as he thinks it is rubbed away to the bone. However, the effect is
+magnificent, and he can now hobble about camp and be useful to a certain
+extent.
+
+                      MENU.--September 2.
+
+     _Vins._         Truite à l’Irlandais.       _Légumes._
+  Onion Sauce.          Salmi of Ryper.          Crumpets.
+                       Woodcock à l’Oven.
+                Compote of Rice and Wimberries.
+
+After dinner we dug a small hole in the floor of the outer tent, in
+which we placed a spadeful of red-hot embers from the fire. This is a
+capital device for obtaining warmth in a tent, as there is no smoke, and
+the embers keep glowing for a very long time; possibly it might be
+dangerous in a very close-fitting tent, but ours is airy, not to say
+hurricany.
+
+Round this fire we sat and talked and smoked until bedtime, hoping
+against hope for a few more days of sunshine; but when we turned in, the
+wind was howling and moaning along the hill-side in a very ominous and
+unpleasant manner.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+A CHANGE.
+
+
+_September 3._--‘Forty below Nero’ was the probable position of the
+thermometer during the night. Esau declares that his back is quite well,
+but it is suspected that he only does this in order to avoid the
+administration of further remedies by John.
+
+However, we consider this such a successful cure that we here give our
+recipe for strained backs to an expectant world, not as a sordid
+advertisement, but from pure philanthropic motives.
+
+‘Take the patient and place him on a grassy spot in the sun, and
+lubricate with oil; rub this in for three hours with the hand; seize his
+wrist and feel the pulse (if you can find it), displaying at the same
+time a large gold watch; look profound; mutter inwardly. Now shift him
+gently to a shaded position; and having lighted a fire to the windward,
+prepare and cook thereon fourteen or fifteen pancakes, and administer
+while hot (as a mixture, not a lotion). Take care that the aroma of each
+cooking pancake is wafted in the direction of the patient. Carry this
+principle throughout all his nourishment. Explain to him that deer
+abound in the neighbouring mountains; show him quantities of
+fresh-caught fish and newly killed ryper; ensure a week of fine weather,
+and if this do not cure him he must be a _malade imaginaire_.’
+
+Notwithstanding the improvement, of course Esau was not fit to go
+stalking, and this and other reasons suddenly induced us to leave
+Memurudalen to-day for good, and go to Gjendesheim on our way to Rus
+Vand. So we made a last gigantic pie, packed up, lunched, and then
+pulled down the tent, which had been standing so long now on the same
+spot, and embarked everything on board our two canoes and the
+Gjendesheim boat, which had been lent to us. Then the whole fleet sailed
+from these hospitable shores ’neath a stormy sky, with cold wind and
+rain, and the towering heights of Memurutungen all wrapped in angry
+clouds, frowning blackly above us.
+
+It was quite sad to leave the snug little corner where we have spent
+such a happy, careless time, with all the comforts which we have added
+gradually to our temporary home; and the valley looked very desolate
+without the tent, the cheerful fire, and ‘the meteor flag.’
+
+Esau’s last act was to fill two brass cartridge cases with water and
+hammer them firmly into each other; the air-tight boiler so formed he
+put into the fire under the oven, and after waiting a short time for the
+explosion, forgot all about it and went away without telling any one.
+Just then John arrived at the spot to see if there were any loose
+belongings lying about, and was horrified to observe the oven suddenly
+elevate itself into the air and disappear among the clouds with a loud
+report. His mind at once reverted to the happy life of a landlord in co.
+Limerick, but he soon realised the true state of affairs, and came down
+to the lake muttering something about ‘tomdamfoolery,’ a Norwegian word
+which expresses censure of the silly custom of practical joking.
+
+This morning we found a merlin sitting just outside the tent door; it
+had evidently been stuffing itself with scraps of offal from the camp
+until it was perfectly stupid and could scarcely fly. Esau wanted to
+knock it on the head at first, but more humane feelings came over him,
+so he fetched his rifle and shot it for an hour or so, till at length
+the bird, wearied by the constant noise, retired into the birch woods,
+and we saw it no more.
+
+There are usually several ravens near the camp, which come down to
+‘carry off carrion,’ but otherwise there are not many birds here: the
+most common are buzzards and kestrels, which abound; two eagles, which
+are generally soaring above Memurutungen; a pair of ospreys occasionally
+flying about the lake; a rough-legged buzzard seen once, a few merlins,
+and a small short-tailed red hawk, with whom we are not acquainted;
+sometimes black-throated divers and scaups on the lake, and a few
+fieldfares and redwings in the birch woods. We have found many nests of
+the latter in the trees, and one of a fieldfare in a bank.
+
+What rare times all the birds and beasts of prey will have for the next
+few days in Memurudalen! only to be equalled by the early days of the
+Australian gold fever. Nuggets of inestimable value in the shape of
+heads, tails, and other portions of reindeer, ryper, duck, and
+trout--intermingled with other delicacies, such as potato skins, jam and
+marmalade pots, and whisky bottles--will from time to time be unearthed
+amidst shrieks of triumph. ‘Claims’ will be run up to a fabulous price,
+and many a battle royal will be fought in that happy valley where we
+have spent a month of peace. As we depart in mournful silence, brooding
+over the days that are no more, we see in fancy the numerous bright eyes
+which from lairs and eyries are watching our every move, their owners
+all ready to swoop down on our _débris_ as soon as we have passed out of
+sight.
+
+The lake was very rough, and we were quite afraid of being swamped and
+losing our baggage from the magnitude of the big little waves; but
+luckily the boat took our heaviest things, or we should not have been
+able to venture; and so the canoes, lightly loaded and with all sail
+set, rode gallantly o’er the foaming billows, and we all got safe to
+Gjendesheim. The cheery fire in the room, with its bare wooden walls and
+benches, made a picture which seemed the perfection of comfort after the
+chilly tent and the freezing N.W. wind.
+
+  ‘It is the black north-wester
+    That makes brave Englishmen
+  Use very naughty words, and wish
+    Themselves at home again.’
+
+One of the party is always telling us that he intends to inflict on the
+British public a narration of our experiences on this expedition, and
+although he has not yet begun to collect materials for the work, we have
+begun to invent titles for the book that is to be. One is ‘England,
+Canada, and Norway,’ being a description of Englishmen travelling in
+Norway with Canadian canoes; and we think this title might induce
+schoolmasters to buy it, under the impression that it is a geographical
+treatise on those countries.
+
+The Skipper proposed ‘The Fool with the Fowling-piece, or Fishing and
+Flyblows.’ John’s title was ‘Mems. from Memurudalen, or Jottings from
+the Jotunfjeld;’ and Esau suggested ‘Glopit, top it, and mop it,’
+alluding, he said, to the state of John’s forehead whenever he arrived
+at the summit of that mountain; but the explanation was received with
+such a chorus of ‘Oh! {drop it!} {stop it!}’ from the others that he
+gave up the idea.
+
+  [[The original is printed between lines:
+           {drop}
+      ‘Oh,        it!’
+           {stop}     ]]
+
+One notion is to make the book a collection of cooking recipes for
+camp life, and call it ‘Grunts from a Gourmand in Gulbrandsdalen, or
+Paragraphs from the Pen of a Pig;’ but we think we should promote
+a more active sale among respectable people if it were called
+‘Self-Improvement, or Lights thrown on Good Living.’
+
+Another idea is that it might get a sale by appearing surreptitiously
+among the Christmas books for the young, and for that purpose we should
+use the names of our two henchmen Anglicised. ‘Oola and Eva: a Tale for
+Girls,’ could not fail to attract the favourable attention of parents
+and guardians.
+
+Possibly it might create a greater sensation if it were introduced to
+the world as ‘Julia and Pausanias: an Idyll.’ It is very difficult to
+decide on a good name, but we are all agreed that the name once found,
+it will be perfectly easy to write the book afterwards.
+
+
+_September 4._--How soothing and pleasant it is, when we hear the storm
+and rain shrieking and beating outside, to reflect that there is a good
+solid roof over our heads, and that we shall not be roused in the night
+by the cry of ‘All hands turn out to slack off guy-ropes!’
+
+This morning the lake was so rough that we perceived that we had been
+very lucky to make our voyage yesterday; we certainly could not have
+attempted it to-day. The man from Gjendebod was here, and started for
+the other end of the lake with Andreas in the big boat about nine
+o’clock, but at two they came back dead beat and wet through, having
+been obliged to desist from their attempt before they had gone two
+miles, and they considered themselves lucky to have got back.
+
+  [Illustration: Canoeing after Duck in a Storm]
+
+The appearance of the lake is wonderfully fine as the white-capped
+breakers come rolling in, flinging the spray high up the face of the
+opposing cliffs, and dashing with an angry roar against the black rocks
+where they jut out into the deep part of the lake. The Skipper,
+affirming that he could smell the salt in the air, began to look out
+pollack-flies, while John put on a beautiful brand-new shooting coat,
+and went down to the shore to pick up seaweed and dig on the sands: he
+came back saying that the tide was coming in, and he thought he had seen
+the smoke of a steamer in the offing.
+
+Close to this end of the lake a little promontory runs out, which forms
+a breakwater, so that the sea just opposite the house is comparatively
+calm. In this bay, directly after breakfast, we saw two scaups, and the
+Skipper and Esau manned a canoe to try for them, the former to paddle,
+the latter to shoot. Only one was shot at, and it managed to fly beyond
+the headland before falling dead, and we dare not go after it in our
+frail craft.
+
+  [Illustration: Andreas: our Retriever]
+
+In the afternoon we took all the male inhabitants of this district, viz.
+Öla, Ivar, and Andreas, to act as spaniels and retrievers, and went into
+the fjeld above Gjendesheim for ryper. We had quite a sporting
+afternoon, as we managed to find a good many broods: the strong wind had
+made them so much wilder that they got up with reasonable haste and
+energy, instead of waiting to be kicked and then only running away.
+
+  [Illustration: Ola and Andreas capturing a wounded Grouse]
+
+We had great fun also in watching the behaviour of our men, especially
+their method of capturing a wounded bird. One which was hit in the head
+had dropped among some rocks, and Öla and Andreas went in pursuit; they
+crawled suspiciously about, peering over the stones as if they were
+stalking reindeer; then suddenly catching sight of the bird, which was
+crouching down as birds hit in the head sometimes do, they advanced
+cautiously upon it, each with an uplifted stick in his hand, and crept
+like assassins nearer and nearer to their victim. At last they stood
+within reach. Öla gave the word to strike, and strike they did, as if
+they were breaking stones, and the poor old ryper lay at the feet of its
+murderers a mangled, bleeding corpse.
+
+We shot all the afternoon with almost unvarying luck, hardly ever losing
+a bird; now getting four barrels into a large brood, now picking up a
+solitary old cock that had selfishly separated himself from his family,
+and selected a particularly advantageous feeding-ground for his own
+exclusive benefit, and at intervals having a little recreation afforded
+by our men, especially the professional buffoon, Ivar.
+
+In one marshy bit of ground a pair of short-eared owls were incautious
+enough to fly up in front of Esau, and were promptly added to the bag;
+they were in beautiful plumage, which was luckily not injured by the
+shot, so we were much pleased at getting them. Then we went towards the
+river into the ground frequented by ducks, and got a little shooting
+there, and finished the day by walking round the shoulder of the lower
+fjeld about the time that the ryper were coming there to feed, and so
+back to Gjendesheim. Altogether the walk was most enjoyable, and as we
+returned and gazed over Gjendin, the contrasts of storm and sunshine,
+tumbled clouds and rough waters, and occasional glimpses of the highest
+mountains gleaming through rifts in the surrounding blackness as the
+bright sunbeams lighted up their peaks of snow, formed the most striking
+picture of wild and desolate grandeur that can be imagined.
+
+Esau’s shooting is remarkably unerring, and we feel so annoyed with him
+sometimes when he _won’t_ miss even a palpably difficult chance, that we
+were quite glad a few days ago when he took such a long shot that it
+strained his gun, and the Skipper exclaimed, ‘Ah, I told you you would,
+I’ve been expecting it all along.’
+
+  [Illustration: John and the Skipper upsetting in the Canoe]
+
+John had an unstrung kind of day. Starting down the river to fish soon
+after breakfast, he became so engrossed in his sport that he forgot all
+about lunch, and did not return till dinner-time, when he walked
+abstractedly into the room where we were sitting, and pulled out his
+watch; then after studying it and making calculations for a short time
+he remarked slowly, ‘I left here at six minutes past ten, and hanged if
+it isn’t ten minutes past six now; my watch must have stopped.’ Then he
+wandered off upstairs to his room, still ruminating over this
+extraordinary occurrence to his watch; but in his absence Ragnild had
+changed all his things into another cabin without telling him anything
+about it, so that he found his old habitation swept and garnished, and
+began to think, like Clever Alice, ‘This is none of I.’ However, he got
+over this difficulty and came down to dinner, still looking a trifle
+abstracted, but with his usual appetite. Afterwards the Skipper paddled
+him across the river to fish, and when coming back, John upset the canoe
+and nearly drowned them both in the presence of Esau and every native in
+the district, who joined in mocking them in the Norwegian tongue from
+the bank.
+
+Finally he informed us that during his wanderings he had composed a
+short poem, ‘which,’ said he, ‘as you have not heard it, I will now
+proceed to recite.’
+
+So we went to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+RAPID-RUNNING.
+
+
+_Sunday, September 5._--To-day the Skipper and Esau determined to try to
+run the canoes down the river to Sjödals Lake, where we intend to leave
+them during our stay at Rus Vand.
+
+All things being ready, the Skipper started about eleven o’clock on his
+perilous voyage, closely followed by Esau. The river is full of
+impracticable falls, some of them twenty or thirty feet high, but
+between these places there are splendid rapids, and the excitement of
+running them is delightfully fascinating. When we came to a bad fall we
+carried the canoes round, and enlisted the services of our two men to
+help us in this part of the performance. Öla did not like this at all,
+for carrying a canoe of 80 lbs. weight over very rough ground is hard
+work, and Öla loveth the fireside and the odour of roasting coffee
+better than hard work on the Sabbath.
+
+Presently we came to a place which the Skipper wanted to run, but which
+Esau declared to be too dangerous; it was a very swift and rocky rapid,
+with two extremely sudden turns, the lower of which was only a few yards
+above a high fall. Esau only ran past the first turn, which was quite
+nervous work enough, and then got to shore and waited on the bank for
+the result of the Skipper’s exploit.
+
+Down he came at about fifteen miles an hour, took the first turn most
+successfully, and then, by some extraordinary strokes of his paddle,
+which no man living but himself could have performed, and aided by a
+species of miracle, he got round the second; but then an eddy caught the
+canoe, and she became unmanageable, so that instead of stopping in a
+little creek of quiet water as he intended, he came straight on at a
+terrific speed, and ran high and dry on a ledge of rock just above the
+fall, losing his paddle at the shock. Wonderful to relate, the canoe was
+not a bit injured, but the paddle whirled over the abyss and disappeared
+for ever; and the Skipper was pleased because he had not done the same.
+
+We spent five hours in this kind of amusement, and enjoyed it almost
+more than anything else we have done. The constant danger of a smash or
+an upset, the sensation of speed, the delight of the sudden rush to the
+gliding dip over a fall, with the water roaring past a rock on each
+side; the big waves below the fall, which catch the canoe and toss it
+from one to another till you feel as if you must be thrown out; and the
+curious appearance that the hurrying foam-flecked waters all round
+present, combine to make Sunday rapid-running a very popular pursuit.
+
+While we were doing the last bit above Sjödals Lake, our men, instigated
+no doubt by Öla the Lazy, seized the opportunity given by a long rapid
+to go home, and as we were pretty well tired out with our exertions, we
+left the canoes above the lowest fall and walked back to Gjendesheim.
+But we cannot recommend this river to future voyageurs; there are too
+many places that cannot be run; and we hear that we are regarded as
+decidedly mad for having attempted it.
+
+  [Illustration: Making a Portage by the Sjoa River]
+
+Öla, our stalker, is a man whom we do not much admire. He is a big,
+handsome fellow, with a light beard and moustache, and rather a weak
+face; and his good qualities are extreme cleverness at almost any kind
+of work--carpentry, smith’s work, needlework, and saddlery, all seem to
+come alike to him--and as a deer-stalker he is first-rate, and never
+makes a mistake. But we fear that his profession at home is to be an
+independent gentleman, and he is very lazy, and nearly always sulky.
+This sulkiness annoys us more than anything else, but we also get very
+angry with him for being afraid of everything. He is afraid to go in the
+canoes, and nothing has ever induced him to enter either of them. He is
+afraid of rowing against a wind, or going out stalking on two successive
+days, lest he should tire himself; and he is afraid of washing up plates
+and pans lest he should lose dignity, but it does not bore him to sit by
+and watch other people perform the operation.
+
+The Gjende fly was a marvellous sight to-day; we thought him numerous
+before, but we little knew the accumulated villany of which this noxious
+creature is capable. Every fly that we saw here a week ago has now got a
+large and healthy family of some hundreds, and a darkness which may be
+felt broods over the river and its shores. And now that the cold weather
+has set in, he begins to perceive that his short but effectual career of
+annoyance draws near to its close, and the whole face of nature is
+covered with torpid crawling things, that make one turn in disgust from
+everything one touches. May his end come soon, for we love him not.
+
+  [Illustration: A Norwegian Fire-place]
+
+We are very comfortable here at night sitting round the noble fireplace
+in the corner of the room. These corner fireplaces are found in every
+sæter and homestead in this part of the country, and are very
+picturesque and cheery, vastly superior to the modern stove, that may be
+seen standing up gaunt and inhospitable in every house in more civilised
+regions. Most of them have the chimney supported by a crooked piece of
+birch wood coming down from the roof and hooked underneath the
+projecting angle of stonework, but in some there is instead an upright
+iron bar from the hearth. Generally speaking, they are placed quite
+against the wall in the corner, but we have seen several with a space
+behind large enough to walk through, and one which even had a bed
+behind it.
+
+
+_September 6._--The sea on Gjendin has organised something remarkably
+like a ground swell under the influence of the continuous storm, and its
+fury is more magnificent than ever; no boat here would have a chance of
+living in it.
+
+Esau spent the morning packing his bird-skins in a wooden box for their
+journey home, as we hardly expect to get much more in the way of
+specimens. Then we had another afternoon at ryper, not quite so lucky as
+yesterday, but still satisfactory. When we returned we found that
+Andreas had brought from Besse Sæter a vast pile of literature which had
+been accumulating at the Vaage post office for the last month. After
+dinner, when we were all buried in our respective letters and papers,
+occasionally reading out particularly interesting scraps of news,
+Ragnild came in and informed us that a certain Norwegian, whom we may
+call Mr. Fox, had come there to fish. This was a man who had done some
+business for us here two years ago, and we had had a little
+correspondence with him before coming out this year. Thinking we might
+have given him some trouble, and not having any great liking for his
+character, we naturally wished to be especially civil to him; so we
+asked Ragnild to bring him in and stay to interpret for us.
+
+Presently he entered the room, and after greeting us sat down and
+refused to have anything to drink: this astonished us so much that it
+completely drove our small stock of smaller talk out of our heads. The
+commonplaces of polite conversation sound perfectly ridiculous when
+gravely uttered to an interpreter for transmission to the proper
+recipient, and so Ragnild seemed to think, for her translation always
+sounded much shorter than our flowery sentences. We tried a variety of
+feeble questions to which we already knew the answers, somewhat in the
+following style:--
+
+‘We presume, Mr. Fox, that you like Norwegian cheese?’
+
+‘Does your brother also like Norwegian cheese?’
+
+‘Do you speak German?’
+
+‘No? but your brother, we believe, plays the Norwegian german-flute?’
+
+‘The friends of your sister’s children are also our friends. They live
+in England, but we believe they still like Norwegian cheese.’
+
+‘We like much the cheese of the country, and have never suffered
+asphyxia from it.’
+
+‘We shall take a small quantity with us to England for the destruction
+of rats;’ and so forth.
+
+Presently Esau, getting impatient, suggested in a loud voice that we
+should ‘ask him some questions out of Bennett’s Phrase-book.’ Then he
+was covered with shame, as he feared that Ragnild would immediately
+translate this to Mr. Fox; but fortunately she did not.
+
+On reference later to the said Phrase-book we find that some very
+appropriate and useful sentences may be gleaned from its fertile pages.
+For instance, ‘Who are you? What sort of weather is it to-day?’ (these
+two remarks are introductory, as it were, and to inspire confidence in
+the person addressed). Then we come to the point: ‘Will you lend me a
+dollar? Be quick! Thank you, you are very kind.’ Here the speaker would
+turn to Ragnild and proceed thus: ‘Put this in my carpet bag. Make haste
+and bring me a light, open, four-wheeled phaeton carriage, drawn by one
+horse.’ Then to Mr. Fox, ‘Good morning; I must go, but I shall return in
+a month.’ Then the speaker might wink at John and depart.
+
+Now came the most awful pause that the history of the world in its
+darkest moments can yet point to. We coughed and glared at each other,
+and felt in our pockets as if we might find something to say there; and
+then the Skipper had a brilliant idea, and said, ‘Ask Mr. Fox how long
+he intends to stay here.’ But Ragnild at once replied, ‘Only two days,’
+without referring the question to him at all; so that remark was wasted,
+and our embarrassment became worse than ever; for now not only had we to
+invent subjects of conversation, but also to put them in such a form
+that Ragnild should not be able to answer them without taking Mr. Fox
+into her confidence. He all the time was most annoying, as he would do
+literally nothing to keep up his end of the conversation, and replied to
+our lengthiest and most brilliant efforts of exuberant verbosity by
+monosyllables and inarticulate grunts.
+
+At last, in desperation we presented him with a very nice new English
+knife, for which he did not seem to care at all; and so we parted, both
+sides feeling that the interview had been a failure.
+
+The following note is extracted from one of the journals:--‘The common
+cheese of Great Britain is unknown in Norway, but in the roadside inn,
+the smallest sæter or farmhouse, and the humble cottage dwelling, the
+traveller can always obtain that excellent substitute, the goat’s-milk
+cheese of the country.’ The colour of this excellent substitute is that
+of Windsor soap; its consistency, leather; and its scent, decomposed
+glue, which causes the natives to keep it under a glass shade. If you
+eat it, your own dog will shun you; if you avoid it, you starve.
+
+
+_September 7._--Esau always wakes up in the most boisterous spirits, and
+as the partitions between the cabins are only made of thin boards full
+of knot-holes, he can be heard all over the house the first thing in the
+morning jeering at John, who sleeps next door, whistling, and crowing
+like a baby in his cot: he continues these little games long after
+breakfast-time, and though he is wide awake, will _not_ get up. All this
+sounds very pleasant and cheery to talk about, but the Skipper, who
+usually wakes in a temper the reverse of angelic, being influenced by an
+unequal liver, wishes that these walls were twice as thick, and that
+Esau was at Hong Kong.
+
+Generally he tries little stratagems to induce Esau to get up, dressing
+operations having a tendency to quiet him. Sometimes he enters the room
+sniffing, and remarks, ‘How deuced good the coffee smells roasting!’ or
+‘We’re going to have a tip-top fish for breakfast, but there’s very
+little of that pie left; enough for two of us p’raps’ (this would mean
+about eight pounds). Or he looks out of the window, and assuming an
+attitude of intense surprise, hanging on to the frame like Irving in
+‘the Bells,’ says, ‘By George, Esau! there’s a fellow just below looking
+through a binocular that can give yours six lengths for mechanism.’ If
+all these expedients fail, he gives in, and dresses quickly with his
+ears full of tow, leaving Esau aloft, and gets into the eating-room,
+where the floor and ceiling between put a soft pedal on operatic
+selections.
+
+Esau says all this ill-feeling arises because the Skipper cannot whistle
+Berlioz’s ‘Faust,’ and is jealous.
+
+Andreas and Ragnild are making preparations for their departure, which
+takes place to-morrow; then Gjendesheim will be closed, the door
+fastened, the windows shuttered, and the place will be left to itself
+until next June. Very soon now Gjendin will be covered with ice and
+snow: most of the good folks in the sæters have already gone to the
+valleys for the winter.
+
+We thought it would be more convenient for them if we took our departure
+to-day, so packed our goods on the pony and said ‘Farvel’ to
+Gjendesheim. Our last view of Gjendin, as we turned to look from the top
+of the pass, was just as it appeared when we first saw it--black,
+gloomy, and forbidding, with the cold north wind sweeping in a hurricane
+over its waters, and heavy rain-clouds hanging over its mountain
+shoulders, making a scene as awfully lonely and desolate as it is
+possible to depict.
+
+  [Illustration: Jens and his Pony on their way over Bes Fjeld]
+
+After the pony had gone with the last load we suddenly discovered that
+the tent had been forgotten: it and its appurtenances make a package
+weighing about 70 lbs. Now we _all_ hate carrying 70 lbs., but
+fortunately at this crisis a _deus ex machinâ_ appeared in the person of
+a stranger. At first we thought it must be one of our own men returning
+for something after changing his coat, but on his nearer approach we
+found that he was the rest of the population of the district, whom we
+had not seen before, coming down in a body. This was Hans Kleven, who
+has the reputation of being the best hunter in the country. He is a
+small sturdy man, with amazing shoulders and a pleasant, good-humoured
+face, and a most gorgeous check shooting-coat, of a pattern so enormous
+that there are only three squares on the whole of his back, which is a
+pretty broad one. This coat was given to him years ago, apparently about
+1840, by an English sportsman, and he is as proud of it as ever Joseph
+was of his celebrated garment. To him we committed our tent, which he
+carried over to Besse Sæter, three miles away, without turning a hair.
+We rewarded him with a shilling, and from his profuse gratitude we
+conjecture that he only expected fourpence for the job.
+
+Our first step at Besse Sæter was, as usual, to demand food; and John
+asked for a dish called ‘Tuk melk,’ which had been recommended to him as
+very Norwegian and very good. A woman at once went to fetch it from the
+other sæter, a quarter of a mile away, and presently brought it in a
+large wooden milk-tub about the size and shape of a sitz bath. How that
+poor woman carried it we know not; it occupied half the table, and was
+so scrupulously clean that we feared to touch it with our sordid hands.
+
+John and Esau at last attacked it in the orthodox manner, which is to
+sit on opposite sides of the table, and to draw a line across the
+surface of the milk with a spoon before beginning, and then to ‘eat
+fair’ up to that line. It would have amused some of our friends at home
+if they could have seen these two young men of fashion at the moment
+when both of them were engaged with abnormally large wooden spoons,
+silently ladling down ‘Tuk melk’ out of a tub as big as a drawing-room
+table.
+
+They reported that it was on the whole good; something like curds, but
+with a sourer taste, and it was much improved by sugar; but though they
+ate a large quantity of it, being men of great courage and
+determination, they could not persuade the Skipper to risk his life in
+experiments with untried articles of food. He, however, gave utterance
+to the following refined expression of his sentiments:--‘I wouldn’t
+touch that beastliness if you gave me fourteen pence a spoonful to
+swallow it.’ No one offered the reward.
+
+Out shooting on the other side of the lake, we put up a snipe just at
+evening, which went down again close to us. This species of game is not
+common up here, although we find his cousin the woodcock fairly often;
+consequently we were much excited, and advanced upon the foe with
+insidious step, and bloodthirsty weapons almost at our shoulders in
+order to slay him as soon as he should rise. All went well, and at the
+right moment up he got, and promptly did the Skipper fire and miss him;
+while Esau’s gun for the first time on record missed fire, and left him
+using language that ought to have ignited any cartridge. So the happy
+bird zigzagged off into the dim shades of sheltering night, and we went
+on our way full of thought and sorrow.
+
+Arriving again at the sæter after narrowly escaping shipwreck in the
+passage, we found that Jens had come to meet us, and as he will enter
+our service from this date, we shall no longer need Ivar, and paid him
+off, arranging, however, that he is to come to help us home when we
+leave Rus Vand.
+
+We like Ivar very much now, though we did not by any means dote upon him
+at first. Ivar is a good fellow, but an idiot, perfectly willing to do
+anything in the world, but not understanding _how_ to do anything. His
+budding reputation was blasted in our eyes the first time that we left
+camp and entrusted everything to his care: we were away for three days,
+and in that time he consumed nearly four pounds of our best butter; on
+our return we decided that he was a knave, but we have since learnt that
+it was only his natural impulsiveness that led him to commit such an
+outrage; and now that we have found how eager he is to oblige us in
+everything, we like his strange nature better than Öla’s awful laziness
+of character. He came into the room this morning to stand for his
+portrait, and the easy, graceful attitude that he assumed for the
+occasion was inimitable. His waistcoat and boots were perhaps his
+greatest charm, but his open countenance and genial smile (six inches in
+diameter) played no small part in causing him to become beloved by us as
+he was.
+
+Ivar always laughed like a nigger on a racecourse, and whenever we took
+him out ryper-shooting he was exactly like an unbroken retriever: if a
+bird was killed, he _would_ rush in to gather it, and we had to shout,
+‘Back, Ivar, back! Lie down! Down charge!’ to prevent him disturbing any
+birds that might have chanced to remain during the yells and convulsions
+of Christy Minstrel mirth into which the death of a ryper always sent
+him. His behaviour usually made us laugh so much that we attributed any
+missing to the unsteadiness caused by constant hilarity. We gave him our
+spade as a parting present, and dismissed him with our blessing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+RUS VAND.
+
+
+_September 8._--This morning we crossed the fjeld to Rus Vand in a gale
+of wind. Waving a ‘Farvel’ to the kindly folk at Besse Sæter, we have a
+stiff climb up by the side of the torrent which comes gadareneing[*]
+down from Bes Lake, high above our heads, and presently we stand on the
+open fjeld above the sæter. Below lie the green waters and birch-clad
+banks of Sjödals Lake; far away to the east the great fall and larger
+trees that mark the outlet of the lake; and still further, glimpses of
+lower Sjödals Lake, with its forests of pine, haunt of the black game
+and capercailzie. But we cannot stand long to look, for the side of a
+Norwegian mountain, though eminently suited to hurricanes, is extremely
+_un_suitable for human beings while the stormy winds do blow. En avant,
+Messieurs, en avant! and we fight our way across the flat top to the
+opposite brow. Here we must pause, though Æolus himself say nay. ‘What a
+glorious sight!’ Straight in front, the cloud-girt peak of
+Nautgardstind, all glistening white with newly fallen snow, but of him
+only the top can be seen; his middle is hidden by a never-ending rush of
+scudding clouds. Higher still and westward the jagged summits of
+Tyknings Hö and Memurutind, also pure white where the snow can lie, but
+with huge black lines and chasms where the steep rocky face stands up
+gaunt and repellent, so sheer that snow can never lodge; nearer the
+tremendous mass of Bes Hö frowns above us; and far below in front the
+Russen River winds its way through barren rocks and patches of willow,
+to warmer and more hospitable regions, leaving with a leap of joy the
+cold storm-rocked Rus Lake, which has been its cradle since its birth in
+the mighty glaciers around.
+
+    [Footnote: Gadareneing, _i.e._ rushing violently down a steep
+    place.]
+
+Such was the scene lying before us on the north side of the mountain,
+grand beyond description, perhaps the finest in Norway, but not exactly
+inviting to shivering hungry mortals, so not much time was spent on it.
+Down we went, with the wind worse than on the other side, howling past
+our ears and screeching in the gun-barrels, and at last arrived at the
+lake to find Jens hauling for his life at the boat which, though filled
+with water by the breakers, had fortunately not been battered to pieces
+on the rocky strand. He had left it dragged up on the beach out of the
+water, but the sea had increased so much in his absence, that if we had
+been a little later it would without doubt have been smashed.
+
+However, we soon baled her out, and with Öla as Charon commenced the
+passage. Rusvasoset, as the outlet is called, is not more than 60 yards
+across, but the waves had had seven miles of very open water to get up
+in, and they came rolling down to this end in a very alarming manner.
+With great difficulty we shoved off, and then with Öla sculling his
+hardest, and the Skipper keeping our head to wind, we at last got safe
+across with no mishap but the loss of Öla’s hat and a thorough ducking
+for all of us.
+
+  [Illustration: A Stormy Crossing at Rusvasoset]
+
+Öla was very sorrowful about his hat, which was of pure Leghorn straw,
+double seamed, extra quality lining; and being further embellished with
+a black braid ribbon, it was a great source of pride to him; but we
+mocked when it flew away, and are inclined to bear its departure with
+equanimity, and hope it will be accepted as a propitiatory offering by
+the angry Lady of the Lake.
+
+All the things were at last safely housed, and we soon made ourselves
+comfortable in our new abode, which is luxury itself in this weather
+when compared with a tent.
+
+There are two huts, one by the edge of the lake, the other about 20
+yards away, and it is the latter which we occupy. We enter by a door
+about five feet high, invariably knocking our heads against the lintel
+and swearing as we do so. The first room is about nine feet square, with
+a narrow dresser under the solitary window on the left, and an iron
+cooking stove in the nearest corner to the right, the more remote one
+being tenanted by a bed. Round the room at various heights are shelves
+and hooks adorned by cooking utensils of all kinds, very kindly left for
+us by their worthy owners; two or three stools complete the furniture;
+and on the floor are to be seen carved the effigies of departed trout of
+fabulous weight, with dates and the initials of their captors. Passing
+on through a still smaller doorway we find ourselves in another room of
+the same size, but with three beds instead of one, and an open Norwegian
+fireplace; the same kind of pegs and shelves, and hooks for guns on the
+wall; more profile fishes, and walls covered with records in pencil of
+game killed by former inhabitants, with occasional amusing notes. This
+is our dining, drawing, and bed room; the other is only used as kitchen.
+
+The men’s hut near the water is also divided into two rooms: the outer
+and much larger compartment is used as a cellar, larder, and general
+store-room, and presents, to say the least of it, a somewhat untidy
+appearance, as bottles, barrels, and boards, a grindstone, reindeer
+bones, a saw, a side-saddle, and old nets are piled together without any
+attempt at order. The inner room is very small, about nine feet by four,
+and there our two men sleep; and there also is a large oven built of
+stone, and heated by a fire inside it. As we had no bread, we proceeded
+to bake, and our ignorance of the manners and customs of this oven
+caused the bread to have a terribly trying time of it; for we did not
+make it hot enough at the first attempt, and the bread was left lying on
+the top covered by a cloth for over an hour while the oven was being
+heated a second time.
+
+All’s well that ends well, and this batch of rolls turned out the very
+best that frail man ever tasted, and consequently at supper we ate
+enough bread and butter and jam to supply a school feast of the
+hungriest description.
+
+While the Skipper and John attended to the loaves Esau looked after the
+fishes, and very soon got a nice dish of half-pounders in the river.
+As he came back something in the middle of the stream caught his eye.
+‘It is, yet it can’t be--yes, by George, it is, Öla’s hat!’ wedged in
+between two rocks, and slightly out of shape, but with the
+double-seamed, extra quality lining uninjured, and the pure Leghorn
+straw in very fair condition. The effusion with which Öla received it
+was a sight to be seen, but no one else exhibited much enthusiasm.
+
+An inventory of our remaining stores reveals the fact that we have heaps
+of everything except coffee and bacon, which can only last about a week
+longer. In view of this happy state of things the Skipper proposed to
+spend a week of wild and reckless profusion and sinful extravagance.
+
+Esau at once pictured himself seated on a grassy slope giving way to
+Epicurean indulgence, surrounded by three untouched pots of jam, and
+eating from a fourth with a table-spoon; at his side a cup of tea
+blacker than ink, and flavoured with condensed milk thicker than cream,
+while he flipped lumps of sugar into the water instead of pebbles, and
+commanded Öla to sand the floor of the hut with pepper.
+
+John suggested as an amendment that we should make some exception to
+show that we possess the power of self-denial. ‘Let us,’ said he, ‘deny
+ourselves in some one thing. Not in luxuries, which are getting scarce;
+in that there would be no merit. No; rather let us exercise our virtue
+in respect of what we have in the greatest abundance, and thereby show a
+great and shining example to the world. Let us abstain entirely from
+water.’ (He had ascertained that there was plenty of whisky.)
+
+Esau rose to oppose the remarks of the honourable gentleman. ‘Such
+self-denial would be a good action, but the constant performance of
+virtuous actions tends to make one haughty. I dare say you fellows don’t
+know this, but I do, because I’ve tried it. I prefer to be wicked and
+humble.’
+
+The motion was not pressed to a division.
+
+We are well provided with all kinds of food, for we found in the larder
+a shoulder of venison, and we have any amount of ryper, which, as John
+says, ‘will save our bacon, though they could not save their own;’ and
+so with a comfortable hut to live in, a river full of fish at our door,
+and a blazing fire to sit round, life assumes a rosy hue, and we go to
+sleep in real beds with bright hopes of the future.
+
+The Skipper was heard to murmur as he turned over to sleep, ‘I say, what
+bread that is! When I get home I shall publish a pamphlet, and teach all
+the world to bake like that.’
+
+It is rather rough on the Skipper’s pamphlet to publish his recipe here,
+but this is copied from his journal:--
+
+‘Take dough in large quantities and place it on a tin. Heat the oven
+till you are sick to death of piling on wood. Smoke a pipe, and remove
+the ashes. Place the dough in the oven, and leave home for an indefinite
+period. If you ever return, remove the decomposed particles, and let
+them get warm in the sun, or else freeze in the snow, it really don’t
+matter a bit. Now heat the oven and recommit them. Brood over the oven
+exhibiting the tenderest solicitude. They will soon be done, and perhaps
+will be good, perhaps not; nobody can tell.’
+
+
+_September 9._--Last night was very cold, and this morning there was ice
+on the lake, and the bilge-water in the boat was frozen solid. Esau and
+Jens went up the lake in the boat to stalk, and the Skipper accompanied
+them to fish, while John fished nearer home.
+
+About six o’clock the boat was seen returning loaded with the head and
+skin of a very fine buck, and Esau gave us his history thus:--
+
+‘As soon as we landed halfway up the lake we found the spoor of two very
+large bucks and a smaller one which had swum across the lake in the
+night. They seemed to have gone towards the Tyknings glacier, so we went
+in that direction also. The wind was as bad as it could be in that
+valley, for we were obliged to walk exactly with it at first instead of
+against it, in order to get round a sufficiently large piece of country,
+and then work back against the wind. We walked a couple of miles without
+seeing anything, and at last got close to the Tyknings glacier and the
+iceberg lake at its foot. You know that lake well enough, Skipper, full
+of lumps of ice, some of them as big as this hut, which keep breaking
+off from the projecting glacier as it slides down; and I dare say you
+remember what an awful deathly stillness reigns there and what a dismal
+sight the lake is, cold and black under the shade of the crags which
+close in its sides.
+
+‘Well, we sat down there and used the glasses for a long time----’
+
+‘What do you mean by “using the glasses?”’ interrupted John; ‘drinking
+whisky and water?’
+
+Esau withered him with a look and went on.
+
+‘Well, “spied,” if you like, spied for a long time without seeing
+anything; and we had just walked on again a few yards, when the silence
+was suddenly broken by a cry from Jens of “Reins,” and there, 300 yards
+in front of us, was a noble buck which had evidently been concealed from
+our view by some rocks, and had now smelt us and was departing at a
+stately trot, apparently despising undignified hurry.
+
+‘I fancy his intention was to trot away at that long swinging pace, and
+get into Asiatic Russia in time for tea; so I grabbed the rifle from
+Jens, as of course, now that he was alarmed, a long shot was our only
+chance; sat down on a stone, and with the faintest hopes of hitting him,
+fired twice, and, of course, missed.
+
+‘Now here was where my luck came in. If that buck had not been so proud,
+he could have run straight away from us to the glacier beyond the lake,
+but we were “betwixt the wind and his nobility,” and he wanted to get a
+clean breeze, and run against it instead of down it. Consequently, when
+he was about 350 yards away he turned to the right, apparently intending
+to make a circle round us, and so get the wind in his face.
+
+‘Directly he turned broadside to us Jens gave a shrill whistle, and the
+buck stopped short for a moment, so that I had just time to make a
+careful shot, and the bullet hit him in the ribs. At the shot he
+stumbled, but recovered himself instantly, and made off a good deal
+faster than before, evidently perceiving that things were getting
+serious, and that “this here warn’t no child’s play.” Before I could
+fire again he got into the ravine which runs down towards Rus Lake, and
+was out of our sight.
+
+‘We thought there was just a chance of cutting him off in that extremely
+rough ground, though, of course, we could not tell whether he was much
+hurt or not; so we ran as hard as we could for about a quarter of a
+mile, loading as we ran. Suddenly I caught sight of him going very
+slowly, but luckily he did not see us, so we dodged into a little gully,
+and after another short run came in sight of him standing still, no
+doubt owing to his wound, and about 250 yards away.
+
+‘This time he saw us, and darted off as fleetly as ever, no longer with
+his side to us, but straight away. I was dead beat, and Jens had thrown
+himself down, and was panting like--like----’
+
+‘A concertina?’ suggested the Skipper.
+
+  [Plate: DEATH OF THE ‘STOR BOCK’ AT THE ICEBERG LAKE, TYKNINGS HÖ.]
+
+‘Yes, just so. Anyhow, we could not run another yard; you know what it
+is on those stones, so I sat down again, and with the rifle going like a
+pump-handle, fired, and, by the greatest luck, hit him close to the
+tail, and the bullet went clean through his body and smashed his
+shoulder. Down he went, and we raised a yell of triumph, whereupon he
+jumped up again and went off at a slapping pace in a most extraordinary
+manner. I believe if he could have reached the snow he would have done
+us even now, but we were between him and the glacier, and he had nothing
+but rocks to go on, bad enough for a deer with the proper complement of
+legs and ribs, and very trying indeed to one crippled like this, I’m
+sure.
+
+‘However, he kept going at a great pace for a few hundred yards, and we
+lay in a state of exhaustion and watched him through the glass. Soon he
+began to move more slowly, and then to go round and round in a small
+circle, and at last he lay down. By that time I had partially recovered
+my wind, so I stalked him with great care and got within a hundred yards
+of him, took a steady aim for his heart, and pulled. To my horror he
+bounced up again, and ran like a hare for a dozen yards, and then rolled
+over and over as dead as Julius Cæsar.
+
+‘How Jens and I whooped and shook hands and laughed can be imagined by
+any one who has seen a grand deer almost escape him, and then, by a bit
+of luck and a breakneck run, just nailed him when the chance seemed
+hopeless. After that we lay on our backs and panted for some time, but
+after finishing the whisky and a large portion of the iceberg lake we
+recovered sufficiently to skin our prize and cut him up. He is a most
+splendidly fat “stor bock,” Jens says by far the best that has been
+killed in these parts this year; a beautiful skin, and, best luck of
+all, his horns have got rid of the velvet, and are fit to take home: and
+they have fourteen points. I measured the fat on his loins, and it was
+two and a half inches thick. Jens tried to bring home a hind quarter as
+well as the head and skin, but before he had gone twenty yards he found
+that it was too much for him, so turned back and buried it with the
+rest.’
+
+At this time of year the biggest bucks of a herd seem to separate
+themselves from the rest and roam about, either alone or perhaps a
+couple together. We think they act wisely in this respect, as the calves
+are now old enough to run as fast as their mothers in case of danger,
+and do not need any paternal protection; and the bucks would no doubt
+become horribly bored if they remained with their wives and children all
+the year round; whereas by this system they are quite independent for a
+time, and roam all over the country, seeing a lot of life and living
+uncommonly well. Very much like a married man, when he gets away on
+board a friend’s yacht for a couple of months, and comes back quite
+brightened up at the end of his trip, and positively agreeable and
+good-tempered to his wife and family, insomuch that they are right glad
+to see him home again.
+
+Of course the stalker’s great object in life is to shoot one of these
+big bucks; but it is a desire seldom realised, as they are very
+restless, and only haunt the most secluded and difficult country. We
+have only met with two others in this expedition, and those the Skipper
+saw retiring at a good swinging trot over the heights of Memurutungen.
+
+We have obtained some interesting information from Jens about the horns
+of the reindeer. As every one knows, both the bucks and does have horns,
+but they shed them at different times: those of the does and smaller
+bucks are now in velvet, and will not get properly hard until October;
+they will then remain on all through the winter, and be shed in the
+spring. But the large bucks have their horns hard now, and will shed
+them in the winter, and so be defenceless during the time when the snow
+lies thickest.
+
+All this is undoubtedly true, for Jens is thoroughly trustworthy in his
+facts, but what is the reason?
+
+Jens does not know, but he gives us another fact. In the winter, when
+the ‘stor bocks’ have no horns, the snow is often so deep that only the
+strongest deer can scrape it away to lay bare the moss which at that
+season forms their food. Then come the does and smaller bucks, and with
+their horns push away the unfortunate big ones, and so are saved from
+starvation, while the ill-treated ‘stor bocks’ have to work double tides
+in order to get anything to eat.
+
+We present this fact in all humility to Mr. Darwin as a solution of the
+problem, ‘Why has the female reindeer horns?’ Evidently, they originally
+had none, but by constant pushing at their lords and masters they
+developed them by degrees; then, by the survival of the fittest, those
+does with the longest and sharpest horns prospered most, and soon there
+were none of the hornless does left, and all calves began to have horns
+as a matter of course.
+
+Esau is inclined to the belief that, by the same line of reasoning, the
+big bucks, constantly being shot at through untold ages, have developed
+cast-iron ribs, and that that is the reason why they take such a lot of
+killing.
+
+Possibly we have worked the theory in the wrong direction. It may be
+that originally all deer of every kind had horns, and the reindeer doe
+is the only female which now keeps them, because she alone has to fight
+for her living; but the snow and the horns together are cause and
+effect, of that we are convinced.
+
+The _pièce de résistance_ at dinner was a ryper curry, executed in the
+Skipper’s best manner, and worthy of a place amongst the old masters,
+though providentially none of them were here to help us with it. John
+also contributed his share to the menu, a roley-poley pudding, which,
+when it came to table, looked a trifle doughy at the ends, as even the
+best of such puddings generally do.
+
+John turned to Esau, and in his sweetest manner said, ‘Do you like end,
+old fellow?’
+
+He, a little astonished at this unwonted politeness, replied with equal
+courtesy, ‘No, thank you, I don’t think I care about end.’
+
+‘Ah,’ said John, ‘well, the Skipper and I _do_;’ and thereupon cut the
+pudding into two portions, and was giving one to the Skipper and the
+other to himself, when the proceedings were interrupted by a brief but
+energetic scene of riot and bloodshed, which was terminated by a treaty
+of peace on the basis of the _status quo_ as regards the pudding, and
+subsequent re-division of the same into three parts by a mixed
+commission.
+
+Among the fish brought in to-day was one enormously long brute which
+ought to have weighed five pounds, but was only three pounds. The
+Skipper captured this prize at the outlet of the lake, which seems to be
+a favourite place for sick and dying fish like this.
+
+Matters of food are generally referred to Esau, because he cares more
+about eating than the other two, as _they_ say, or because he has got
+more sense than they have, as _he_ says. The two explanations are
+probably identical.
+
+When this fish was brought to him for judgment, he promptly said, ‘Give
+it to the men.’ The Skipper replied, ‘My dear chap, whenever we collect
+any kind of food that isn’t quite nice, you always “give it to the
+men.”’
+
+Esau became grave at once, and answered ‘You forget we are not in
+England. At home, truly, we give the best of everything to our servants,
+and are thankful for the worst ourselves; but Norway is a country where
+the canker of civilisation has not yet crept in to taint everything it
+passes over, and where the noisome worm of increasing independence does
+not blossom in the heart of every tree. Our men would be proud and happy
+to chew this aged fish, and we have had instances to convince us that
+they would be prouder and happier if the aged fish were nearly putrid.’
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+LUCK.
+
+
+_September 10._--The Skipper caused great sorrow this morning at
+breakfast by announcing his intention of leaving Rus Lake on the day
+after to-morrow, which ought to be a Sunday, according to our reckoning.
+It seems that his conscience upbraids him for leaving a brother to be
+married without his assistance, and the House has sadly approved his
+decision.
+
+While Esau was having a great day with the trout in the river, the
+Skipper went after deer, and came back cursing Fortune and all her
+emissaries and signs, which means ravens, horseshoes, spiders, and so
+forth. A few days ago, when he was starting on a stalk, he heard a raven
+croaking overhead, so refrained from looking up lest he should catch its
+eye, and have bad luck; but that raven was not to be balked of his
+victim, and obtruded himself so that the Skipper _had_ to see him, and
+of course no deer came that day. The next day _two_ ravens crossed his
+path, both cawing in the loudest and most jubilant manner; so he was
+greatly delighted, thinking that this was a sure precursor of good
+sport; but something was wrong, and again no deer resulted. But to-day
+two ravens came and cawed in a gentle, soothing, confident manner just
+outside the window before we got up: this gave the Skipper great belief
+in the turn of luck, and he started with a rope in his pocket to tie up
+the deerskins withal, his knife sharpened like a razor, and his bag full
+of cartridges. Once again he saw nothing, and was nearly withered away
+by the cold wind and rain. Coming home he picked up a horseshoe,
+probably the only one in the Jotunfjeld; but the times are out of joint,
+and these barometers of fortune have become depressed by the prevailing
+bad seasons and the state of the weather, so that they cannot be
+depended on.
+
+In spite of the absence of sport he came back raving about the glorious
+views of the mountains, which quite repay any one for a long walk now
+that they are newly covered with snow. From Nautgardstind looking
+northwards, away from the glaciers, a splendid panorama is spread
+out--hill, forest, and lake, lighted up by the bright gleams of the
+September sun, still shining out bravely at intervals although winter
+has begun. Down to the right is the hilly woodland country through which
+we journeyed on our way hither, and on the left a vast plain of rolling
+ground. Far beyond this rises a towering cluster of high-peaked
+mountains, over whose heads float bands of fleecy clouds, while up their
+weather-worn sides the cloud-shadows drift and seem to nestle in sleep.
+They say these peaks are called Ronderne, but surely when seen on such a
+day, ‘a dream of heaven’ is a better name; for where else on earth can
+man be so near heaven as in a lofty solitude like this, where he can
+gaze his fill on nature’s most beautiful loneliness untouched and
+undisturbed by human hand? Öla’s ignorance of English enables one to
+gloat in silence over such a scene, without any danger of being rudely
+recalled to earth by a jarring exclamation of ‘Ain’t it lovely?’ or
+‘That’s about as good as they make ’em, eh?’
+
+  [Illustration: Gloptind Rock, at the Western End of Rus Lake]
+
+
+_September 11._--The Skipper made a last stalk, with his usual luck, not
+seeing even a track, though he went into ground that we always
+considered a sure find, near the west end of the lake. Near there, and
+under the shelter of the curious sugar-loaf rock called Gloptind, there
+is a little ruined hut, which was built by a former occupier of Rus Vand
+for greater convenience in shooting near that part of the ground. When
+we were here before, Esau was obliged to go home prematurely, and the
+Skipper and Jens went to stay in this den after his departure, and got
+several deer while there. This evening we persuaded the Skipper to tell
+us all about it, and after he had put himself in what he considered a
+comfortable attitude on the bed, and lighted his pipe, he began.
+
+‘Well, when Esau went home, Jens and I were left up here, and got on
+very comfortably considering the disadvantages under which the human
+race has laboured ever since that unlucky business of the Tower of
+Babel.’
+
+‘What _does_ he mean?’ whispered John anxiously to Esau.
+
+‘How should _I_ know?’ replied the latter. ‘Just listen a bit longer,
+and I dare say we shall find out.’
+
+The Skipper went on: ‘We went out several days, and walked enormous
+distances without seeing any deer, so one day we decided to put a frying
+pan, some firewood, and a change of clothes into the boat, and row up to
+that little tumbledown stone hut at the other end for a night or two, as
+it is in the heart of the most unfrequented country, and there is
+nothing near to scare the most timid deer.
+
+‘We packed everything into the boat and rowed off one fine morning, the
+clouds, however, beginning to hang ominously over the distant mountains.
+Jens rowed slowly, so that I could fish on the way, and our progress was
+further delayed by a head-wind.
+
+‘Very soon the clouds closed in all round, and the sky got very dark.
+Jens kept rowing on steadily, from time to time looking up at the high
+mountain ridges that wall in the west end of the lake, while I devoted
+my attention to whipping the water from the stern, hoping to entice some
+unwary fish before the approaching rain should stop our chance of
+getting some fresh food. Suddenly he stopped rowing, and uttering the
+magic word “Reins,” pointed up to an apparently deserted mountain slope
+on the Bes Hö side, and handed me the glass, by the aid of which I soon
+discovered two reindeer bucks feeding about a mile away, and almost
+straight above us.
+
+‘I had on a blue serge suit, so the first thing to be done was to change
+to my stalking suit then and there in the boat; meanwhile the threatened
+rain began to descend in torrents, and the wind swept by in such squalls
+that Jens had to work hard to keep the boat in her place. At last the
+change was completed, the serge suit stowed away under a mackintosh, and
+we got to shore and began our stalk.
+
+‘It was a difficult task to keep out of sight while advancing, and we
+could only move at intervals when the deer shifted for a few moments
+behind a rock or into a hollow in their search for food, so that we had
+first to run, when opportunity offered, for a quarter of a mile over
+very bad ground, then crawl another quarter over more broken ground; and
+at length, after an hour of this, being pretty close to the deer, they
+happened to come more into view, and we had to lie prone on our bellies
+for nearly twenty minutes (while they fed their way into the next
+hollow); and the heavy rain pelted down on us till we were soaked,
+sodden, and nearly perished with cold.
+
+‘I thought that time of cramped penance would never end, but at last the
+hindermost buck got his head safe behind a welcome ridge, and then we
+were soon up and after them.’
+
+Here the Skipper stopped to strike a match on his trousers and relight
+his pipe, and then resumed: ‘Now we knew we must be close to them, and
+with rifles cocked, and hearts beating uncomfortably, advanced
+expectant. I forgot to tell you that after Esau went home I allowed Jens
+to take his rifle out, he was so desperately keen about it.
+
+‘Suddenly we came on the bucks only forty yards away, conscious of
+danger, but not knowing what they feared; too unsettled to feed, too
+uncertain to move.
+
+  [Plate: GOOD SPORT, BAD WEATHER. THE SKIPPER’S TWO ‘STOR BOCKS.’]
+
+‘I fired first, and immediately afterwards, as pre-arranged, Jens fired,
+and both deer bounded into the air and disappeared like lightning over a
+ridge beyond them. We followed at our best pace, I cramming in a couple
+of cartridges as we ran, and saw them again directly, still running, and
+a good deal further away. I fired two more shots, and one buck fell dead
+at once, while the other galloped on about twenty yards further, and
+then suddenly stumbled and fell head over heels.
+
+‘I fancy that our first shots killed them, and that one was really
+killed by Jens, but may I never know for certain! The yell that we gave
+when we saw them both lying dead woke the echoes of that dreary
+solitude, and must have been worth hearing by any student of human
+nature: in a wild shout of triumph there is only one language for all
+nations, and Jens and I joined our voices in the same glorious tongue
+for once.
+
+‘Both these deer were “stor bocks,” six years old and fat. We skinned
+them there, and leaving the bodies as usual safe under stones, returned
+to the boat with the heads and skins. By the way, John, you must have
+seen the horns of these two deer on the wall of Besse Sæter, for I had
+no means of getting them home, and Jens put them up there.
+
+‘The day was drawing to a close when we reached the little stone hut
+which was to be our lodging: its roof was full of holes, and let the
+rain through like a sieve; but we stretched the two deerskins over it,
+and so made it habitable for a time. Inside there is, as you know, only
+just room for two men to lie side by side touching each other; and here,
+after a liberal meal and a contemplative pipe, we turned in and slept
+like honest men.
+
+‘Next morning after breakfast, while I was making up a fresh cast for my
+rod, I saw a man approaching the hut. As this was the only intrusion
+from human beings that we had suffered for more than a month, I was not
+a little surprised. Where the deuce could a man come from? and what the
+dickens could he want? It soon proved to be old Tronhūus with a note for
+Jens.
+
+  [Illustration: The old stone Hut near Gloptind]
+
+‘I must explain that Besse Sæter where Jens lives belongs to a man who
+comes from Christiania, and Jens is only his tenant there. This man had
+arrived at his sæter two days before this with a young English nobleman,
+whom he was proud to have as his guest, and to whom he naturally wished
+to show some sport; but he had been unable to do so for want of a good
+stalker. This was of course very unfortunate for him and his guest, but
+it by no means justified his present conduct. He had addressed a letter
+to Jens, but written it in English, so that I should read it, sending
+merely a verbal message to Jens by his father, to ensure our both
+knowing the purport of the letter, which was to the following
+effect:--“Jens. If you do not return with the bearer of this letter to
+Besse Sæter to show myself and Lord ---- some deer, you will at once
+lose your tenancy of Besse Sæter.” I could not keep Jens and thus cause
+him to be unfairly ejected from his home, so having no paper with me,
+I wrote in pencil on the back of the note that Peter had brought: “As
+you must be aware that Jens is acting as my servant this summer, and
+that by calling him away you leave me absolutely alone at the stone hut
+on Rus Vand, I hope that you will not detain him after receiving this
+note.”
+
+‘With this missive Jens departed, and soon old Peter followed him, and
+left me, like Robinson Crusoe, alone on my desert highland. I am bound
+to say that I felt inclined to inquire with Selkirk, “O solitude, where
+are the charms?” as I turned to perform the duties of the day,
+absolutely deserted in that desolate spot, with no companions but the
+lake and solemn mountain heights around me; so after a short time I put
+the Lares and Penates----’
+
+‘Hollo, what’s that?’ broke in Esau; ‘you never said anything about
+bringing that with you before.’
+
+‘You duffer!’ said the Skipper; ‘it’s Norwegian for the frying-pan and
+tea-kettle: do you mean to say you’ve been all this time in the country
+without learning that?’
+
+‘Oh, all right,’ grunted Esau, ‘go on.’
+
+‘Well, I put them into the boat and sculled the seven miles back to this
+hut, as I did not feel inclined to remain alone in that little stone
+hutch for the night.
+
+‘Three days passed before they let Jens return to me; and during that
+time I was certainly rather dull, and at night felt a trifle creepy, but
+the days did not pass as slowly as you might have imagined; for being
+without assistance my time was fully occupied in catching my daily
+supply of fish, chopping firewood, cooking, washing, and so on. At night
+the wind howled dismally round the cabin walls, but after the hard work
+of the day I soon fell asleep, and at last began almost to like the
+solitary life. Still I longed for Jens to come back, as I could not go
+out stalking alone; the season was far advanced, and the weather very
+cold.
+
+‘How I cursed that Englishman’ (gentle murmurs of ‘Bet you did’ from the
+other two) ‘as I cleaned out the tea-pot and scoured the frying-pan! and
+how I pictured him to myself wandering with my faithful Jens over the
+best reindeer-fjeld, and scaring away all the deer with his
+loud-sounding Bond Street express!’
+
+‘I say, Skipper,’ put in Esau, ‘did _his_ Bond Street express make any
+more row than _yours_? because if----’
+
+‘My dear fellow,’ said the Skipper, ‘you always put that kind of
+expression into narrative; it’s Homeric; an educated man would be
+pleased with it.
+
+‘I was always expecting Jens; every sound, real or imaginary, caused me
+to look up over the deserted lake, and hold my breath while I listened
+to make out his voice in the distance; and when I went down the river I
+heard his cheery shout in the rush of every rapid and the roar of every
+fall.
+
+‘After all it was only three days, and then one afternoon I found him
+waiting for me at the hut. I was glad to see him--gladder than I am to
+hear the dinner-bell at home, as glad as a bee is to get into the open
+air after bunting its head against a window-pane for three days’
+(‘Beautiful simile!’ from John), ‘and especially glad to see how pleased
+old Jens was to return to me again. I was also not particularly sorry to
+hear that he had found a herd of deer and taken Lord ---- within shot;
+and the only result was a calf, which Jens himself shot after the
+Englishman had missed.
+
+‘After this I had a good time with grand fishing and more deer, but we
+did not stay much longer at Rus Vand; as you know, I was back in England
+by the end of September.’
+
+The story ended, we called the men in and had a great settlement of
+wages and milk bills, and arranged how the Skipper’s baggage should be
+transported tomorrow, and the rest next week.
+
+  [Illustration: A Night at Rusvasoset, after a Day at Haircutting]
+
+Then we filled up glasses round with whisky and drank a solemn Skaal
+(pronounced Skole) to every one, and then to Gammle Norgé, and finished
+the evening with ‘Auld Lang Syne.’ It must have been a ludicrous sight
+as we stood tightly packed in that tiny room, with heads all bent
+towards the centre to avoid the rafters, our hands crossed in orthodox
+fashion, and roaring at our highest respective pitches as much of the
+words as we knew, while we swayed our arms up and down in the manner
+essential to the proper rendering of the good old song.
+
+When the men cleared out, Esau produced a gorgeous counterpane which he
+had commissioned Peter to buy in Vaage six weeks ago, and which the old
+man brought over from Besse Sæter to-day. Its manufacture is peculiar to
+this district; it is woven in most tasteful colours, red, magenta, blue,
+and green being the most prominent, with a kind of diamond pattern in
+white running diagonally across it; but, from the ‘What’s the next
+article?’ air with which Esau exhibited it, we began to suspect that he
+was rather disappointed with it, and wanted to induce some one to buy
+it. Suffice it to say that its introduction was received with coldness.
+
+This was a bad day for sport; we caught very little, and shot less. We
+did spy a reindeer directly after breakfast, but as he was about six
+miles away, close to the top of one of the highest mountains, and
+running as if Loki were after him, no one cared about pursuing him.
+
+John fishing in the lake managed to lose a ‘twa and saxpenny’ minnow,
+trace, and twenty yards of reel line, and was quite discontented.
+
+At night the wind had increased to a storm, and the clouds were right
+down on the water, and hurrying past in endless wreathing drifts like
+witches trooping to their nocturnal Sabbath.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+NOT LOST, BUT GONE BEFORE.
+
+
+_September 12._--Early this morning we sorrowfully packed the Skipper’s
+things on the pony, and then we three and Öla marched off down the river
+towards civilisation. The Skipper hoped to get over about twenty-five
+miles before night; Esau wanted to try the river a long way down; and
+John said he ‘always liked a stroll on Sunday,’ and with that object
+accompanied the Skipper for the first eleven miles of his journey,
+returning to Rusvasoset in time for dinner.
+
+About four miles below Rus Lake, the river, which is there about thirty
+yards wide, suddenly disappears into a narrow cleft in the rocky bed,
+and runs in this curious rift for several hundred yards, and then again
+emerges into daylight. The sides of this rocky prison are just over a
+yard apart at the narrowest place, though the gap only appears to be a
+few inches wide; but the force with which the immense body of water is
+squeezed through the tortuous passage far down below, whirling huge
+boulders along with irresistible force, and covering the surrounding
+rocks with moisture from the ever-rising misty spray, makes it a severe
+trial to the nerves to step across the cleft; the ceaseless din of the
+rushing water is of itself sufficiently appalling.
+
+This channel has evidently been gradually worn down through the solid
+rock, which here appears to be a reef of softer nature than the usual
+formation of this country. On the top and in niches all the way down are
+still to be seen the turn holes caused by stones working round and round
+in an eddy; but the curious fact is that while at the top the cleft is
+only a yard across, it widens regularly out as it gets deeper, and at
+the bottom is fully ten yards in width. Now it seems unlikely that the
+Russen River could ever have been content to run in a bed so much
+narrower than its present one, and from the appearance of the strata we
+imagine that as it worked down and undermined the cliffs at each side,
+they have gradually toppled forward to meet each other. Probably soon
+they will actually touch, after which a very short time will see the
+natural arch so formed covered with vegetation, and the river will run
+in a subterranean passage.
+
+Through this channel no fish could pass alive, so there Esau bade
+‘farvel’ to the Skipper, and, encumbered with rod and fishing bag,
+leaped like a goat across the intervening Devil’s Dyke, and was soon
+lost to view as he fished his way up stream.
+
+The other two pursued their journey steadily, and found it pleasant to
+gradually walk down from the Scotch mist which overhung everything up at
+Rus Vand, into, firstly, dull dry weather just below the clouds, and
+then a little further into real sunshine and warmth. About one o’clock
+they reached Hind Sæter, the tenants of which were still there, but just
+in the act of removing to the valley. Here they feasted together on
+fladbrod, and then the things were packed on a cart, and the Skipper,
+following them as they jolted away under Öla’s guidance through the pine
+forest, was seen no more by his disconsolate comrade.
+
+When John returned to Rusvasoset a little before dinner-time, we found
+it necessary to bake bread and a pie, our invariable rule ‘when in
+doubt.’ This was not a case that admitted of any hesitation, for the
+Skipper had taken all the food that he could annex for his sustenance on
+the journey, as he did not expect to find any people in the sæters on
+his path.
+
+The evening was spent in general tidying, and mending various articles
+which had gone wrong; holes in landing-nets, rents in trousers and
+coats, and inserting new screws in Esau’s boots for the stalk he hoped,
+but hardly expected, to make on the morrow. At night the outlook was
+anything but encouraging, dense clouds folding all nature in their cold
+embrace, and the pitiless rain beating down on our poor little hut as if
+it took a pleasure in the occupation.
+
+
+_September 13._--Rain, and nothing but rain.
+
+  [Plate: CHEERFUL! THE HUTS AT RUS LAKE.]
+
+
+_September 14._--We never knew when sunrise and daybreak took place
+to-day, or whether they happened at all, for the prospect was more
+hopeless than ever, and the rain still fell with unabated vigour.
+
+We were at the end of our indoor resources, but fortunately Öla returned
+with some English papers which he had found waiting for us at Ransværk,
+the sæter at which he and the Skipper passed the night, and at which
+this bundle of literature had been deposited about a fortnight ago by
+the latest traveller from Vaage. But for this, there would certainly
+have been bloodshed in this remote spot, our tempers not being equal to
+the strain of two days in succession without being able to see ten yards
+in front of us, or to stir out without becoming water-logged.
+
+Even the fish were apparently at last disgusted at not being able to get
+into a dry corner by jumping out of the water, and our efforts to
+persuade them to try the interior of a waterproof bag only met with
+indifferent success.
+
+The stubborn resistance of our well-tried roof has at last been
+overcome, and soon after turning in last night we had to turn out again
+to rig up various hydrostatic appliances with a view to diverting the
+course of some of the superfluous rainfall, and irrigating the floor
+therewith instead of letting the beds get it all. The latter really
+needed it much less than the boards, which were somewhat dusty; but
+probably the mistake arose from John sitting on one of them while he
+mixed the dough, so that it might have been taken for a flour-bed.
+
+
+_September 15._--At last we were relieved by a change in the wind, soon
+followed by a cessation of rain, and then the mist began to lift, and by
+noon the sun was actually beginning to glimmer feebly, and the mountains
+to be visible for half their height.
+
+  [Illustration: Rus Lake from the Western End: Nautgardstind in the
+  Distance]
+
+John went on a general tour of mountaineering and prospecting in search
+of scenery, and came back delighted with himself, having made a higher
+climb than usual, and seen Nautgardstind in all the perfect beauty with
+which the newly fallen snow had endowed him.
+
+It has already been mentioned that John does _not_ like walking uphill,
+and when he makes a self-sacrificing and voluntary ascent as he did
+to-day, he comes home brimming over with an excess of conscious virtue
+which does not pass away until the genial influence of a good meal and a
+pipe has reduced him to the level of all humanity.
+
+On his way home he heard a feeble squeak in a bush, and peering in
+discovered a small animal which he at first took for a guinea-pig; but
+soon, perceiving that it must be a lemming, his natural impulse was to
+poke it with a stick. This was his first interview with one, though they
+are common enough up here; and he is disposed to think them morose in
+disposition; but really he ought to have recognised the fact that the
+thin end of a walking-stick is not a means of intercourse at all likely
+to arouse the sympathy of any animal, least of all that of a juvenile
+lemming, who is obviously overcome with drowsiness, and wants to be let
+alone.
+
+The winter is now coming on apace, and already every fall of rain down
+here is a snowstorm in the mountains, and every clear night means a
+biting frost up there. Esau, scaling the heights of Bes Hö with Jens in
+search of deer, found none on account of the mist, and in addition to
+the danger of getting lost, a new peril was added by the snow. It
+appeared that during the night a severe frost had immediately followed
+the rain and coated everything with ice, then snow had fallen to the
+depth of three inches, and on the top of that rain and sharp frost
+again. The result was that at every step they broke through the crust of
+ice on the top, and sank through the three inches of soft snow on to the
+lower stratum of ice. This was all very well as long as they were on
+rough ground; but the snow making every place look the same, in one
+instance they got on to one of the steep little glaciers which are
+common on Bes Hö, without knowing that they had done so: and suddenly
+Jens lost his footing and began to slide downwards at a terrific speed.
+It seemed to Esau that he would shoot straight down into Rus Vand,
+looking very blue and cold three thousand feet below; but a friendly
+boulder intervened, and by its assistance, and by spreading himself out
+like a gigantic spider, he managed to arrest his wild career, and they
+got safe across the treacherous glacier.
+
+They had to cross another on their return, which was done with fear and
+trembling; but although the difficulties of this kind of stalking when
+unaccompanied by deer may seem to outnumber the pleasures, still
+occasionally they were on fairly safe ground, and could get their hearts
+out of their mouths for a few brief moments. At such times the splendid
+view of all our old Gjendin mountains rising tier after tier behind each
+other, a boundless sea of peaks and domes and jagged crags, all robed in
+purest white, with the sun lighting up the virgin snow almost too
+brightly for the eye to rest on; the keen frosty air; and the solemn
+stillness, only broken now and again by the twittering of a flock of
+snow buntings, amply repaid them for the arduous climb.
+
+Then a few minutes of glorious excitement as, by the aid of glissades,
+they shot down the steeps that it had needed hours of hard labour to
+surmount, and they were back on the shores of Rus Vand, where at present
+the snow had hardly begun to lie.
+
+  [Illustration: Glissading home after a blank day]
+
+In spite of the cold we had some first-rate fishing, and Esau caught a
+trout which he asserted to be the very best fish for shape, condition,
+and colour, that ever came out of Rus Lake, or anywhere else. Though not
+as large as many we have caught, being only 2½ lbs., it certainly was a
+beauty, and resembled the perfect fish that are occasionally seen in an
+oil painting, but very seldom encountered in tangible, edible form.
+
+The Rus trout, like those of Gjendin, are quite silvery, almost as
+bright as a salmon, but with a few pink spots instead of black ones, and
+uncommonly pretty they look when fresh out of the water.
+
+  [Illustration: Rus Lake from the Eastern End: Tyknings Hö and
+  Memurutind in the distance]
+
+Too soon evening put an end to our sport, and when the last rays of the
+setting sun had tinted the distant snow with a delicate pink hue which
+lingered, paled, and faded as the cold silvery light of the moon began
+to assert its sway, the keen air drove us home, and made us content to
+enjoy from the hut door the lovely clear night which succeeded so bright
+a day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+A LAST STALK.
+
+
+_September 16._--The morning did not belie its fair promise, but opened
+as brightly as the most exacting hunter could require.
+
+  [Illustration: Off! A Reindeer recollecting an engagement]
+
+Esau and Jens made a last laborious and fruitless stalk, trying not only
+the whole Rus Valley, but crossing the mountains northwards into
+Veodalen and traversing all the slopes of Glitretind, a most splendid
+sight just now with his towering pyramid, 8,140 feet high. Such a walk
+would have been impossible but for the snow, which had been reduced by
+the wind to the consistence of hard sand, and made the going as good as
+it could be.
+
+Esau, who saw nothing all day, was a little annoyed on his return to
+hear that John had wandered but a short distance up Nautgardstind to
+gloat over the view, and there walked almost into a reindeer buck;
+which, as John was armed with no more deadly weapon than a
+double-barrelled field glass, had escaped uninjured. ’Twas ever thus.
+
+However, the mention of this buck opened on John’s devoted head the
+floodgates of Esau’s memory, and he insisted on telling about his last
+stalk here two years ago, as follows:--
+
+‘By George! I shall never forget how Jens and I turned out that morning
+across the same precipice that you passed to get up Nautgardstind: we
+started pretty early because it was my last day, and I had sworn to
+catch something or perish.
+
+‘About ten o’clock we saw four deer, a fine buck and three does, on a
+long narrow snow-drift on the east side of the mountain: they were about
+a mile off and moving away, with the wind blowing straight from them to
+us; so we went after them as fast as we could, without much attempt at
+concealment at first.
+
+‘Presently they left the snow and turned to the left, as if to skirt
+round the mountain, we still following and getting rather nearer to
+them. They seemed very restless and kept moving, and at last began to
+trot, and soon got out of our sight.
+
+‘We were half an hour without seeing them again, and at last Jens
+discovered them far down below us in the large valley where you saw that
+one to-day. The place where they were was quite unapproachable, but Jens
+pointed out a sort of pass by which he thought it was likely they might
+leave the valley, and so we went and hid ourselves in a convenient nook
+fifty yards to the leeward of that place.
+
+‘There we lay in a bitterly cold wind for an hour, and then the deer
+began to come in our direction. Now was the critical moment: there were
+two practicable routes in the pass; would they choose the nearer one,
+which would give me a shot, or the other? They stopped a little time to
+look for food, and provokingly grazed their way very slowly towards the
+wrong one, and then all of a sudden seemed to make up their minds and
+turned to the right one. The cold and cramp were forgotten as the deer
+came within three hundred yards and were nearing us quickly, and, with
+rifle cocked, I was already wondering whether the buck’s horns were in
+velvet or not, and thinking what a splendid coat he had; when without
+any warning a storm of sleet swept down upon us, and a dense mist
+drifted over the mountain and shut out from our gaze the rocky pass and
+deer alike wrapped in impenetrable gloom.
+
+‘For fully half an hour this lasted, and then the mist cleared as
+quickly as it had come, the sleet stopped, and the sun shone out, making
+the ground fairly smoke: but, alas! the deer were gone. We looked for
+their tracks, and found that they had actually passed within forty yards
+of us during the storm; but our chance was missed, and there was nothing
+for it but to renew the search.
+
+‘Another hour of walking, and Jens’ quick eye caught sight of them, this
+time high above our heads on some snow near the top of Nautgardstind,
+and at last, thank goodness, lying down. There seemed to be a
+possibility of getting to them, and we spent another hour crawling like
+serpents in the attempt, only to find our way barred when we were within
+four hundred yards by a ridge over which we could not pass unseen.
+
+‘However, from there we saw plainly that we could approach them by going
+up the mountain, and then coming quite straight down above them, with
+hardly any difficult ground to traverse. So we performed that weary
+crawl back again, until we were safely out of sight, and then went up
+Nautgardstind at a speed that has never been equalled.
+
+‘Half an hour took us to the top, and then Jens made the only mistake in
+a stalk that I ever saw: he got his bearings wrong somehow, and thought
+that the deer were on one bit of snow, the top end of which we could
+see, while I thought they were on another. Of course I had much more
+confidence in Jens’ opinion than in my own, but it turned out that he
+was wrong, and in crawling to the place where he expected them to be, we
+unluckily came into full view of the snow where they really were--a fact
+which was made unpleasantly apparent to us by our suddenly catching
+sight of four deer galloping down the drift two hundred yards away.
+
+‘I took a careful aim at the buck, but fired too low, and the bullet
+broke his fore-leg, which did not prevent him from following the does,
+though at a reduced pace. Now I think our best chance would have been to
+remain perfectly still, and trust to his stopping in time in some place
+where I could get to him; but Jens was terribly excited, begging me to
+shoot, and my own head was by no means as cool as it should have been,
+so I sat on a rock and fired away all my remaining cartridges except
+two, at the gradually receding form of the reindeer: I suppose at the
+last shot he was five hundred yards away, and I don’t think I ever hit
+him again.
+
+‘Presently he got round the corner to the right, and into the next
+valley, where a few days before I had killed two deer; and as I ran to
+the right above him an astonishing sight met my gaze. The valley was
+full of deer, about fifty altogether, in three distinct herds, and they
+were all running about frightened by the firing, and not sure in which
+direction it would be safe to go.
+
+‘While we watched them from our peak a mile above, a buck and two does
+with a calf left the herd, and began to come towards the very snowdrift
+on which the four deer were lying when we made the fatal mistake. What
+became of the rest we never knew, nor whither our wounded buck went; for
+when we saw this fresh four making for the drift, it occurred to us to
+run towards the top and try to intercept them if they should attempt to
+ascend the mountain on the snow, as we expected they would.
+
+‘Off we ran at top speed over terribly rough ground, and before we got
+nearly in shot of the top of the long drift we saw the deer get on to it
+at the bottom, and begin to gallop up with their untiring stride. It was
+simply a race, with long odds on the Running Rein; and soon we saw them
+standing at the top, while we were still over two hundred yards from it.
+Then for the first time they saw us (for the drift was in a ravine, and
+out of our sight as we ran), and they turned to flee, but Jens somehow
+managed to find breath enough to whistle, and the deer stopped for a
+moment.
+
+‘I fired my last two cartridges, but in the condition to which I was
+reduced by the run I could not have hit a haystack, and no damage was
+done. So we turned homewards with deep and abiding sorrow in our hearts,
+too despondent to look again for our wounded buck, or to see what became
+of the other herds.
+
+‘In those days I always took out seven cartridges, which I fondly
+imagined to be a lucky number; but after this I solemnly registered two
+vows: firstly, never to go out with so few again; and secondly, never to
+shoot them all away at absurd distances in the forlorn hope of killing a
+wounded deer.’ Esau here paused for a moment or two, and then resumed:
+‘By Jove, I did make myself agreeable to the Skipper when I got home
+that night. I remember he said----’
+
+But John thought it was _his_ turn to have a few weeks’ conversation,
+and rudely interrupted Esau’s reminiscences by calling his attention to
+some writing which, like Belshazzar, he had detected on the wall above
+his bed. It was in pencil, and seemed to have been written in
+prehistoric times, for it was all illegible except the first two lines,
+and even those required a great deal of deciphering by the aid of a
+dripping candle, while Esau knelt on his bunk and flattened his nose
+against the log wall, before he could read them. Then after licking the
+tip of a pencil for a long time in meditative silence, he scrawled the
+remainder of the poem underneath, so that the whole composition read as
+follows:--
+
+  A reindeer three miles off you spy,
+  And to shoot that reindeer you will try.
+  First a mile at the top of your speed you go,
+  Then you climb a mile up loose rocks and snow,
+  Then a mile on your hands and knees you crawl,
+  And----
+
+(when you have executed these little manœuvres and arrived at the place
+with your garments all in tatters and your whole body a mass of bruises
+in all probability you will either find that the insidious animal has
+removed himself to the uttermost ends of the earth five minutes before
+your appearance on the scene, or else you _do_ get a shot at him and)
+
+          ----you miss that reindeer after all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+HOMEWARD BOUND.
+
+
+_September 17._--Our ears were gladdened by the sound of Ivar’s hoarse
+cachinnation some time during the night or early morning, and on turning
+out he informed us that he should have been here yesterday, but his cart
+had been smashed on the road beyond Hind Sæter: however, he had patched
+it up and got it to the sæter; so we distributed our goods on the two
+ponies, after seizing our last chance of a ‘square meal,’ by eating an
+enormous breakfast of venison pie, cutlets, and trout.
+
+All our stores came to an end yesterday, except candles and soap. The
+latter article has for some time been lying in great bars on a shelf as
+a reproach to us, and we were glad to get it out of our sight to-day,
+and ‘give it to the men,’ as we would anything else that is repulsive to
+our feelings. There were a few scraps of other delicacies which we
+divided among the retainers, and then taking with us a fore-quarter of
+‘stor bock’ for our own consumption on the journey, and a hind-quarter
+carefully sewn up in the sail of Esau’s canoe, and intended as a present
+for Mr. Thomas, we regretfully took leave of the little hut, and started
+for Besse Sæter.
+
+Öla and Jens were sent down the Russen River, which is the nearest way
+to Hind Sæter; and Ivar was to meet us at the eastern end of Sjödals
+Lake as soon as he could get there.
+
+We paused at the brow of the hill to have a last look at the beautiful
+lake and quaint little huts, and to take off our hats to grand old
+Nautgardstind, to whom we hoped we were not bidding an eternal ‘farvel;’
+and then we turned across the fjeld, and, losing sight of the Rus
+valley, were soon looking forward again to the change and uncertainty of
+the homeward journey.
+
+From Besse Sæter, which was reached at noon, we launched our craft into
+the lake with a nasty side-wind blowing, which delayed our progress
+considerably, so that we took an hour to reach the lower end of the
+lake, a distance of not quite four miles.
+
+There we found Ivar with his pony and sleigh, on which the canoe was
+conveyed to the junction of the Sjoa and Russen Rivers, where Esau
+launched her again and ran the rapids down to Ruslien Sæter, a very fine
+bit of stream, in which the canoe could only just manage to live.
+
+Finding that the sæter girls were still here, we went in and asked for
+milk. They suggested cream: amendment carried without a division. A huge
+bowl of the thickest and most delicious cream was set before us, which
+we, armed with two enormous spoons, attacked and soon consumed utterly,
+with an indefinite amount of fladbrod and cheese. Charge for the whole,
+sixpence! We have no hesitation in saying that the cream alone would
+have been worth its weight in gold in Piccadilly.
+
+We then regained our craft, and had a delightful cruise down to Hind
+Sæter, the stream going at mill-race speed all the way, so that we did
+the two and a half miles in fifteen minutes, arriving long before our
+cavalcade of men and ponies, who started twenty minutes before us, while
+we were discussing the cream.
+
+The sæter was deserted for the winter, but Ivar produced his cart from
+the bed of a stream where he had left it to improve the wheels, and at
+half-past five we, with Jens and one cart, resumed our journey, leaving
+the other two men with the canoe to follow us.
+
+We had originally intended to make the journey to Lillehammer from here
+entirely by canoe down the Sjoa until it joined the Laagen, but the
+premature departure of the Skipper knocked that little scheme on the
+head.
+
+It would have been a tremendous enterprise, for the Sjoa is such a
+turbulent river that there would have been a great deal of portage to be
+done; but we had agreed to allow a fortnight for it, and were looking
+forward to it with great delight. The Laagen is a fairly navigable river
+all the way, with the exception of a few very large falls; but there is
+a good road by its side, so that we should have had no difficulty if we
+had been lucky enough ever to reach it. However,
+
+  The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
+            Gang aft a-gley;
+
+and we were reduced to the prosaic necessity of walking, and helping to
+hold our luggage onto a jolting cart.
+
+As we gradually descended into the birch-woods we were much struck by
+the beautiful effects of the variegated autumn tints, and soon the
+brilliant reds and yellows of the birches began to contrast with the
+dark green of the fir trees, the light greyish green of the lichen, and
+rich brown and purple of the ground and undergrowth. It was so long
+since we had seen any trees, that their beauty seemed to come to us
+quite as a new sensation.
+
+Below Hind Sæter the road lay through dense forests of pines for mile
+after mile, with hardly any change except where we got occasional
+glimpses of the Sjoa tearing madly along far beneath us--so far that
+only a faint murmur came up from the leaping, hurrying waters. Hour
+after hour we walked, and still the same dark forest gloomed above us,
+so remote from the busy haunts of men that it seems not to be worth any
+one’s while to cut the trees except for use in the immediate
+neighbourhood, and hundreds of them lie naked and dead as they have
+fallen before the fury of the gale, and slowly rot or are devoured by
+insects until their place is ready for a successor.
+
+As the shades of evening began to close, we were several times startled
+as the huge body of a capercailzie darted across the road at a pace
+which seemed impossible to such an enormous bird, and with an absence of
+noise that appeared equally unnatural.
+
+About half-past eight we came to a more open part of the forest, and
+soon we saw a glimmering light ahead: Jens cheerily said, ‘Ransværk;’
+and in a few more minutes we pulled up at the door of a large sæter.
+
+Without knocking Jens opened the door, and we walked in and struck a
+light. There was the usual fireplace and table, and in the further
+corner a bed, which, as we presently perceived, was occupied by two
+girls. This discovery embarrassed us a little; but no one else, least of
+all the girls themselves, appeared to be at all disconcerted.
+
+In our favoured land a woman would probably be slightly concerned if she
+were aroused from sleep by the unceremonious entrance into her room of
+three men, two of them ruffianly-looking strangers of foreign exterior;
+but not so these artless beings. The elder one at once got out of bed
+and proceeded to dress, while her sister remained where she was and soon
+fell asleep.
+
+When the dressing commenced, we, being innocent young bachelors, retired
+and remained outside till it was finished, but we do not believe she
+appreciated our delicacy at all.
+
+Then this poor girl, no doubt very tired after a hard day’s work at
+cheese-making, proceeded to relight the fire, prepare coffee, and broil
+some venison for us. And just as we finished a hearty meal, Öla and Ivar
+arrived, so that she had to begin all over again for them. Finally, in
+spite of our remonstrances, she dragged her sister out of the bed, and
+insisted on our having it, while they went and slept in another building
+a few yards away. So John took the bed they had vacated, while Esau made
+a couch for himself in the cheese-room, and we slept the sleep of the
+hard-worked, virtuous, penniless wanderer.
+
+Verily they have a better idea in Norway of true hospitality than in any
+other country under the sun.
+
+
+_September 18._--How strange that our return to the haunts of men should
+be chiefly marked by the sparseness of the fare provided for breakfast!
+A tin of sardines took the place of the usual trout; and although
+Ransværk consists of a group of several sæters, and almost attains to
+the dignity of a village, and our quarters were in the largest and most
+imposing mansion, there were no forks or spoons to be obtained, and we
+had to fish our sardines out of their native oil with a Tollekniv,
+assisted by a finger, and convey them to our mouths with the same
+implements.
+
+After breakfast Esau and Jens turned out in pursuit of capercailzie,
+which abound in the forest here; but though they persevered until three
+o’clock, and got several shots, the annoying birds all ‘went on,’ as an
+English keeper generally says when you ask, ‘Did you see if I killed
+that rabbit?’
+
+Esau had used up all his large shot at ducks up at Gjendin, and his
+cartridges were perfectly ineffectual at such a strong bird as the
+capercailzie. Besides this, they are extremely wary, and always rise
+about thirty yards from the shooter; they fly quite straight, and so are
+very easy to hit; but though Esau knocked clouds of feathers out of them
+at every shot, and did bring one to the ground which, from the closeness
+of the underwood, could not be gathered, he was obliged to submit to
+disappointment for once.
+
+In one part of the forest they heard a raven shrieking angrily
+(‘skriking,’ Jens called it, which has the same meaning in North country
+dialect), and going to the place were in time to see a goshawk gliding
+swiftly away with some victim in its grasp. In another place there were
+a lot of squirrels, which Jens induced Esau to shoot for some purpose of
+his own. What that purpose was we could only guess by seeing him gather
+a bunch of beautiful wild currants and some flowers just before reaching
+the sæter, and then brush his hair and march out with his bouquet,
+berries, and squirrel-skins to some place unknown.
+
+Soon after three o’clock we resumed our march, and almost directly
+quitted the good Vaage road along which we travelled last night, and
+took to a cow track on the right. The cart with the canoe had a very
+rough time of it for the first five or six miles, jolting and bumping in
+and out of holes, bogs, and ruts, and over boulders and logs in a most
+appalling manner; then we had a piece of decent road again, and at the
+finish another mile of rough track.
+
+Soon after starting we passed the sæter where Jens lives when he is not
+hunting in the mountains, and Esau wishing to see what kind of
+snow-shoes they use in this part of the country, Jens ran up to the
+house and fetched his ‘skier.’ To give an idea of the absurd honesty
+which prevails here, we noticed that though Jens had been absent from
+home for the last two months, and the windows were shuttered up, yet the
+door was only latched; and after the inspection of the snow-shoes, Jens
+would not trouble to take them back, but simply left them by the side of
+the road, to wait his return three or four days hence.
+
+Another instance illustrating the same simplicity occurred to us once
+when travelling in quite a different part of Norway. When changing
+carioles at a station our baggage was all heaped together on the
+road-side, and as we wanted to stay there an hour or so for dinner, and
+this was a main road with a fair amount of traffic, we suggested to the
+landlord that our goods had better be brought inside the station. He
+merely looked up at the sky with a weather-wise eye, and replied, ‘Oh
+no, I’m sure it won’t rain.’
+
+Our route to-day through the forest was most beautiful, at one time
+descending to the level of the Sjoa, and even struggling along its bed
+where the going on the bank seemed to be inferior, at another climbing
+up and up and ever higher, until we stood on the summit of the range of
+hills which confine this valley on the northern side. It is called
+Hedalen, and is one of those strikingly beautiful half-cultivated
+Norwegian dales which occupy the space between civilisation and the
+untouched realms of nature.
+
+This evening, the setting sun throwing a rich golden glow over the
+scene, and lighting up the brilliant autumnal colours of the trees, gave
+us an opportunity of seeing it quite at its best.
+
+Gradually the forest began to get more open, and the road to improve.
+Several peasants in picturesque garb were seen on the wayside: rough
+buildings became more frequent, and fields and fences quite common; at
+first only pasture land, but soon corn-fields and patches of potatoes.
+
+Then at last in the twilight we make a swift descent from the ridge
+along which the road runs; a short plunge through a thicket, down a
+grassy track; a bridge over a little stream; and as we breast the
+opposite bank, a pile of buildings looming in front and looking
+perfectly gigantic to our eyes, so long accustomed to the tiniest of
+huts; and Jens points up, cracks his whip, and says, ‘Bjölstad.’ The
+pony boils up something like ‘a trot for the avenue,’ and rattles the
+cart into a large square courtyard, tenanted only by two huge dogs; and
+as a cheery old Norseman rushes out in great excitement to welcome us
+and lead us into a bright, clean, curtained room, we feel that we have
+said farewell to the delights of savage life, and will probably have to
+put on a necktie to-morrow.
+
+Here we parted with our faithful Jens, and very sorry we were to do so,
+as we think him a first-rate fellow: a man with a bright eye and stolid
+demeanour; naturally silent, but game for anything; a keen sportsman and
+wonderful stalker, and without a particle of the laziness and sulkiness
+which characterised Öla.
+
+Here, for the first time since leaving Lillehammer in July, we slept
+between sheets.
+
+Our own and only Ivar has volunteered to what he calls ‘transportare’
+all our baggage in his cart down to Lillehammer, distant about eighty
+miles hence, for the sum of twenty-two shillings. This sounds
+unreasonable, but it was his own suggestion, so we did not argue the
+point, only stipulating that he should be there by noon on Tuesday,
+to-day being Saturday, and leaving the details to him.
+
+Our thoughts were here recalled to the Skipper and his adventures by
+finding the following note from him:--
+
+  ‘DEAR ESAU,--I have left behind me here certain of what the Romans
+  so appropriately called “impedimenta,” and hope that you will be
+  able to bring them home for me. I got an old, old man with a small
+  cart to bring my luggage down from Ransværk. It was a wet day.
+  I walked the first nine miles while the old man and the rain were
+  both driving. This ancient driveller seemed to imagine it was a
+  fine day, and had hung on his best coat and hat, further
+  aggravating his appearance with a spotted kerchief and a light
+  heart. He seemed remarkably cheerful, as carolling he drove his
+  carjole and cajoled his horse through the dripping pine forests.
+  I arrived here at midday, and the owner, Ivar Tofte, came out to
+  meet me. He took a great fancy to me, and we finished together a
+  bottle of the most delicious aquavit, which he produced from a
+  cellar where it had been laid down in the time of the Vikings.
+  It is a pity neither of you can speak the language!
+
+    ‘Yours haughtily,
+
+      ‘THE SKIPPER.’
+
+We found that the ‘impedimenta’ of which the Skipper had spoken were 147
+loaded cartridges wrapped up in a flannel shirt, the whole being
+enveloped in a partially cured reindeer-skin.
+
+We were further reminded of our lost one by looking in the Day-book (or
+traveller’s name-book), where his was the last English name. This was
+not surprising, for though Bjölstad is a posting station, it is a very
+out-of-the-way place; but we looked back for two years without finding
+that any other Englishman had been here, and then the Skipper’s name
+occurred again. Between these dates the names were all Norwegian, and
+there were not very many even of them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+BJÖLSTAD.
+
+
+_Sunday, September 19._--Bjölstad is an ancient Norwegian homestead, and
+consists of several separate buildings surrounding a central rectangular
+court. The house that we slept in bears the date of 1818, and is the
+most modern as well as the largest of the group; it is really a suite of
+state apartments for the use of the king on the rare occasions when he
+visits this part of his dominions.
+
+On the left-hand side of the courtyard as we stand at the door of our
+state apartments, is a very quaint and picturesque old house with a
+handsome porch, built in the Byzantine style, date 1743, and in this the
+owner lives whenever he comes to this farm.
+
+Opposite to us is another building even more curious in its
+architecture, and considerably older than the other; and the remaining
+side of the yard is occupied by another more modern edifice, used
+chiefly as a storehouse. Besides these there are several other detached
+outbuildings, in which sleighs, ploughs, spare cooking utensils, rugs,
+and various other useful and useless articles are kept, including all
+the fittings and even the weathercock of an ancient church which used to
+stand close to the farm, but which is now demolished and partly reduced
+to firewood.
+
+  [Illustration: Old Buildings in the Courtyard at Bjölstad]
+
+The owner of all this grandeur is one Ivar Tofte, a wealthy yeoman who
+has several other farms in other parts of the country, one of which is
+much larger and more important even than Bjölstad; and we were lucky
+enough to find this Northern Crœsus at home, for it turned out that he
+was the cheery old man in the shocking bad hat who had run out to
+welcome us last night.
+
+This morning he came into our room after breakfast, with a bottle of
+aquavit in his hand wherewith to drink our health. Now to refuse this
+ceremony is an unpardonable insult, but we had tasted aquavit before,
+and had a wholesome dread of the nauseous compound, reeking of carraway
+seeds and aniseed, which we were accustomed to expect out of an aquavit
+bottle. So we poured out very small glasses, clinked them in approved
+manner, and raised them to our lips as we uttered the magic word Skaal,
+more with a feeling of disgust than any other sensation. And then it was
+beautiful to see a heavenly smile steal over Esau’s ingenuous
+countenance; while John, softly murmuring, ‘Chartreuse, by George!’
+reached for the bottle, and with a shout of ‘Skaal Ivar Tofte,’
+proceeded to fill himself a bumper. It was a perfect liqueur, soft,
+delicate, and mellow, as probably age alone could have made it; and we
+drank Skaal to ‘Gammle Norgé,’ and England, and Kong Oscar, and Queen
+Vict_oo_ria, and Ivar Tofte again, and then ourselves again; whereupon
+the old man perceived that we appreciated his ‘cuvée de réserve,’ and
+went for another full bottle, which he left in our room, so that we
+could ‘put it to our lips when we felt so dispoged.’
+
+After this, John, feeling at once genial and liberal, announced his
+intention of buying a sheenfelt (sheepskin rug) for importation into
+England; and Tofte with an aged retainer volunteered to show us his
+stores of sheepskins.
+
+First our guide procured a bunch of enormous keys, such as Bluebeard
+would have hanging from his waist in a pantomime, labelled ‘Key of the
+Wine-cellar. Umbrella stand. Fowl-house. Potted shrimps. Cupboard where
+the jam’s kept,’ &c., &c. Then he marched off to one of the buildings,
+followed by us and the other old man, whose profession was apparently to
+exalt Bjölstad sheenfelts, and to debase--as far as extreme volubility
+and strict inattention to the elements of truth would enable him to
+accomplish that object--an ancient one which John wished to give in part
+payment.
+
+Bluebeard led us up some stairs to the Blue Chamber, where we saw
+hanging in a row the skins, not of his deceased wives, but of many
+‘timid-glancing, herbage-cropping, fleecy flocks,’ to use the beautiful
+and touching language of the Greek poet. Then the two accomplices
+selected the sheenfelt which they intended us to buy, and began to
+expatiate on its beauties in terms of undisguised admiration; and after
+half an hour’s huckstering and haggling, of course they persuaded John
+to take that and no other. However, it was a beautiful specimen of this
+kind of rug, of a dark grey colour, and very thick, warm, and heavy; so
+both sides were highly satisfied, and proceeded to the drinking of more
+aquavit in celebration of the bargain.
+
+The weather was so unpleasant, and Bluebeard and his aquavit were so
+engaging, that we decided not to leave here till to-morrow. Our host was
+delighted to hear this, and at once went for more aquavit, which he
+appears to consider the first necessity of life; and then he proceeded
+to show us round his ancestral halls, as though he were a sober old
+verger of Westminster Abbey.
+
+There was a sort of old-world Rip van Winkle sleepiness about Bjölstad
+very soothing to men who like us have lived in the nineteenth century
+for some few years. All the varlets and handmaidens were dressed in the
+old native costume, so appropriate to the ancient wooden buildings with
+quaintly carved eaves and doorways, about which they hovered. In the
+courtyard were two enormous dogs, that barked loudly whenever we
+appeared, but at the same time wagged their tails and looked imbecile
+and good natured. There were also four geese, who meant to be sitting
+basking in the rain, but as soon as anybody came to one of the numerous
+doors, or crossed the yard, they all stood up and quacked solemnly
+fourteen times each, then hissed once, and sat down again; and as some
+one was always moving about the court, the quiet rest of those birds was
+more anticipatory than real; but they alone of all the living creatures
+at Bjölstad appeared to have any fixed employment which demanded
+constant attention.
+
+Bluebeard first took us through the state apartments, which contained
+many curious and interesting things of all ages, from an axe nearly a
+thousand years old, to a Birmingham plated teapot won at the Christiania
+horse show in 1860.
+
+The Toftes boast themselves descended from Harald Haarfager, and are so
+proud of their ancestry, that from time immemorial they have never
+married out of their own family. If dear old Bluebeard may be accepted
+as an ordinary result of this system, it must be confessed that it has
+its advantages.
+
+The things that he chiefly delighted to show us were those which had
+been used by the king during his occasional visits, the most curious
+being a large stone table made of one enormous slab not more than
+three-quarters of an inch thick, but very hard and elastic, more like a
+steel plate than stone; gorgeously embroidered counterpanes and chairs;
+some very old ploughs and sleighs; and a brass-bound box with a
+marvellous representation of Adam and Eve, very evidently before the
+Fall, and the most remarkable thing in serpents which the wildest flight
+of human imagination has yet conceived. There were some very nice silver
+utensils and ornaments, but not many, as most of his plate is kept at
+his largest farm. All that he had here was in a cupboard with a rubbishy
+unlocked deal door, standing in John’s bedroom; a fact which speaks
+volumes for the trusting simplicity and total inability to read a man’s
+character from his appearance, caused by a millennium of marrying your
+cousin once removed. Poor Bluebeard! he little thought what a viper he
+was nurturing in his bosom, or rather in his chest (his plate chest),
+and that in that room lay one who could perhaps, if he would, answer the
+questions--
+
+Who took the Gainsborough?
+
+Who has the Dudley diamonds?
+
+Who stole the donkey? and
+
+Where’s the cat?
+
+N.B.--John has now a large collection of ancient Norwegian silver,
+counterpanes, belts, tankards, knives, and ornaments to dispose of at
+very low prices if no questions are asked. --ADVT.
+
+
+_September 20._--We left Bjölstad in carioles on a real road about nine
+o’clock, Bluebeard himself assisting in the operation of harnessing the
+ponies and packing the baggage. Just as we were driving off,
+a brilliantly original idea occurred to him, and he said, ‘Come in and
+taste my aquavit.’ We did not like to refuse an old grey-haired man’s
+simple request, so descended and drank another Skaal to all the usual
+loyal, patriotic, and festive toasts, and then we drove off murmuring
+somewhat indistinctly, ‘Shkaal Iva’ Tofte Shhkaal Iv Toffie Shko Toffy.
+Jolly good fler-ole-shole-Toffy.’
+
+All day we drove, and ever as we descended the Hedalen valley with the
+noisy Sjoa on our right hand, the farming kept improving, and the
+country becoming more populous; and we saw many families digging
+potatoes, many pigs roaming free and unmolested as they do in Ireland,
+and a few men bringing up stores from the town for the long season of
+snowed-up dreariness now so near at hand. Jens told us that in winter,
+even so far to the south as Vaage, the sun only rises about eleven, and
+sets at one o’clock, giving barely three hours of daylight in midwinter;
+though he said that in the mountains where he spends his time hunting,
+there is rather more light than in the valleys.
+
+It may be well to explain in what manner so much information was
+obtained from men whose language was unknown to us, and to whom ours was
+equally incomprehensible.
+
+The glorious principle of co-operation did it all. The Skipper spoke
+Norse with great elegance and fluency, but did not understand it at all.
+Esau could understand it perfectly, but was unable to express himself in
+that tongue to even a limited extent; and John could neither speak nor
+understand a word. Consequently our united accomplishments were equal
+to meeting any emergency that might arise, even to the disentanglement
+of such a coil as--
+
+_Brandforsikringsselskabet_, or--
+
+_Sommermaandernepassagerbekvemmeligheder_,
+
+or any other of the little complex words that an educated Norwegian can
+construct. It is wonderful to hear the natives launch out into one of
+these cataracts: they do it fearlessly, and steer through the whole with
+unflagging fortitude, and very seldom with any fatal results.
+
+The hay harvest seemed to be quite finished except on the roofs of the
+houses, where some people were still cutting and carrying their crops.
+The barley had just been reaped, and was now being dried by the process
+of impalement, a dozen sheaves, one above the other, being transfixed by
+a pole stuck into the ground, just as a naughty boy sticks a row of
+moths on a long pin, or as the unfortunate Bulgarians were supposed to
+be exhibited during the ‘atrocity’ scare. Can it be possible that those
+stories arose from the distant contemplation of a barley-field?
+
+  [Illustration: Barley Sheaves: A Norwegian ‘Atrocity’]
+
+The Norwegians also dry their hay in a different manner from that
+usually practised in England. They erect high hurdles made of larch
+poles in lines at intervals all over the field, and on these they hang
+the hay to dry as we hang towels on a horse, and it is by this means so
+well exposed to both air and sun that it dries very quickly. No doubt
+the hurdles are also very useful in spring as a shelter for the young
+lambs.
+
+The weather kept improving so much that we grew quite jubilant, and the
+ever-changing scenes that opened before us seemed full of life and
+brightness, and we looked with a certain amount of pleasure on even the
+magpies, which sat on the fences in scores, pluming their black-green
+feathers, and talking things over quietly to themselves. So different
+from the wary magpie of England, who, knowing that he is an Ishmael,
+glories in the fact, and shrieks defiance to mankind at the top of his
+voice and a tree.
+
+For three hours we followed the brawling Sjoa through scenery that would
+bear comparison with Switzerland, and then we reached the spot where it
+joins the mighty Laagen, and crossing the latter by a picturesque but
+discouraging bridge, soon struck the main road, and pulled up for our
+first change of ponies at Storklevstad, nineteen miles from Bjölstad.
+
+At another place further on we found a shop kept by a Norwegian Yankee,
+and entered it to buy some sugar-candy, wherewith to appease our
+cariole-boy. This storekeeper informed us that the emigration from
+Norway to the States was enormous just now, especially to Minnesota and
+Wisconsin, and that no less than sixteen men had gone this year from the
+little village of Vaage--a place which does not strike one as being
+likely to contain that number of able-bodied men at one time. Öla had
+told us that five of his brethren were in Minnesota, but that he himself
+had no intention of leaving his native country; and this we thought to
+be well, for if he were to join them we are convinced that any
+enterprise in which they might be engaged would inevitably fail with his
+invaluable co-operation and assistance--unless perhaps the Skipper could
+be induced to go out there and occasionally exhort him.
+
+At Listad we lunched off a real white tablecloth; that is to say, we ate
+not the cloth, but everything eatable that was placed on it.
+
+We also found a note from the Skipper asking us to bring along one or
+two little things that he had been obliged to leave behind in his
+hurried flight, just as the allied armies kept finding Napoleon’s
+belongings at different places after Waterloo. The present loot
+consisted of a coat, sleeping rug, and a towel.
+
+At Kirkestuen we quitted the track for the night, having made fifty
+miles in about ten hours. This, according to our experience, is a fair
+rate of progression in Norway; in fact, the traveller is more likely to
+find the average below this than above, unless he drives the good little
+ponies faster than they like to go, which is wrong.
+
+Here the three women who kept the station were immensely amused because
+we asked for coffee with our food, and one of them took upon herself the
+task of rebuking us for such dissipated habits, and explained at great
+length that no respectable people ever did such a thing. ‘Coffee,’ she
+said, ‘should only be drunk during the day, gruel after sunset.’ But we
+persisted in our reckless demand, and they finally gave in, and produced
+the delicious compound that may be expected at any wretched little
+dwelling throughout the country.
+
+This was the first place where the papered rooms and iron stoves of
+modern Norway obtruded themselves on our notice; but in spite of these
+we were very comfortable, and think that Kirkestuen deserves all the
+praise which we cannot find lavished upon it in any of the guide-books:
+it is cheap, comfortable, and clean, and the food is excellent. If the
+three young ladies who preside over its arrangements wish to send us any
+little remuneration for this advertisement, we are agents for several
+Central African Missions, to which we could hand it over; or, as ‘best
+aquavit’ is a good deal appreciated by the missionaries themselves when
+they are suffering from certain diseases peculiar to the Central African
+climate, we would receive that liqueur in cases of not less than three
+dozen in lieu of money.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+DOWN TO CHRISTIANIA.
+
+
+_September 21._--The steadily improving weather of our homeward journey
+is very pleasant, and already we are beginning to almost forget those
+‘Miseries in Cold and Grey’ which were so conspicuous during our last
+few days at Rus Vand.
+
+To-day we noticed that the whole population of the country appeared to
+be engaged in the seductive pastime of potato-digging. One family that
+we passed consisted of papa, mamma, and eight children of different
+ages, all absorbed in this pursuit. The parents had gardening tools, the
+elder children were using pickaxes and trowels, the younger ones
+fire-shovels and wooden baking spades, and the mere babies were hard at
+work with spoons and toasting-forks.
+
+Here and there we detected a few people still making hay, presumably
+because they had no potatoes. In Norway the hill-sides are so steep and
+rocky that there is not overmuch room for the cultivation of grass, so
+they have to collect it from every available corner where a few sprays
+of anything green can contrive to exist. As we have mentioned, they are
+now curing grass on the house-tops, and to-day we saw a man with a
+scythe about eighteen inches long, mowing in amongst the stones on the
+river bank, and in some of the places where he went the scythe blade was
+the only blade visible to the naked eye. One thing seems certain, that a
+Norwegian _will_ make hay while the sun shines, even if he can only find
+rocks out of which to make it.
+
+On this part of our journey we passed a great many spotted black and
+white pigs: these pigs move with a greater dignity of bearing than the
+ordinary white pig of Scandinavia, and altogether seem to consider
+themselves superior to him, although they have not a curly tail.
+Personally we think there is a certain subtle charm about the curly tail
+of the white pig, a something that sets him off and renders him more
+pleasing to the eye of the beholder than is a spotted pig with a
+straight tail. However, our humble opinion does not seem at all to
+affect the swagger of the spotted pig.
+
+Near Formö we overtook a rosy-cheeked girl of about eighteen, astride a
+bare-backed pony: the pony was seized with a spirit of emulation, and
+insisted on accompanying the carioles for some distance in spite of her
+efforts to stop it.
+
+The weather was now delightful; the roads were dry and dusty, and the
+sun was so hot that the long cool shadows of the pine woods which at
+frequent intervals hedge in the road were quite a welcome relief both to
+us and our shaggy steeds.
+
+Ever as we followed the almost imperceptible descent of the road, the
+great river Laagen became wider, deeper, and bluer, as it gathered
+increased volume from the numberless tributaries which flow into it from
+every hill, till at length at Fossegaarden it plunged over a series of
+ledges in a splendid succession of falls, and after winding awhile amid
+fir-clad islands and shaded grassy banks, it flowed into the Mjösen Lake
+and was lost, while we on the road above, rounding the last corner and
+turning to the east, soon found ourselves in Lillehammer, which really
+looked quite a towny little town.
+
+Esau stopped at Fossegaarden a couple of hours to throw a fly in the
+tempting-looking water below the falls, and was rewarded at the first
+cast by a rise from a fish whose peculiar wriggling and rolling soon
+showed him to be a grayling; and before leaving, the bag was filled with
+some very fine specimens of this beautiful and delicate fish.
+
+We were greeted as old friends at the Victoria Hotel, where Ivar had
+already arrived with our things. Then we ordered our own dinner, and
+told the host to supply Ivar with whatever he wanted regardless of
+expense (the result of this reckless munificence was a bill for nearly
+two shillings); and in the happy frame of mind produced on both sides by
+this course we settled our accounts with him, and giving him all our
+worn-out garments and some candles and matches, we parted with the last
+of our henchmen.
+
+By the way, we here found a note from the Skipper asking us to bring
+home a pair of shooting boots, three socks, and the remains of what had
+apparently been a pocket handkerchief; but the obvious course that
+suggested itself was ‘give ’em to the men,’ and we insisted on Ivar
+taking these valuables.
+
+
+_September 22._--With the utmost difficulty, by threats and coercion
+Esau was induced to leave his bed, and dragged to the steamer in time
+for her departure, as, if left to his own inclinations, he would have
+remained in his insidious couch until this globe had performed its
+diurnal revolution.
+
+As it was, the ‘Skiblädner’ was indulging in a final premonitory shriek
+before leaving the pier when we came hurrying and stumbling down the
+hill at all paces, and we only stepped aboard just as she threw off the
+last detaining rope.
+
+The steamer was at first very empty, but more people joined us at every
+stopping-place, of which there are about a dozen on the lake. Some of
+these are little villages, with only the bright roofs and church spire
+peeping out from among the fir trees; others no more than a
+landing-stage projecting into the blue waters, and no other indications
+of life save perhaps a couple of idle fishing boats and a flagstaff.
+
+The morning was so calm and fine, that the grayling playing under the
+shore made the only break in the otherwise unruffled surface of the
+lake, and it seemed strange to find ourselves back in summer again,
+having left winter with its snow and frosts far above us up at Rus Vand
+only a few days ago.
+
+At Hamar some English people came aboard, so that we had some one to
+talk to. At every place where the steamer stopped and fresh passengers
+came off in boats to meet us, it seemed to be customary that they should
+take off their hats to the captain on the bridge as they pulled up
+alongside: even when we passed the smallest places without stopping,
+merely throwing the mail bag into a boat as we darted by, the
+fresh-water sailors on the steamer all took off their hats to the
+fresh-water sailors ashore, the latter always returning the salutation;
+and considering the fact that two steamers pass every day, this
+indicates no small degree of politeness.
+
+There is a great amount of character to be noticed among the natives
+during a voyage on the lake, and although they are badly and even
+grotesquely dressed (for the pretty old costume has quite disappeared in
+this part of the country, and its modern substitute is hideous), still
+their old-fashioned manners and simple courtesy are very striking; and
+in spite of their love of a little mild ostentation they are so quiet
+and well behaved, that they would appear to great advantage if
+contrasted with the crowd that may be found say on a Greenwich steamer.
+
+At Eidsvold we left the steamer for the train which was waiting to
+receive us, and about nightfall were once more in Christiania, and after
+a sumptuous supper went to rest in sumptuous beds, thinking ere we fell
+asleep of how to-morrow we should again have to submit ourselves to the
+yoke of civilisation, to discard our flannel shirts for linen ones and
+stick-up collars, to throw aside our shooting boots, and again bite off
+our nails, which have grown to their natural length under the soothing
+influence of a long spell of unworried conscience.
+
+
+_September 23._--We found Christiania this morning almost as hot as we
+left it, the streets all dry and dusty, and the trees parched for want
+of rain; and the sunshine was very pleasant as we wandered about the
+town into the various shops, purchasing articles by the assistance of
+which we hoped to attain popularity among our relatives on our arrival
+in England.
+
+The shopkeepers were almost all very slow; in fact, the transaction of
+any business is not the hardy Norseman’s strong point. We copy this
+extract from the Skipper’s journal:--
+
+‘I went to the bank this morning to get some circular notes changed, and
+they kept me there fussing over them for fifty minutes before I got the
+money. During this time of expectation I read two letters from home
+through, and had a chase after a torpid fly on the floor with my stick:
+considering his languid condition this fly showed great spirit, but
+after following him about three feet along the floor and nine inches up
+the wall, I made a fortunate dash at him, and concluded his existence.
+Then I thought for a while and stared all round the room, and cut my
+nails with my knife. Then I counted how many boards there were in the
+floor, and how many nails there were on an average in each board, and
+made a little calculation on these figures to discover how many nails
+there were in the whole room, and what they weighed, how much they cost,
+how many miles they would reach if laid end to end, and how many men at
+how much an hour for how long it had taken to drive them all in. Then
+again I thought for a while, but still the money did not come, and my
+moral reflections on men and things had just led me to the conclusion
+that all mortals were but desolate creatures, and that I of all men was
+most desolate and abandoned, when at the end of forty minutes an
+official arrived with a sort of cheque. And after that it took ten
+minutes more to change the cheque into money in a lower room, where the
+clerks had their hair so beautifully brushed and were so haughty, that
+instead of being angry I could only thank them profusely for giving me
+the money at all.’
+
+After finishing our hunt for curios, it occurred to us that we ought to
+see the vikings’ ship recently unearthed somewhere on the fjord, so we
+walked down to the University, where we were told by a student that it
+was not yet open to the public, but that if we would ask the Professor
+of Archæology, whom John profanely designated ‘the boss that runs the
+antiquity show,’ he had no doubt that, being strangers, we should be
+allowed to see the ship.
+
+Would the fact of a man being a foreigner obtain his admission to a
+private view of an English curiosity, save perhaps the plans and
+mechanism of an iron-clad or torpedo? Probably not.
+
+Revolving these thoughts within our minds we sought the professor, and
+he at once left the work upon which he was engaged and took us to the
+ship, which was locked up inside a wooden building that has been erected
+for it.
+
+Very interesting it was, the preservation of the wood and also the
+ironwork being wonderful. Unfortunately, some archæologists of earlier
+date than the present had also made some excavations in search of
+memorials of the past. They had cut a large hole in the side amidships,
+for the purpose of carrying off the ornaments and other valuables by
+which the dead viking was surrounded, in the chamber constructed for his
+body right in the centre of the boat. The modern archæologists call
+their predecessors ‘sacrilegious robbers,’ but we are averse to the use
+of strong language among men of science.
+
+However, the rest of the ship was perfect, even to the shields which
+used to adorn the gunwale, which are now seen to have been made of thin
+wood, and were probably only ornamental. She was a good big boat, rather
+flat-bottomed and low in the water, but with great breadth of beam, and
+built on lines that left no room for doubt as to her seagoing qualities.
+
+The whole day was occupied by this shopping and sight-seeing, and we
+went to bed more exhausted than by a hard day’s stalking at Gjendin, and
+not half so much satisfied with our achievements.
+
+It is almost unnecessary to mention that we found at the hotel a note
+from the Skipper, begging us to bring home a waterproof sheet and a few
+clothes that he had been obliged to leave there. We think that this
+young man must have shed nearly all his raiment before leaving Norway,
+and gone home clad in a yellow ulster which we know he had left at the
+hotel in July; for, judging from the fragments that we have picked up
+from time to time on our homeward route, he cannot have much other
+property with him except his gun, rifle, and fishing-gear.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+HOME AGAIN.
+
+
+_September 24._--To-day our Norwegian friends who lent us the hut at Rus
+Vand came to dine with us, and then saw us safely aboard the ‘Angelo,’
+and at five o’clock, in the presence of an immense crowd which covered
+the whole quay, some of the people cheering, but many more weeping, we
+steamed out of the harbour.
+
+As the sound of the last bell died away, and the last gangway fell with
+a crash on to the landing-stage, a hatless, breathless man rushed up the
+companion and darted at the spot where he supposed the gangway to be:
+seeing that he was too late, he yelled to the people on shore, and made
+as though he would have cast himself into the water, but was restrained
+by the passengers. Meanwhile a fleet of little boats endeavoured to
+catch a rope and be towed until he could be lowered into one of them;
+but all failed, and the unfortunate man was carried off to
+Christiansand, so that on his involuntary voyage he would have leisure
+to meditate on the folly of a too prolonged farewell.
+
+With a gentle breeze we steamed down the fjord, which never looked more
+lovely than on this evening; and so beautiful was the night, so warm, so
+radiant, and with such a depth of glorious colouring from the departed
+sun, that people crept away into the shade out of the _moonlight_, from
+pure force of habit, after the heat of the summer.
+
+The influence of such a night, together with a certain sense of
+something completed; the calm ocean all round us, and the soothing,
+monotonous throbbing of the untiring screw, produced a longing for
+confidence in John’s bosom, so that he gave utterance to his sentiments
+as he leant with Esau over the rail of the hurricane deck, and watched
+the ever-sparkling phosphorescent lights caused by the passage of the
+vessel through the quiet water.
+
+‘Yes, I’m sorry to be leaving Norway, for, you know, there’s something
+delightful to me about the simplicity of the people’ (Esau’s mind
+reverted to Ivar Tofte and his plate cupboard); ‘they seem to place a
+childlike confidence in a stranger, which is quite incomprehensible to
+me. Then there is an unwordable calm, an indescribable tranquillity,
+which seems to cling both to the country and its inhabitants; even the
+houses seem to possess an imperturbable serenity of demeanour which you
+will not find on any other island in Europe. In fact, y’know, Esau, it’s
+a country where one might live quietly and die in peace, where “moths do
+not corrupt, neither do worms break through and steal,” don’t you know,
+Esau? And I’m deuced sorry to have to count among past memories the time
+we have spent here, where the unbroken harmony of existence is that
+repose for which my soul has longed these many years; but never until
+now, no, by George! never, has it been able to discover the most
+uncertain tracings of its ideal.’
+
+Here Esau, who had his deck shoes on, seeing what sort of a mood John
+was in, stole away quietly towards the cabin, and left him prosing on to
+the German Ocean. He paused, however, a moment before descending the
+companion stairs, and caught a few more words which, as the moon had now
+set, John was confiding to the darkness.
+
+‘A couple more days, and we shall be back in England, where, y’know,
+I think civilisation is overdone. My existence there is a perpetual
+state of toadying and being toadied: you see, it’s a place where the
+serpent of social emulation creeps into our very beds, and hangs
+suspended over our heads by a mere thread when we least expect him; and,
+y’know, Esau----’ But Esau had slunk down the stairs, and the rest of
+this impassioned outburst is, we fear, lost to humanity.
+
+
+_September 25._--We woke up to find ourselves just leaving
+Christiansand, and soon reached the lighthouse at what the Skipper calls
+‘the bottom left-hand corner of Norway,’ but remained in bed while we
+glared at it through the port.
+
+We were taking out a great number of emigrants for America, fine,
+sturdy-looking young fellows, probably as hard as nails, and quite equal
+to coping with the difficulties of a new country. They all looked so
+cheery and full of hope and expectation, that we could not help thinking
+rather sadly of the day when they will wake up to some of the unpleasant
+realities of Yankee life, and wish themselves back again in their native
+hills among their own simple-minded friends.
+
+The day passed in the manner usual at sea when the water is smooth and
+the ship goes merrily homeward bound. Hardly any one missed a
+meal--rather a difference from the ordinary state of affairs in the wild
+North Sea; and at evening the sun went down in a blaze of scarlet and
+gold, which was reflected from the perfectly calm surface; and we turned
+in with tranquil minds, even Esau being now reasonably hopeful of seeing
+the Humber without suffering the pangs of starvation.
+
+Esau is not a good sailor. On the last occasion of our return from
+Norway he crossed by the ‘Angelo’ a fortnight before the Skipper; and
+the latter, on arriving on board prepared for the voyage, saw the
+steward, and asked him, ‘What sort of a passage did you have last trip,
+George?’
+
+‘Beautiful, sir. I never see a smoother sea.’
+
+Then the Skipper went on, ‘Did you see anything of Mr. Esau on the
+voyage?’
+
+To which George replied, ‘I seen him come aboard.’
+
+And this brief remark of George’s conveyed a world of untold fact.
+
+
+_September 26._--We dropped anchor outside Hull at half-past five this
+evening, in the remainder of the very same drizzling rain that was going
+on when we left England in July.
+
+Hull on Sunday in a soaking rain is not a place to grow romantic about,
+so we omit all reference to our first sensations and maledictions on our
+return to our native climate, and proceed to a more agreeable
+subject--dinner.
+
+It was a merry meal in company with four of our fellow-passengers, who
+were likewise returning from sport in Norway--two from salmon fishing,
+two from red-deer stalking, and with whom there was consequently a bond
+of sympathy.
+
+With these kindred spirits, after British beef had been washed down with
+British beer, a Skaal drunk in British champagne, and tongues were
+loosened by the confidential pipe and British cigar, we chatted long and
+pleasantly; wandering again with rod and gun among the rugged mountains
+of that wild north land, recalling exploits performed, and perhaps
+indulging in those mild and harmless exaggerations of doughty deeds
+which no traveller or sportsman can resist. Already we found ourselves
+forgetting the few disagreeable incidents that occurred during our trip,
+and viewing everything through that rosy mist which happily arises
+before all past hours of pleasure and discomfort alike. Too soon bedtime
+put an end to our retrospect, and we slept the sleep of the wearied
+traveller, with dreams of trout, ryper, and reindeer--steamboat,
+cariole, and sleigh--mountain, lake, and river--tent and sæter--paddle
+and pony--hurrying through our brains in wild confusion.
+
+To-morrow, alas! we commence again a life of gilded misery and gloomy
+magnificence. Give to us the untrammelled freedom of ‘Gammle Norgé,’ and
+the humble crust of fladbrod----_with_ JAM.
+
+  [Illustration: ‘FARVEL.’ [Three at Home Again]]
+
+
+_Spottiswoode & Co., Printers, New-street Square, London._
+
+
+
+
+  [Map: THE JOTUNFJELD
+  Showing various Routes to it.
+  E. Weller _Lith._]
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+           *       *       *       *
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+Typographical Errors (noted by transcriber):
+
+The word “invisible” means that there is an appropriately sized blank
+space, but the character itself is missing. Some names are written
+differently in the List of Illustrations than elsewhere in the text;
+these are not individually noted.
+
+  _... to that of all other sons of Adam._’  [_final . missing_]
+  a delicious meal off trout, strawberries and cream
+    [_text unchanged: may be error for “of”_]
+  It is eleven miles long; very deep; very blue  [_comma invisible_]
+  the name is a little difficult to pronounce [pronouce]
+  a delicious meal nearly ready cooked by Esau  [delicions]
+  and often gets his deserts.  [_final . missing_]
+  a hole in the ground  [he ground]
+  they expected to meet their boat.  [_final . missing_]
+  ‘I ran straight on, and following round the shoulder of the hill
+    [_open quote missing_]
+  to assist in the operations there going on.  [_final . missing_]
+  while Öla undertook the labour.  [_final . missing_]
+  taking the north side of the lake, Esau the south.  [lake.]
+  Skipper: ‘Let me blow it out.’  [_close quote missing_]
+  without the deer seeing us  [dear]
+  [Footnote 9: ‘Pandecāges,’ pancakes.]
+    [Pandecāgos _corrected from main text_]
+  to have our ‘spise.’ ... gravy from the ‘boss pie’ ...
+    [_single inner quotes as shown_]
+  ‘Öla also seemed to devour his food  [_open quote missing_]
+  ‘We packed everything into the boat  [_open quote invisible_]
+  carolling he drove his carjole and cajoled his horse
+    [_anomalous spelling “carjole” unchanged: may be intentional_]
+  as the moon had now set, John was confiding  [_comma invisible_]
+
+Phonetic spellings:
+
+  “Pandecāges” with macron on second “a”:
+    the vowel is broad, as in “father”.
+  “căno” with breve over “a”:
+    the speaker pronounced the word as “can” + “oh” (that is, neither
+    the Norwegian nor the correct English pronunciation).
+  “Gammle Norgé” ... “Queen Vict_oo_ria”
+    both represent Norwegian pronunciation: final “e” is not silent,
+    and “o” is pronounced like “continental” u.
+
+
+Norwegian:
+
+Written Norwegian has three extra vowels: æ, ø, å. At the time _Three in
+Norway_ was published, the language generally used Danish spelling. Many
+words written with “æ” would now use simple “e”, and the letter “å”
+(pronounced like “continental” o) was written “aa”.
+
+The letter “ø” is equivalent to “ö” (“o umlaut”); the correct letterform
+may have been unavailable to the printer.
+
+The spelling “Ragnild” (expected form “Ragnhild”) is used consistently.
+The forms “Bred Sjö” : “Bredsjö”, “skin tukt” : “skintukt” (see
+Berries), and Jotun Fjeld : Jotunfjeld each occur.
+
+Double vowels representing a single long sound are rare except in a few
+names; the macron on the first “u” in “Tronhūus” is redundant.
+
+The inconsistent capitalization of “Ryper” : “ryper” is unchanged. The
+plural form “ryper” is used throughout for both singular and plural.
+
+Consistent o/ö (ø) errors:
+
+  Öla (the name) _for_ Ola
+  brod, fladbrod _for_ brød, fladbrød
+  Formö, kröne, mölte bær, spör, Strömkarl _for_ Formo, krone,
+    moltebær, spor, Stromkarl
+
+Other uses of ö (ø) are correct: öl, öre, hö, sjö and any place names.
+
+Words:
+
+  The men had been complaining that it was a ‘dole vei’ (bad road)
+  soon after the start, now they said it was ‘schlamm’
+    [dårlig vei; slem]
+  Skoggaggany ... is merely the Norwegian for a scaup duck
+    [_one Norwegian translation says, in paraphrase, “we called it
+    Skoggaggany because we thought it sounded so Norwegian”. If the
+    word is real, it should end in _-and_, “duck”._]
+  ‘Nei’ was again the answer, and an ominous whisper of ‘landsmand’
+  (the policeman) was plainly audible.
+    [lensmand, _now written_ -mann]
+  ‘Ingen dyr, ingen fresk spör, ingen gammle spör,’ as the Norsk jäger
+  would remark
+    [_The spelling with ä for æ is anomalous. Modern Norwegian would
+    have “jeger”, though “jæger” is correct for the time. The spelling
+    “spör” is here an error for “spor” (tracks)._]
+  the “jarraf,” as they call it
+    [jærv, _now written_ jerv]
+  John, feeling at once genial and liberal, announced his intention
+  of buying a sheenfelt (sheepskin rug) for importation into England
+    [skinnfeld, _now written_ -fell]
+
+Berries:
+
+Most of the berries of the country are now just at their best, and
+Memurudalen is a grand valley for all of them, except of course the
+strawberry and raspberry, which will not grow at this altitude. But we
+have ‘klarkling’ (the English crowberry) in great abundance; blau bær
+(wimberry), the finest and best ever seen, in quantities; also ‘skin
+tukt,’ another blue berry rather larger than a wimberry, and with a
+thicker skin and wonderful bloom on it; this we think does not grow in
+England. Then less numerous are a berry something between a raspberry
+and a red currant, but of better flavour than either of them; and the
+great and glorious ‘mölte bær’ (cloudberry); to say nothing of ‘heste
+bær,’ and ‘tutti bær,’ and several others of unknown names. The last one
+grows in England, but we have forgotten its name; they make jelly from
+it here, and prize it highly for its acid taste.
+
+  ‘klarkling’ (the English crowberry)  [krekling]
+  blau bær (wimberry)  [blåbær (_etymologically “blueberry”, but not
+    the same as the American blueberry_)]
+  ‘skin tukt,’ another blue berry
+    [_probably “blokkebær”, also called “skinntryte”_]
+  something between a raspberry and a red currant  [rips]
+  ‘mölte bær’ (cloudberry)  [moltebær, _also written “multebær”_]
+  ‘heste bær,’  [_possibly “heggebær”_]
+  ‘tutti bær,’  [tyttebær]
+  we have forgotten its name
+    [_English “lingonberry”, from its Swedish name “lingon”_]
+
+Song:
+
+  [Footnote 4: ‘Brod,’ bread. The word does not rhyme to god, being
+  pronounced something like Broat, but it looks as if it rhymed.]
+    [_The Norwegian word is “brød”. Here the writers almost seem
+    to be talking about the German equivalent “Brot”._]
+  [Footnote 8: ‘Stor,’ big, pronounced Stora before a consonant.]
+    [_The writers have misunderstood a rule. The word does vary
+    between “stor” and “store”, but the difference is grammatical,
+    not phonetic._]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Three in Norway, by 
+James Arthur Lees and Walter J. Clutterbuck
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diff --git a/36597-0.zip b/36597-0.zip
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Three in Norway, by 
+James Arthur Lees and Walter J. Clutterbuck
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Three in Norway
+       by Two of Them
+
+Author: James Arthur Lees
+        Walter J. Clutterbuck
+
+Release Date: July 7, 2011 [EBook #36597]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THREE IN NORWAY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Louise Hope, Chris Curnow, thanks to Tor Martin
+Kristiansen for the illustration images, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+book was produced from scanned images of public domain
+material from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note:
+
+This e-text comes in two forms: Unicode (UTF-8) and Latin-1. Use the
+one that works best on your text reader.
+
+  --If "oe" (only in English words) displays as a single character,
+  and apostrophes and quotation marks are "curly" or angled, you have
+  the UTF-8 version (best). If any part of this paragraph displays
+  as garbage, try changing your text reader's "character set" or
+  "file encoding". If that doesn't work, proceed to:
+  --In the Latin-1 version, "oe" is two letters, but Norwegian words
+  like "�l" have accents and "�" is a single letter. Apostrophes and
+  quotation marks will be straight ("typewriter" form).
+
+A handful of words were printed with unusual diacritics (macron, breve).
+These are individually explained at the end of the e-text.
+
+To reduce visual clutter, italic markings have been omitted from
+currency notations such as "1s. 2d." Illustration captions have been
+supplied from the List of Illustrations; they were not used in the
+printed book except for the full-page plates. The title-page
+illustration is "The Colony at Breakfast in Memurudalen", repeated
+later in the book.
+
+Unless otherwise noted, all Norwegian names and words--including those
+that are obviously wrong--were printed as shown. For details, see the
+end of the e-text after the list of typographical errors.]
+
+
+
+
+  NORWAY
+
+
+
+
+  '_A man is at all times entitled, or even called upon by occasion,
+  to speak, and write, and in all fit ways utter, what he has himself
+  gone through, and known, and got the mastery of; and in truth, at
+  bottom, there is nothing else that any man has a right to write of.
+  For the rest, one principle, I�think, in whatever farther you write,
+  may be enough to guide you: that of standing rigorously by the fact,
+  however naked it look. Fact is eternal; all fiction is very
+  transitory in comparison. All men are interested in any man if he
+  will speak the facts of his life for them; his authentic experience,
+  which corresponds, as face with face, to that of all other sons of
+  Adam._'
+
+    THOMAS CARLYLE
+
+
+
+
+  [Plate: RUNNING THE RAPIDS BELOW GJENDESHEIM.]
+
+
+
+
+                 THREE IN NORWAY
+
+                      _by_
+
+                 _TWO OF THEM_
+
+  With Map and Fifty-Nine Illustrations on Wood
+          from Sketches by the Authors
+
+
+                 [Illustration]
+
+
+                     London
+            LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
+                      1882
+
+             _All rights reserved_
+
+
+
+
+  London: Printed By
+  Spottiswoode And Co., New-Street Square
+  And Parliament Street
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+                                                PAGE
+
+          INTRODUCTION                            xi
+
+ CHAPTER
+       I. The Voyage                               1
+      II. Christiania                              6
+     III. By Rail and Lake                        14
+      IV. By Road                                 21
+       V. The First Camp                          28
+      VI. Misery                                  39
+     VII. Happiness                               45
+    VIII. Fly S�ter                               56
+      IX. Sikkildal                               62
+       X. Besse S�ter                             72
+      XI. Gjendin                                 82
+     XII. The Camp                                89
+    XIII. Gjendesheim                             98
+     XIV. John                                   105
+      XV. Back to Camp                           115
+     XVI. Trout                                  120
+    XVII. Reindeer                               127
+   XVIII. Success at last                        137
+     XIX. Gjendeboden                            146
+      XX. A Formal Call                          153
+     XXI. Fishing                                167
+    XXII. Memurudalen                            180
+   XXIII. A Picnic                               191
+    XXIV. The Skipper's Return                   200
+     XXV. The Gjende Fly                         210
+    XXVI. Disaster                               224
+   XXVII. A Change                               230
+  XXVIII. Rapid Running                          242
+    XXIX. Rus Vand                               257
+     XXX. Luck                                   273
+    XXXI. Not lost, but gone before              286
+   XXXII. A Last Stalk                           295
+  XXXIII. Homeward Bound                         303
+   XXXIV. Bj�lstad                               315
+    XXXV. Down to Christiania                    327
+   XXXVI. Home again                             336
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+  _PLATES_
+                                                             PAGE
+
+  Running the Rapids below Gjendesheim              _Frontispiece_
+  On the Track near Sikkildals Lake                 _to face_   59
+  On the Top of Glopit. Returning from Rus Lake         "      172
+  Baking by Night in Memurudalen                        "      178
+  The Camp in Memurudalen                               "      182
+  Death of the 'Stor Bock' at the Iceberg Lake,
+      Tyknings H�                                       "      267
+  Good Sport, Bad Weather. The Skipper's two
+      'Stor Bocks'                                      "      279
+  Cheerful! The Huts at Rus Lake                        "      289
+
+
+  _WOODCUTS IN TEXT._
+
+  Norwegian Arrangement of Dishes at Table                      10
+  Midnight Study of Stockings at Dalbakken                      26
+  The Start on Espedals Lake                                    29
+  The Skipper's first Cast                                      30
+  Our Camp on Espedals                                          31
+  Black-throated Diver                                          36
+  View of Bredsj� by Night                                      40
+  Sunset at Fly S�ter                                           54
+  Desperate Conflict between Esau and the Mosquito              58
+  S�ter Girls in a Boat on Sikkildals Lake                      65
+  Old Siva carrying a Canoe up the Sikkildals Pass              73
+  Greenshank                                                    77
+  Ring Dotterel                                                 78
+  Scaup                                                         80
+  Our first View of Gjendin Lake                                83
+  Two of our Retainers: Ivar and his Pony                       87
+  The Skipper returns to Camp disgusted with life               93
+  Throwing for a Rise                                           99
+  The Skipper takes Miss Louise for a Cruise
+      at Gjendesheim                                           102
+  The Huts at Rusvasoset                                       109
+  John returns from fishing in Summer Costume                  121
+  John and Esau: 'How's that for high?'                        122
+  The two 'Meget Stor Bocks' (very big Bucks)
+      on Memurutungen                                          128
+  Hot Soup and Northern Lights                                 134
+  Esau and Ola return in Triumph                               141
+  A careful Finishing Shot                                     143
+  The Colony at Breakfast in Memurudalen                       159
+  An Exciting Moment in Rus Lake Shallows                      168
+  Esau's Best Day among the Trout                              170
+  Esau stalking near Hinaakj�rnhullet                          188
+  John diving for his knife in Rus Lake                        198
+  The Skipper about to astonish the Reindeer                   203
+  �la performing the Funeral Rites                             205
+  Canoeing after Duck in a Storm                               236
+  Andreas: our Retriever                                       237
+  Ola and Andreas capturing a wounded Grouse                   238
+  John and the Skipper upsetting in the Canoe                  240
+  Making a Portage by the Sjoa River                           244
+  A Norwegian Fire-place                                       246
+  Jens and his Pony on their way over Bes Fjeld                252
+  A Stormy Crossing at Rusvasoset                              259
+  Gloptind Rock, at the Western End of Rus Lake                275
+  The old stone Hut near Gloptind                              280
+  A Night at Rusvasoset, after a Day at Haircutting            284
+  Rus Lake from the Western End:
+      Nautgardstind in the Distance                            290
+  Glissading home after a blank day                            293
+  Rus Lake from the Eastern End:
+      Tyknings H� and Memurutind in the distance               294
+  Off! A Reindeer recollecting an engagement                   295
+  Old Buildings in the Courtyard at Bj�lstad                   316
+  Barley Sheaves: A Norwegian 'Atrocity'                       323
+  Three at Home Again                                          341
+
+
+  _MAP._
+
+  The Jotun Fjeld                              _at end of volume._
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+HISTORY.
+
+'Canadian canoes are the only boats that will do' was our conclusion
+after a thorough inspection of every existing species of boat, and long
+consultation with 'Sambo' of Eton about a totally new variety, invented
+but fortunately _not_ patented by one of our number.
+
+Our party consisted of three men, who shall be briefly described here.
+First, 'the Skipper,' so called from his varied experience by land and
+sea in all parts of the world, but especially in Norway, whither we were
+now intending to go in search of trout, reindeer, and the picturesque.
+The Skipper is lank and thin, looking as though he had outgrown his
+strength in boyhood, and never summoned up pluck enough to recover it
+again. His high cheek-bones and troubled expression give one the idea of
+a man who cannot convince himself that life is a success, which is
+perhaps pretty nearly the view he actually takes of existence.
+
+Secondly, 'Esau,' who received this name in consequence of the many
+points in which his character and history resemble that of the patriarch
+who first rejoiced in it: for our Esau, like his prototype, is
+'a�cunning hunter and man of the fjeld;' and we are sure that if he ever
+had such a thing as a birthright, he would willingly have sold it for a
+mess of pottage. Esau is short and joyous, and is one of those people
+who never indigest anything, but always look and always are in perfect
+health and spirits. It is annoying to see a man eat things that his
+fellow-creatures can not without suffering for it afterwards, but Esau
+invariably does this at dinner, and comes down to breakfast next morning
+with a provoking colour on his cheek and a hearty appetite. His office
+in this expedition was that of Paymaster; not because he possessed any
+qualifications for the post, but because the Skipper had conclusively
+proved that such employment was too gross and mundane for _his_ ethereal
+soul, by constantly leaving the purse which contained our united worldly
+wealth on any spot where he chanced to rest himself, when he and Esau
+went to spy out the land two years before this.
+
+Lastly, 'John,' so called for no better reason than the fact that he had
+been christened Charles: he had never yet visited the wilds of
+Scandinavia. John is an Irishman, whose motto in life is 'dum vivimus
+vivamus:' he is tall and straight, with a colossal light moustache. He
+generally wears his hat slightly tilted forward over his forehead when
+engaged in conversation; and the set of his clothes and whole deportment
+convey an idea that he is longing to tell you the most amusing story in
+the world in confidence. He is no gossip, and the anecdotes of his
+countrymen, of which he has an inexhaustible supply always ready, are
+merely imparted to his listeners from philanthropic motives, and because
+he longs for others to share in the enjoyment which he gleans from their
+mental dissection.
+
+The general idea of the campaign was that the Skipper and Esau should
+leave England in the early part of July; fish their way up a string of
+lakes into the Jotunfjeld, getting there in time for the commencement of
+the reindeer season; establish a camp somewhere; and then that John,
+starting a month later, should join, and the three of us sojourn in that
+land until we were tired thereof. How we accomplished this meritorious
+design we have tried to relate in the following pages.
+
+
+GEOGRAPHY.
+
+The map of Norway, apart from Sweden, presents an outline something like
+a tadpole with a crooked irregular tail. The Jotunfjeld is an extensive
+range of the highest mountains which are to be found in Northern Europe:
+before 1820 A.D. they were totally unexplored, and at the present time
+they are still perfectly wild and desolate, their summits covered with
+eternal ice and snow, and even their valleys uninhabited. That part of
+the Jotunfjeld which we intended to make our goal and headquarters is
+situated about the middle of the tadpole's body, and nearly equidistant
+from Throndhjem and Christiania.
+
+
+LANGUAGES.
+
+It is customary when writing a book on any foreign country to scatter
+broadcast in your descriptions words and phrases in the language of that
+country, in order to show that you really have been there. We propose to
+depart from this usage in the course of this work; but if at any time
+the exigencies of narrative seem to demand the use of the foreign
+tongue, we have little doubt that the English language will provide an
+equivalent, which shall be inserted for the benefit of the uninitiated.
+
+
+MATHEMATICS.
+
+Foreigners have a curious prejudice which leads them to adopt different
+systems of coinage and measurement from those in favour in England.
+But shall a Briton pander to this prejudice by making any use of their
+ridiculous figures? Decidedly not. What matters it to us that a
+Norwegian land-mile contains seven of our miles, and a sea-mile four? we
+speak only of the British mile. What care we that the Norwegian kr�ne is
+worth about 13�d.? Shall that prevent us from always calling it a
+shilling? Never! And shall the fact that it is divided into ten 10-�re
+pieces (which are little nickel coins worth about five farthings each)
+restrain us from alluding to them as the 'threepenny bits' which they so
+much resemble? Not while life remains.
+
+
+EXTRA SUBJECTS.
+
+Some of the statements that will be found in these pages may strike the
+reader as being, to say the least of it, improbable. We therefore wish
+to explain that all the incidents of sport and travel are simple facts,
+but that here and there is introduced some slight fiction which is too
+obviously exaggerated to require any comment.
+
+
+
+
+THREE IN NORWAY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE VOYAGE.
+
+
+_July 8._--At ten P.M. on the platform of the Hull station might have
+been seen the disconsolate form of Esau, who had arrived there a few
+minutes before. To him entered suddenly an express train, with that
+haste which seems to be inseparable from the movements of express
+trains, adorned as to the roof of one of its carriages by a Canadian
+canoe. From that carriage emerged the lanky body of the Skipper, and
+general joy ensued.
+
+Then in the hotel the Skipper related his perilous adventures; how he
+had crossed London in a four-wheeler with the canoe on the quarter-deck,
+and himself surrounded by rods, guns, rugs, tents, and ground-sheets in
+the hold, amid the shouts of 'boat ahoy!' from the volatile populace,
+and jeers from all the cabs that they met (there are many cabs in
+London); how the station-master at King's Cross--may his shadow never be
+less!--had personally superintended the packing of the canoe on a low
+carriage which he put on to the train specially; and how the G.W.
+charged four times as much as the G.N. He had seen John the day before,
+and on being asked to 'wander about, and get some things with him,' the
+Skipper had replied that it was quite impossible, as his time was
+occupied for the whole day: but when John said, 'I�wanted your advice
+chiefly about flies, and a new rod that I am thinking of buying,' he
+replied, 'Sir, I�have nothing of the slightest importance to do; my time
+is yours; name the moment, and place of meeting, and I will be there.'
+Then they twain had spent a happy day; for decidedly the next best thing
+to using your own rod is buying one for another man--at his expense.
+
+Poor Esau had no charming experiences to relate: he was a little
+depressed because an intelligent tyke at Doncaster had looked into the
+horse-box in which his canoe was travelling, hoping no doubt to see some
+high-mettled racer, and had asked if 'yon thing were some new mak o'
+a�coffin.'
+
+
+_July 9._--We walked about Hull and made a few last purchases. In the
+course of our wanderings we chanced to come to a shop, in the window of
+which many strawberries, large and luscious, were exposed for sale. We
+immediately entered that shop without exchanging a word, and the Skipper
+said to the proprietress, 'This gentleman wants to buy a quantity of
+strawberries for a school feast;' while Esau remarked, as he fastened on
+to the nearest and largest basket, 'My friend has been ordered to eat
+strawberries by his doctor.' After this a scene ensued over which it
+were best to draw a veil.
+
+At six o'clock we were safely aboard the good ship 'Angelo,' and saw our
+baggage stowed. It consisted of three huge boxes of provisions, weighing
+more than 100 lbs. each, two portmanteaus, two smaller bags, a�tent,
+a�large waggon-sheet intended to form another tent, a�bundle of rugs and
+blankets, a�large can containing all cooking utensils, four gun-cases,
+seven rods, a�bundle of axes, a�spade and other necessary tools, and the
+canoes with small wheels for road transport. Those wheels were the only
+things in the whole outfit that turned out to be not absolutely
+necessary. We did use them, but only once, and might have managed
+without them.
+
+When the aforesaid was all on board, there did not appear to be much
+room for anything else in the steamship 'Angelo;' registering 1,300
+tons; yet this vast pile was destined to travel many miles over a
+desperately rough country in the two little canoes.
+
+We were warped out of dock about eight o'clock, and steamed down the
+Humber with a west wind and a smooth sea. It was showery up to the
+moment of our departure, but as Hull faded from our sight it became
+fine, and with the shores of England we seemed to leave the cloud and
+rain behind.
+
+
+_July 10._--The day passed as days at sea do when the weather is all
+that can be wished, and the treacherous ocean calmly sleeps. The
+passengers were as sociable as any collection of English people ever
+are, and we spent the time very pleasantly chatting, smoking, eating
+enormously, and playing the ordinary sea games of quoits and
+horse-billiards.
+
+The Skipper was much exercised in spirit because Esau had told him that
+he believed a certain passenger to be an acquaintance of a former
+voyage, named, let us say, Jones, and that he was a capital fellow. So
+the Skipper went and fraternised with Jones, and presently, trusting to
+the 'information received,' remarked, 'I�believe your name is Jones?'
+and was a little annoyed when Jones replied, 'No, it's not Jones; it's
+Blueit, and I never heard the name of Jones as a surname before.' Then
+the Skipper arose and remonstrated with his perfidious friend, who with
+great good temper said, to make it all right, 'You see that man by the
+funnel? That is a Yankee going to see the midnight sun; go and talk to
+him.' Now the Skipper has been in America a good deal, and likes to talk
+to the natives of those regions, so he sailed over to the funnel and
+tackled the Yankee. Presently, with that admirable tact which is his
+most enviable characteristic, he observed, 'I�understand that you have
+come all the way from America to see the midnight sun: it is a very
+extraordinary phenomenon. Imagine a glorious wealth of colour glowing
+over an eternal sunlit sea, and endowing with a fairy glamour a scene
+which Sappho might have burned to sing; where night is not, nor sleep,
+but Odin's eye looks calmly down, nor ever sinks in rest.' As he paused
+for breath the Yankee saw his opportunity, and said, 'No, I�was never in
+America in my life. I�am a Lincolnshire man, and am going over to
+Arendahl to buy timber. I�have seen the midnight sun some dozen times,
+and I call it an infernal nuisance.' Here the Skipper hastily left, and
+came over and abused Esau until he made an enemy of him for life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+CHRISTIANIA.
+
+
+_Sunday, July 11._--We reached Christiansand about six, and set sail
+again at eight. There was what the mariners called a nice breeze with
+us. Esau declared it to be a storm, and was prostrate at lunch, owing as
+he said to attending church service, which was conducted under
+considerable difficulties, members of the congregation occasionally
+shooting out of the saloon like Zazel out of her cannon, or assuming
+recumbent postures when the rubric said, 'Here all standing up.'
+However, we came along at a great pace, and arrived at Christiania about
+nine at night, after a first-rate passage.
+
+The Fjord was not looking as beautiful as usual, as there had been a
+great deal of rain, and the storm clouds and mist were still hovering
+about the low hills, so that no glories of the northern sunset were
+visible.
+
+We arranged that the Skipper should go straight to the Victoria Hotel
+for rooms, as we heard that the town was very full, and Esau was to
+follow with the luggage. Now there was a young Englishman on board, very
+talkative, extremely sociable, remarkably kind-hearted, and overflowing
+with the best advice. He had gone round the whole ship entreating every
+one to go to the 'Grand,' as he intended to do, because it was by far
+the best hotel.
+
+Just as the Skipper had engaged our rooms at the 'Victoria,' in rushed
+this guileless child of nature, panting from the speed at which he had
+come from the quay, and the Skipper had the gratification of witnessing
+his discomfiture and listening to his apologies for having lied unto us,
+which of course he had done in order to get rooms for his own party at
+the 'Victoria.'
+
+We say nothing against the 'Grand' because we know it not, but any one
+who has once tried the 'Victoria' will go there again: the man who is
+not at home and happy there must be a very young traveller.
+
+This hotel possesses a spacious courtyard, surrounded by galleries from
+which bedrooms and passages open, very much like that historical
+hostelry in the Borough at which Mr. Pickwick first encountered Sam
+Weller.
+
+These galleries, and indeed most portions of the hotel, are made of
+wood, and the building is not of recent date, for now no houses in
+Christiania are allowed to be constructed of timber only.
+
+In the centre of the court is a fountain which keeps up a gentle
+plashing, very pleasant to listen to on a day when the thermometer is at
+90 in the shade, as it generally is about this time of year in
+Christiania. All round the fountain are small tables and chairs, ready
+for the little groups who will assemble at them after dinner for the cup
+of coffee and glass of cognac which form an indispensable part of a
+Norwegian dinner. The dinner itself is, during the summer months, always
+served in a large oblong tent in the same courtyard at 2.30, and a very
+pleasant meal it is, if you are not too much wedded to English habits to
+be able to secure an appetite at that hour. At short intervals down the
+table large blocks of ice are placed, which perform excellent service in
+helping to keep the tent cool.
+
+Then there is another delightful resort, the smoking-room, which is
+upstairs on an extension of the gallery overlooking the courtyard. It
+also is covered by a sort of tent, in the roof of which divers strange
+and gruesome birds and beasts disport themselves, or seem to do so: we
+have reason to believe that they are stuffed, as we notice that the
+flying capercailzie never seems to 'get any forrader;' the fox stealing
+with cautious tread upon the timid hare, unaccountably delays his final
+spring, but perhaps he is right not to hurry, for the hare does not
+appear to be taking any measures for her safety, but sits calmly
+nibbling the deeply dyed moss which it were vain to inform her is not
+good to eat. But there are other birds which we _know_ are stuffed, for
+we helped to stuff them, and these are the sparrows, which come gaily
+flying in at the open side of the smoking balcony; hopping on the chairs
+and tables, pecking at the crumbs on your plate, and behaving generally
+in that peculiarly insolent manner which can only be acquired, even by a
+sparrow, after years of study, and the most complete familiarity with
+the subject. These birds are a source of endless delight to Esau, who
+certainly gives them more than can be good for them; they eat twice as
+much as the capercailzies, though the latter are considerably larger.
+And if the sparrows are not enough entertainment, there are tanks of
+gold-fish and trees of unknown species in pots; but neither of these
+perform very interesting feats.
+
+In this room it is the custom of the ordinary traveller to have his
+breakfast and supper. Breakfast is very much like a good English one,
+except the coffee, which is not at all like English coffee, being
+perfectly delicious; but the supper is a meal peculiar to Norway, and is
+generally constructed more or less on the following principles:
+
+Caviare, with a fresh lemon cut up on it.
+
+Norwegian sardines, garnished with parsley and bay leaves.
+
+Cray-fish boiled in salt water.
+
+Prawns of appalling magnitude.
+
+Bologna sausage in slices.
+
+Chickens.
+
+Slices of beef, tongue, and corned beef.
+
+Reindeer tongue.
+
+Brod Lax (spelling not guaranteed), meaning raw salmon smoked and cut in
+thin slices.
+
+Baked potatoes.
+
+Good butter, and rolls which no man can resist, so fresh are they, and
+light, and crisp.
+
+Drink: 'salon �l,' which is the best Norwegian beer.
+
+  [Illustration: Norwegian Arrangement of Dishes at Table]
+
+This supper does not come in in courses, but the whole of it is placed
+on the table at once; not spread out all over the surface of the board
+as at home, but arranged in small oval dishes all round the consumer,
+and radiating within easy reach from his plate, making his watch-chain
+the centre of a semicircle, and thus entirely dispensing with that
+creaking-booted fidget, the waiter. Such an arrangement cannot fail to
+coax the most delicate appetite. There is no coarse _pi�ce de
+r�sistance_; no vast joint to disgust you; but like the bee, you flit
+from dish to dish, toying, now with a prawn, now with a merry-thought,
+till you suddenly discover that you are unconsciously replete, and you
+rise from the table feeling that it was a good supper, and that
+existence is not such a struggle after all.
+
+Altogether the 'Victoria' is a most charming inn, either to the
+wave-worn mariner wearied by the cruel buffetings of the North Sea,
+or to the weather-beaten sportsman returning straight from the bleak
+snow-fields of the interior of Norway. We never stayed there for more
+than two days, but for that time it is an uninterrupted dream of
+delight.
+
+
+_July 12._--We had a very hard day, buying all sorts of things to make
+our stores complete: jam, butter, whisky, soap, and matches, Tauchnitz
+books, and several other necessaries. The butter is most important, as
+the best variety that can be got up country is extremely nasty; the
+worst is unutterably vile, though it is quite possible to acquire almost
+a liking for the peculiarities of the better kind after starvation has
+stared you in the face. We were much put out at not being able to get a
+small keg of whisky, as we fear that the bottles will fare badly in the
+rough travelling we shall have.
+
+Accounts of Christiania may be found in many excellent guide-books, with
+which this simple story cannot hope to compete, so we will not attempt
+to describe the town, since, though our knowledge of all the grocers'
+shops is voluminous and exhaustive, we are totally ignorant of the
+interior arrangements of either the churches or police stations.
+
+The Skipper was very anxious to get some violet ink, because he is
+firmly convinced that it is the only sort fit for a gentleman to use.
+'A�man,' he said, 'is known by his ink;' so we went into many shops and
+asked for that concoction, always in the English tongue. Then we arrived
+at a shop where they did not speak our language; and here suddenly,
+to the intense surprise of Esau, the Skipper broke forth into a long
+harangue in Norse, concluding with an extremely neat peroration. The
+shopkeeper listened with respectful admiration, and then said, 'No,
+this is a stationer's shop, we do not keep it.' Then Esau gave way
+to irreverent laughter, and the shopkeeper concluded that we were
+attempting a practical joke, and we had to fly. The Skipper was not
+angry, but very much hurt. It afterwards transpired that he had got
+up the whole of that magnificent burst of eloquence out of 'Bennett's
+Phrase Book,' and then it had failed for want of two or three right
+words; truly very hard.
+
+We took our canoes to the railway station, and despatched them to
+Lillehammer this afternoon; they had been a source of great interest to
+all beholders since our arrival, especially to the Norwegians, who have
+all a sort of natural affinity with any kind of boat, and seem very much
+pleased with the combined lightness and strength of their build. As far
+as we can learn they are the first of the kind that have yet been
+brought to this country.
+
+At the station they were surrounded by a crowd of inquiring Norsemen,
+all of them wondering much what the name of 'Nettie' on the bows of the
+Skipper's craft could mean, and spelling it over very slowly and
+carefully aloud. When we came away, one of them, evidently a linguist,
+had just translated it into his own language, and was proceeding to
+conjugate it as an irregular verb.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+BY RAIL AND LAKE.
+
+
+_July 13._--We were engaged till late at night putting the finishing
+touches to our packing. The last thing we did was to put our most
+gorgeous apparel, and any articles not likely to be needed during our
+camp life, into two portmanteaus, with strict orders to the Boots to
+keep the same until our return. This morning, after an early breakfast,
+on descending to the courtyard we found these portmanteaus roped down on
+the roof of the omnibus which was to take all the luggage to the station
+_en route_ for Lillehammer. This we rectified, and then set off to walk
+to the station ourselves.
+
+Now Esau is possessed by an insensate craving for anchovy paste, which
+he considers a necessity for camping; he said, 'It imparts a certain
+tone to the stomach, and aids digestion;' and added that 'no
+well-appointed dinner-table should ever be without it,' which sounds a
+little like an advertisement, but which he asserted was a quotation from
+the rules laid down for his diet by Dr. Andrew Clark. In Christiania
+these rules are not strictly adhered to either by Esau or the
+inhabitants of the place, for anchovy paste is not to be obtained there:
+this we know, because we went into every shop in the town, and asked for
+it without success. And in this supreme moment, when we were walking to
+the station with only a few minutes before the train should start, he
+insisted on diving into a wretched pokey little shop, which had escaped
+our notice yesterday, and demanding 'anchovy paste' in a loud English
+voice. The Skipper devoutly thanked Providence it could not be bought,
+as he declared the smell of it alone was enough to put a man off his
+breakfast, and that he had such a morbid longing for hair grease, that
+he could not have prevented himself from putting it on his head.
+
+We got our baggage safely booked, and ourselves also, after a scene of
+riot that was nothing like a football match, but something like
+Donnybrook fair, and at last found ourselves in a compartment with five
+other passengers, all of whom had a most inconsiderate amount of luggage
+with them in the carriage, while we contented ourselves with four guns,
+seven fishing-rods, two axes, one spade, four hundred and fifty
+cartridges, two fishing-bags, and a pair of glasses. We calculated that
+we saved at least one and fourpence by taking these things with us; and
+although our fellow-passengers were rather profane at first they soon
+settled down, and we had time to digest the fact that we were one and
+fourpence to the good. It was very warm in there; outside the
+thermometer was 92� in the shade; but we survived it, and after that no
+mere heat has any terrors for�us.
+
+Two of our fellow-passengers were an Englishman and his wife, who had a
+maid travelling with them through to Throndhjem; and when getting the
+tickets the booking clerk informed them that there were no second-class
+through tickets issued, 'but,' he added, 'this will do as well,' and
+handed them one first and one third through ticket, which we thought an
+extremely ingenious way out of the difficulty.
+
+A railway journey is not interesting anywhere, and less so in Norway
+than other countries, as there is not even the sensation of speed to
+divert your mind, and keep you excited in momentary expectation of a
+smash. Uphill the pace is slow because it cannot be fast; downhill it is
+slow for fear of the train running away.
+
+There are only two trains a day, one very early, one rather late,
+but timed to arrive at its destination before dark, for there is no
+travelling by night. Directly darkness comes on the train is stopped,
+and the passengers turned out into an hotel, where they remain to rest
+till dawn. From Christiania to Eidsvold is about a three-hour journey,
+and during that time the guard came to look at our tickets 425 times.
+He wanted to incite us to commit a breach of the peace, or to catch us
+offending against some of his by-laws, and was always appearing at a new
+place; first at one door, then the other, anon peeping at us through the
+hole for the lamp, and again blinking from the next carriage, through
+the ice-water vessel. But we were aware of his intention, and did
+nothing to annoy him, and always showed the same tickets till they were
+worn out, and then we produced strawberry jam labels, which seemed to be
+quite satisfactory.
+
+We reached Eidsvold at twelve, and went aboard the steamer 'Skibl�dner,'
+where we found the canoes already nicely placed, lashed on the
+paddle-boxes.
+
+We had a delightful voyage up the Mj�sen, on the most beautiful of
+Norwegian summer days, in the best of Norwegian steamers. The Mj�sen is
+the largest Norwegian lake, about fifty-five miles long, and the
+guide-books say it is 1,440 feet deep, but we had not time to measure
+it, as we were busy admiring the scenery on the saloon table most of the
+way. This steaming up the Mj�sen is a very pleasant way of spending a
+fine day: the shores are nowhere strikingly beautiful, but always pretty
+and charming; the steamer goes fast, so that there is a sensation of
+getting on and not losing time. There are intervals of mild excitement
+whenever we come to a village, and take up or disembark passengers;
+generally speaking they come out in boats, but occasionally we come to a
+larger and more important place where there is a pier, or even a
+railway, and at these the excitement is greater and the crowd quite
+worthy of the name. The folks all take off their hats directly we get
+within sight, and continue to do so till they fade away or sink below
+the horizon; and we in the steamer all do the same. But the great
+attraction is undoubtedly dinner, which is uncommonly well served in the
+saloon, every luxury that can be obtained being placed before us,
+concluding with wild strawberries and cream of the frothiest and most
+captivating appearance.
+
+Both on this boat and her sister the 'Kong Oscar' they take great pride
+in doing things well, very much as the old mail-coaches which occupied a
+parallel position in England used to do. The 'Kong Oscar' is rather the
+faster boat, but we consider the captain of the 'Skibl�dner' to be
+lengths ahead of his rival, being a first-rate old fellow; on the other
+hand, the 'Skibl�dner' handmaidens are not comely, whereas they of the
+'Kong Oscar' are renowned for their beauty, not only in Norway, but in
+certain stately homes of England that we wot of. Esau lost his heart to
+one of them two years ago, and still raves about her, though the only
+way in which he endeavoured to win her affection was by sitting on a
+paddle-box with his slouch hat tilted over his eyes, gazing at her with
+mute admiration from a respectful distance, while she, alas! was totally
+unconscious of his passion. He never told his love, because he could not
+speak Norse.
+
+We arrived at Lillehammer about eight o'clock, and went to the Victoria
+Hotel, from the flat roof of which, after an excellent dinner, we
+enjoyed a pipe and one of the prettiest views, in a quiet homely style
+of prettiness, that any one could wish to see: just at our feet the
+wooden village, with its many-coloured houses and their red roofs; then
+some green slopes, and 100 feet below the vast extent of the Mj�sen
+lying calm and still and looking very green and deep, with the
+landing-stage and deserted steamers apparently quite close below us. On
+the opposite side of the lake highish hills covered with fir trees, and
+to the right the river Laagen with its green waters hurrying down from
+the mountains in a broad and rapid stream as far as the eye could reach.
+Just across the road in front of the hotel there is a nice little stream
+which turns a saw, and rejoices in a cool splashing waterfall, the
+soothing sound of which refreshes us by day and night. The same torrent
+can be seen higher up the mountain in a place where it makes some rather
+fine falls, which only look like a long white rag fluttering amongst the
+trees at this distance. This was the view we had at midnight, when it
+was, apparently, no darker than immediately after sunset, and a good
+deal lighter than it generally is in London at midday; the while the sky
+was covered with the rich glow of colouring which can only be seen in
+the Northern summer.
+
+There were two Englishmen with us on the roof, with whom, aided by
+coffee, we roamed over the greater part of the civilised and uncivilised
+world--Australia, Canada, Japan, Turkey, and Ceylon, and we all agreed
+that none of them can 'go one better' than a summer night in Norway.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+BY ROAD.
+
+
+_July 14._--We arose pretty early, wishing to get over thirty-eight
+miles of ground before evening, which with the canoes would be a long
+day's work; as we had the natives to contend with, who by reason of
+their dreadfully lazy habits are most difficult to 'bring to the
+scratch.'
+
+We have decided, after long experience, that nothing that you can do has
+any effect in hurrying them; but that it is quite possible to make them
+slower by losing your temper, or taking any vigorous measures of
+acceleration. They seem to get more deliberate and aggravatingly slow as
+they grow older.
+
+Norwegian boys are distractingly restless and full of energy, and look
+as if they have had nothing to eat, which is generally the actual fact,
+judging by an English standard of what constitutes food. At the age of
+fifteen they become better fed, and their energy departs altogether,
+and after entirely disappearing it keeps getting less every year.
+A�full-grown man does not seem to need much food, certainly not as much
+as an Englishman, and prefers that of the worst kind, conveyed to the
+mouth at the end of a knife-blade. We have never noticed any description
+of food which he does not make sour, rather than eat it when sweet.
+Bread, milk, cream, and cheese, jam and cabbages, for instance, are
+articles which he prefers fermented or sour. He reminds one of the
+cockney who complained that the country eggs had no flavour, or of the
+Scotchman who, replying to the apologies of a friend in whose house he
+happened to get a bad egg, said, 'Ma dear freend, ah _prefair_ 'em
+rotten.'
+
+But his laziness and love of nasty food are almost the only bad
+qualities that we have discovered in him. He is ridiculously honest,[*]
+and his kindness and hospitality are beyond praise. This morning,
+however, the laziness was the quality chiefly conspicuous, and though we
+ordered our conveyances last night and got up early (for us), we did not
+succeed in starting till twelve o'clock.
+
+    [Footnote: Save, perhaps, on three points--fishing tackle,
+    strong drinks, and straps or pieces of cord, which may be
+    committed to memory as 'a�fly, a�flask, and a fastener.']
+
+We first despatched the canoes and baggage packed on a kind of low
+waggon, and then got into a double cariole (which is something like a
+gig) ourselves, and drove gaily off along the Throndhjem road. We did
+not, however, follow it far, but turning to the left down a steep hill,
+we crossed the Laagen by a long and rather handsome bridge, and then up
+a winding road on the further side, all looking very pretty on such a
+glorious day. The road became more picturesque the further we got from
+Lillehammer, every turn bringing us to some fresh combination of
+mountain, pine-trees, rock, and waterfall--especially rock. There are so
+many tracts of country in Norway entirely composed of rock, that, as
+Esau remarked, 'probably no one will ever find a use for it all.'
+
+We lunched at a nice little station called 'Neisteen;' a delicious meal
+off trout, strawberries and cream, and fladbrod, for which they charged
+us a shilling each.
+
+'Fladbrod' is the staple food of the country folk in Norway; they make
+it of barley-meal, rye-meal, or pea-meal, but the best and commonest is
+that composed of barley-meal. It is simply meal and water baked on a
+large, flat, circular iron, and is about the thickness of cardboard, of
+a brownish colour, and very crisp. The taste for it is easily acquired
+in the absence of other food, and with butter it becomes quite
+delicious--to a _very_ hungry man.
+
+At Neisteen there was a little shop where the Skipper at last obtained
+his violet ink, but Esau was foiled in his dastardly attempt at
+retaliation with anchovy paste.
+
+After this our road lay along a lovely river for fishing, and we were
+much tempted to stop and try a cast in it, especially as we saw natives
+luring fish from their rocky haunts by the time-honoured Norwegian
+method. They first settle how far they want to cast--say thirty feet.
+Then cut down a thirty-foot pine tree; take the bark off it; tie a
+string to the thin end and a hook to the string; stick a worm on the
+hook, and go forth to the strife. When the fish bites, they strike with
+great rapidity and violence, and _something_ is bound to go; generally
+it is the fish, which leaves its native element at a speed which must
+astonish it; describes half of a sixty-foot circle at the same rate,
+and lands either in a tree or on a rock with sufficient force to break
+itself.
+
+But we had no time to spare, especially as for this stage we had a bad,
+shying, jibbing horse, and a perfect fool of a driver.
+
+Near the last station we passed three English people on the road, who
+our driver informed us lived near there. He told us their name was
+Wunkle, but the man at the next station said it was Punkum, and we could
+not decide which of these two common English names it was most likely
+to�be.
+
+Kvisberg, the last station on this road, was reached at 9 P.M., but
+before this the road, which had gradually got worse all the way from
+Lillehammer, had faded away and disappeared: and as the road got worse,
+so did the hired conveyances; so that we were gradually reduced from the
+gorgeous double cariole with red cushions with which we started, and a
+horse that could hardly be held in, to a springless, jolting stolkj�r
+(country cart), and a pony that required much persuasion to induce him
+to boil up a trot.
+
+Kvisberg is situated, with peculiar disregard for appropriateness of
+position, on the side of an almost unclimbable hill, about a quarter of
+a mile from the place where the road departs into the Hereafter. No
+English horse would take a cart up such a hill, but Norwegian ponies are
+like the Duke's army, and 'will go anywhere and do anything,' only you
+must give them plenty of time. We mounted to the station, a�wretched
+little place, and being hungry ordered coffee and eggs, for which repast
+we paid twopence-halfpenny each, and then at ten o'clock got a man to
+carry our few small things the last six miles to Dalbakken, where we
+intended to sleep the night. The walk was delightful, through a
+precipitous thickly wooded gorge, at the bottom of which the river which
+we had followed all day went leaping and foaming along, though it was
+now reduced to a mere mountain torrent.
+
+About a mile from our journey's end we were overtaken by a Norwegian
+student on a walking tour, who spoke a little English and walked with us
+the rest of the way, as he too was bound for Dalbakken.
+
+  [Illustration: Midnight Study of Stockings at Dalbakken]
+
+We reached it at midnight, and were not much gratified to find that it
+was a very small poor building, and that our luggage had not arrived. We
+had been hoping against hope that it might have done so, as we had not
+seen it anywhere on the road. The next pleasant discovery was that four
+other travellers had arrived before us and taken all the rooms. This
+fact was first conveyed to our minds by seeing four pairs of socks
+hanging out of the upstair windows to dry; at which sight we began to
+suspect that things were going to turn out unpleasant for us; but at
+last we got a room with one very small bed between us. We tossed for
+this bed, and the Skipper won; so Esau passed the night on the floor, on
+a sheepskin, and was very comfortable--at least he said so next morning.
+The natives here were much impressed by all our habits and belongings,
+but especially by our sleeping with the window open; wherefore the old
+woman of the S�ter[*] below kept bouncing into the room at intervals
+during the night to see us perform that heroic feat; and though it was
+flattering to be made so much of, still fame has its drawbacks.
+
+    [Footnote: A S�ter is a mountain farm, to which all the cattle
+    are driven during the summer, so that the lowland pastures can
+    be mown for hay.]
+
+The general appearance of the place caused us to expect nightly
+visitations from other foes, not human, but to our surprise there were
+none.
+
+Dalbakken is only three quarters of a mile from a lake called Espedals
+Vand, where we propose to commence our cruise. It is beautifully
+situated on a small flat bit of ground halfway up the north side of the
+gorge: the hills on the south side not far away are so steep that they
+could not be climbed by all the branded alpenstocks that Switzerland
+ever produced. Looking to the east the gorge is very wild and grand,
+covered with pine trees and steep crags, and no dwelling in sight; while
+to the west, in which direction Espedals Vand lies, it is more level and
+open, and slopes gradually downwards again, Dalbakken itself being the
+highest point in the track.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE FIRST CAMP.
+
+
+_July 15._--We slept well, and at eight o'clock the Skipper, always
+first to wake, got up, and looking out of the window saw thence the four
+bad men who had taken the rooms before us and hung their socks out of
+the window, just starting on their journey, and looking as if they did
+so with an easy conscience.
+
+Some men can carry with a light heart and gay demeanour a weight of
+crime that would wreck the happiness of less hardened ruffians.
+
+Then he turned his gaze in the opposite direction, and oh, joy! our
+luggage and boats were in sight, and arrived directly afterwards.
+The man in charge said he had travelled all night with them without
+sleeping, and to judge from his appearance we imagined that his
+statement was correct. He had been sitting on the Skipper's bag for
+thirty-eight miles, and from the state of its interior we calculated his
+weight to be about twenty-two stone. He was very ill-tempered after his
+mere trifle of a journey and vigil, and asked for more money on hearing
+that he had three quarters of a mile further to go. This was very sad,
+and we thought showed an unchristian spirit; but we sternly urged him
+forward, and all ended happily on our arrival at Espedals, when we paid
+him his money and a shilling extra.
+
+  [Illustration: The Start on Espedals Lake]
+
+It only took us a quarter of an hour to get to the lake, and after
+unpacking there and dismissing the men we put the canoes into the water,
+and then put water into the canoes until they sank; while we sat on the
+shore watching the trout rising all over the rippled surface of the
+lake, occasionally eyeing our sunken canoes in an impatient, longing
+sort of way, but never attempting to start on our great voyage.
+
+  [Illustration: The Skipper's first Cast]
+
+These tactics to an inexperienced 'voyageur' might look like the acts of
+an ordinary lunatic; but it should be explained that the long exposure
+to the sun which the canoes had undergone had caused them to leak badly,
+and they required soaking to swell up the joints, before they could be
+intrusted with our valuable property and persons. Besides this we were
+hungry, and thought it a good opportunity for lunch, and had to make
+some previously arranged alterations in the baggage with a view to
+lightening it. As long as the land journey lasted, strength was the
+chief object to aim at, but now lightness was of more importance. About
+one o'clock, when we had got all our things aboard and were just
+starting, a�strong head-wind arose. This was always our luck. We decided
+to make only a short voyage. The waves were fairly big, but the canoes
+weathered them bravely, though they were very low in the water, and we
+had to keep the pumps going (_i.e._ mop them out with our sponges)
+during the whole voyage.
+
+  [Illustration: Our Camp on Espedals]
+
+We landed not more than a mile and a half from the end of the lake, and
+found a very nice camping-ground about ten yards from the shore on the
+south bank, with what the poets call 'a�babbling brook' close to it;
+pitched the tent, and had a simple dinner of bacon, eggs, and jam, the
+last dinner during our trip at which trout did not find a place. Then we
+sallied forth in the canoes to fish. Esau was the last to leave the
+shore, and as he paddled off he noticed the Skipper's rod in the
+familiar Norwegian shape of a bow, and found him struggling with two on
+at the same time, both of which he landed, and found to be over 1 lb.
+each. 'First blood claimed and allowed,' to quote the terse language of
+the prize ring. Not a bad beginning, but we only got a few more about
+the same weight. They came very short, but were remarkably game fish
+when hooked, and in first-rate condition. We turned in about eleven,
+when it began to rain a little, and slept with our heads under the
+blankets, the mosquitoes being in countless multitudes.
+
+
+_July 16._--It was a lovely morning, and the lake looked its best, but
+it is not strikingly beautiful compared with many that we have seen. It
+has high rugged hills on both sides, and pine woods down to the water's
+edge, and some small islands dotted about the upper end of it; but the
+lake is rather shallow, the pine trees rather stunted, and there are a
+good many wooden huts and s�ters on the hill-sides, which, although they
+appear to be mostly uninhabited, detract from the wildness of the
+scenery.
+
+The natives have one or two boats on the lake, and do some fishing on
+their own account. To-day we saw a man engaged in the atrocious
+employment of fishing with an 'otter.'
+
+Any natives who see our camp when rowing past come to shore to inspect
+us and our belongings. They all adopt the same course of procedure. They
+land, and stare, and say nothing; then they pull up their boat and make
+it safe, and advancing close to the tent stare, and say nothing either
+to each other or us. Then Esau says confidentially, as if it was a new
+and brilliant idea (he has done exactly the same thing some scores of
+times), 'We'd better be civil to these fellows; perhaps they could bring
+us some eggs, and they look pretty friendly.' The natives are all the
+time staring and saying nothing. Then Esau remarks in Norwegian, 'It is
+fine weather to-day; have you any eggs?' To this the chief native
+replies at great length in his own barbarous jargon, and Esau not having
+understood a single syllable answers, 'Ja! ja! (yes), but have you any
+eggs?' Then aside to the Skipper, 'Wonder what the deuce the fool was
+talking about?' Soon the natives perceive that their words are wasted,
+and relapse into the silent staring condition again, and after a time
+and a half, or two times, they depart as they came. Sometimes they
+return again with eggs in a basket, when we pay them well and give them
+some fish; at other times they look upon us as dangerous lunatics, and
+avoid us like the plague.
+
+Esau learnt this habit of asking for eggs when we were on a fishing
+expedition near the south coast of Norway. On one occasion there we
+arrived at a small village, with an enormous quantity of trout that we
+had caught in the adjoining fjord; and found a small crowd of about
+fourteen or fifteen seafaring men, idly lounging round an open space
+between the cottages. He first went round and presented each of those
+men with two trout solemnly, without a word, as though it were a
+religious ceremony. Then he began at the first man again and said, 'Have
+you eggs?' and receiving a reply in the negative, he went on to the
+next, and to each one of the group asking the same weird question.
+
+The men, who had been chatting busily amongst themselves up to the
+moment of our arrival, became silent; they did not laugh, but only
+looked at one another; and one of them shyly felt in his pocket to see
+if there were any eggs there whose existence he might have chanced to
+forget.
+
+Presently, as we could get no eggs, we moved off sorrowfully but not
+discouraged; and the men remained looking after us silent and uncertain.
+Thus the interview ended, and we regained our boat.
+
+The beach here was capital for bathing, and we enjoyed a delightful tub
+this morning, the more pleasant indeed because at Dalbakken we slept in
+our clothes, and only had a soap-dish to wash in next morning.
+Immediately after bathing we lit a fire, and the cook commenced
+operations; the office of cook being held alternately by each of us for
+one day. The man from Dalbakken brought us some milk, so we indulged in
+coffee. When we have only 'tin milk' we drink tea; for though tin milk
+will do fairly with tea, we think it wretched with coffee. After
+breakfast we each took our canoe, and went fishing wherever the spirit
+moved us, taking lunch with us. On a day of this sort, if the fish are
+rising we have a great time, and if they won't rise, we lie on the bank
+in the sun and smoke, or sketch, or kill mosquitoes, and have a great
+time in that case also, so that the hours pass in a blissful round of
+enjoyment, and all is peace. Having each one his own ship we are quite
+independent, only taking care to return to camp about six o'clock to get
+dinner ready. After that there is nearly always a rise, and we fish till
+about eleven, when we generally turn in, though it is by no means dark
+by that time; and on a few occasions when the fish were rising very
+well, we have fished on all through the night and into the next day,
+losing count of the almanack, and conducting life on the principles of
+going to bed when tired, and eating when hungry, so that, like the
+Snark, we might be said�to--
+
+  Frequently breakfast at five o'clock tea,
+    And dine on the following day.
+
+There was very little wind to-day, and these fish being very shy, and
+apt to come short, it was almost impossible to get them without a ripple
+until evening, when large white moths began to show on the water, and
+the trout became bolder; consequently we did not make great bags, though
+the fish caught were very good ones.
+
+At night there was one of the most lovely sunsets ever seen. The sun
+went down right at the other end of the lake, so that we had an
+uninterrupted view, with all the glorious colours of the sky reflected
+in the water; and we agreed that the effects about half-past ten this
+evening formed as good a symphony in purple and orange as a man could
+expect to find out of the Grosvenor Gallery.
+
+
+_July 17._--The morning began with a dead calm, but this soon gave place
+to such a wind down the lake that we were induced to strike the camp,
+pack the canoes, and proceed on our voyage into the unknown.
+
+  [Illustration: Black-throated Diver]
+
+We started soon after eleven, lunched near Megrunden,[*] and saw there
+two black-throated divers on the lake, which Esau pursued for some time,
+but of course never got near them. Some of the dives they made to avoid
+his advancing canoe seemed to be about half a mile in length. Just below
+B�le we caught several fish, but kept paddling on with our favourable
+wind, casting every now and then in likely places, and soon came to a
+rapid with a rough bridge thrown across its upper end. The rapid was
+very shallow, so that we did not dare to attempt to run it with loaded
+boats, and had to make a portage. Even then we got a few bumps in
+running it, but arrived at the bottom all right. Now the scene changed;
+we were in a smaller and narrower part of the valley; buildings had
+entirely disappeared; there was nothing to be seen but gloomy pine
+forests and black-looking mountains: the weather also was quickly
+changing, and evidently intending to be wet and stormy; so we pushed on
+rapidly, one coasting on each side of the lake till we reached its
+further extremity, where Esau was nearly swamped crossing the waves, as
+the wind began to blow harder every minute. Soon the rain was upon us,
+while we looked for a camping-ground but found none, as the shores were
+everywhere very swampy for a quarter of a mile inland. At length we came
+to a second rapid, where the natives have thrown a clumsy weir across
+for some unknown purpose, and here we found a fairly dry spot, made our
+portage in heavy rain and wind, with a great deal of groaning, misery,
+and brandy and water; pitched the tent, and after struggling for about
+half an hour, got a dyspeptic fire to fizzle, and so cooked some fish
+and eggs, and then had tea in the tent. After this we were a little more
+comfortable, as it was very nice and dry inside; but it was midnight
+before we had finished all our portage, got the canoes down into the
+next lake, and made everything snug for the night, so that we were quite
+exhausted, as our day had commenced at seven A.M. The mosquitoes were
+more numerous here than at any place we have yet seen.
+
+    [Footnote: The various places mentioned on the voyage are not
+    villages, as one might imagine from the dot that marks them on
+    the Ordnance map, but generally only a single one-roomed log hut,
+    and for the most part not inhabited or habitable.]
+
+
+_Sunday, July 18._--It rained all night, but as Tweedledum said of his
+umbrella, 'not under here,' and a ditch we made last night kept our
+floor quite dry. Lighting a fire for breakfast was a toilsome business,
+but at last we found some wood dry enough to burn. It continued raining
+in a nice keep-at-it-all-day-if-you-like kind of manner, so we resided
+in the tent, and read, and indulged in whisky and water for lunch to
+counteract any ill effects of the reading--for some of it was poetry.
+
+Our tent was about three-quarters of a mile from the end of Bred Sj�,
+and after lunch we both went in one canoe to reconnoitre the next rapid,
+which is a long one down to Olstappen Vand. We found that it is quite
+impracticable for canoes; the river simply running violently down a
+steep place till it perishes in the lake; about a mile of rapid with
+hardly enough decently behaved water in the whole of it to hold a dozen
+trout. But there _were_ a dozen, for we caught them, one wherever there
+was a little turnhole. How we were to get down that river was concealed
+in the unfathomable depths of the mysterious Future.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+MISERY.
+
+
+_July 19._--It rained all night again and all day. This was dreadful,
+and not at all like Norway.
+
+We have always made a rule that we may fish on Sunday, but not shoot.
+Some people draw an even finer distinction, and say it is allowable to
+shoot with a rifle, but not with a gun: this we have always thought too
+subtle. Now yesterday was Sunday, and Esau having observed two divers on
+the lake while the Skipper was out fishing, went and secreted himself
+with a gun where he expected them to come over, hoping that they would
+be alarmed by the other canoe on its return. This soon happened, and
+they flew within forty yards of him. Both barrels were discharged, and
+Esau returned to camp, muttering something about 'birds of that kind
+having immortal bodies if they hadn't immortal souls.' The result of
+Sabbath-breaking was no doubt this miserable weather.
+
+The camp to-day presented a most cheerless prospect. The canoes were
+drawn up on land and turned bottom upwards; the kitchen stowed away
+under a soaked sack; a�very third-rate camp fire smouldering before the
+tent, surrounded by old egg-shells, backbones of fish, bacon-rind, and
+some apology for firewood; our two rods standing up against the gloomy
+sky with the wind whistling through their lines, and all the scenery
+blotted out with rain and mist, and scudding, never-ending clouds that
+drifted down the valley, and gave very occasional glimpses of extremely
+wet mountains. The cook, clad in a macintosh with a spade in his hand,
+watching a pot which was trying to boil on the spluttering fire, his
+trousers tucked into his socks, and his boots shining with wet, would
+have given any one a pretty good idea of the meaning of the expression
+'played out.'
+
+  [Illustration: View of Bredsj� by Night]
+
+The mosquitoes were bad here, and we spent much of our leisure time
+making war against them. Esau's favourite way of 'clearing the road' was
+to bring in a smoking log of pitch pine, close up the ventilation, and
+fill the tent with smoke. It forced us to quit, but not the mosquitoes,
+as they appeared to fall into a deep and tranquil sleep, from which they
+awoke refreshed and ready to renew the attack just a few minutes before
+the tent again became habitable for human beings. Prowling round the
+tent and squashing them with our fingers was perhaps the best plan, but
+we were obliged to sleep with a rug over our heads and covered up at
+every point, to avoid their intrusion at night.
+
+
+_July 20._--Still rain, and nothing but rain; it stopped for an hour or
+two last night, and the lake looked uncommonly pretty among its dark
+surroundings, but the downpour soon began again.
+
+In our desperation yesterday afternoon we arranged with a native, whom
+the Skipper discovered, to bring a horse and sleigh to-day to meet us at
+the next rapid, and help us down with our baggage to Olstappen.
+Therefore we got up early and were down at the rapid about ten o'clock,
+where we found our man waiting. The rain at this period was the worst
+variety we have yet seen, and it has tried all kinds during the last
+four days. We packed everything on the sleigh, covered it with our
+ground sheets, and then put the wheels on our canoes, and followed down
+the track.
+
+There is a saw-mill halfway down the river which is simply perfect.
+It is perched on piles over the middle of the stream, where it dashes
+through a rift in a huge black cliff, and the water goes tearing past
+down a long shoot made of logs, and plunges down at the end churned into
+a mass of white foam, with noise and spray that quite bewilder one.
+
+We got down to Olstappen at last, not without a good deal of hard work,
+and paid our man 4s. 6d. On our way we met a Norwegian tourist, who was
+on a walking tour with his sister, and had left her rained up, so to
+speak, in a S�ter, and was strolling about in the forest to wile away
+the time: he spoke a very little English, and we had a long talk with
+him; as he had a fellow-feeling for us, and was quite ready to curse the
+rain with us or any one else.
+
+The Norwegians, men and women, seem to go a good deal on walking tours,
+and probably know infinitely more of their fatherland than does the
+average Briton of this island, the superiority of which he seldom fails
+to impress on the long-suffering foreigner.
+
+At midday we launched our canoes on Olstappen, which is a fine wide
+lake, and not so rainy as Bredsj�, being several hundred feet lower.
+We paddled across to the mouth of the Vinstra River, a�rather perilous
+undertaking, for where the wind met the river there was a nasty sea on,
+and we shipped some water, but got safe to land. We could not find a
+decent camp till we had walked a quarter of a mile from the lake up the
+river. There we found a nice sheltered place, pretty, and close to the
+river, made our portage, and pitched the tent, and with tea our drooping
+spirits began to revive (who is proof against a hot meal of trout and
+bacon, buttered eggs, and tea?), even though our clothes and equipments
+were all wet through, and we had a damp change of raiment, sleeping
+rugs, and boots. But now the wind had changed, and we looked forward to
+the morrow as the wearied traveller always _does_ look forward to the
+morrow.
+
+There were many sandpipers at the mouth of this river; we caught one
+young one, and had serious thoughts of taking its innocent life for our
+tea, but better feelings prevailed, and we released it as an offering
+for fine weather, and caught four trout instead.
+
+
+_July 21._--Hurrah! the rain stopped during the night, and this morning
+actually the sun shone out now and then. We heaped up a huge fire and
+dried all our belongings, and then had nearly a whole day before us free
+for fishing.
+
+A voyaging day is a big business. We calculate that it takes us two and
+a half hours to pack up from an old camp, breakfast, and get aboard
+ship; but to pitch the camp in a new place takes much longer. First you
+have to find a suitable place, often a matter of great difficulty in a
+country like this, where level spaces a yard square are very rare; dig a
+trench; pitch the tent, and arrange everything in it; collect firewood,
+and make a place for the fire; see that the boats and everything about
+the tent are safe from harm should the stormy winds begin to blow; and
+then cook dinner. All this cannot be done under three hours of hard
+work; so that if in addition you propose getting over a considerable
+amount of ground, it is sure to be a long and toilsome day. But the
+following day you wake up with a glorious feeling of duty performed and
+pleasure to look forward�to.
+
+The Skipper, with a hankering after cleanliness, washed a lot of
+clothes, and himself, having left the rain to perform the latter
+operation for the last two or three days; but Esau, not being troubled
+with any such absurd remnants of civilisation, went up the river
+reconnoitring in his natural condition. He came back to dinner in a
+perfectly rapturous state, having caught a remarkably nice bag of fish,
+got a beautiful view of the Jotunfjeld Mountains, and found a waterfall,
+which he said was the best in Norway, and therefore in the world. The
+Skipper had tried the lake in the afternoon without success, so after
+dinner we both went out and soon discovered the reason. Seven boats full
+of natives were out with a huge flue net, which they shot in a circle,
+and then beat the water enclosed till all the wretched fish were in the
+net. We saw them get thirty in one haul, and besides this there was a
+boat 'ottering;' and although we captured a few fish, it was obvious
+that with all this netting it would be impossible for the lake to be
+good.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+HAPPINESS.
+
+
+_July 22._--This was a really fine day, such as we consider proper to
+Norway; no uncertain half-and-halfness, but a day when an untiring sun
+shone down from an immaculate sky; and everything looked lovely. Our
+tent was on a nice bit of turf close to the Vinstra River, which is
+about as broad as the Thames at Eton, but with probably twice the volume
+of water, and certainly three times its rapidity; it rushed past our
+door at such a pace that no boat could stem it; and as far as we could
+see up the reach it came down in an equally swift torrent, so that all
+day and all night there was a swilling, rushing sound very pleasant to
+hear, and creating a sensation of coolness in warm weather. Esau
+considered it just the _beau ideal_ of a trout stream, for any fish
+hooked in it gave a lot of trouble before he was safe in the bag. It
+ran into the lake about a quarter of a mile from our tent, forming a
+good-sized delta at its mouth. At the further side of the delta there
+were some fishermen's huts (from which emanated the seven boat-loads of
+natives whom we saw yesterday netting), and thence a track leads up the
+banks of the river to a lake called Slangen, two miles away.
+
+The inhabitants of these huts came in a boat this morning to see our
+camp while we were at breakfast inside the tent. They poked their heads
+in, grinning and staring, and saying nothing. Then we did the honours,
+showed them our most interesting possessions--American axes, fly-books,
+knives, rods, &c., with all of which they were greatly impressed; then
+one picked up a bar of yellow soap that was lying on a box, and they all
+'wondered much at that;' then we talked to them for a brief space,
+chiefly out of 'Bennett's Phrase Book,' and considered the interview at
+an end, but they _would_ not go, and remained silently staring at all
+our movements. So at last we ignored their presence altogether, which we
+have found the most effectual way of getting rid of a Norwegian peasant,
+and they gradually departed one by one till only one was left. To this
+man we gave a cup of our now cold coffee, which was not at all good,
+especially when compared with the delicious coffee which is always
+forthcoming even in the meanest Norwegian hut. He drank this, for they
+consider it a breach of etiquette to refuse proffered food; and
+immediately left, as if he remembered an engagement, having first
+thanked us in a rather constrained manner.
+
+We were glad when our callers were gone, for we had found them
+'difficult,' as the French say; but we took advantage of their arrival
+to make arrangements with one of them to bring three ponies and sleighs
+to the other side of the delta to-morrow morning, when we hope to renew
+our journey.
+
+After this we both went up the river on opposite sides; for the Skipper
+had become inflamed by a wish to see the waterfall which Esau discovered
+yesterday.
+
+One of the great advantages of Norway consists in being able to leave
+your tent and all other belongings quite to themselves, even when you
+know that there are several people about, and shrewdly suspect that the
+place where you have made your camp is a hay meadow belonging to one of
+them. We had a dim idea that such was the case here, not because there
+was any grass, but because there were very few stones, and a Norwegian
+mows down everything for hay except the stones. The Skipper came back
+with a very pretty bag of fish; he had been up to the fall, and thought
+it quite deserved all Esau's commendation; and his opinion is worth more
+because he has seen many of the great American falls and other stock
+sights of the world. It is not marked on the Ordnance map; there is no
+path to it, or near it, but you come on it suddenly by following the
+river up through the pine forest, and on turning a corner see the whole
+body of the Vinstra shooting over a cliff in one mad leap of perhaps a
+little more than a hundred feet. Of course the height and volume of
+water are insignificant compared with many falls, but the beauty of its
+situation can scarcely be excelled; and to us its greatest charm is its
+solitude and freedom from paths, tourists, and all the other unpleasant
+attributes of show places.
+
+Esau following up the north bank of the river was not so successful
+fishing, and after crossing the Slangen River (which joins the Vinstra
+about a mile above our camp) he struck across the forest to see his
+beloved fall again, and try to sketch it. He came back in a bad temper,
+saying that he thought Ruysdael and Turner could make something of
+it--the former to do the water, and the latter the spray, mist,
+rainbows, and roar--and he wanted to write home and get them to come out
+on purpose; and when the Skipper suggested that they had given up
+painting, he said it was a great pity, for he had not time now to do it
+himself.
+
+There is a corduroy bridge over the Slangen River, close to its junction
+with the Vinstra, and over this bridge we shall go to-morrow: we had
+intended to cruise up the Slangen and fish Slangen Lake, but we found
+that it would be impossible to continue our journey from the further end
+of it if we did so, and therefore decided to omit that part of the
+programme, though we are sorry to leave out Slangen, as it is a
+beautiful lake.
+
+We have probably been repaid for the miseries of the last week by the
+beauty of our waterfall, the volume of which has doubtless been much
+increased by the exceptional rain of the last few days.
+
+Early to bed--
+
+
+_July 23._--And early to rise. We breakfasted soon after seven, and then
+packed everything, and crossed the mouth of the Vinstra in two Norse
+boats, assisted by two or three men who had come to help our horses and
+sleighs on the journey. We had terrible difficulty in getting the canoes
+placed in what we considered a safe position on the sleighs, but it was
+done at last, and the motley caravan started about 10.30.
+
+First the noble owners; then a man who had got nothing on earth to do
+with the affair, then two women laughing and yelling like lunatics, then
+a sleigh drawn by a large pony, and carrying two boxes, cans, guns, and
+canoe; next some boys urging the large pony to herculean exertions; then
+the organiser of the transport department, who was apparently a
+professional fool, by the inordinate laughter which his every action
+caused; then some more women, and a smaller pony and sleigh, with the
+other canoe and all the rest of the luggage excepting one bag; lastly,
+another man leading an extremely small pony and sleigh with absolutely
+nothing on it, the man carrying the remaining bag for fear of tiring the
+pony. This mob of loafers had arrived in boats from Svatsum, which is a
+small village five miles distant at the north end of Olstappen. But they
+only accompanied us for a quarter of a mile, when they all departed
+except the three men, who remained to manage the ponies.
+
+The pace was not very great, about a mile an hour, for these little
+ponies insisted on stopping to rest every hundred yards when the path
+was good, and every twenty when it was bad.
+
+We followed the river till we crossed the Slangen bridge; after that the
+path began to rise and get rapidly worse. We strolled along very
+leisurely, sitting down from time to time to rest and admire the view.
+The scenery was occasionally very beautiful, with the Jotun Mountains
+gleaming white in the background; and the forest itself was an endless
+delight, with its hoary moss-covered pine trees, and many-coloured
+carpet of berry-bearing plants, and the delicious odours with which a
+Norwegian forest in summer always abounds. In a fir tree here Esau came
+upon a family of cole titmice, and another of creepers, all very busy
+swinging themselves about, and creeping up and down the tree in search
+of dinner. They appeared to take a certain amount of interest in his
+proceedings, but showed no fear, and after watching them a long time he
+put the point of his rod up to one of the titmice, which actually pecked
+it rather angrily, but seeing that it made no impression took no further
+notice, but returned to its occupation of collecting food. In the next
+tree was a little spotted woodpecker which they call a 'Gertrude bird.'
+The story is so prettily told in 'Forest Life in Norway and Sweden,'
+that it shall be inserted here.
+
+'This woodpecker--or an ancestor of hers--was once a woman, and one day
+she was kneading bread in her trough, under the eaves of her house, when
+our Lord passed by leaning on St. Peter. She did not know it was our
+Lord and His apostle, for they looked like two poor men who were
+travelling past her cottage door. "Give us of your dough for the love of
+God," said the Lord. "We have come far across the fjeld, and have fasted
+long."
+
+'Gertrude pinched off a small piece for them, but on rolling it in the
+trough to get it into shape, it grew, and grew, and filled up the trough
+completely. "No," said she, "that is more than you want;" so she pinched
+off a smaller piece and rolled it out as before, but the smaller piece
+filled up the trough just as the other had done, and Gertrude put it
+aside too, and pinched a smaller bit still. But the miracle was just the
+same, the smaller bit filled up the trough as full as the largest sized
+kneading that she had ever put into�it.
+
+'Gertrude's heart was hardened still more; she put that aside too,
+resolving as soon as the stranger left her to divide all her dough into
+little bits, and to roll it out into great loaves. "I�cannot give you
+any to-day," said she. "Go on your journey; the Lord prosper you, but
+you must not stop at my house."
+
+'Then the Lord Christ was angry, and her eyes were opened, and she saw
+whom she had forbidden to come into the house, and she fell down on her
+knees. But the Lord said, "I�gave you plenty, but that hardened your
+heart, so plenty was not a blessing to you. I�will try you now with the
+blessing of poverty; you shall from henceforth seek your food day by
+day, and always between the wood and the bark" (alluding to the custom
+of mixing the inner rind of the birch with their rye-meal in times of
+scarcity). "But forasmuch as I see your penitence is sincere, this shall
+not be for ever; as soon as your back is entirely clothed with mourning
+this shall cease, for by that time you will have learnt to use your
+gifts rightly."
+
+'Gertrude flew from the presence of the Lord, for she was already a
+bird, but her feathers were even now blackened from her mourning, and
+from that time forward she and her descendants have all the year round
+sought their food between the wood and the bark; but the feathers of
+their back and wings get more mottled with black as they grow older, and
+when the white is quite covered the Lord takes them for His own again.
+
+'No Norwegian will ever hurt a Gertrude bird, for she is always under
+the Lord's protection, though He is punishing her for the time.'
+
+Whether this is the true reason or not, the fact remains that the bird
+is never harmed by any one, and is as tame as possible.
+
+We continued climbing slowly up the hill till about one o'clock, when we
+came out above the forest on an open plateau covered with rocks, grass,
+and low scrub: this was the Fjeld. At Finb�le S�ter we stopped to
+refresh on milk. The road--which had gradually dwindled from a decent
+path to a sleigh track, then a footpath, a�cow-path, and a goat-path,
+just sufficient to swear by, or at--now lost itself altogether. The men
+had been complaining that it was a 'dole vei' (bad road) soon after the
+start, now they said it was 'schlamm'--a very expressive word; and Esau
+agreed with them, and said it was 'damm schlamm,' which does not sound
+like proper Norsk; but it was such heart-rending work to see our beloved
+canoes bumping and jolting along, every moment in imminent danger of
+getting staved in, that to indulge in a few such Norwegian idioms was
+only human; and we decided to walk on and spare ourselves the agony of
+the sight: so, taking the bearings of 'Fly S�ter'--which was our
+destination for the evening--we rambled on across the fjeld--a splendid
+walk, with some of the most beautiful mountains in Norway all round�us.
+
+We got on very well with the assistance of an Ordnance map and compass,
+till we came to the river Hin�gle, after passing Hin�gelid S�ter. The
+bridge here was not in the place marked on the map, so that after
+crossing it we had some trouble in finding Fly S�ter, and might perhaps
+have perished miserably like the Babes in the wood, had we not
+opportunely met a medi�val fisherman in a red night-cap, looking like
+one of the demons in 'Rip van Winkle,' who was going thither and
+conducted us. We arrived at seven o'clock, and appeased our hunger with
+the usual meal of trout and coffee, and _such_ cream!
+
+  [Illustration: Sunset at Fly S�ter]
+
+The s�ter was a long low house, with three little rooms and only two
+windows. Its legitimate tenants were a very nice man and his equally
+nice wife and three children; but there were some occasional visitors
+here to-night in the shape of ourselves, our three men, the medi�val
+angler, and another traveller, twelve altogether to be apportioned among
+four beds; and to make matters worse, the rooms were continually invaded
+by sheep, pigs, and goats, of which there were a large stock.
+
+The Norwegians are so uniformly kind to all their animals, that their
+tameness is really troublesome; they insist on going where they like,
+and following one about begging for food like dogs, causing the Skipper
+to exclaim,--
+
+'Ite domum satur�, venit Hesperus, ite capell�;' which he translated--
+
+Out of the house in the evening! Get out, ye goats of the s�ter!
+
+We slept in the cheese-room very comfortably, one on the floor, the
+other on a good hay bed, and were warm for the first time for several
+nights, as we have not had sufficient blankets in the tent. Where the
+other ten people slept we did not inquire, but hoped they were happy.
+Our men and sleighs did not arrive till 10 P.M., at which time a most
+glorious sunset was going on, so that we could not attend to them at
+once. The sky, at first blue and yellow, gradually deepened into purple
+and orange, and finally the most brilliant red and almost black clouds,
+the hills all the time glowing with exquisite tints. After it was
+concluded we turned to the men, and were much delighted to find that
+nothing was smashed so far: the men had been very careful, and took
+eleven hours to perform a journey of ten miles.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+FLY S�TER.
+
+
+_July 24._--The morning was again beautifully fine, and the coffee at
+the s�ter was passing delicious, even for this country, where coffee is
+always good. No doubt the chief reason of this is that it is never
+roasted and ground till just when it is wanted, not only at the hotels,
+but at the smallest s�ters. The grinding of coffee and the frying of
+trout are grateful sounds to the wearied traveller, and if the walk
+across the fjeld has failed to give him an appetite, he has still the
+chance of obtaining one from the fragrant aroma of the roasting berry.
+
+This s�ter is in a most beautiful situation, perched on a little flat
+bit of ground on the mountain side, and looking down on a
+wide-stretching sea of grey undulating hills, with lakes lying among
+them dotted about near and far, and all the lower ground covered with
+the everlasting pine forest. To the south can be seen the river Hin�gle,
+which runs out of the Heimdal Lakes, threading its way with gleams of
+white through the dark green and grey of the forest and fjeld. To the
+north far below in the valley is Aakre Vand, a�beautiful irregularly
+shaped lake dotted with fir-clad islands; while beyond, high up, there
+can be just distinguished Aakre S�ter, and frowning over it the dark
+mass of Aakre Kampen, a�mountain of considerable height. Aakre Vand is a
+lake that we had intended to fish after Slangen Vand, but as there
+seemed to be no possibility of getting our property from one to the
+other we gave up the notion. According to all accounts it is a good lake
+for fish, and its shores are untainted by the habitations of man.
+
+We started about 9.30, having paid 5s. 6d. for the board and lodging of
+ourselves and our numerous retinue, including the price of a sack-full
+of hay for our beds, as this was the last place at which we expected we
+could get any.
+
+After watching for a short time our valuables jolting, plunging, and
+splashing over the uneven ground, covered with rocks, junipers, and
+occasional logs and brooks, the wear and tear on our heart-strings
+became too severe, and we decided to walk on to Sikkildals S�ter, about
+four miles, and leave the baggage to its fate under the guidance of our
+three charioteers. It took us till eleven o'clock to get within half a
+mile of the s�ter, and there we sat down and watched the track intently
+for two hours: then two hours more--and we began to lose patience; then
+another hour--and we began to lose hope also. Something must have
+happened; either a canoe was smashed, or washed away crossing a stream,
+or one of the sleighs was upset and broken, or they were bogged, or the
+man carrying the bag had fainted, or his pony become unmanageable and
+dashed through a shop window; or, most dreadful thought, the men had got
+at our whisky and become hopelessly drunk.
+
+  [Illustration: Desperate Conflict between Esau and the Mosquito]
+
+Another hour passed, and our small remaining stock of good temper went:
+we were very hungry, and all our food was on the sleighs, and the
+mosquitoes seemed to be even more hungry than we were. Hope deferred,
+with nothing but mosquitoes to distract one's thoughts, maketh the heart
+very sick indeed: and these were most annoyingly large mosquitoes; the
+finest brand that we have yet inspected, and with more strength of
+character than the ordinary kind. We were so much annoyed with the world
+in general, and each other, that we were obliged to separate, and Esau
+retired for a short time to attempt a sketch. He came back very angry,
+because just at the critical moment a mosquito had knocked his hat off,
+and he had had a desperate and perspiring conflict with it under a
+tropical sun; but eventually the brute was vanquished and its head cut
+off, which he said he would have stuffed, to hang up in his ancestral
+halls. He certainly bore on his face the marks of the struggle, so that
+there seemed to be no reason to doubt the story.
+
+  [Plate: ON THE TRACK NEAR SIKKILDALS LAKE.]
+
+Our state of despondency waxed worse and worse; we had not the slightest
+confidence in our head driver; he was undoubtedly the Svatsum village
+fool, for he talked all day, and the other men went into roars of
+laughter at whatever he said, though the Skipper said _he_ couldn't see
+anything funny in most of his remarks; but possibly the Skipper was
+jealous because this man made better Norsk jokes than his own. Besides
+this, the fact that neither of us understood the language, detracted
+from the merits of the jests.
+
+Years rolled away, and at six o'clock something came slowly into sight.
+'Out with the glass!' (the spy-glass). 'Yes, by George! it is the men
+and sleighs at last. Out with the other glass!' and we finish the 'wee
+drappie' that we were saving to the last extremity. They soon arrived at
+Sikkildal S�ter with us, and we found that nothing had gone wrong, but
+the men had been _very_ careful, and so had taken nine hours to make a
+journey of four miles. The track certainly would be a disgrace to a
+Metropolitan Vestry, and they managed well to arrive with everything
+uninjured. We consider the village fool to be a most painstaking and
+praiseworthy idiot.
+
+At Sikkildal S�ter we got some food and called at a small house close to
+it, where a Mr. B., a�Norwegian barrister, was staying for the summer.
+He is the owner of the Sikkildal Lakes, and we wanted permission to camp
+on his land and fish in his lakes. He understood English as well as all
+the upper classes in Norway do; and was very civil, giving us the
+permission most willingly.
+
+We have heard from a good many people that the wealthier Norwegians do
+not like the English, and will not do anything to oblige them; but in
+all our wanderings we have met with nothing but the greatest kindness
+and hospitality from all classes. Several people have gone out of their
+way to voluntarily offer fishing and shooting, and in no instance has
+the slightest incivility been shown. Certainly Norway will compare with
+England very much to advantage in this respect, though of course we do
+not mean to say that similar conduct would be possible in England.
+
+At about seven in the evening we got all our cargo shipped again and
+started up the lower Sikkildals lake--having first paid our charioteers
+3_l._ for the trip from Olstappen, three men, horses and sleighs,
+sixteen miles over the rockiest, brookiest, and juniperiest country in
+this world; and offered them whisky and water all round, including two
+men from the s�ter who came to our assistance when the smallest pony,
+not being accustomed to the deceitfulness and treacherous wiles of this
+life, got up to its neck in a bog close to the lake, and the man with
+the bag followed it. However, they were extricated with no damage done,
+as our provisions were all securely soldered up in tins. Curious to
+relate, our three men did not like whisky, but just sipped for
+'manners,' and only the two old men from the s�ter would drink it; but
+these two old men liked it very much, and drank all they could get--that
+is to say, their own glasses full, and the other fellows' glasses full,
+and just a drop after that, and then just a taste to top up with. Then
+we shook hands all round, and feeling in charity with all men, sailed
+joyously away up the lake.
+
+It was a real Norwegian night, with the warmth and light of the departed
+sun still lingering on the mountain tops, and a midnight twilight
+glowing in the valleys. We had a beautiful full moon to help us on our
+way, so we went right to the upper end of the first lake, and found a
+camping-ground halfway between the two lakes, which are about a hundred
+yards apart. The portage took us some time, but we were full of energy
+from the cool night air, so refreshing after the long hot summer day. We
+dug out a nice level place for the tent, and got everything settled and
+ourselves in bed about midnight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+SIKKILDAL.
+
+
+_Sunday, July 25._--We arose soon after seven; not because it is our
+nature to get up at that time, still less because we think it our duty
+to do so; but because the sun made the tent so intolerably hot that
+there was no pleasure to be derived from staying in bed any longer.
+Naturally after this we were very cross, which the Skipper says all
+really pious people are on Sunday morning; and he abused Esau
+shamefully, because the latter wanted the eggs buttered and the Skipper
+wanted them fried. Esau laid down the axiom that 'no gentleman ever eats
+fried eggs,' in a peculiarly offensive manner, and proceeded further to
+make ill-natured remarks with reference to violet ink; and the Skipper
+retorted with the observation, 'Wish you'd brought that anchovy paste.'
+Esau: 'Why?' Skipper: 'Because it's just the stuff to grease your boots
+with in a place like this; smells strongish, and keeps the mosquitoes at
+a distance.' Altogether we made ourselves as disagreeable as possible to
+each other--just as we do in our happy homes on the Sabbath morn in
+England. Fortunately Sunday only comes once a week.
+
+Breakfast over, the Skipper devoted himself to the occupation of
+greasing his boots and shaving, which he seems to do at the same time,
+so that one brush may be used for both the soap and the grease; while
+Esau did some washing.
+
+We had some trouble in getting good firewood, for Sikkildals Vand is
+more than three thousand feet above sea level, and consequently we were
+above the region of pine forests, and had only the stunted birch and
+juniper from which to obtain our supply. We divide the altitudes rather
+differently from the system adopted by other great explorers. The lowest
+belt is that of pine forests and strawberries, then comes the zone of
+stunted birches, above that only juniper and bitter willow are found;
+and the highest belt of vegetation contains only rocks,
+reindeer-flowers, and moss, and then eternal snow.
+
+Now birch trees do not make good firewood, for when they die they appear
+to get water-logged, and never burn well. The juniper is the most
+invaluable of all trees, for it will burn quite green; but at Sikkildals
+Vand it is very scarce, and so it took us quite a long time to collect
+enough dry wood to last our stay out, but it was done at last. We
+carried one canoe across the spit of land between the two lakes, and in
+it the Skipper went forth to get fish for the larder, while Esau took
+the other canoe down the lower lake to get some milk from Sikkildals
+S�ter.
+
+The scenery here is very fine. The lakes are narrow, and highish
+mountains rise on each side: those on the south side had snow upon them,
+though this would disappear before the end of the summer, as we are not
+yet in the regions of perpetual snow; on the north side there is a very
+remarkable mountain called Sikkildals Horn, with a perfectly
+impracticable front of overhanging rock, very high and rugged. There was
+a constant rumbling and booming proceeding from it, as rocks from time
+to time broke off and came crashing down; but our tent--though seemingly
+under this cliff--was well out of their reach. At the further end of the
+upper lake we could see an apparently impassable mountain ridge. Beyond
+this, about four miles further according to the maps, was Besse S�ter,
+a�farm, or ranch, only one day's journey from our final resting-place.
+How we were to cross that mountain with our canoes and baggage, was a
+matter only to be determined by prophets and other beings of a higher
+order of intelligence than ours. Our friend Mr.�B. thought it was almost
+impossible; the Skipper boldly asserted that it _was_ impossible, and
+requested to be allowed to die here; while Esau, with the sanguine
+joyousness begotten of total ignorance, said of course it could be
+managed. We determined to move to the end of the lake the next day, and
+try the pass on the one following--barring earthquakes.
+
+Esau had a most interesting voyage. His fishing was not very successful
+at first, and he paddled steadily on towards the S�ter, overtaking a
+boat quite full of girls, dressed in the very picturesque native costume
+which the people in these primitive regions still adhere to, especially
+on Sundays. The girls about here are rather pretty than otherwise, and
+these were a particularly good selection, and of course all in their
+cleanest and smartest clothes for Sunday. They _would_ stop to watch him
+fishing, till he got quite shy, and gave up throwing till they rowed�on.
+
+  [Illustration: S�ter Girls in a Boat on Sikkildals Lake]
+
+Soon he came to a brood of pochards under the leadership of the old
+duck, and spent half an hour trying to capture one by rapid paddling, in
+which endeavour he was nearly but not quite successful. There were a
+good many teal and pochards on the lower lake, and plenty of sandpipers
+on the shores of the upper one.
+
+At last he reached the S�ter, and found there all the girls of the boat,
+and at least another boat-load and five or six strangers--quite a crowd:
+possibly they had been having a church service, but probably not, as
+they all seemed in the best of tempers, and were most amiable.
+
+He got the milk, and coming back tried a few casts, and found that the
+fish were rising properly; the result was nineteen good trout in about
+an hour and a half. We had not been catching many fish lately; so after
+his return to camp we concluded that this was the hour and we were the
+men to revel in a fiendish glut of capture. So there was a regular
+stampede in that camp, and after dinner we _all_ went out armed to the
+teeth with rods and fly-books, and clothed in landing nets and Freke
+bags, with our teeth firmly set and a bloodthirsty look in our eyes,
+intending to struggle with the great trout in his native element or
+perish in the attempt.�.�.�.
+
+About ten o'clock that night there might have been seen toiling wearily
+back to camp under a cloudy sky and with a chilly blast a-blowing, two
+forlorn youths, 'sans' fish, 'sans' hope, but still armed to the teeth
+with the weapons of the chase.
+
+However, we had now tried both lakes, and got some knowledge of their
+capabilities. The upper one is, we think, the better of the two, but
+more difficult to catch fish in. The Skipper got some in it to-day, and
+they were larger fish than those of the lower lake, and a different
+sort, more like the silvery trout of the Jotunfjeld, whereas the others
+are the ordinary brown or yellow trout.
+
+This afternoon Mr. B. and his wife with a friend came up in a boat to
+see our camp, at which they seemed much pleased. We took them short
+cruises in the canoes, showed them our various arrangements, and
+endeavoured to be agreeable.
+
+The friend was the manager of the government stud for this district, and
+spoke English fairly. He told us that the government provides a certain
+number of good stallions, which are turned out on the fjeld and run with
+the peasants' mares, and that they take great trouble to provide the
+best that can be got, so as to improve the breed. He considered that
+there are very decidedly good results.
+
+
+_July 26._--A beautiful fishing morning, just beginning to blow up for
+rain. The Skipper fished his way down to the S�ter for more provisions,
+and had first-rate sport, catching twenty-two beautiful fish, mostly
+over a pound. He had such an exciting time of it that lunch was
+forgotten till three o'clock, a�fact which spoke volumes for the
+excellence of the sport, for we generally acquire a very keen appetite
+every three or four hours so long as the sun is performing his daily
+duty (of standing still while we circulate feebly round ourselves). He
+came back to the tent, presenting rather a distended appearance, having
+stuffed most of his pockets full of potatoes, and a packet of salt in
+his hat; and while with his right hand he folded to his bosom a bottle
+of cream, and another of milk, in his left he grasped a rod, a�landing
+net and paddle, and the rest of him was hung with fish. The Skipper
+objects to making two journeys where only one is necessary.
+
+Esau thinks that 'flesh-meat' is a necessary of life, so he took his gun
+up the upper lake, and returned with the noble spoil of five sandpipers
+which he had shot out of the canoe by creeping along the edge of the
+lake, a�most entertaining pastime.
+
+There is an old ruined fisherman's hut at our end of the lake, and this
+had apparently been taken as a habitation by a family of stoats, which
+Esau espied at their gambols on his return. Cartridges are precious
+here, but the instinct of destruction of a stoat was too much for him,
+and having chirped till two of them stood close together and a third
+just behind, he fired into the crowd and mortally injured the lot. Poor
+little things! It is rather a shame to kill them, for there is so little
+game that they cannot do much harm, probably feeding chiefly on mice and
+lemmings, which are very numerous; and they always look uncommonly
+pretty playing about the rocks. No more graceful animal exists than a
+stoat.
+
+After dinner had been cooked and despatched we went forth to fish again,
+and had some good sport; but presently lowering clouds settled down over
+the surface of the deep, mosquitoes gathered round us in swarms, and a
+few spots of rain drove us home to the snug retreat of the tent, where
+hidden away under the warmth of our bedding we smoked in thoughtful
+silence, and gloated over the day's doings and our larder stocked with
+fishes.
+
+
+_July 27._--The day commenced with showers, and as there are no
+inhabitants here to whom we can give the surplus fish, we did not like
+to catch any more--for it is against our principles to waste food
+wilfully, woeful want being too near and probable a state to be trifled
+with--consequently we determined to move on, but first to bake some
+bread.
+
+This, in a temporary camp, is done by putting the kneaded dough into a
+tin pot made on purpose without solder; this pot is then placed in a
+hole in the ground in which we have previously kept a good fire for
+about half an hour; before putting the pot in, all the embers and ashes
+are cleared out, and then raked back on to the top of the tin and all
+round it, and a small fire is kept going on the top. If well managed
+this bakes excellent bread in about twenty minutes, but of course it
+requires considerable experience and care to turn out really
+satisfactory bread. When we get to our permanent camp we shall make a
+proper oven.
+
+To-day, when we had baked successfully, packed up our things, and were
+taking advantage of a break between the showers to start, we were hailed
+from the bank, and saw there old Peter Tronhuus, the tenant of Besse
+S�ter (whither we are going) and father of Jens Tronhuus, our former
+hunter, who is now getting what we require in the shape of food, ponies,
+and men, and whom we expect to meet at Besse S�ter. Peter had a great
+deal to tell us about all our affairs, which seem to be prospering under
+Jens' auspices. He talks English very badly, so the interview lasted
+some time, and then we pushed off and paddled straight away to the
+extreme end of the lake, where we found an inferior place to pitch the
+tent, very damp and unwholesome in appearance, sadly in need of sanitary
+inspection, but no doubt good enough for one night. We fished with fly
+and minnow all the way, but took nothing, there being a good deal of
+thunder round about; but Esau shot some more sandpipers.
+
+Our tent is pitched at the commencement of an extremely vague track,
+which we believe to go over our mountain pass to Sj�dals Vand
+(pronounced Shoodals), and to-morrow we hope to follow its wanderings,
+if two men and horses--with whom we have made an arrangement to
+transport us--turn up. These two men and horses are the sole inhabitants
+of this very thinly populated district, so that we are at their mercy,
+and if they do not come we must inevitably die of starvation after we
+have eaten all our provisions and candles.
+
+Late in the evening Herr B---- and a scientific friend who had just come
+to stay with him, came down the mountain to our tent. They had been for
+a short walking tour to Lake Gjendin--our future goal--where it seems
+that a tourist's hut of a superior sort has lately been built, and at
+this hut several kinds of food are kept, such as tinned meats and beer.
+B---- and his friend have therefore been there shopping. The news of
+this hut is rather unpleasant to us, for Gjendin was chosen chiefly for
+its wildness and remoteness from civilisation, and now we are haunted
+with the idea that there may be tourists, and consequently no fish or
+reindeer. On the other hand, it has been erected so short a time that it
+can hardly have affected the country round about yet, and it will
+certainly be convenient for us from a commissariat point of view.
+
+We were just beginning supper when they arrived, but they would not
+stop, for which we were secretly glad, as there was only enough soup for
+two; so we had a whisky 'skaal' (health-drinking) instead, and they went
+on their way full of beans and benevolence, as Mr. Jorrocks hath�it.
+
+We 'whisky' every one who turns up at camp, and as a rule they like it.
+We are not much of drunkards ourselves, so we can afford to give it to
+other people.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+BESSE S�TER.
+
+
+_July 28._--Our two men arrived while we were at breakfast this morning,
+and brought two sleighs in the boat with them; these they deposited on
+the shore, and then one of them departed into some secret haunt of his
+own in search of a horse. The last we saw of him was a wee dot
+struggling up over the mountain crest; and we began to feel what a
+hopeless sort of task was before�us.
+
+When we had finished our breakfast there were certain remnants of food,
+and these we offered to the other man, because he seemed to want
+something to do. We left him in the tent with a frying-pan containing
+two trout fried in butter, and a tin pot nearly full of soup. Some time
+afterwards we looked in, and saw him eating greedily off his
+knife-blade, and after a further interval we noticed that he had
+finished; then we examined the culinary utensils out of which he had
+been feeding, and found he had left the trout untouched, but the butter
+they were fried in he had utterly consumed off the blade of his knife,
+and also all the soup through the same medium. But there was not more
+than a gallon and a half of the latter, so we did not grudge�it.
+
+  [Illustration: Old Siva carrying a Canoe up the Sikkildals Pass]
+
+Apparently he was like a giant refreshed after his meal, and seizing one
+canoe he carried it up to the top of the mountain, and then came back
+for the other and did the same with it; after this he returned again and
+borrowed our axe, saying he wanted to make the path better for the
+sleigh. He disappeared among the stunted birches, and we heard him
+chopping and slowly getting further up the track for about an hour. We
+naturally supposed that he was clearing away trees that obstructed the
+path, but when we came to traverse that path ourselves, soon afterwards,
+we discovered that he had only been filling up holes in the road by
+felling trees across it. Now a road that can be improved by this process
+is in a very bad state and this one was decidedly improved.
+
+Just before we started an English tourist came down the mountain and
+arranged with Siva (one of our men) to go down the lake in his boat.
+He was the first of our fellow-countrymen whom we have seen since
+Lillehammer, and proved to be the only one we met all through our trip
+in the mountains.
+
+After some time we perceived three dots wending their way down the path
+again, and presently they arrived, proving to be our other man and two
+extremely shaggy ponies; and after the complicated Norwegian harness had
+been put on we began the ascent. The path was as bad as bad could be for
+a short distance, but when the level was reached it became much better
+than we had had hitherto; it was only the first climb up from the lake
+that presented any difficulty. The canoes could only have been
+transported as they were, on a man's back.
+
+It continued showery, but we had a very pleasant walk, and launched our
+canoes on Sj�dals Vand at about three o'clock. A�short paddle across the
+lake, not more than three quarters of a mile, and we were at Besse
+S�ter.
+
+Sj�dals Vand is a long straggling lake, very much exposed to the wind,
+and not in any way beautiful except for its wildness, as its shores are
+almost treeless and rather flat. Its most remarkable characteristic is
+the colour of its water, which is a light greenish blue, like a
+starling's egg, and stands out in striking contrast against the yellow
+shore and dark mountain heights which surround�it.
+
+Besse S�ter is only three miles from Gjendin Vand--the haven where we
+would be; and the snow-capped mountains, which have been gradually
+getting nearer all the way from Olstappen, are now magnificently
+towering above us on three sides.
+
+The S�ter is a hut, built as they all are, entirely of wood, and only
+inhabited during the summer months. The hut in which we are living is
+not strictly speaking a s�ter at all, but has been built for the
+convenience of travellers, and the Tronhuus family are entrusted with
+the duty of taking care of those who come hither while wandering about
+this, the wildest and grandest part of Norway. The real s�ter is a
+larger building about a quarter of a mile from this hut, and higher up
+the mountain. And further away still there is yet another building, or
+collection of buildings, also called Besse S�ter.
+
+Our hut has three rooms, two of which--a bedroom and eating-room--are
+occupied at present solely by us: in the other room dwell two girls,
+apparently guests of the Tronhuus. Peter Tronhuus himself and his
+numerous family live in a one-roomed hut just opposite this. At present
+the family appears to consist of two men, five women, and two children,
+relationship to each other unknown.
+
+Peter and his son Jens--who was with us on a former expedition--are both
+away at present; the latter engaged in procuring various articles for
+us, such as potatoes, men, ponies, and dogs, about which we wrote to him
+from England; and he is expected back to-morrow.
+
+In spite of the crowd of people living here, everything is beautifully
+clean and tidy, and our eating-room looks very nice, with its floor
+always covered with fresh juniper sprays, and a cheerful fire burning in
+that most charming of fireplaces, the primitive Norwegian corner-hearth,
+which is being rapidly superseded everywhere by horrid tall, black, iron
+stoves, that look like coffins set up on end, and smell like flat-irons
+and rosin when they are lighted.
+
+We shall have to make this place our home until Jens turns up; and we
+are not at all sorry to do so, for they take the greatest trouble to
+make us comfortable, and the trout, fladbrod, and coffee are simply
+perfection. Besides, we are only a short day's journey from Memurudalen,
+where we intend to camp, and there is nothing to be gained by getting
+there before August 1, the opening day of the reindeer season.
+
+After supper we sallied out, the Skipper with rod, Esau with gun, to see
+what we could catch. Esau landed on the marsh at the head of the lake,
+to try and circumvent some duck he had descried; in this he failed, but
+shot a greenshank, of which there were several flying about.
+
+The Skipper fished the river without success. Sj�dals Vand is a fine
+lake, but not much good for fishing, because of the great amount of
+netting that is carried on in the summer by the dwellers in the S�ter;
+nevertheless there are good fish in it, as we have seen many of two and
+three pounds weight, that they have caught in the nets.
+
+  [Illustration: Greenshank]
+
+
+_July 29._--A friend of ours began the opening chapter of his virgin
+novel with the words 'It was a thoroughly cuss�d morning towards the
+latter end of July.' The same applied exactly to this morning: but the
+arrival of Jens encouraged us; and Esau walked outside to look at the
+sky; where, thrusting his hands in his pockets and lodging an eye-glass
+in his eye, he focussed the heavens generally, with a cruel, inquisitive
+stare; and shaking his head knowingly, indulged in a prophecy concerning
+the weather--'that the wind now being in the west, there would be
+continuous sunshine for three weeks at least.' Then he walked in again,
+and we all shivered over the fire.
+
+Jens arrived at breakfast-time, and after greetings had been exchanged,
+reported all his achievements on our behalf. He had secured for us a
+stalker, one �la, a�hewer of wood and drawer of water, by name Ivar (his
+last office seems likely to be a sinecure, but we can work him double at
+the first-mentioned employment), a�horse, and a sack of potatoes; all of
+which will arrive at Memurudalen in time for August 1. We hoped for a
+dog for Ryper, but he had not been able to get one.
+
+  [Illustration: Ring Dotterel]
+
+Esau is always bemoaning the law which prohibits him bringing dogs from
+England; it is suspected that he has a large collection of useless
+animals there, that he wishes to import into Norway and sell to the
+guileless and unreflecting native. Unassisted by any of the canine
+tribe, however, we have now accumulated what we call 'a�good larder of
+bird-meat;' for certain wild fowl were observed to-day to secrete
+themselves in the marsh at the head of the lake, whither we followed
+them with all our dread artillery, and we now have a lot of teal,
+greenshanks, sandpipers, and a ring dotterel stowed away and engaged in
+preparing themselves by decomposition for our consumption. Some of these
+birds are almost unknown to the table of the ordinary Briton; but if he
+will consider that our daily food depends entirely on what we shoot or
+catch, we hope, as the writers of books say, 'the kind reader will
+excuse' the sandpipers and dotterel.
+
+We were wet through on the marsh, and not at all sorry to return to a
+comfortable fire in a warm room, instead of the streaming sides of a
+cold and cheerless tent. Shooting as we did above our knees in water,
+the rain did not make any appreciable difference in our great wetness.
+After the point of saturation is past, we have discovered that the human
+frame is as impervious to moisture (external) as a macintosh.
+
+This summer so far has been remarkably wet and cold for Norway, but we
+have now the inexpressible consolation of knowing that they are in worse
+case at home; for we have received our first batch of letters and papers
+from England, which have been a fortnight _en route_.
+
+
+_July 30._--Prophets are without honour in these parts; they are also
+without truth, honesty, or any good quality or proper feeling. This day
+is worse than usual, and the good people here have been going about with
+blanched cheeks, whispering with bated breath of a great flood which
+occurred in the time of one Noah. We spent all the morning trying to
+teach the cows, goats, and poultry to walk two and two in case of any
+emergency arising, and the Skipper--who was engaged in building what he
+called a Nark--was repeatedly coming into the S�ter to ask how many
+yards there were in a cubit. However, at lunch-time the land was still
+visible, so we sallied forth into the marsh again, and secured some more
+teal; and then Esau went off in his canoe after some scaup ducks on the
+lake; and brought home two, after following them--according to his
+after-dinner account of the struggle--for about six hours, while they
+swam, and flew, and dived; and he paddled, and swore, and shot. They
+appear to have roamed over the whole extent of this vast lake, seeking
+safety from his unerring barrels. And he now points to a little hill,
+far below the distant horizon, beneath which he affirms that he brought
+the last victim to bay and slew him. He was absent on the expedition an
+hour and a quarter; a�canoe will go about five miles an hour; and the
+lake is seven miles long. But we did not come out here to do arithmetic.
+
+  [Illustration: Scaup]
+
+We settled not to go to Gjendin ourselves to-day, as the weather was so
+very unfavourable, but we packed and despatched some of our luggage this
+evening, and purpose following it to-morrow.
+
+Before doing this we had a long interview with Jens Tronhuus, with the
+main object of settling all accounts. Now a long interview between three
+men who cannot speak two words of each other's languages is a somewhat
+intricate business, and would be decidedly amusing to beholders. How we
+got through it is beyond the wit of man, but nevertheless the fact
+remains that everything is beautifully arranged; we thoroughly
+understand each other; both sides are satisfied; and we concluded
+everything without the aid of that potent mediator, Whisky, the Great
+and Good.
+
+Besse S�ter grows upon one: the people are all so simple and kind, and
+cook our food so well, that we shall be quite sorry to leave, even
+though trout and reindeer are in prospect.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+GJENDIN.
+
+
+_July 31._--The morning appeared rather fine, so we packed the rest of
+our baggage, and climbed the track which leads over the shoulder of the
+mountain between Sj�dals Vand and Gjendin (pronounced 'yendin'). It is
+rather steep, but nothing approaching the villany of the tracks near
+Sikkildals S�ter, so the transit did not take long, and we got to
+Gjendesheim about twelve o'clock.
+
+Gjendesheim is a very good two-storied wooden building, with a large
+dining-room, and about eight tiny cupboards of bedrooms; it has been
+erected just where the Sjoa River runs out at the eastern extremity of
+the lake, for the benefit of travellers, who can get food and lodging of
+a sort there, and generally boats to take them up the lake. Ragnild--the
+woman who presides over it--is very nice, kind, and attentive, and talks
+English well. Her latter qualification hardly gets fair play, as not
+many English people come here; and indeed the Norwegians who visit the
+lake are not very numerous. From the book we can only see two English
+names before us this year; and yet Gjendin is perhaps the most
+beautiful, certainly the wildest and grandest lake in Norway, and is
+well worth a visit from any tourist who has time at his disposal.
+
+  [Illustration: Our first View of Gjendin Lake]
+
+It is eleven miles long; very deep; very blue, and on all sides rising
+sheer out of the water for from 1,000 to 4,000 feet are vast black
+mountains with snow-clad summits; for it lies in the very heart of the
+highest mountains in Norway. It may not unfairly be likened to an
+unfrequented and awfully desolate Lake of Lucerne.
+
+At 3,200 feet altitude it is of course above the fir trees, and only in
+a few sunny nooks along its sides can even stunted birches, juniper, and
+willow earn a precarious living. It is at these places alone that there
+is any exit from the lake; for along the greater part of its length
+there is no level place large enough to pitch a tent; no vegetation
+except berries and moss; and no possibility of scaling the frowning
+cliffs by which it is surrounded. But there is a great fascination in
+such a scene; and although its first appearance is almost repellent,
+every moment of gazing seems to increase its beauty and awe-inspiring
+grandeur.
+
+At lunch here a great event happened; we had Salon �l (bottled beer),
+and immediately bought the whole remaining stock, consisting of six
+bottles. These we degraded by packing with the inferior baggage in the
+canoes, and commenced the final stage of our journey, or
+voyage--whichever is the right term.
+
+About two miles from Gjendesheim, on the south shore, we came to a
+waterfall which runs out of a small lake lying a short distance away up
+in the valley. At the mouth of this fall was a small neat hut in which a
+Christiania professor had just taken up his abode for a few days'
+stalking; we stopped a few minutes to talk to him, and then paddled on,
+trying a few casts now and then until we came to Memurudalen--our
+intended camp.
+
+It is about halfway up the lake on the north shore, and is a very pretty
+little valley, profusely supplied with edible berries, surrounded by
+thick birch covert, and with more grass than we ever expected to find at
+this altitude; but it is by far the most favourably situated bit of the
+Gjendin shores, as it is sheltered from the cold winds and gets the sun
+all day.
+
+We found a remarkably nice level bit of grass, screened by a rocky bank,
+and with what the Skipper called 'a�brattling brooklet' in front, about
+two hundred yards from the lake. There we pitched the tent and made
+everything comfortable, but of course we shall not decide whether to
+stay here or not until we have tested its capabilities as reindeer
+ground.
+
+Beyond the purling streamlet, and about thirty yards from our front
+door, the Memurua River goes tearing down, the colour of dirty soap-suds
+from the mud which is ground into it by the mighty Memuru Glacier,
+whence it springs. This glacier is about three miles from us up the
+valley, but not in sight from our tent; in fact, the hills are so steep
+that we are quite shut in, and can see very little except the
+snow-fjelds and peaks just opposite to us across the lake. These peaks
+spring from the highest plateau in Norway, which has an altitude of
+about 6,000 feet, and both the plateau and peaks are almost inaccessible
+to the hunter, as it is a day's work to climb them, and any one doing so
+would probably have to pass the night on the top. This is annoying, for
+it is a capital place for deer.
+
+An ancient hunter, some years ago, spent a long time in conveying with
+incredible exertions to the top of the central peak, materials out of
+which he constructed a windmill; then he descended and never went near
+the place again, and his windmill scared all the deer away from that
+table-land, so that they frequented places where a man could get to
+them; and the cunning hunter was rewarded by many 'stor bocks' (big
+bucks). But now the windmill has been destroyed by time and weather, and
+we fear that the deer again roam there unmolested and unscared.
+
+_Sunday, August 1._--It is our custom to rise on this day singing,
+'Come, rouse ye, then, my merry, merry men, for it is our opening day,'
+but on this occasion it would not have been appropriate. We were not at
+all merry, because it was Sunday, and raining; we were frozen in the
+night, our men and potatoes have not come, and altogether we could see
+nothing to be merry about, especially as the opening day having fallen
+on a Sunday, we did not feel justified in going out to pursue.
+
+So we devoted ourselves to the pleasures of the table. Last night we had
+dotterel and sandpipers for dinner, this morning greenshanks, which are
+very good birds indeed. There was also a large brew of a meritorious
+composition known as Skoggaggany soup; the name is a little difficult to
+pronounce, but the soup does not taste anything like it; it is merely
+the Norwegian for a scaup duck. In England people have been known to
+call scaups unfit for food, but here, under the perfectly awful
+appetites that we have developed, the Skoggaggany soup has very little
+chance.
+
+After trying unsuccessfully to catch fish, we walked up the valley after
+lunch to look for a hut which is marked on the Ordnance map, and to see
+if there were any better camping-ground than the place we chose
+yesterday. We saw some beautiful reindeer ground, but could not find the
+hut or a camp.
+
+  [Illustration: Two of our Retainers: Ivar and his Pony]
+
+On our return we perceived two men loafing about the tent, who we
+naturally concluded were thieves and murderers, and the Skipper hurried
+on to do battle with them to the death for the possession of our
+greatest treasure, the Salon �l. But on his arrival the robbers did not
+fly, but stood and stared with their hands in their pockets; so he
+lifted his hat and said, '�la?' (for of course he might have been a Dook
+in disguise); and one of them replied, 'Ja;' and cordiality being thus
+established, produced the sack of potatoes and the cook, like a
+conjuring trick, from somewhere behind him, out of his hat or coat
+tails.
+
+Then we went into all kinds of details with him about his and Ivar's
+wages, which he did not understand, and he replied at great length in
+Norsk, which we did not understand, and so the interview concluded to
+the gratification of all concerned. �la is a big good-looking man,
+rather too much of a gentleman, we fear: but Ivar is without doubt a
+perfect ass, and will never be able to do anything in the way of
+cookery, except perhaps boil a potato, and even in that enterprise we
+consider it would be six to four on the potato.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE CAMP.
+
+
+_August 2._--The Skipper won the toss (he always does, chiefly because
+the device on Norwegian coins is 'sorter indifferent like,' and when
+Esau has called heads or tails, he looks at it carefully, and gravely
+declares it to be the opposite), and was away eight hours wandering
+about the mountains without seeing a living creature except two
+buzzards, and hardly any 'spoor.' He returned to camp very tired and
+rather cross, to find a delicious meal nearly ready cooked by Esau, for
+the man whom we ironically call the cook has gone to fetch his horse,
+for which we are to pay 1s. 2d. a day as long as we have it. The cook's
+wages are to be 2s. 4d. a day, and those of the stalker 3s. 6d. We
+consider the latter cheap at that rate. He is a very tall man; very big,
+very heavy, and very bearded, and we hire the whole of him for the
+trifling sum above stated.
+
+Besides cooking the dinner, Esau had been employed in rigging up the
+waggon-sheet as a continuation of the sleeping tent by planting an
+upright pole securely in the ground in front of the door, and connecting
+its top with the old tent by a birch tree ridge pole: it thus makes a
+very convenient place for all our large stores, and gives us much more
+room in the tent. We had expected the men to sleep in it, but they
+prefer living in a wretched little stone dog-kennel, which looks as if
+fleas would swarm in it, and has been built by drovers, or some other
+dirty people, for their lodging when they chance to come here: it is
+about 200 yards from our tent, and, as the men prefer it, it is very
+convenient for�us.
+
+The ground that the Skipper tried to-day seemed a first-rate reindeer
+fjeld; this means an uneven tract of mountain country, too high for
+vegetation, except occasional reindeer flowers and patches of gentian,
+but not high enough to be entirely covered with perpetual snow: this
+fjeld--where it is not snow--is made of rocks large and small, from the
+size of a haystack to that of road metal, some of them firm, but mostly
+loose, jagged, and sharp; the winter snow and frost leave them in this
+condition by continually splitting and re-splitting them: they are dark
+grey in colour, and at a distance look almost black.
+
+What the reindeer can find attractive in such a place, possibly some one
+can tell; we cannot. There is apparently nothing for any beasts of the
+field to eat up there; but if you do happen to find deer before they see
+you, they are certain to be feeding, and Esau thinks they are eating the
+rocks; but the Skipper says it cannot be so, and inclines more to the
+theory that they feed on their 'young,' like tame rabbits, or possibly
+on their own blood, like the pelican of the wilderness. As for the
+reindeer flower, which is supposed to be their staff of life, it
+averages about half a stalk to the square acre, but possibly it is
+possessed of many highly nutritious qualities, and a little of it goes a
+long way. Anyhow, they thrive on their food, whatever it may be; they
+are always very fat, and uncommonly good to eat when you chance to slay
+one.
+
+After dinner we tried all this portion of the lake for fish without
+success, and coming back received the awful intelligence from �la that
+there are no fish in any parts of Gjendin except the extreme ends, and
+the waterfall where Professor N---- is living. This is a dreadful blow
+to us, for we always count upon fishing as our main employment, and fish
+as our staple food; and if we cannot get any here we shall have to
+leave. At present we have some which we brought with us from Sj�dals,
+but when they are exhausted there will be a mutiny in this camp unless
+sport of some kind presents itself.
+
+
+_August 3._--A curious accident happened to-day; there was no rain. We
+have in vain tried to account for this phenomenon, and can only fall
+back on the somewhat unsatisfactory theory that it is all used up. Esau
+went after deer on the Rus Vand side, and came back very tired to dinner
+without having seen any, but reported fresh tracks; he was full of the
+glorious view that the fine day had given him. He had been close above
+the Memuru Glacier, which is a very large one, and stretching beyond it
+as far as the eye can reach is a sea of snow mountains, most of them
+peak-shaped, but some domes or irregular precipices with immense
+glaciers lying between them, and here and there the greenish-blue waters
+of a lake distantly gleaming in the sunlight.
+
+It is curious to note how the north and east sides of every peak are
+torn and ragged, with huge masses of rock riven from them by the action
+of the weather, while on the south and west they are comparatively
+regular.
+
+The Skipper spent the day in camp, completing the erection of the
+outside tent. Our abode is now sumptuous in the extreme, as the new wing
+holds all the lumber which formerly blocked up our bedroom. There was
+some discussion as to whether we should call it the 'Criterion Annexe,'
+until we remembered that there are always policemen about that
+celebrated building, and this decided us not to do�so.
+
+
+_August 4._--The Skipper went on to Bes H� stalking. This is a high
+mountain 7,400 feet above sea level. It is close to us, between Gjendin
+and Rus Vand, and is one of the dome-shaped species.
+
+The Norwegians call their mountains either 'Tind,' which means a cone,
+or 'H�,' a�round top; 'Piggen,' a�peak rather more jagged than a Tind;
+'Horn,' apparently one steep side and one more gradual; and 'Kampen,'
+apparently a rough hill with nothing striking about its shape. Most of
+the mountains round here are Tinden, the finest being Memurutind,
+Skagastolstind, and Glitretind, the last over 8,000 feet, only surpassed
+in height by Galdopiggen, which, though in sight of us, is beyond our
+reach.
+
+  [Illustration: The Skipper returns to Camp disgusted with life]
+
+From Bes H� the Skipper got a good view between the storms of Gjendin
+lying encircled by its enormous steep black banks of snow-capped
+mountains, the whole of its eleven miles of length being visible at
+once. Its colour is a creamy greenish blue, caused by the snow-water
+which comes straight into the lake by scores of torrents, which collect
+it from the various glaciers. The Skipper, who is always bubbling over
+with poetic similes, said it looked like a cupful of very blue milk in a
+crease of brown paper; but, beautiful as this idea is, who can take any
+pleasure in scenery without a little, ever so little, sport to flavour
+it withal? Certainly not the Skipper; so he came back from his long
+tramp disgusted with life, and longing to find that Esau had played the
+fool in his absence, so that he might be able to pick a quarrel with
+him. Unfortunately Esau was provokingly amiable, and had been performing
+acts of virtue, such as making soup, improving the tent, and swearing at
+the cook the whole day, so that the seething volcano of the Skipper's
+temper had to content itself without an eruption. We did manage to get
+up an approach to a row about the Memuru Glacier, which the Skipper had
+visited to-day: he described its beauty and the extraordinary blue of
+the ice, where the large crevasses near its lower end gave glimpses of
+its real formation--for of course it is covered thickly with snow except
+just where it begins to break up. Then he went on to say how curious it
+was to think that this huge mass, covering square miles of ground, is
+always moving onwards, and that no more powerful agent exists for
+altering the arrangement of the earth's crust than that cold, placid
+field of ice. Esau said it did _not_ move. He watched it for half an
+hour yesterday and it never stirred, and he even pushed it with his
+stick without the smallest effect.
+
+It is impossible to argue with a man of that kind.
+
+Tyndall and Geikie being disposed of, we had a discussion in the tent
+over the map, with the result that we determined to leave the camp for
+four days in charge of Ivar; and we and �la would go to Gjendesheim, and
+live there, and drink beer, and catch fish until the 8th, when we
+calculated that John ought to arrive; and we hope by that time some
+reindeer will have sought safety from other guns by flying to the
+sheltering embrace of our fjeld.
+
+We always do our baking just before bedtime, when the men have gone to
+their hutch, and in a permanent camp it soon gets reduced to a
+certainty. We prefer milk to water for mixing with the flour, as it
+makes the bread crisper and shorter, and it does not matter how sour the
+milk is. This is most providential, as we have generally plenty of sour
+milk. We send twice a week to Besse S�ter, distant about eight miles,
+and the long journey does not agree with the milk, so that it is
+generally turned before it arrives here.
+
+Another important article of food is soup, of which we have several
+varieties. When made of scaup duck, it is--as already mentioned--called
+Skoggaggany soup; but our present brew is 'gipsy soup,' which is made
+from potatoes, fishes chopped into small lumps, a�square of 'Kopf's
+compressed vegetables'--a most invaluable article--and all the bones
+from the birds that we happen to be using. We never empty the pot, but
+keep adding water and bones as fast as we consume it, and it simmers by
+the fire all day. But when times are very bad, and we have no meat, and
+are living on fish, our soup is then called 'prairie soup,' and is
+composed of every scrap that we can collect--fish-bones; bacon;
+potatoes; milk; dandelion, and sorrel; bread, and biscuits: and whenever
+it develops any unusual flavour, we look suspiciously round to see if
+that boot-lace or candle-end is missing, or if any of the tent-pegs have
+been newly whittled. It is always very good, and we call it 'prairie'
+because of the dandelion, which is a prairie flower.
+
+There is yet one more kind, known as 'Argonaut soup,' the recipe of
+which was introduced from America by the Skipper; but our resources have
+never yet been so low that we could not make something better than this.
+
+_Recipe for Argonaut Soup._
+
+Take a pail of water and wash it clean. Then boil it till it is brown on
+both sides. Pour in one bean. When the bean begins to worry, prepare it
+to simmer. If the soup will not simmer it is too rich, and you must pour
+in more water. Dry the water with a towel before you put it in. The
+drier the water, the sooner it will brown. Serve hot.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+GJENDESHEIM.
+
+
+_August 5._--Such a lovely morning at last that we were quite tempted to
+stay, but nobly stuck to our resolve, heaped everything we possessed
+except rods, guns, and a change of raiment, into the inner tent, and
+covered them with a ground-sheet; then packed the selected weapons into
+the canoes, and sailed from these inhospitable shores.
+
+Not far from camp we saw some fish rising under a cliff, and though it
+was a dead calm, and the sun as bright as sun could be, we stopped to
+try for them.
+
+Esau soon tired of casting, and mentioning that 'if _he_ could not catch
+those fish no one could,' paddled off to make a formal call on the
+Professor, and ask if he had got any deer.
+
+The Skipper persevered, and was rewarded with two fish weighing about
+three pounds, and the most perfect fish for shape and condition that we
+have ever seen. This was an important event for us, for it entirely
+demolished �la's theory of the non-existence of fish here, and gave us
+new hope for the future, especially as the weather has been so bad all
+the time until now, that we should hardly have caught any even if they
+swarmed.
+
+  [Illustration: Throwing for a Rise]
+
+The Skipper is devoted to the sport of 'throwing for a rise,' which he
+thinks the perfection of fishing. It can hardly be pursued with success
+anywhere but in Norway, for only there do fish seem to rise greedily
+after a constant succession of fine, hot, sunny days, with never a drop
+of rain or cat's-paw of wind.
+
+The great charm to him is the extreme delicacy required. You _must_ put
+on your thinnest cast, your smallest fly, and throw your lightest; and
+unless you throw a very long line you have not a chance for the beggar.
+Then, if he comes at you, you can see him through the calm clear water,
+and watch the whole performance. You get a rather better chance where
+two fish are rising close together, as there is some jealousy and
+competition between them, and each of them is likely to rush at your fly
+without sufficient meditation, lest the other one may get it first.
+
+The Skipper has studied fish from a moral point of view, and says that
+they are very much like men: and he invariably turns his knowledge of
+their habits to good account. Throwing for a rise--in a lake like this,
+where the fish run large--on a calm bright day is decidedly his forte;
+his motto in fishing being 'far and fine.' Whereas Esau shines more in a
+rapid stream than elsewhere.
+
+The latter had a great time with the Professor, who he said was a
+capital fellow, and gave him whisky which they drank 'to better sport;'
+and they both agreed that there were no reindeer to be found in the
+district at present, and the Professor said he was going further north
+if matters did not mend speedily.
+
+After the fishing and visiting were concluded, we hoisted sails of
+primitive construction, formed of a rug and a landing net, which, with a
+fair wind, soon brought us to Gjendesheim.
+
+We think this wind is the chief cause of our misfortune. When we were in
+these parts before, the wind was always against us whenever we
+journeyed; and in that year we had first-rate sport, both in shooting
+and fishing. But this time the wind has always been with us, and we pay
+for the luxury by getting no shooting and not much fishing. 'No
+mahtterr--a time will come.'
+
+After food the Skipper with �la went over to Leirungen--a small lake
+about three quarters of a mile distant. �la carried his canoe, and did
+not like the job. It gives us considerable satisfaction to make �la do
+any work, he is so abominably lazy.
+
+It seemed that the tide of luck was already changing, as both he and
+Esau--who was throwing a fly on the river nearer home--brought in a few
+nice fish.
+
+Just before bedtime there arrived at the rest-house three Norwegian
+tourists of the sterner sex, and a young lady the daughter of one of
+them. The father was a barrister, and the other two were the Lord Chief
+Justice of what they imagine to be Common Pleas, and a very thin,
+dried-up student of theology. They all talked English, and the young
+lady seemed anxious to practise the language.
+
+
+_August 6._--After a gay breakfast Esau went his way to fish, while the
+Skipper--ever devoted to the fair sex--offered Miss Louise a cruise in
+his canoe.
+
+The sun shone brightly as they moved over the quiet waters, and the fish
+were too lazy to rise, but lay idly thoughtful at the bottom of the
+lake. The Skipper was very polite to his charming companion, as she sat
+in a state of blissful comfort amongst the rugs which he had placed for
+her in the bows of the boat; and no sound was heard but the gentle plash
+of the paddle in the water, and in the distance the S�ter girl calling
+home the grazing cows.
+
+  [Illustration: The Skipper takes Miss Louise for a Cruise at
+  Gjendesheim]
+
+But presently a cloud gathered over the mountain tops, and thunder was
+heard rolling among the distant hills; a�gentle breeze stirred the
+surface of the water, and every lazy fish woke up to seek his food. The
+Skipper longed to go and fetch his rod. He hinted at this, and at last
+became impatient; but, by Jove! Miss Louise would not go. There she sat
+and prattled on, charming, pleased with herself, and utterly unmindful
+of the rising fish and the fretting Skipper. Time kept passing on, till
+at length her father brought relief by appearing on the shore to call
+her in to dinner; but then the Skipper had to get his food too, and when
+he had bolted the humble but indigestible crust and cheese, and rushed
+out again to seize his rod, he found it too late, as the lake was now
+dark with clouds, and the fish had left off rising.
+
+Soon after lunch it began to rain like a waterfall, and Esau arrived
+with a lot of fish--spoils from the Leirungen Ocean, and the result of
+Spartan indifference to the attractions of woman. There is a shining
+moral in this tale.
+
+He also brought a romance about a rainbow, which had been so close to
+him that the two ends met at his feet. The rain hereabouts is very
+thick.
+
+The evening proved too wet to fish, and this indefatigable young lady
+captured Esau, and after exhausting all the ordinary topics of
+conversation, began to show him every kind of puzzle that the mind of
+man ever conceived, puzzles with coins and puzzles with string; and she
+puzzled him with matches, and paper, and corks, till the poor young man
+became perfectly dazzled, and only longed for bedtime to put an end to
+his misery. Then she asked him riddles, first English and then French.
+The Skipper, apparently deeply interested in a book at the further end
+of the room, overheard Esau's answer to the first French riddle; it was
+'Je le donne en haut.'
+
+Presently, when they went up to bed, the Skipper said, 'I didn't quite
+follow your answer to that first riddle of hers. You said, "Je le donne
+en haut."' 'Oh! ah!' answered Esau. 'That's idiomatic French, and means
+a good deal that you don't understand; I�always use it to gals,
+especially when they're pretty.' The Skipper coughed, and turned into
+his bedroom without saying 'good night.'
+
+We have always been told that the Norwegian aristocracy particularly
+dislike the English sportsman in Norway. We think, therefore, that our
+fair friend cannot have been of very noble lineage. But she was very
+nice and rather pretty.
+
+She left early next morning, and Esau said he was glad she was gone, as
+the Skipper was getting entangled with her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+JOHN.
+
+
+_August 7._--We began another day by catching a beautiful bag of fish,
+and about midday were just starting to shoot our way over to Besse
+S�ter, when a man came in sight stumbling down the mountain track
+towards the rest-house. He was red and sunburnt, with a beard of about
+three days' growth. He was coatless, collarless, and apparently
+exhausted. On his nearer approach we saw he was an Englishman, and
+presently when a few yards from us we recognised--John! Not the smart
+young beau we have always seen him in London; no longer the devotee to
+society and his club, but an almost unrecognizable John, so sunburnt and
+hot and hungry. Formal greetings were exchanged: 'Dr. Livingstone,
+I�presume?' 'Mr. Stanley, I�believe?' and we rushed into each other's
+embrace.
+
+Then we besought him to refresh himself on fladbrod, milk, and coffee;
+which he did, largely. After this he became calm enough to give us a
+brief summary of his adventures since he left England.
+
+He had done the journey from Christiania in very quick time, and had
+left all his luggage twenty miles behind at Hind S�ter, which is the
+nearest place to us to which wheeled vehicles can get. From thence he
+had started at five o'clock this morning. How he found the way is a
+marvel, but by great good fortune he met a man when he was about three
+miles out of the track, who put him right; otherwise he would probably
+never have arrived anywhere.
+
+He has brought additional stores for the camp, as arranged before we
+left England, and we had left a note in Christiania asking him to call
+at the shop in Vaage, and try to get a small stove for the tent, or at
+any rate find out the price of one. Vaage is our nearest village, about
+fifty miles distant.
+
+When John arrived there, seeing the shop as he drove past, he descended
+from his cariole and entered. The shop was full of people buying all the
+necessaries of life; for in these villages there is only one shop, which
+is a general store for everything. John was a little confused at his
+first experience of a Norwegian shop, but at last pulled himself
+together, and seeing a stove standing in the middle of the room,
+intended for heating the place, he walked up to it, and stroking it
+gently with his hand, looked round at the people generally and remarked,
+'Hvor meget' (How much)? Dead silence not unmingled with awe followed
+this observation; for those simple rustics thought there was a maniac
+among them. This perplexed John, and as everybody was staring at him,
+and he began to find himself in a remarkably tight place, he concluded
+to make another remark, so asked in Norsk, 'Have you any whisky?' The
+storekeeper having no licence looked horrified, and said, 'Nei.' So John
+pursued his advantage by inquiring, 'Have you any aquavit?' 'Nei' was
+again the answer, and an ominous whisper of 'landsmand' (the policeman)
+was plainly audible. John thought he had asked enough about stoves to
+quiet his conscience, and guessed it was time to quit that shop. So
+rapidly regaining his cariole, he vanished before any of the crowd had
+made up their minds what to�do.
+
+We kept to our plan of going to Besse S�ter, starting as soon as John
+had finished his lunch, and got several teal and a greenshank on the
+way. On one little bit of water we spied three teal near the bank, and
+having both together made a most skilful stalk, got them all.
+
+Arriving at Besse S�ter we found one of the two rooms occupied by two
+Swedish ladies, who were travelling about by themselves for the sake of
+their health. One of them spoke English well, and told us they had been
+up several of the high mountains round, and intended to wander about all
+the summer.
+
+We three had to be content with the other room, and two beds; odd man
+out for the whole one. Those who only had half a bed reported it rather
+a crowd in the morning.
+
+_Sunday, August 8._--Our object in coming to Besse S�ter was to break
+the journey to a place called Rus Vand, where a Norwegian owns a lake
+and hut: it is distant about two hours' walk from Besse S�ter, and we
+had a letter of introduction to Mr. Thomas, the owner, which we were
+anxious to deliver, so as to obtain leave to fish in the lake, the
+western end of which comes to within walking distance of our camp in
+Memurudalen; and the fishing is remarkably good.
+
+Therefore this morning we started to clamber up the steep mountain side
+that has to be crossed between Besse S�ter and Rus Vand, and skirting
+the shores of Bes Vand--which lies on a small plateau at the summit--we
+soon found ourselves scrambling down over the loose stones, and through
+the willow scrub that covers the uneven slopes approaching the east end
+of the lake.
+
+From our side of the river--when we reached its banks, while a boat was
+crossing to fetch us--we saw several men, and a couple of
+English-looking setters, a�pointer, and a target fixed up about 200
+yards from the huts, so that the place presented a very sporting
+appearance.
+
+Mr. Thomas received us very kindly, and at once gave us permission to
+fish in his lake. Both he and his wife spoke English perfectly, as did
+another lady staying with them, and as most emphatically did _not_
+another sportsman also living there.
+
+These two ladies and two gentlemen were all living in a little
+two-roomed hut, each room being about nine feet square, and the doorway
+about five feet high and two wide; the gentlemen's bedroom being also
+the kitchen. How the ladies managed to turn themselves out in such
+faultless apparel was a mystery, but it was done, for we saw�it.
+
+  [Illustration: The Huts at Rusvasoset]
+
+It is a very plucky thing for ladies to come up here and live for a
+month, even now when there is a wheel-road (of a sort) to within fifteen
+miles, but the same thing was done by English ladies ten years ago, when
+there was no road nearer than forty miles. Are their names not written
+in the chronicles which adorn the walls of the hut, and carved on the
+profile fishes which decorate the floor?
+
+In the other hut--which is little more than a boat--there are living
+Jens Tronhuus, our old stalker; 'Siva,' the man who carried our canoes
+up the mountain at Sikkildal, and another native, also the dogs; besides
+bottles and churns, grindstones, pack-saddles, saws, axes, and all the
+other heterogeneous articles which accumulate in a place of this kind.
+It looked full.
+
+We found the party just sitting down to breakfast after a rather
+unsettled night, as they had been roused about half-past two in the
+morning by some one hammering at the door, and found it was a young
+Norwegian, named, let us say, Coutts, who was making a walking tour, and
+was more or less lost. They succoured him with coffee and other
+refreshments and sent him on his way with Jens to guide him. Coutts's
+intention was to struggle on to Besse S�ter, but we had seen nothing of
+him there.
+
+We stayed some time at the huts, talking and looking at all the
+memorable objects that were there under our _r�gime_ (as we had occupied
+these huts and had the fishing to ourselves two years previously). There
+was Esau's celebrated 'biggest trout whatever was seen,' carved on the
+floor; the Skipper's favourite cast, and the ice safe that we cunningly
+devised and constructed in the lower hut. The Thomas's are in even worse
+case than we, for like us they have seen no deer, and they have so many
+more mouths to feed. However, they have any quantity of fish, for
+Rusvasoset is as good a place as the Sjoa at Gjendesheim, which is
+saying a great deal.
+
+About one we commenced the homeward journey. Two of Jens' sisters had
+come with us, nominally to see their brother, but really--John
+asserted--for the purpose of flirting with _him_. He was extremely
+polite to one of them--though of course he could not speak to her--and
+would insist on carrying her shawl and other impediments; and he
+confided to us afterwards that 'women were generally a good deal taken
+by that sort of mute homage.' She was a dear little girl, and we called
+her the 'S�ter darlen;' which we believe to be the only Norwegian pun we
+ever attempted.[*]
+
+    [Footnote: John said this pun might be elucidated with advantage
+    to the British public, as he did not believe any one could
+    possibly see it. Who cares? Down it goes, and we can assure any
+    one who likes to wrestle with it that it is something very good
+    indeed.]
+
+The walk home to Gjendesheim is a long one, and although it was Sunday
+Esau insisted on making a d�tour over the marsh with his gun, as he said
+he had lost his knife there yesterday and wanted to look for it. He
+arrived late at Gjendesheim with a satisfied air on his face; without
+his trusty steel, but with his pockets thrust full of too trustful teal,
+that had adventured themselves within his reach.
+
+At Gjendesheim we found the young Norwegian who had roused up the
+Thomas's at Rus Vand, and perceived that he was not without some
+peculiarities of character. Although the weather was as wet and cold as
+weather could be, he was attired in a suit of white duck clothes like an
+English mechanic; even his hat was of white duck, and Esau declared
+afterwards that his boots were made of the same material; that he had a
+cigar-case and cigars of it, and ordered white ducks for his dinner. The
+appearance of his head caused us to be very anxious about any little
+articles of value that we had about us, for it looked as if it had been
+shaved all over about two days previously to our making his
+acquaintance. He looked very strong, tough, and active, and no doubt was
+so, for he had just performed a most extraordinary walking feat. He is
+going over all the Jotun Mountains by himself, and yesterday morning he
+started from a place an unknown number of miles away at 6 A.M. He walked
+all day and all night, till it got dark, at which time he was somewhere
+near Glitretind, in a country he had never seen, with only a vague
+notion of where he wanted to get to and a pocket compass to do it with.
+The country about there is perfectly awful to walk over even by day; but
+he kept at it through the dark, following a torrent up till he crossed
+the watershed, and following another torrent down till he got to Rus
+Vand, and staggered into the hut there at 2.30 A.M. almost fainting, for
+he had had nothing to eat all day: true, he might have got fladbrod at
+the s�ters during the day, but he said he did not care for fladbrod:
+certainly, he had plenty of chocolate in his knapsack, but he was tired
+of chocolate. At Rus Vand he got some coffee, as Thomas told us; and
+then he walked over the mountain with Jens to Besse S�ter, intending to
+sleep there: but we were snoring at our ease in all the beds of Besse
+S�ter, and he hated sleeping on floors, so he walked on again to
+Gjendesheim, arriving there at half-past five this morning.
+
+Then he produced his knapsack, which he said weighed twenty-five lbs.:
+it seemed to be chiefly filled with packets of most delicious chocolate,
+some of which he gave�us.
+
+We thought him a first-rate fellow, but certainly a little peculiar.
+He has been all over the world, and is great at natural history, having
+stuffed many birds in foreign countries for the museum at Christiania.
+
+The Skipper had the next room to his, and told us that at bedtime he
+washed himself all over, cleaned his teeth, and brushed his hair: he
+then stayed in bed till eleven o'clock next morning, when he rose and
+went through the whole performance again. Now we did not mind him
+washing, or brushing his teeth; we even respect him for doing it; but
+brushing his hair was a simple insult to common sense, and a wicked
+waste of time; for not a bristle on his head--whether hair, moustache,
+or beard--was more than an eighth of an inch long, and all of it was
+much stiffer than any hair-brush yet made. It was suggested that perhaps
+he was only combing his hair-brush with his head; and with this
+explanation we had to rest content.
+
+We luxuriated on meat to-night, for they have actually caught and killed
+a sheep.
+
+We fish with considerable success now at every odd moment of the day, as
+the canoes are moored to the shore, not six yards from the house; and it
+takes no time to get into them and push out into the deep lake, or hover
+about the brink of the long rapids where the lake begins to be a river.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+BACK TO CAMP.
+
+
+_August 9._--The morning was again very wet, but we are men of great
+decision and firmness; what our friends call 'obstinate' if they are
+civil, and 'pig-headed' when they want to be disagreeable, as friends
+usually�do.
+
+Therefore we started for the camp after lunch: that is to say, the
+Skipper and Esau started, as John remained to await the arrival of his
+baggage, for which Ivar had been despatched. At present his wardrobe is
+not very extensive, and he will perhaps be more comfortably fixed after
+the arrival of his valise. He has one coat, one flannel shirt without
+collar, one pair of trousers, socks, and boots, one pipe, one cap; one
+fishing rod, line, and fly-book; one watch-chain, and a newspaper of
+July�23.
+
+About two miles from Gjendesheim on the north side of the lake there is
+an apparently perpendicular cliff, half a mile long and over 1,000 feet
+high: this is called the Beseggen, and at the top of it lies Bes Vand,
+so close to the edge of the cliff that it seems impossible to believe
+that the lake is 1,000 feet above Gjendin, with nothing but a narrow
+strip of rock to hold it within its bounds, and yet the books say it is
+so, and we always believe anything we find in a book. The cliff looks
+perfectly unscaleable, but we believe it has been descended twice by an
+Englishman who used to live here, and once by a Norwegian youth.
+
+Bes Vand is so high that fish will not live in it; the professional
+liars of these parts say it freezes solid every winter, and kills any
+that have been put into it. It is a little difficult to believe this
+statement, as it is a large and deep lake; but John says that a man who
+will believe a guide-book can believe anything; so we all do our best to
+swallow it (the statement, not the lake; we have hardly enough whisky to
+make the latter palatable).
+
+Gjendin is liable like all mountain lakes to be suddenly visited by
+squalls, so that we generally like to paddle pretty near the side, but
+on this voyage it was not safe to do so; for under the influence of the
+rain, which was coming down as if it had never done so before, stones
+and boulders were rattling and crashing down the sides of the lake, and
+plunging into it, in a most alarming manner; and as far as we could see,
+the steep black rocks were thickly streaked with white lines, denoting
+torrents rushing down in places where ordinarily none were to be seen.
+
+Just as we were passing the Beseggen, a dull boom like that of a distant
+cannon was heard, and looking up we could see far above our heads a huge
+spout of muddy water shoot out from the cliff, carrying with it masses
+of stone and _d�bris_ of all sorts; evidently some bank had given way
+under the increased pressure of this enormous rainfall. We thought for
+one brief moment that it might be Bes Vand let loose on us, for even in
+fine weather it can always be seen leaking through fissures in the rock,
+so narrow is the division between the two lakes; but we did not stop to
+ascertain where it came from.
+
+It soon became necessary to land and empty the canoes, by reason of the
+heavy rain, the bottom boards being completely under water, though we
+had only been afloat for half an hour.
+
+Just before we got to Memurudalen the sun came out; Esau had a chase
+after a black-throated diver that came up from a dive quite close to his
+canoe, and then we both fell to fishing and got several good fish. This
+is just our luck: we had left camp for the last few days on purpose to
+get fish for food; we had caught many and salted them, and brought back
+40 lbs. weight with us in a large tin can, and then, behold! we caught
+fresh fish in a place where we were assured by �la that there were none,
+not even salted ones.
+
+We found the camp looking uncommonly pretty and comfortable, and all our
+things perfectly dry and nice. The sun shone, and blue sky appeared, so
+that hope, contentment, and joy reigned supreme, for we knew that it
+could not rain any more now for at least a month, from the way it
+stopped quite with a jerk as the supply ceased.
+
+John spent his day at Gjendesheim in eating, drinking, and fishing,
+especially the two former amusements. Truly that is a glorious country
+where a man can over-eat himself three times a day, and never have
+indigestion!!
+
+
+_August 10._--Esau stalked with the usual result, 'Ingen dyr, ingen
+fresk sp�r, ingen gammle sp�r,' as the Norsk j�ger would remark; which
+means 'no deer, no fresh tracks, no old tracks;' and he returned to camp
+to find the Skipper had erected a flagstaff on the little mound beside
+our tent, and from this staff now floats proudly 'the flag that braved
+a thousand years &c.,' which we brought with us for this purpose:
+a�smaller one always adorns the ridge of the tent. We do not know
+exactly the use of this flag; we say it is hoisted to annoy the
+Norwegians, but this reason will not bear criticism, for that is the
+last thing we should think of doing, and it certainly never seems to
+have that effect on any one who has yet seen it. But we think that no
+gentleman's residence is complete without a red ensign, therefore on
+high days and holidays that rag will flaunt itself in the breeze; and
+every day will now be a holiday, for the fine weather has begun at last.
+
+The Skipper had made all sorts of improvements in our domestic
+arrangements, and after tea we completed the alterations in the bedroom
+which were necessary before John arrived. This he did in a boat with
+Ivar about nine o'clock, pretty well tired with his row against a head
+wind. He was received with much kindness by the barbarous islanders, but
+it took us until late at night to get everything comfortably and
+conveniently placed under canvas; for John made no slight addition to
+our already ponderous stores, in the shape of two more boxes containing
+tea, coffee, candles, sugar, jam, and at last Esau's long-desired
+anchovy paste.
+
+We placed the three beds side by side in the inner tent, John being in
+the middle for the sake of greater warmth, for the nights are very cold.
+Among the things that we obtained through Jens were two sheepskin rugs,
+invaluable for protection against cold. Till we got them we were more or
+less wretched every night, but since they came our sleep has been
+perfectly luxurious. John has only two ordinary Scotch rugs, and feels
+the cold a good deal, so we, from our impervious sheepskins, give him
+any coats, shirts, or trousers that we do not want.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+TROUT.
+
+
+_August 11._--Last night at sunset we 'could not see a cloud, because no
+cloud was in the sky;' the distant mountains looked as black as coal,
+and the heavens were yellow-ochre colour; whereupon �la committed
+himself to the statement that the fine weather would now be a permanent
+institution. Consequently our life has once more resumed its proper
+phase of perpetual picnic, and we roam about without coats or
+waistcoats, or any other garments that seem superfluous unto us; and to
+John all garments except a landing-net and boots appear to be
+unnecessary incumbrances. Reversing the natural order of things, we put
+on all our available clothes when we go to bed, and peel for the day
+when we get�up.
+
+It is difficult to believe that only two days ago we were shivering with
+cold, wrapped in gloom and india-rubber clothing, and wet through all
+day, when now the horizon is dancing with heat, the lake is perfectly
+calm, with the high snow mountains mirrored in its blue depths, and we
+are delighting in every little bit of shade, having pawned our
+macintoshes and thrown the tickets into the glacier torrent.
+
+  [Illustration: John returns from fishing in Summer Costume]
+
+That same stream has been a source of great annoyance to John during the
+night. He wants to have it turned off, because its roaring kept him
+awake, and he was going first thing after breakfast to see the turncock
+about it; but, of course, it is hopeless. The municipal arrangements
+here are much the same as in London, and that official cannot be found
+when wanted; so he will have to content himself with damming�it.
+
+The hot sun has brought out flies in great profusion; the fish are
+rising freely, and man goeth forth to his labour rejoicing, and cometh
+home with a heavy bag and a light fly-book, for the fish here seem to be
+all good-sized; and as we have to use the finest tackle and smallest
+flies, the odds are rather in favour of the finny prey.
+
+  [Illustration: John and Esau: 'How's that for high?']
+
+We all went fishing, and made a very pretty catch among us, the Skipper
+securing the greatest weight, and Esau the largest fish, weight 3� lbs.
+The Skipper also made some interesting notes on the moral and physical
+characteristics of these Gjendin trout. He said there seemed to be three
+methods of feeding in vogue among them. Some were moving in a large
+circle about two hundred yards in diameter, and rising at very short
+intervals as they went--these never came within ten yards of the shore.
+Then there were some that were travelling along about a yard from the
+shore, and these seemed to be rising even more frequently than the
+others, as there were more flies close to the rocks than out in
+mid-ocean; and there were a few cunning old beggars that had got a
+comfortable hole under a rock which they did not like to leave, and only
+rose at longer intervals, as especially tasty morsels floated�by.
+
+All the fish, to whichever class of risers they might belong, often took
+the moving artificial fly in preference to real dead ones that were
+lying on the surface of the water close by: from which we opine that
+they resemble us to the extent of liking fresh food better than stale;
+for our flies had no attractive tinsel to commend them to the notice of
+an epicurean trout, being the best imitations we can manage of the
+predominant fly, which is a small dark-coloured winged ant, with a
+little reddish orange about the long black body.
+
+These flies have but a brief and disastrous existence. They only flew
+for the first time this morning, most of them had died by noon--for the
+lake was strewn with their corpses--and the survivors were all worried
+and consumed by fish before nightfall. Luckily there are plenty more
+where they came from, and the process can be repeated on new flies
+tomorrow.
+
+It is very interesting to catch a fish off these rocks on a perfectly
+calm day like this; for in the clear water you can see the whole of the
+struggle, from the moment the fish rises till he is lying panting and
+exhausted in the net. How beautiful a big fish looks when he first comes
+ashore! How brightly he shines in the sunlight, and how sleek is his
+portly person!
+
+Even if you cannot see your fish rise and take the fly, you can soon
+tell by his behaviour whereabouts the needle will come if you succeed in
+getting him on to the weighing hook. A�large fish very seldom rises with
+any dash or swagger, but just a smothered ripple; perhaps a glimpse of
+his nose as he sucks in the fly; and he moves as if he were a nobody:
+then when he feels the hook, there is none of that dash and wriggle that
+you find in a small fish, but generally a rush like a rocket towards the
+middle of the lake, making you tremble for the safety of your reel line,
+and after that a stately diving and calm, dignified resistance for five
+or ten minutes till he has to give in. Sometimes, though not so often,
+the rocket business will be repeated more than once, and a fish that
+does this deserves to escape, and often gets his deserts. There is
+something very fine about the proud bearing of a big trout in
+difficulties; for here in the lake he has not the same chance as his
+relations in the running water at Gjendesheim.
+
+The largest fish seemed to be those feeding in a circle, and it was one
+of these that Esau caught, which he said was the father of all fish. He
+lost another much larger--no doubt the grandfather of all fish. He said
+it weighed five pounds. It is an extraordinary piscatorial fact that the
+largest fish always do get away.
+
+In the afternoon Esau commenced excavating the long-promised oven from
+the face of the little hill against which our tent is pitched. It stands
+about a hundred yards from our hall door, and is constructed chiefly of
+large stones and mud--clay not being obtainable--with a flue cut in the
+hill-side: a�single stone acts as the floor of the oven, under which the
+wood furnace is kindled, and a sod of turf, from time to time renewed,
+does duty as a door.
+
+Dinner at seven.
+
+John wishes that the _menu_ should be occasionally inserted for the
+benefit of gastronomic readers:--
+
+  _Vins._       _Potage._       _Legumes._
+  Tea.          Prairie.        Potatoes,
+  Beer.                         Fried and Boiled.
+                _Poisson._
+                Fried Trout.
+
+                _Entr�es._
+                Sardines.
+
+                _Gibier._
+            Teal.  Greenshank.
+
+               _Entremets._
+      Comp�te of Rice and Wimberries.
+             Jam.  Marmalade.
+                  Whisky.
+
+After this Esau finished the oven, and accomplished a bake of bread
+therein, which proved so successful that on returning from fishing at
+about ten at night, we all turned our attention to the production of the
+staff of life, nor desisted from our labours till eleven o'clock, by
+which time there was a goodly show of rolls and loaves spread out, and
+we went to bed feeling that we had spent a glorious day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+REINDEER.
+
+
+_August 12._--We wonder whether our friends in Scotland and Yorkshire
+have such a day as this: if they have, it is rough on the grouse.
+
+There is not a breath the bottle-green wave to curl, and the sun shines
+as if Odin had redeemed his other eye.
+
+The Skipper and �la went forth to pursue, and walked over an enormous
+distance into the previously unknown region of Memurutungen. Up on the
+mountains life on a day of this kind is bliss; there is more air there
+than in the valley, and it is delightful to be far away from the busy
+world--consisting of your two pals and Ivar--below; surrounded by the
+snowy peaks and sky, with not a living thing save perhaps an eagle in
+sight.
+
+  [Illustration: The two 'Meget Stor Bocks' (very big Bucks) on
+  Memurutungen]
+
+In the middle of the day they came on fresh deer tracks, at which of
+course their flagging interest revived; and presently they descried on a
+snow fjeld about a mile away, two deer 'scooting' over the opposite
+mountain side. These they followed, and made a long d�tour to get the
+right side of the breath of wind that occasionally made itself felt up
+there, for the reindeer has probably the most acute scent of all the
+deer tribe. In the midst of this d�tour they suddenly came in sight of
+two other bucks, about 300 yards away, much finer animals than the first
+two; in fact, they had the best heads the Skipper ever saw. But luck was
+against him; they were wrong for the wind, and a puff came just at the
+moment, which carried the unwelcome intelligence to those deer that
+their hated enemy was upon them, and they departed round a corner at a
+rapid trot, and were no more seen. Then �la looked at the Skipper with a
+sorrowful shake of the head, and said, 'Meget store bocks!' (very big
+bucks), and the Skipper replied with a still more portentous shake,
+'Meget, meget.' So they were left with their mouths wide open,
+muttering, 'Meget, meget store bocks.' And after following the tracks
+some time without seeing anything more of the deer, they gave up the
+chase and returned to camp, getting home in a very exhausted state about
+6.30.
+
+During dinner old Peter Tronhuus arrived in camp with a packet of
+letters and papers, and a fore-quarter of venison from Rus Vand. Mr.
+Thomas had been like ourselves reindeer-less until yesterday, when he
+found a large herd, and was lucky enough to get two out of them.
+
+Peter also told us that two friends of Thomas's who had been staying
+with him were walking over the mountain to see our camp, and would then
+go to Gjendesheim with him in the boat in which he had come.
+
+Presently these two men arrived extremely hot, and looking as if they
+would like beer; so we appeased them with one of our few remaining
+bottles, and after showing them all the sights of the camp took them out
+on the lake in the canoes. One of them spoke a little English, the other
+only French and Norwegian. The latter asked the Skipper, in the Gallic
+tongue, 'if we had entrapped many fish?' and 'if we had not fear to
+venture on the lake in such small boats?' and informed him that 'there
+were many savage ducks about this year.' The other one, regardless of
+his own life and safety, and also of Esau's--in whose canoe he was
+sitting--_would_ keep throwing up his arms and exclaiming, 'It gives us
+moch playsure to make a travel in the Canadian cano.' But we think they
+were proud and thankful when the experiment was over, and they were safe
+in Peter's boat. These strangers displayed unwonted courage, for the
+ordinary native has a wholesome dread of our frail craft. The hardy
+Norseman's house of yore was doubtless on the foaming wave, but that was
+before the days of Canadian canoes.
+
+At dinner John informed the company that his bath in the lake yesterday
+was the third of a series the first of which took place in Montenegro,
+the second in Algiers, and now this in Norway. He calls this a humble
+tribute to the geniality of the English summer, and thinks that he may
+be termed 'a�polyglot ablutionist.' Some of the sojourners in this camp
+say it may be so, but it does not speak highly for John's love of water
+when undiluted with whisky.
+
+Subsequently we found that the bath which he swaggered about only
+occurred because he fell off a rock into the lake, and so dabbled about
+afterwards while his clothes were drying, which does not take long in
+this weather. This also accounts for the condition in which he returned
+to camp, 'sans bags, sans shirt, sans everything,'--barring his boots.
+
+Late at night Esau, who was up last, put his head into the tent to
+remark that there was a first-rate comet on view, but he was received
+with such execrations from the other two lazy people in bed that he
+thought it prudent to say no more about it, and not to look at it any
+more himself.
+
+
+_August 13._--We spent the morning making a meat safe. This meat safe
+consists of a hole in the ground, neatly flagged with flat stones, and
+walled with the same, and furnished at the top with a wooden frame, into
+which fits a lid with hooks underneath it for birds. The whole is
+covered with a piece of muslin to keep off the villanous bluebottles.
+The muslin was brought to make into mosquito nets inside the tent, but
+in this happy spot the 'skeeter' is unknown, the sand-fly very rare, and
+the great green-eyed M�ge--which bites a lump out of your leg and then
+flies to the nearest tree to eat it--is conspicuous by its absence.
+
+We have always been very careful not to prepare in any way for game
+before it is killed, but this usually successful plan has been a failure
+this year, so now we are desperate, and have made a safe which will hold
+a reindeer, and probably with a little more bad luck shall even go out
+stalking with ropes in our pockets ready to tie up the animal when
+killed. We caught �la a week ago carving a piece of stick into the
+double-ended thing that butchers put between the legs of sheep to keep
+them apart (name unknown), but we promptly seized it, and made it into
+the handle of a frying-pan. But who can escape his destiny? We hoped
+that we had averted misfortune, but the deed was done, and no doubt it
+was owing to this that the Skipper failed to get a shot at the 'store
+bocks.'
+
+When John and Esau had finished the safe and succeeded in catching
+enough nice fish for the requirements of the camp, they were seized with
+the desire of making a good bath. We have no first-rate bathing-place
+near the camp, as the glacier-river has made the lake too shallow round
+its mouth, and it is some distance to where the shore becomes bold and
+rocky.
+
+They selected a nice little stream on the hill just above the tent, and
+toiled like navvies there for about four hours under a blazing sun,
+excavating and paving with flat stones, making a most palatial bath in
+the bed of the stream; when behold! just as it was completed, to use the
+graphic language of one of the constructors, 'May I be dodderned, and
+doggoned, and dingblamed by Pike, if the blooming stream didn't cease to
+run!' It did just supply about a pint of water before it quite stopped,
+into which Esau's watch flew as he flung on his coat with some slight,
+and perhaps excusable, show of temper. A�pint of water is not enough for
+a man to bathe in, but it is quite sufficient to saturate a watch,
+especially if a stone obligingly smashes the glass and makes a hole in
+its face obliterating the vii. viii. and ix. at the time of its
+immersion. However, he dug the mud out of the works, filled them with
+Rangoon oil, and is under the impression that that watch can be made to
+go again, and that a new face and glass and silver case will make it
+look all right. He is of a sanguine disposition.
+
+They returned to camp saying that it would be all right as soon as the
+first rain came, but they reckoned without their host; the stream came
+from a little snowdrift on the mountain, and next time that Esau went up
+there he found that the heat of the last few days had melted it all
+away; hence its sudden stop. It never ran again. Perchance some future
+traveller will find the bath ages hence, and rejoice in its luxurious
+arrangements. In anticipation of this John wrote the following beautiful
+lines on the most prominent rock:--
+
+  'Stranger, pause and shed a tear:
+  There used to be a streamlet here;
+  But seeing Esau strip to lave
+  His sordid body 'neath its wave,
+  All filled with shame and blushing red,
+  The streamlet left its gravel bed;
+  Its only wish from him to flee,
+  It ran away and went to sea.'
+
+The Skipper returned rather late with some very good fish from our old
+lake Rus Vand, and dinner was consequently at the extremely fashionable
+hour of 8.30.
+
+                  MENU.
+
+                _Poisson._
+           Truite � la Norv�ge.
+
+                _Gibier._
+        Teal en matelote de Bacon.
+  Pommes de terre saut�d in a frying-pan.
+
+                _Potage._
+               Skoggaggany.
+
+Potage is frequently eaten last, for it keeps hot longer than the other
+dishes, and as we always feed in the open air in fine weather, they cool
+more quickly than in civilisation.
+
+  [Illustration: Hot Soup and Northern Lights]
+
+About nine o'clock a splendid display of northern lights was produced
+for our benefit, and we stayed up till twelve o'clock baking bread and
+gazing at the ever-changing beauties of this glorious sight. In the
+course of conversation it transpired that the same thing happened last
+night in a milder form, and it was this that Esau had announced as a
+comet. To-night he was immensely delighted with the show, because he
+says it will bring good luck; quoting 'Aurora bright, dear harbinger of
+dawn.' He said this was Shakespeare, and if Shakespeare called Aurora a
+'deer harbinger,' that ought to be enough for us. The other two agreed,
+but did not believe Shakespeare ever wrote that, or anything like it.
+'What play was it in?' 'Play!' said Esau, with the utmost contempt, 'you
+awful duffers, it's in the sonnets; I�dare say you never read all of
+them.' This was unanswerable, for of course no one ever did read all the
+sonnets. But in revenge John composed some poetry about Esau, after the
+manner of Walt Whitman, he said.
+
+If Walt Whitman ever wrote anything like this, he ought to be made to
+read it. We give a few lines:--
+
+  ''Twas he who culled the bluest berry sweet,
+  And with his jodelling made the heights reply
+  To airs that oft have graced the music hall:
+  Anon when work or sport was put aside,
+  The fragrant omelette he would deftly roll;
+  No better man to fry the curling trout,
+  None with more appetite to make it scarce.
+  When tired nature seeks repose in bed,
+  To lie when others rise and calmly rest,
+  He most surpassed the seven Sleepers' selves.
+  This is the sort of rubbish men can write
+  Who to inanity devote their minds;
+  But nought save great experience will suffice
+  To do the trick; no amateur can hope
+  To vie with those who've studied it from youth.'
+
+And so on for pages.
+
+On examining the diaries which we all keep, the following remarks on the
+aurora were found:--
+
+NO. 1.--BY THE SKIPPER.
+
+'The heavens were illuminated by most brilliant northern lights, which
+flickered in a great arch over the starry sky.'
+
+NO. 2.--BY ESAU.
+
+'A most glorious display of northern lights, huge bands of light across
+the sky; waving, flickering, and disappearing, then suddenly shining out
+again more brilliantly than before, while all the time straight
+streamers of light were shooting upwards from the horizon.'
+
+NO. 3.--BY JOHN.
+
+'The glow of a remarkably fine aurora borealis, whose silvery shimmering
+shafts flickered incessantly all over the heavens in the most fantastic
+shapes.'
+
+It will be observed that we all agree in the flickering, consequently
+you may bet it _did_ flicker. But for this fortunate fact it would be
+hard to recognise the three descriptions as identical, and yet this is
+the way history is written.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+SUCCESS AT LAST.
+
+
+_August 14._--This was a most eventful day in our quiet life, and one
+fraught with episode. For the first time there was a breeze, so the
+Skipper went out fishing, and John to practise canoeing in a wind, which
+is an art requiring considerable dexterity in these Canadian canoes.
+They are beautiful sea boats, and beat the 'Rob Roy' hollow for any
+purposes where room for baggage is required. In our two, which are only
+small, we have transported between 800 and 900 lbs.; but their worst
+feature is decidedly exhibited in a wind, for the broad flat bottom and
+absence of keel cause them to drift very fast, and make it difficult to
+keep them straight. It can only be done by paddling from amidships
+instead of from the stern.
+
+Esau went out stalking, full of hope from the aurora and the favourable
+wind.
+
+The Skipper was lucky and caught some very good fish, and then returning
+to camp constructed a most lovely wimberry tart. He had just finished
+the enclosure of the same in the oven, and was proceeding to remove the
+flour and ashes and other debris from his hands, while John reclined at
+his ease under an awning with our latest 'Field'--three weeks old--when
+they heard a hail overhead, and behold a swarm of visitors from Rus
+Vand! Mr. and Mrs. Thomas, Miss A----, and their friend F----, who is
+the most celebrated deerstalker in the country. He is reported to never
+miss a shot, and occasionally shoots flying ryper with a rifle.
+
+They tumultuously demanded lunch, and the Skipper with John had a pretty
+busy time of it for about twenty minutes, and the wimberry tart had to
+be left to its fate in the sultry climate of the oven. Our larder just
+now is not well supplied with anything except fish; so that the utmost
+exertions could only produce a meal which to people who have had
+reindeer for several days must have seemed poor indeed. Fried trout,
+Skoggaggany soup, tea, beer, bread, biscuits, and marmalade, was the
+bill of fare, for there was no time to do anything in the 'gibier' line,
+birds taking some time to pluck and clean. However, to our guests there
+were some points of this meal decidedly worthy of attention, viz. the
+beer, marmalade, and bread: they have none of these at Rus Vand, as
+their attempts at bread have hitherto been failures, while ours has been
+very first-rate ever since the oven was built, and was much appreciated.
+
+We have been informed that the proper thing in these days, when writing
+a book, is to recommend some condiment or patent medicine to the notice
+of the confiding public. As there is no chance of our meeting any Arab
+sheiks in Memurudalen, we have to fall back on this episode of the
+bread, and seize the opportunity to sing to the world the praises of
+'Yeatman's Yeast Powder,' by far the best that we have tried, and
+invaluable on an expedition of this kind for bread, pastry, and
+pancakes. Now let old Yeatman send his hundred guineas, care of Esau,
+and we will see that they are devoted to a proper use.
+
+To return to our guests. We made an awning on what we call the
+lawn--size six feet by fourteen feet--out of two rugs and some birch
+poles, and lunched under that, as the sun was cruelly hot. There was a
+good deal of the ordinary picnic about the meal, as we have only four
+plates, cups, knives, &c., and had to eat fish out of the frying-pan,
+and drink beer out of a jam pot, and a condensed-milk tin with the top
+cut off and the sharp edge turned down. But all these drawbacks were met
+in the true picnic spirit, which 'de minimis non curat' so long as there
+is something to eat. Our two last bottles of beer were sacrificed, and
+it went to our hearts to have to pour away our beloved Skoggaggany soup
+when the cups were wanted for tea, for our visitors did not 'go for' the
+soup with the same alacrity that distinguishes us. Possibly it occurred
+to them that the middle of a blazing hot August day was not the most
+suitable time for highly seasoned, substantial, nearly boiling liquid to
+be poured down their throats.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Thomas and Miss A---- all spoke English well, but their
+friend young F---- could neither speak it nor understand it: however, he
+wished to be genial and polite, and replied 'Oh yase, tank you,'
+whenever any remark was made to him. In consequence of this amiable
+trait, John, who thought he could talk our language as well as the
+others, supplied him with beer, whisky and water, tea, soup, and
+marmalade all at the same time, to each of which articles when offered
+he had replied 'Oh yase, tank you.' This made a sad run on our limited
+supply of crockery.
+
+Lunch ended, the Skipper volunteered as usual to take the party one by
+one for a cruise in his canoe. This with the ordinary English lady would
+be a matter of considerable risk, but all Norwegians--ladies as well as
+men--are accustomed to boats, and very nearly all of them can swim. But
+the trip was quite dangerous enough, for both the ladies insisted on
+kneeling in the right position and paddling themselves, and there was a
+good sea on, with a distant threatening storm. While Mrs. Thomas was
+pursuing her adventurous career, her husband danced on the bank after
+the manner of a hen with ducklings crying, 'Come back! come back! you go
+too far out!' but we grieve to record that she did not care a little
+bit, and was so delighted with the canoe that the Skipper had some
+difficulty in persuading her to return. May she live long to paddle that
+canoe, for it now belongs to her.
+
+About four o'clock the call came to an end, and our friends departed
+over the mountain to Rus Vand, at the west end of which they expected to
+meet their boat. Before going they made us promise to go and see them
+next Tuesday, and will send a boat to convey us down the lake.
+
+  [Illustration: Esau and Ola return in Triumph]
+
+Soon after six Esau came into camp in an offensively jaunty manner,
+followed by �la with the heads and skins, and what the lawyers call the
+appurts, to wit, the heart, kidneys, feet, and liver of two reindeer
+bucks. Then was there great rejoicing in that little colony, and dinner
+was served and disposed of with light hearts, even the neglected
+wimberry tart being a complete success, for owing to its gigantic size,
+its long baking in a cooling oven had not been too much for it, and it
+was finished to the last crumb of paste and spoonful of juice.
+
+Our custom is, when a man returns with deer, that he shall lie on the
+sheepskin of indolence if so disposed, while the other fellows prepare
+dinner; and after the meal is finished and men are beginning to lean
+back and fill their pipes, he is expected to relate his adventures
+without interruption; after this he is never to refer to them again
+unless specially requested. Now for Esau's story.
+
+'We went on to Memurutungen and began to find fresh tracks and signs of
+deer almost directly, so were on the tiptoe of expectation all the
+morning. About midday �la found two deer on a small patch of snow, five
+or six miles from camp, in a very favourable place for approaching them,
+with the wind as right as it could be. We made a lovely stalk; but when
+after an hour's creeping we got to the spot, we were just in time to see
+them disappear, slowly feeding over the hill. We followed as fast as
+possible, and soon came in sight of them again, for as the deer always
+feed against the wind there is no danger of alarming them by following
+on their tracks. A�few minutes of breathless crawling like serpents, and
+we were within 100 yards, nearer than I ever got to reindeer before. One
+of them soon gave me a nice side shot, and when I fired he almost fell,
+but recovered himself, and they both ran down the hill towards a little
+glacier. I�fired again at him and missed; and then ran as hard as I
+could towards the glacier, cramming in cartridges as I ran. They were
+both out of sight for a moment behind some rocks, and then the unwounded
+one came into view again, and I had a nice shot at him at about 150
+yards, and was lucky enough to send a bullet just above his heart, which
+killed him instantly at the edge of the glacier.
+
+  [Illustration: A careful Finishing Shot]
+
+'I ran straight on, and following round the shoulder of the hill, saw
+the other one standing about 100 yards away, unable to go any further.
+I�was in about the same state myself, so sat down, took as careful an
+aim as I could, and fired a shot which finished him. How he had ever got
+so far is a mystery, as the first shot only missed his heart by about an
+inch. The second went in touching the hole made by the first, and killed
+him at once.
+
+'We gralloched them, and built the meat up with stones to preserve it
+from ravens, and the great bugbear of hunters, the "jarraf," as they
+call it; filfras is its English name. I�think it is identical with the
+North American wolverine or glutton.'
+
+The lecturer concluded his observations amid great applause.
+
+Let it be understood that the running which is done in pursuit of deer
+is a gymnastic performance of the utmost difficulty, for these mountains
+are almost entirely composed of loose stones with sharp, clean edges.
+These stones vary in size, but otherwise are all similar, and have no
+more tendency to stick together and lie quiet than the lumps in a basin
+of sugar. So that running over them means--for an extremely active
+man--a pace of perhaps four miles an hour; for a deer about six or
+seven. Consequently the deer always when disturbed try to get on to
+snow, for there they can go a great, but unascertained pace--apparently
+somewhere about eighty miles an hour.
+
+We find that after all we were quite right to make the meat-safe before
+killing the deer, for we only made it to hold one, and now we have
+killed two, and so are quite properly behindhand with our arrangements,
+and shall be obliged to make another.
+
+After dinner Esau went down to the lake and tried a few casts from the
+shore. He speedily hooked a fish, which he thought the biggest ever
+made, and never got a sight of it for twenty minutes. He thought this a
+grand top up for a truly successful day, but on landing it, it only
+weighed a pound, but was hooked in the tail, hence the struggle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+GJENDEBODEN.
+
+
+_Sunday, August 15._--Still the same beautiful weather. We spent the
+morning fishing and bathing. Esau distinguished himself by falling into
+the lake off a cliff, just as he had finished dressing after a bath;
+nearly swamping his canoe, full of fish, rugs, and other valuables.
+There was such a sun that he merely hung his things on the rocks and
+went on fishing without them until they were dry, which took a very
+short time. He always had savage tendencies, and would like to live
+without clothes, but we consider this is not dignified, and will not
+tend to promote discipline among our retainers. The Skipper got the best
+bag, as he generally does on a calm day.
+
+After lunch we packed our rods, fowling-pieces, and change of raiment
+into the canoes, and started on a voyage of discovery up the lake,
+intending to spend the night at Gjendebod--a hut at the western end
+somewhat similar to Gjendesheim at the eastern, though not so large or
+so well built, for the upper end of the lake does not get as many
+visitors as the lower.
+
+The expedition commenced with a disaster, owing, no doubt, to its being
+Sunday. As John and Esau in the larger canoe were crossing the glacier
+stream, something caused the boat to almost swamp, but fortunately right
+again with a good deal of water in it. Esau said it was John's
+clumsiness; John said it was Esau's recklessness in crossing at such a
+rapid place, and much recrimination ensued. They went to shore and
+emptied the water out, and then continued the voyage, nothing being wet
+except the rugs used to kneel on. Only the Skipper lingered on the
+voyage to fish; the other two paddling against a heavy head wind
+completed the journey of five miles in about an hour, and had dinner
+cooked and ready by the time the Skipper made his appearance with a
+beautiful basket of trout.
+
+Our dinner was made from the shoulder of venison sent us by Mr. Thomas.
+It was utterly ruined in the cooking, for we are getting fastidious
+after our own luxurious meals, and think as poorly of Gjendebod cookery
+as a certain friend of ours did of English, when he complained that 'in
+all the houses of the rich and great which he had ever known, he had
+never seen a decent hot dinner served except when they had it cold for
+lunch.'
+
+We found here a young Norwegian who spoke English well, and gave us some
+very interesting information, chiefly about the winter life in Norway;
+also a very intelligible account of the land system of the country,
+which we intend to send to Mr. Gladstone for use in his next Irish Land
+Bill. We think it peculiarly adapted for Ireland, because, though we all
+understood it perfectly at the time, we cannot agree about any of its
+main features on comparing notes afterwards.
+
+Presently there arrived here Coutts--our Gjendesheim acquaintance who
+had made the extraordinary walk over the mountains. His hair had either
+not grown since we last saw him, or else he had sand-papered it off
+again. He had just achieved another remarkable feat. This was a climb to
+the top of 'Stor Skagastolstind,' a�mountain which has only been
+ascended twice previously; first by an Englishman who spends most of his
+time in doing such things, and afterwards by a Norwegian, the last time
+being two years ago. Many others have tried and failed. The ordinary
+traveller will find the feat of pronouncing its name fluently in the
+course of conversation quite difficult enough; but it can be done by the
+exercise of an iron will, and if not attempted more than once in a day,
+no fatal effects need be apprehended. Once we met a very
+careworn-looking man who told us he had been trying to make a pun on the
+name, but we felt no pity for so foolhardy a wretch.
+
+The authorized procedure for those who accomplish the ascent, is to
+enclose their name and some coins in a bottle, and build a little cairn
+round the bottle, leaving their handkerchief with it, and bringing down
+the corresponding articles left by the last man. Coutts showed us the
+handkerchief and bottle which he found on the top, but the coins he must
+have spent in drinks on his way home, or else did not like to trust us
+with them, as he could not produce them. He had, of course, left his own
+handkerchief, and John, who is short of these useful though not
+indispensable articles, was seized with a great longing to risk his life
+and go to the summit of that mountain for Coutts's. At least, he was
+very keen about it immediately after the description of the ascent and
+hiding of the treasure; but since he became calmer we almost persuaded
+him not to go, as he hates walking, especially uphill walking; it takes
+two days to ascend the peak, one to get down again; and the whole
+performance is slightly more difficult and hazardous than the ascent of
+the Matterhorn.
+
+It will probably be unnecessary to remark that Coutts did not for a
+moment condescend to follow the path chosen by former climbers, but
+having after considerable search found one at least twice as dangerous,
+he chose that, as he had not time to look for a worse one.
+
+
+_August 16._--After breakfast we found a drover, who was living in a hut
+here, and impressed him to come out with us after Ryper--his function
+being that of the dog. There are many of these drovers in the mountains
+during the summer. They get cattle--how, we do not know; whether they
+buy them, or merely drive them on commission for the owners; then they
+feed them on the common lands, and drive them to some town at the end of
+the summer. The huts that they live in are wretched little places. There
+is one about two miles from our camp, built of rough stones against a
+rock which forms two of the sides, without any door or window, and only
+a hole to creep in at. No Englishman would keep his dog in such a place,
+unless it were dead; but we are told that a drover lived there for a
+month this year before we came, and it is considered of sufficient
+importance to be marked on the Ordnance map, otherwise we should never
+have seen�it.
+
+Our drover, however, was rather a great man, living in a hut with a real
+door and a window, and a live woman inside to cook for him and iron his
+shirt--at least, we imagined she must be doing this, as he had not got
+one�on.
+
+Ryper shooting began by law yesterday, but our Sabbatarian proclivities
+prevented us from going forth to the chase. The true reason is that we
+superstitiously believe it will rain again if we shoot on Sunday, though
+no one will confess that this is the feeling by which we are possessed.
+
+We crossed the lake in the canoes--the Skipper and Esau to shoot, John
+and Herr Drover to beat. There was a narrow belt of birch trees between
+the lake and the willow belt in which we hoped to find the birds, and
+before we got through this, our ears were gladdened by the sound of two
+shots from Esau, who had walked on to two old birds and got them both;
+but, alas! disappointment was in store for us. We walked up hill and
+down dale, dry ground and marshy, willow belt and birch belt, but never
+saw another ryper for five hours, and then we put up one old cock who
+fled away with a derisive crow before we got within sixty yards of him.
+It is hopeless work hunting ryper without dogs. We found plenty of
+places where they had fed or sat, or been running on wet ground; but
+they hate flying unless they are compelled, and on a day of this sort
+lie like stones, though we have seen them after windy weather get up
+almost as wild as Yorkshire grouse. But we feel that we have done our
+duty in trying to shoot ryper, and so now can go back to our fishing and
+stalking with a quiet conscience.
+
+And if we got no more ryper we found such a quantity of 'm�lteb�r,' that
+there is every prospect of Esau being seriously ill for some days, which
+would be a distinct gain as far as the consumption of our stores goes.
+The 'm�lteb�r' is a berry like a large yellow raspberry, very good
+indeed to eat, with a sort of honey flavour about it. The Norwegians
+think it better than the strawberry, though we hardly indorse this
+opinion. It is a beautiful scarlet before it is ripe, and a dirty pale
+yellow when ready to gather. It grows low down, and is difficult to
+find, as it conceals itself in low, swampy, and rather dark places.
+
+When we returned from the pursuit of the disobliging ryper, there was a
+fair breeze down the lake, so we hoisted sails and were soon back at
+Memurudalen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+A FORMAL CALL.
+
+
+_August 17._--This was the day appointed for our visit to the Thomas's
+at Rus Vand, but though we told �la as usual to call us at 7.30, he
+never came until about half-past eight. His watch is a curiosity among
+bad watches; he sets it by one of ours every night, and it has always
+gained or lost several hours before morning: on one occasion it actually
+lost nearly a fortnight while we slept. The Skipper says it 'ain't worth
+a smothered oath;' and this morning, as we specially wished to get up
+early--and did get up, owing to �la's watch, more than usually late--he
+is getting lower in his valuation, and estimates it at a 'whispered
+d----.'
+
+We have begged �la to pawn it, or refrain from winding it up, but
+without effect, and Esau lent him his--which has never moved since its
+bath, and is fixed at 5.20. This was very successful for two days, as it
+made �la call us about six o'clock, and we had lots of time to go to
+sleep again afterwards; but after that the discontented fellow came and
+asked for one that would go faster, and of course we have nothing that
+will compare with his own either at trotting or cantering.
+
+First thing this morning the Skipper was seen shaving his meagre chin
+with no little care, and reflecting himself with considerable interest
+in a slip of looking-glass that he keeps under his pillow. We all made
+elaborate toilets, but the Skipper was especially beautiful by reason of
+his necktie, and the least thread-bare of his two coats, which he wore
+with what he considered a careless grace.
+
+We started up the mountain at half-past ten, and arrived on the shores
+of Rus Vand very hot and tired in about two hours. There we saw a dim
+speck on the distant horizon which we imagined to be the boat coming to
+take us down the lake. So we began to fish till it should arrive; and it
+was a considerable time before we realised the fact that the speck we
+had seen was indeed the boat, but it was _going_, not coming, for the
+soulless wretch who had control of it had presumed to think, and his
+thoughts being of course the mere unreasoning impulses of a brutish and
+degraded mind, had caused him to suppose we were not coming. This was a
+terrible blow, but at last we bravely decided to walk on to the
+hut--about eight miles. During the next six pages of this book we walked
+and walked and walked, with hunger and thirst raging inside us,
+a�broiling sun over our heads, and the most frightful language
+proceeding from our lips; tramping along cattle tracks, wading through
+mountain torrents, and stumbling over willows and rocks, till about
+half-past three in the afternoon, when turning the last corner we came
+on the two huts, and our olfactory nerves were greeted by the welcome
+scent of adjacent cooking food.
+
+Thomas was most profuse in his maledictions of the idiot who had left
+the west end of the lake without waiting for us, and we had great
+difficulty in persuading him not to shed his blood there and then. Thus
+far the misery.
+
+But now a change came o'er the scene. Behold the wearied travellers
+lying on the sward, in the cool shadow cast by the hut; surrounded by
+iced whisky punch, brandy and water, rum and milk, and claret, and
+drinking them all at once under the entreaties of our hospitable
+entertainers. Anon a sumptuous feast was spread under the canopy of a
+tent pitched just above the roaring waters of the Russen River where it
+leaves the calm of the lake for the turmoil and trouble of a hurried
+descent to busier regions. That trout, reindeer, roast ryper, and the
+various smaller birds will be remembered by all of us as long as we
+live.
+
+The Skipper confessed afterwards that all along that burning shadeless
+cattle track--with its atmosphere perfectly blue with execrations--he
+had thought that life was but a 'wale of tears' at the best of times;
+but when after dinner cigars and black coffee were produced, he began to
+believe we had had rather a pleasant walk after all.
+
+We left the hospitable hut about six, in the boat, Thomas himself and
+Jens coming with us. Jens rowed, and we four fished all the way up the
+lake, so that the water was stiff with minnows and flies. John with a
+minnow caught one three-pound trout and some smaller ones, and the
+Skipper and Esau several good fish with the fly, but we had no time to
+really try to catch fish, but kept rowing steadily on and getting what
+we could on the way. Thomas got out halfway up the lake to fish from the
+bank, and John at once trampled on a spare rod which had been brought in
+the boat, and reduced it to matchwood. Then to witness John's polite
+protestations and apologies from the boat to Mr. Thomas on shore was
+truly gratifying to us as spectators. When they were concluded we rowed
+on to the end of the lake, climbed over the dreadful mountain--which was
+by no means a pleasant task in the dark--and reached camp at half-past
+ten--just twelve hours employed in making a formal call. Think of that,
+ye gentlemen of England who grumble at having to leave a card on the
+people the other side of the square.
+
+
+_August 18._--We all stayed at home to-day, as the weather--although
+still perfectly fine--was not favourable for any sort of sport with
+which we are acquainted except kite-flying; and the tent was constantly
+in such imminent danger of being blown from its moorings, that we feared
+if we went away, we should not be able to find it when we came back. It
+was great fun during breakfast to watch Ivar sailing after our goods and
+chattels whenever a sudden gust of wind sent them scudding over the
+ground till brought to a standstill by a juniper or a rock. Before
+starting in pursuit he always opened his mouth to its utmost
+width--which is enormous--and then extending his arms and legs till he
+looked like a demoniac wind-mill, he swooped down on the quarry, never
+failing to secure the fly-away article, dish-cloth, or towel, or
+whatever it might�be.
+
+The Skipper was the only one who attempted fishing, and he had but poor
+sport, and soon returned to camp to assist in the operations there going
+on. The most important of these was the construction of a new game
+cellar in the ground near the old one. Esau was 'bossing' this thing,
+while �la worked. Esau, being very lazy himself, takes a fiendish
+delight in getting any work out of �la; and now his portion of the job
+seemed to be standing with an axe in his hand revolving things in his
+great mind while �la undertook the labour. The Skipper and John devoted
+themselves to baking, and produced an enormous quantity of bread and
+biscuits; and when these were finished the united strength of the
+company engaged itself on a meat pie.
+
+The division of labour in this enterprise is always managed thus. Esau
+is butcher--an employment in which he revels, and at which he is
+decidedly an adept. He cuts up reindeer in convenient slices for placing
+in the pie-dish; adding thereto slices of bacon, and two or three
+hard-boiled eggs, with some liver, heart, and birds if we have any to
+spare. Meanwhile the Skipper concocts the dough for the crust from
+flour, butter, and boiling water; and after rolling the same on the top
+of one of the boxes with an empty beer-bottle, neatly lines the smaller
+of the two low tins with it; fills it with the various ingredients and
+plenty of pepper, salt, and some water, and then covers it with a thin
+disc of paste perforated with holes, and adorned with fantastic images
+of reindeer and birds. Now the pie is ready for the oven--which all this
+time John has been stoking indefatigably with arm loads of wood; and
+when he announces that the oven is fit the pie is borne in solemn
+procession to it, and safely enclosed by the sod which acts as the oven
+door, and conceals it from our gaze for a time, which varies according
+to the size of the pie and heat of the oven.
+
+We have some difficulties to contend with in the top of our oven, for
+the sods which fill in the holes thereof are liable to crumble with the
+intense heat and fall down in fine dust on our food gently stewing in
+its cosy nest. The only way to obviate this is to water the top of the
+oven every morning as if it were a spring garden, and then the clods
+never get dry enough to play their evil little games. The Skipper
+compares the baking of a pie to burial by cremation (if that is not a
+bull). Certainly it always comes out etherealised; a�thing of beauty and
+a joy for at least two days. Esau called this pie after its resurrection
+'a�harmony in yellow and brown quite too too utter and distinctly
+precious;' and John added, 'Begorra, me jewel, it is that same, bedad.'
+
+  [Illustration: The Colony at Breakfast in Memurudalen]
+
+We shall now be free to do what seems good in our eyes for several days
+without the trouble of baking: altogether our stock of provisions is
+enormous. This is always the way in camp life; first a week of existence
+on the verge of starvation, and then a time of milk and honey and tables
+overflowing with plenty.
+
+
+_August 19._--Some of the bread that John makes is rather heavy.
+Yesterday we were constrained to point this fact out to him. He
+pretended not to be able to see it, and in support of his theory ate at
+supper a quantity of the rolls that we had condemned. The consequence
+was that about two o'clock A.M. we were roused from our peaceful
+slumbers by John jumping spasmodically out of bed and rushing to the
+tent door, uttering at the same time most ghastly yells. At the door he
+appeared to be awake, so we said, sitting up in bed with our hair on
+end,--
+
+'_Now_ then, John. What's the row?' To which he answered very quietly,--
+
+'Why, my line's caught on that rock over there. I wish you would stop
+the boat a minute.'
+
+Then he went gently to bed again and continued his unbroken slumbers.
+
+A sleeping man is selfishly regardless of the disquiet he brings on his
+fellow-creatures, and John, although he must have dreamt all sorts of
+funny things, did not dream that he was disturbing our night's rest.
+
+The other night when we were returning from our visit to Rus Vand, John
+casually seated himself on a rock at the extreme top of the mountain. It
+was quite dark except for a subdued glow of light caused by the setting
+moon behind the mountains on the other side of Gjendin Lake. Now the
+Skipper and Esau take a good deal of interest in moons, because they are
+considerably affected by the pallid luminary when at the full;
+consequently they were aware that she had already passed her highest
+point for that night, and would not show above the peaks until the
+following evening; but John did not know this, and so when we asked his
+reason for sitting down on a very sharp and cold stone 5,000 feet above
+sea level, with the quicksilver right through the bottom of the
+thermometer, at a time when all honest folk were in bed, he replied,--
+
+'You fellows go on; I'm going to wait here and see the moon rise.'
+
+We never disturb a man when he feels poetical, lest it should break out
+in some more dangerous form; so we left him on his 'cold grey stone,'
+and made the best of our way to camp.
+
+When we had about half finished our soup, he came struggling and wading
+in through the shrubs and swamp, and sat down to supper without making
+any remarks about the scenery, neither did he touch upon the subject of
+silver shafts, or shimmering sheen, or a network of frosted filigree
+chaining down the ripples. He was evidently disappointed about
+something, and we possessed too much delicacy of feeling to ask what was
+wrong, and so the matter dropped. But at breakfast this morning the
+Skipper happened to tell a story about a man he knew, who waited on the
+quay for some friends who had arrived in a steamer that day. This man
+had ordered a sumptuous banquet directly the steamer was signalled, then
+waited three hours expecting a boat to come off every minute, but at
+last perceived that a curious flag was flying on the steamer, and on
+inquiry found that she was quarantined for a fortnight. Then Esau could
+not resist the opportunity, and remarked,--
+
+'Just like waiting for the moon to rise when she ain't due over the
+mountains for twenty-four hours,' and the harmony of the meeting at once
+ceased to exist.
+
+The Skipper went after deer, but only had a very long walk without
+seeing any. We have now got the kitchen into a great state of
+perfection, so that within ten minutes of his return a recherch� repast
+was on the table. This is rather a difficult thing to manage, as we
+never know to within a couple of hours what time the hunters will
+return; but it can be done by having the chops, steaks, or birds ready
+in one frying-pan, the trout in the other, the potatoes partially
+cooked, and the tea or coffee made: the leaves or grounds of the latter
+we remove always after eight minutes' brewing, so that it does not alter
+by standing. The table of course is ready laid.
+
+Once and only once there was a long delay, owing to a misfortune with
+the water that had been boiled for the tea; but the explosion of wrath
+from the famishing hunter on that occasion was so dreadful, that the
+utmost endeavours have since been successfully used to prevent its
+recurrence.
+
+      MENU.--August 19.
+
+         _Potage._
+      Mulligatawny.
+
+         _Poisson._
+  Truit� � la Ma�tre d'H�tel.
+
+         _Entr�es._
+        Venison Pie.
+
+         _Rots._
+       Venison Pie.
+
+         _Gibier._
+        Venison Pie.
+
+        _Entremets._
+         Pancakes.
+
+Our procedure with pancakes is for every man to fry and toss his own;
+the frying of the first side is easy enough, but the tossing requires
+skill, for we do not allow the mean practice of helping the delicacy
+over with a knife, indulged in by some weak-spirited cooks.
+
+John's first became a mangled heap of batter under his repeated efforts,
+and was finally eaten by him in that condition; his second ascended
+towards the heavens most gracefully when he tossed, and was absent for
+some minutes, but unfortunately he failed to hold the pan in the right
+place on its return, and it fell on the ground, where it was immediately
+seized and devoured by Ivar. The third was a complete success, and so
+were the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh; the eighth stuck to the pan,
+and was a failure; and after that he got along all right to the
+thirty-fourth, when he had another partial failure, owing to
+over-confidence. This made him more careful, and all the rest were quite
+perfect. When we had finished we gave the rest of the batter to the men,
+who fried it all in one huge pancake, about two inches thick.
+
+We notice that all the diaries agree for once; the following note occurs
+in all:--
+
+'Pancakes for dinner to-day; the other two fellows over-ate themselves.'
+
+We told John this morning of his adventure with the boat and fishing
+line during the night, so he ate all the new bread at lunch, thereby
+laying its restless spirit long before bedtime; no doubt he and his
+dinner will slumber more peacefully to-night.
+
+It may be remembered that we brought a lot of fish slightly salted with
+us from Gjendesheim. Ever since our return here we have caught plenty of
+fish every day, and as we prefer fresh food to salt, the Gjendesheim
+fish which were placed in a little barrel have been neglected. Five or
+six days ago we noticed an unpleasant odour, and found that it proceeded
+from this barrel, the fish being in an advanced stage of decomposition,
+and the men told us they were making 'raki fiske,' a�thing which they
+informed us in Norwegian is 'real jam.' We were very angry, and gave
+orders that the whole thing should at once be thrown into the glacier
+torrent. After this the affair faded from our minds, but yesterday we
+again noticed a suspicion of the same smell, and this morning it was so
+powerful that we began to invent theories to account for�it.
+
+John, who is a man of great scientific attainments proved to his own
+complete satisfaction, that it proceeded from the bodies of prehistoric
+reindeer which had been engulfed by an avalanche ages ago and entombed
+in the glacier until now, when at last their decaying corpses were being
+washed down the stream.
+
+He said Huxley had often observed the same thing and told him about�it.
+
+Esau's theory was that the glacier itself was decomposing. 'Look what a
+long time it had been standing exposed to the air, and most likely in a
+damp place; everybody knew that snow water was not good to drink,
+witness the go�tre of Switzerland; and why was it not good? Simply
+because it was putrid, and now that the hot sun was shining upon it, no
+wonder it smelt a little.'
+
+He concluded his remarks by inquiring who Huxley might be, and was just
+setting off up the valley with a bottle of Condy's fluid to pour over
+the glacier, when the Skipper, who had wandered down to the Memurua
+River instead of arguing, suddenly rushed back with his fingers tightly
+holding his nose, and shaking his fist at �la, said something that began
+with 'Dab,' and went on with other unknown words.
+
+At last we gathered from his expressions that the barrel of 'raki fiske'
+had not been thrown into the torrent at all, but our villanous retainers
+had secreted it near the stream, intending to have a feast as soon as it
+should have become rotten enough to please their cultivated taste. Truly
+a Norwegian has the nastiest notions of food. Now the 'raki fiske,'
+barrel and all, is buried a yard deep, a�long way from here, and life is
+again pleasant, but we have little doubt that �la and Ivar will come
+back and root about and dig it up after we have left the country say a
+month hence: it ought to be in perfect condition by that time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+FISHING.
+
+
+_August 20._--The first thing this morning we sent �la to Gjendesheim
+with some venison for the people there, who have been very kind in
+sending milk, eggs, rice, onions, &c. to us. We have more meat than we
+shall be able to eat if the weather continues as fine and hot as it is
+at present.
+
+We three walked over the mountain to spend the day at Rus Vand, taking
+our lunch with us. We got there about half-past ten, and the fish were
+then rising well, so we separated and commenced fishing, the Skipper and
+John taking the north side of the lake, Esau the south. After catching a
+few fish the rise stopped, as it always does on these lakes about
+midday.
+
+  [Illustration: An Exciting Moment in Rus Lake Shallows]
+
+There is no doubt that on a Norwegian lake the fisherman should above
+all things 'make haste while the fish rise.' It is all very well for the
+ancient sportsman to remark, 'Take your time, my young friend, there are
+as good fish in the sea as ever came out of it.' It is no doubt true
+enough; but at this time of year they will not rise to fly for more than
+about a couple of hours twice a day, and if you do not make the best of
+your opportunities then, where are you? Put yourself in the place of the
+fine old veteran three-pounder who has got into the habit of taking his
+meals at regular hours for fear of spoiling his digestion, and has
+selected the hours between 10 and 12 A.M. and 4.30 and 6.30 P.M.,
+because he knows from long experience that these are the most likely
+times to find flies on the water. He has come in from roaming in deep
+waters to the shades of the rocky coast, and has a certain appetite to
+allay after his bath and morning stroll. There he waits, and thinks of
+old times, and of how fat and shiny his tummy became the last hot summer
+there was, when flies were plentiful, and he had not to resort to this
+abominable device of catching small trout and eating mice[*] to keep him
+in daily food, as he nearly always has to do now that the summers are so
+wet, and he is no longer active enough to compete with his younger
+relations in the struggle for existence. 'What times those were, and how
+he wishes he were a year or two younger again, and not crippled with
+useless length; and, by George! now he comes to look at his reflection
+against that stone, he's getting quite yellow and bilious under the
+belly, and----' But he can't stop to moralise, there is a luscious March
+Brown of unusual solidity skating right over his pet rock, and he can't
+let it pass. So up he comes and gulps it down, with a lazy flop of his
+tail that leaves quite a swirl on the lake surface. 'Why, the thing's
+got no flavour, and how I've hurt my jaw with it!' Poor old chap, his
+day is over, and after ten minutes' struggle he has left his favourite
+haunt to be occupied by another tenant, and is safe in the landing net,
+a�good three-pound fish, but, like most of those who have reached this
+size, not quite in as good condition as he was at 2� lbs., and just a
+shade longer than he ought to be. Don't stop to gaze at him, put him in
+the bag with all speed--it is necessary to hurry up and fish on while
+the rise lasts.
+
+    [Footnote: We have found as many as three mice in the stomach of
+    a Rus Vand trout.]
+
+But all this time the hours have been slipping away, and we have
+lunched, and smoked, and sketched till the rise began again soon after
+four, and though there was a strong cold west wind, the change seemed to
+encourage the fish to feed more greedily than usual, for trout are
+terrible Radicals, and rejoice in any alteration of the existing
+condition of things.
+
+  [Illustration: Esau's Best Day among the Trout]
+
+Our old experience of Rus Vand taught us that one side was
+sporting-looking and interesting, while the other was bleak and ugly;
+but Esau, who took the ugly side, had much the best of it to-day, as the
+place seemed alive with fish, and he kept catching them all the time, so
+that his little ten-foot rod was continually to be seen in the form of a
+hoop, from which position it reassumed the perpendicular in a way that
+reflects no little credit on Mr. Farlow.
+
+When we met again at the end of the lake on our way home, we found that
+we had twenty fish, weighing just 44 lbs., of which Esau had caught
+fifteen weighing 32� lbs., the Skipper four of 9 lbs. weight, and John,
+who was very unlucky, only a single two-and-a-half-pounder. The smallest
+of the bag was a little over a pound, the largest three pounds, which
+was reached by more than one; and nearly all were caught in water so
+shallow that the dorsal fin of the fish was often visible in his mad
+rushes hither and thither; this made it extremely difficult to prevent
+the tail-fly being hung up on a rock whenever the fish was hooked on the
+dropper, and not a few were lost in this manner. All were caught on two
+patterns of fly, namely----No, philanthropy has limits, and no man can
+expect to be told patterns of flies. Go to Norway, and the time and
+trouble spent in acquiring that knowledge will be amply repaid by the
+pleasure that no one could fail to derive from a visit.
+
+No doubt, with the usual discontentedness of man we shall regret for
+ever that we did not all go to the ugly side of the lake, of which Esau
+was obliged to leave the best piece untouched as he came back, from
+sheer inability to carry any more fish over the rough ground. But the
+ways of fish are inscrutable; we hardly ever caught any number on that
+side before, and probably shall not do so again. It was just Esau's day.
+Kismet.
+
+After weighing our catch, we cleaned them and cut off their heads to
+lighten them for the journey over Glopit, and even without this extra
+weight we were a good deal troubled and felt overburdened on the uphill
+side, which is terribly steep and rough, only just practicable for a man
+on foot.
+
+When we got back to camp we found that �la had not returned from
+Gjendesheim, which caused us some sorrow, as Esau wanted to go out
+stalking on the morrow, and could not go alone. At least, he would be
+extremely unlikely to see any deer, for the reindeer being exactly the
+same colour as the mountains among which they live, it is almost
+impossible to see them before they see the enemy and depart hastily.
+
+These native hunters are wonderful at the profession, and seem to know
+by instinct when they are in the vicinity of deer, as if they could feel
+their presence in the air. No doubt they really see indications that we
+should never observe, for they always begin to go cautiously, crouching
+and peering over rocks when deer are about, long before we amateurs are
+aware from the ordinary signs of footprints, nibbled reindeer flowers,
+or newly moved stones, that there is likely to be any sport.
+
+  [Plate: ON THE TOP OF GLOPIT. RETURNING FROM RUS LAKE.]
+
+
+_August 21._--It was cold and windy last night, so we turned into bed
+early and lay in luxurious comfort while John read out choice bits, all
+of which we know by heart, from the works of Mark Twain. We all think
+Mark Twain the best writer for camp life that has yet been discovered,
+and we have three or four of his books here. Besides these our library
+of light literature consists of Shakespeare, Longfellow, Dr. Johnson's
+Table-talk, and novels by Whyte Melville, Walford, and Thackeray. But
+Mark and William get more work than all the rest.
+
+It is quite dark now during the night, and we have made a wooden
+chandelier out of a curiously bent piece of birch wood, which holds two
+candles and hangs down from the ridge pole by a string. In the daytime
+it is hoisted up to the roof, but at night we let it down till it swings
+about two feet above our heads as we lie in bed. This contrivance is
+capital for reading, and also affords considerable diversion to the last
+man into bed. The candles are just too high to be reached with a puff
+easily from a recumbent position, and yet we persistently try to blow
+them out without moving. Just as sleep is creeping over two of the
+wearied sportsmen, the last man begins blowing and cussing at these
+candles every night regularly. The scene is generally this. Skipper and
+John just dropping off to sleep. Esau lies down, makes himself extremely
+comfortable, and then--puff, whoo, whew, puff,--gasp for breath, rest a
+moment. Pouf. Chandelier swings round under the impulse of the strong
+wind thus created. Esau makes a brilliant flying shot at one candle, as
+it circles swiftly past. Skipper: 'Thank goodness.' Pause. Esau: Poof,
+whoo, whoof. John: 'Dash it all, get up and put it out.' Esau: 'Get up
+yourself.' Skipper: 'Let me blow it out.' Pouf, puff, whoosh. Chandelier
+swings madly round, drops grease on John's nose. John: 'Tare an 'ouns.'
+Throws tobacco pouch at it, more grease all over the place, tobacco
+pouch rebounds from tent into Esau's mouth. Recrimination for five
+minutes. Chandelier at last stationary. Everybody at once: 'Puff, boo,
+pouf, whew, ---- it, ---- it, pouf, ---- it, ---- the ---- thing -- --
+-- pouf. Thank goodness;' and we all turn over with a sigh of relief, to
+repeat the performance the following night.
+
+�la not having turned up, there could be no stalking, so the beautiful
+morning was wasted. The Skipper got so angry about it that he said he
+would go in his canoe to find the absentee, and take at the same time a
+lot of our surplus fish for the people at Gjendesheim.
+
+Leaving the tent on its grassy sunlit lawn he walked down to the edge of
+the great lake, and turning over the smaller of the two canoes, which
+were lying bottom uppermost, launched her and got in with rod and
+fishing bag, and pushed off into the deep. Opposite to the place where
+the canoes were drawn up, and apparently only a hundred yards distant
+though really more than a mile away, were the snow-capped mountain
+steeps that rise almost perpendicularly from two to three thousand feet
+out of the lake; and for these he made, gradually becoming a mere
+twinkling speck till he faded out of sight from the tent. The lake was
+as smooth as glass, only occasionally rippled as some monarch of the
+deep, excited for once in his life by some specially fascinating fly,
+condescended to make a rush for it instead of the gentle suck by which
+he usually took his food, and the Skipper paddled leisurely along within
+twenty yards of the rocks, with his rod bending over the stern, and
+trailing behind a couple of flies in the hope of catching a trout
+without the trouble of angling for him.
+
+It is very pleasant to be alone once in a way in this overcrowded world.
+Not alone as it is possible to be in England, but absolutely alone, with
+no living thing near except the trout, the insects, and one's image in
+the water. Oh, blessed Norway! when we get back to the turmoils,
+troubles, and pleasures of a London season how we shall long for you!
+There is only one word to express this existence, and that is
+Freedom--freedom from care, freedom from resistance, and from the
+struggle for life. What a country! where civilised man can relapse as
+much as seems good to him into his natural state, and retrograde a
+hundred generations into his primeval condition.
+
+But we forget that the Skipper is coasting up towards Gjendesheim in
+search of the miscreant �la.
+
+He proceeded for a couple of hours, catching a few fish now and then,
+but presently as midday approached, the sun became too hot to be
+pleasant, the fish would not move, and the Skipper began to get
+impatient and annoyed at not meeting �la. After a while a black speck
+with two flashing arms appeared rounding a promontory; this was �la in
+the boat. The Skipper was boiling with rage under the influence of
+various incentives as he approached. �la, like most Norwegians, was
+calm, placid, and utterly unconscious of the flight of time and the
+shortness of life. The Skipper had been primed to exploding point by his
+two friends before starting, and as he had now paddled five miles from
+home without meeting the adversary, he was, to put it mildly,
+'indignant.' So, when he found �la smoking serenely, and sculling along
+as though his brief span were going to stretch through the unending
+cycles of eternity, he gave way to the most horrible outbreak of temper
+in English, which must have lasted four or five minutes, and then
+telling the caitiff in Norwegian to take the fish to Gjendesheim and
+return to camp by five o'clock whatever the weather might be, he turned
+and left that hardy Norseman open-mouthed and bewildered, looking as
+though he had seen the Str�mkarl, or had had an interview with his
+mother-in-law.
+
+Then a great wind arose, and blew against the Skipper all the way home,
+but he arrived in the most beatific frame of mind in spite of it; the
+relief of the storm of temper and bad language had been so great to him,
+that he was filled with a blessed joy. He said it was the most
+invigorating and refreshing pastime he ever indulged in, for �la could
+not understand a word of it, and therefore no remorse could follow the
+outburst, not a thoughtless expression or hasty word could go home to
+his heart and there rankle, to recoil on some future occasion, but the
+whole vial of pent-up wrath could be emptied on its object without fear
+of retribution.
+
+The explosion must have been something very fine to enable the Skipper
+to make light of the head-wind, for a wind on Gjendin is not to be
+scoffed at in any boat, and least of all in a cockle-shell of a canoe.
+The mountains are so high and steep that the lake lies as it were in a
+trench, and any wind always draws straight up or down the length, and
+soon gets a big sea up. All the Norwegians we have seen say it is the
+height of madness to go on Gjendin at all in such boats, the sudden
+squalls are so dangerous; and neither of our men can be persuaded to go
+a yard in them.
+
+Esau and John, for want of better employment, after fishing a little,
+began to bake, and had laid out a goodly show of dainty confections, two
+dozen rolls, four wimberry tarts, a�lot of biscuits, and a venison pie
+of the ordinary size (9�inches diameter). When the Skipper returned it
+was decided to make another, as we imagine the meat has a better chance
+of keeping when hoarded up in pies than when left in its raw state.
+
+So we each took our usual share in the construction of a PIE, before
+which all other pies should be as nought.
+
+It was made in our largest baking tin, 12 inches across, and contained
+nearly a hind quarter of venison, our last six eggs, a�heart, a�liver,
+and about 1� lb. of bacon. The crust was put on about nine o'clock, and
+after we had all gazed at it and unanimously agreed that it was the
+'boss pie,' we bore it proudly but gingerly to the oven, heated by John
+seven times hotter than before, and now gaping to receive it; a�great
+full moon rose up from behind the mountains and seemed to smile on our
+good work; the bright fire shed a red glow over the three figures
+bending o'er the simmering treasure, and a more peaceful, domestic group
+it would be impossible to conceive.
+
+About eleven John and the Skipper turned in, but outside could be seen
+for some time the solitary form of Esau still crouching over the
+expiring embers of the oven, and tending with a mother's care the
+tempting food that he already tasted in imagination.
+
+  [Plate: BAKING BY NIGHT IN MEMURUDALEN.]
+
+Most of the berries of the country are now just at their best, and
+Memurudalen is a grand valley for all of them, except of course the
+strawberry and raspberry, which will not grow at this altitude. But we
+have 'klarkling' (the English crowberry) in great abundance; blau b�r
+(wimberry), the finest and best ever seen, in quantities; also 'skin
+tukt,' another blue berry rather larger than a wimberry, and with a
+thicker skin and wonderful bloom on it; this we think does not grow in
+England. Then less numerous are a berry something between a raspberry
+and a red currant, but of better flavour than either of them; and the
+great and glorious 'm�lte b�r' (cloudberry); to say nothing of 'heste
+b�r,' and 'tutti b�r,' and several others of unknown names. The last one
+grows in England, but we have forgotten its name; they make jelly from
+it here, and prize it highly for its acid taste.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+MEMURUDALEN.
+
+
+_Sunday, August 22._--We woke up this morning with a bright sun shining
+through the canvas of the tent, and making it intolerably hot inside;
+and as we threw open the door of the inner compartment, the fragrant
+aroma of the 'boss pie' was wafted to us on the morning air.
+
+We spent the morning in quiet Sunday fashion, chiefly in lying under the
+shade of an awning made with rugs which we call the 'sycamine tree,' and
+eating wimberries and cream. Besides this we perpetrated a great deal of
+high art; every one was seized with the desire of sketching the camp,
+and so we sat around on pinnacles like so many pelicans, libelling the
+unfortunate place from every position whence it could be seen.
+
+It is looking very comfortable just now. The tent itself is pitched in
+an angle of a steep little cliff which effectually protects it from cold
+winds at one side and the back, and at the other side we have put up a
+thick fence of birch branches to temper the storm to the sleeping-tent.
+We find it very convenient to have the two compartments: the inner one
+is only used for sleeping in, and always immediately after reveill� is
+plunged in an apparently hopeless confusion of rugs, sheepskins,
+mattresses, and boots, with here and there a book or a hat protruding
+(to use the Skipper's beautiful simile) like brickbats in a dust-heap.
+After breakfast all the bedding is dragged out to be aired on the rocks,
+and the tent generally tidied.
+
+But the outer tent is always a picture of order and neatness, for here
+we keep our stores, boxes of flour and biscuits, cartridges, cooking
+utensils, tools, whisky, and potatoes. One of the boxes was made
+specially under Esau's directions to be used as a table: the top and
+bottom are both hinged, and so when the box is put on its front and
+these two lids opened it makes a very good large table; the lids are
+held up by a batten screwed underneath them, and for greater security we
+have added two legs. But at present the weather is so pleasant that we
+always feed outside, a�few yards from the tent and nearer to the oven.
+
+On the extreme left, as the penny showman says, you will observe one of
+the meat safes, the other one 'thou canst not see, because it's not in
+sight,' being close to the back of the tent. Also behind the tent may be
+faintly seen the mustard and cress garden, always covered with a sheet
+by day to save it from the heat of the sun, and with the same sheet by
+night, to guard it from the cold, so that the poor thing never gets any
+light, and does not flourish very exceedingly. None of the mustard seeds
+have as yet grown up as big as the one in the parable, but when one does
+we mean to make a lot of salad out of it, enough for all the camp.
+
+Above the middle of the outer tent are three things which look like
+lightning conductors, but are only our rods, which are always stuck in
+the ground there when not in use. At their foot under the rock is the
+egg larder, neatly constructed of stones and turf, with a wooden lid;
+and hanging from the cliff hard by is a very pretty and curious spider's
+nest made of paper, like a miniature wasp-nest, about two inches in
+diameter.
+
+High up in the centre is 'the meteor flag of England,' engaged in its
+customary occupation of 'yet terrific burning,' there being absolutely
+no Dutch Boers here. Underneath its shelter are many forked poles with
+cross-bars, all made from the birch with which the valley abounds just
+here, and on which clothing of some sort is always hanging out to dry;
+so that the place looks like a laundry-ground, and deceives even the
+ravens, which come down in swarms from the mountains in search of maids'
+noses to devour. In the midst of these poles may be seen the oven, with
+its flue reaching halfway up the hill, and its two openings, the lower
+one for fuel, the upper for food.
+
+  [Plate: THE CAMP IN MEMURUDALEN.]
+
+Right in front of the tent is the fireplace, a long trench in the
+ground, faced with stones of such a size and shape that they form
+apertures suitable for our numerous pans; and simmering by the fire is
+the perennial soup. Nearer to the front is the wood pile, and nearer
+still the board on which the cooking things are placed after washing up.
+In front again of this is the little stream which supplies us with
+water, now rapidly beginning to fail under the influence of the long
+drought: it may be noticed that the engineers have changed its course in
+several places for greater convenience in getting water, and to give
+more room on the camp side.
+
+The foreground is a mass of juniper, wimberries, skintukt, crowberries,
+and rocks, and then comes about thirty yards from the tent the Memurua
+torrent, all thick and milky from the glacier, cold as Christmas,
+fishless, uninteresting, not drinkable, only useful as a refrigerator
+for milk, and only agreeable to look upon from a distance, but
+faithfully keeping up the unceasing roar that is customary among such
+torrents. This river makes the waters of the lake too cold to bathe in
+and too cheerless for fish to abide in near our camp, but it does not
+come into the picture, partly because it runs in a ravine, but more
+because it was right behind the artist.
+
+The lake itself is to the extreme right, with unclimbable snow-capped
+rocky mountains forming the opposite coast.
+
+To-day we dined at 4 P.M. in order to get an uninterrupted evening's
+fishing, but the experiment was not a success and will not be repeated,
+for it spoilt the dinner and we caught no fish. On returning to camp at
+night rather cold, very cross, and exceedingly hungry, we agreed that
+the best antidote for these dangerous symptoms would be hot soup, so
+John put the pot on the fire while the Skipper and Esau were attending
+to the tent and domestic duties.
+
+Soon the caldron was heated and brought into the tent, and the eager
+crowd drew near with cups and spoons, and one lifted the lid, while
+another plunged his cup into the steaming savoury mess. And then arose a
+great cry of horror and desolation, and the sleeping valley rang with
+the wail of men in despair, for John had put the wrong pot on the fire,
+and we had been presented with boiling dirty water in which the
+dinner-things had been washed up; while all the time the soup pot was
+quiet, untouched and cold in the corner of the tent where it is kept.
+
+But three hungry men are not to be balked of a meal on which their
+hearts are set by any trifle like this, so we all commenced with a will
+to stoke that fire up and put that other pot on, and we got our soup and
+were snugly packed in bed long before the gentle August moon had sunk to
+rest behind the sheltering mountain tops.
+
+The Skipper, by the way, is very much exasperated with this same moon
+just now. He says she is a fraud, for this morning when we got up, there
+she was high in the heavens.
+
+'What right,' he wants to know, 'has this moon--any moon, in fact--to be
+up there blinking away in the middle of the day when we have plenty of
+sun to light us? forward, dissipated thing! and then probably after this
+week we shall have ever so many nights without any moon at all, and all
+the earth left in total darkness to take care of itself; while here we
+are to-day with an absurdly round moon at one end of this comparatively
+diminutive valley, and a most extravagantly blazing sun at the other.'
+The whole thing is ridiculous, he says, and it must be confessed that
+there is some justice in his complaint; though no doubt there could be a
+good deal said on the other side.
+
+
+_August 23._--While Esau went out after deer the other two crawled up
+the mountain and over to Rus Vand to fish, and had a good day. Two of
+the Skipper's fish were three pounds each, but, like most of the biggest
+fish, not in that beautiful condition which the smaller ones always
+show. The Skipper is sure that the old worn-out fish creep up to the
+stony shallows at the western end of the lake to die in a sunny spot,
+just as we men creep away in our old age to Bath, Cheltenham, Cannes, or
+Algiers, to breathe our last in a warm place, thereby taking one step in
+the direction of the proverbial future.
+
+Esau arrived in camp about half-past seven, quite exhausted, and
+followed by �la, also dead beat, and again bearing the heads and skins
+of two deer, a�buck and a doe. He was hailed with fervent joy and many
+congratulations: it is certainly great luck to fall in with deer on two
+stalking days in succession, for they are by no means numerous here this
+year. Dinner was served in a marvellously short time.
+
+
+MENU.--August 23.
+
+             _Poisson._
+    Truite � la Fried in Butter.
+
+            _Entr�es._
+      Kari of Reindeer Tongue.
+
+              _R�ts._
+           The Boss Pie.
+
+             _Gibier._
+       Ryper � la Spitchcock.
+
+            _Entremets._
+  Jam. Wimberry tart. Marmalade.
+
+             _Potage._
+         Could not eat any.
+
+Then came Esau's romance.
+
+'We walked up the Memurua to the great glacier, and then skirted its
+south side. We found many fresh tracks, and about two o'clock, when we
+were seven miles from home, �la spied three deer chewing stones about
+three quarters of a mile away. The wind was just in the right direction
+to allow us to approach them, and they were in capital ground for
+stalking, full of little hollows and slopes. But there was a serious
+drawback: on one side was a lake, on the other an impassable precipice;
+and before we could get into a place out of their sight we should be
+obliged to cross a narrow strip of ground in full view of them, though
+perhaps half a mile from them. We sat down and had our lunch, and waited
+an hour watching for them to lie down, and at last they did so; then we
+determined to risk the passage of the dangerous strip, and by crawling
+like serpents and aided by luck got across without the deer seeing us.
+Then we had to creep along the side of a scandalous precipice for the
+next half-mile, in no danger of being seen, but with our hearts
+constantly in our mouths as, despite our care, some stone was dislodged
+and went clattering down the rocks, sounding to my strained ears as if
+it must disturb every living thing within a mile. Very slow and
+difficult was our progress, occasionally dangerous, but at last we
+arrived at a spot 200 yards from the deer, which were still lying down,
+and pronounced by �la to be a buck and two does.
+
+'This was a very awkward place to shoot from, and I thought I could see
+my way to a better one much nearer, so tried it and found it was just
+possible, and after about a quarter of an hour's worming, I�arrived at a
+place only 100 yards from them. From this I could see both the does
+well, but only the head of the buck, and so had to lie there an hour
+waiting for him to get up. Both the does did so twice, offering
+beautiful shots, but he would not move, and they lay down again. I�dare
+not whistle to make him jump up, for fear the does might possibly be in
+the way at the moment. So there I lay, miserably uncomfortable, with
+cramp in every muscle; and at last I tried to crawl to another stone
+about five yards away, from which I thought I could see to shoot at the
+buck. When I got to it and peered cautiously over, I�was horrified to
+see the deer some distance away, and running as hard as they could
+towards a small glacier which was close to them.
+
+  [Illustration: Esau stalking near Hinaakj�rnhullet]
+
+'Of course I instantly lost my head, and jumping up fired at the buck
+without much aim, and missed him. Then I recovered my senses and made a
+careful shot at the last doe, knocking her over like a rabbit. The other
+two were just then out of sight in a hollow, but they appeared directly
+going up the hill on the snow at a great speed; and getting a broadside
+shot at the buck I broke his shoulder; after this he went slowly, but
+still kept on up the hill, and when he was about three hundred yards
+away I fired two more shots, one of which hit him in the ribs, and the
+other cut one of his horns off. Then he gave up trying to mount the
+hill, and turned down towards the lake out of my sight. I�ran as hard as
+I could across the shoulder of the glacier, and saw him standing down
+below me among the rocks close to the water, and sitting down I fired
+another shot which killed him.
+
+'This is not a creditable performance in the shooting line; but my solid
+bullets have a good deal to do with the matter: either of the first two
+shots would have stopped him at once if fired from an express with
+hollow-pointed bullets.
+
+'The doe is a barren one with a beautiful skin, and very fat, and the
+buck is the best we have killed at present this year, a�four-year-old,
+what �la calls a "litt stor bock" (little big buck), which I suppose is
+the next best thing to the mythical "meget stor bock," whose footprints
+we are always seeing, but who carefully absenteth himself whensoever the
+jovial hunter goeth forth to pursue him.
+
+'We saw a great deal of fresh spoor to-day, so that we may hope the deer
+are beginning to come to our part of the country: perhaps the poor
+things have been very much bullied in other places. Anyhow, they won't
+find any better country in Norway than where we went to-day; and the
+scenery there is glorious.'
+
+Esau was so tired that he fell asleep once in the midst of his exciting
+narrative, and as dinner was very late we all turned in almost as soon
+as it was finished.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+A PICNIC.
+
+
+_August 24._--There is a brood of ryper on the brow of the mountain
+above our camp, which we always put up when we walk over Glopit armed
+with rods, but never when we take a gun. There were originally eight of
+them, but one has succumbed to a merlin which hunts up there; and they
+are remarkably tame, so that when we put them up we throw stones at
+them, and fully expect to kill them by that means, but somehow they have
+escaped with their lives until now. This conduct has become unbearable,
+and we have sworn 'this day that brood shall die;' so the first thing
+after breakfast Esau and the Skipper toiled up the mountain with pockets
+full of cartridges and guns ready for the slaughter of the innocents.
+It takes just three quarters of an hour to get to the top; and after
+reaching it we tramped over some millions of acres in search of that
+brood, and of course it never obtruded itself on the scene. Finally the
+Skipper went home in disgust, remarking that 'he wished every ryper in
+Norway was at the bottom of Gjendin;' while Esau said 'he would stay up
+there a month or two and find those birds if they were anywhere on our
+sheet of the Ordnance map.'
+
+The Skipper had hardly walked 200 yards towards camp before he trod on
+the old cock, who got up observing kek! kek! kekkekkek_kek_, kurrack:
+kur_rack_; kurrack, krackrackackckkkkk! in an extremely indignant tone
+of voice, and the rest of the family immediately followed him,
+astonishing the Skipper so much that he missed the lot; and though we
+marked them down quite near we could not persuade any of them to risk
+their lives in flight again.
+
+The language used on this occasion scorched the herbage off so large a
+patch of ground, that John down below thought that Glopit had suddenly
+commenced a volcanic eruption.
+
+There are two kinds of birds known as ryper in Norway--the fjeld or
+skarv ryper, which is, we think, identical with our ptarmigan; and the
+dal or skog ryper, which we believe to be the same bird as the willow
+grouse of North America. The former of these is not numerous anywhere,
+but a few are always seen by the reindeer hunter up on the highest parts
+of the mountains, among the snow and rocks. They do not attempt much
+concealment, but their grey bodies and white wings are so exactly the
+colour of their habitation that it is very difficult to see them, as
+they sit perfectly still on the stones. If you do happen to catch sight
+of one, in all probability after looking at him for a little you will
+suddenly be aware that there is a small family of others all about him,
+and will wonder how they escaped your notice at first. They are not very
+useful for sporting purposes, as they are never found in great numbers,
+are too tame to give any trouble, and not particularly good to eat. The
+skog ryper is the bird which takes the place of the British grouse for
+the sportsman in Norway: he lives at a lower altitude than the skarv
+ryper, among the willows, wimberries, and stunted birches. In plumage he
+is not unlike our grouse, but not quite so red in shade, and with a
+white wing. During the summer he feeds on wimberry leaves, heather, and
+occasional bits of willow, and he is then almost if not quite equal to a
+grouse in flavour, but in winter, when there is nothing but willow to be
+had, the flesh becomes bitter and not nice to eat: the poor birds are
+then snared in great numbers, and may be seen hanging in English shops
+as 'ptarmigan,' which with their then white plumage they much resemble.
+After a good breeding season these skog ryper are very numerous in any
+favourable place in Norway, but they are so much inclined to lie close,
+that without dogs it is impossible to do much with them. Gjendin is too
+steep and desolate for them, but between the east end of the lake and
+Sj�dals Vand there is some first-rate country, and also a little at the
+west end.
+
+After lunch we all manned Esau's canoe, which is the largest, because he
+is the smallest man; and set off down the lake to Leirungs�, the place
+where the professor's hut is built at the edge of the waterfall which
+runs out of a small lake there (not the real Leirung's Vand, which is
+further to the east).
+
+The Skipper had noticed a remarkably fine bed of m�lte b�r there, which
+we expected to be just about ripe now, and so we had determined to
+picnic�(!) there, forsooth, as if our life were not one perpetual and
+perennial picnic.
+
+Leirungs� is nearly four miles from our camp, and the professor's hut is
+an extremely comfortable and convenient little dwelling, in a most
+charming situation. Only one thing has been wanting, reindeer: he never
+found any, and left his hut a fortnight ago for a place further north,
+where we afterwards heard he had good sport.
+
+After landing, the Skipper and Esau climbed up the valley to the little
+lake in search of something to shoot, while John remained to bathe and
+fish at the fall. There were lots of duck on the little lake, and in the
+rushy swamp at its upper end, and the Skipper put up a large brood of
+ryper, which we marked into a very small patch of willow scrub
+surrounded by bare ground. We walked through and through that patch, and
+threw so many stones into it that we fancy we must have killed and
+buried most of them, for we only persuaded four of them to fly again,
+three of which we secured. Our shooting was soon over, and then we
+gathered a lot of m�lte b�r, and returned to John, who was getting
+dinner ready; and after a regal repast of kidneys, reindeer pie, and
+m�lte, paddled home by moonlight, arriving soon after nine.
+
+We beguiled the journey home by songs and accompaniments by the
+following celebrated artists: Messrs. John, Skipper, and Esau. Among
+other songs was an original composition by John--air, 'Bonnie Dundee'--
+
+
+ODE TO THE LAST POT OF MARMALADE.
+
+  To the fishers of Gjendin the bold Skipper spoke:
+  'There is one two-pound pot that as yet is unbroke;[1]
+  So rouse ye, my gallants, and after our tea
+  Let us "go for" our Keiller's[2] own Bonnie Dundee.'
+
+    (_Chorus._) Come! up with the Sm�r![3] Come! out with the Brod,[4]
+    We'll have one more Spise[5] that's fit for a god;
+    Come, whip off the paper and let it gae free,
+    And we'll wade into Keiller's own Bonnie Dundee.
+
+  You may talk of your m�lte[6] with sugar and milk,
+  Your blueberry pasties, and jam of that ilk;
+  They are all very well in the wilds, don't you see?
+  But they can't hold a candle to Bonnie Dundee.
+
+    _Chorus as before._
+
+  Oh! the pies they were good, and the oven baked true,
+  With its door of green sod, and its sinuous flue.
+  Oh! the curry was toothsome as curry can be,
+  But where is the equal of Bonnie Dundee?
+
+    _Chorus again, gentlemen._
+
+  There are ryper on Glopit[7] as fleet as the wind,
+  And the Stor[8] Bock roams on the Skagastolstind;
+  There are trout, teal, and woodcock, a sight for to see,
+  But what meal can be perfect without our Dundee?
+
+    _Chorus, if you please._
+
+  Pandecages[9] are tasty, and omelettes are good;
+  Our eggs, though antique, not unsuited for food;
+  You can always be sure of at least one in three,
+  But blue mould cannot ruin our Bonnie Dundee.
+
+    _Chorus, only more so._
+
+  Take[10] my soup, though 'tis luscious, my �l,[11] though 'tis rare,
+  My whisky, though scanty, beyond all compare;
+  Take my baccy, take all that is dearest to me,
+  But leave me one spoonful of Bonnie Dundee.
+
+    _Chorus ad lib._
+
+Esau supplied an encore verse:--
+
+  It has made our lot brighter, and helped us to bear
+  Our troubles, the rain, mist, and cold northern air;
+  And the Gjende fly,[12] green fly,[13] bug,[14] skeeter,[15] and flea,
+  We should ne'er have done Deeing them but for Dundee.
+
+    _Chorus (of big, big D's)._
+
+
+NOTES ON THE ABOVE COMPOSITION.
+
+    [Footnote 1: 'Unbroke.' This is bold poetic imagery, meaning
+    unopened. Breakages were unknown during our expedition, and long
+    experience justifies us in assuring the world that breaking the
+    pot, though an effectual way of getting at the marmalade, is not a
+    satisfactory method. It will be found much better to remove the
+    bladder at the top. This may be depended�on.]
+
+    [Footnote 2: Need we explain that 'Keiller's own Bonnie Dundee'
+    alludes to the marmalade made by that great and good man? No,
+    a�thousand times�no!]
+
+    [Footnote 3: 'Sm�r,' Norwegian butter, pronounced Smoeurr--and it
+    tastes like that, too.]
+
+    [Footnote 4: 'Brod,' bread. The word does not rhyme to god, being
+    pronounced something like Broat, but it looks as if it rhymed.]
+
+    [Footnote 5: 'Spise,' a meal, pronounced Speessa.]
+
+    [Footnote 6: 'M�lte,' cloudberry, pronounced Moulta.]
+
+    [Footnote 7: 'Glopit,' the mountain between Gjendin and Rus Vand.]
+
+    [Footnote 8: 'Stor,' big, pronounced Stora before a consonant.]
+
+    [Footnote 9: 'Pandecages,' pancakes.]
+
+    [Footnote 10: 'Take.' This word is only used by poetic licence,
+    and must not be construed literally. When we attempted to 'take'
+    John's whisky on our return to camp, there was a good deal of
+    ill-feeling engendered, and he said that no one but himself
+    understood the subtleties of �sthetic metaphor.]
+
+    [Footnote 11: '�l,' the ale of the country, 'rare' both in quality
+    and, alas! in quantity.]
+
+    [Footnote 12: 'Gjende fly,' a fly peculiar to this lake, of which
+    more anon.]
+
+    [Footnote 13: 'Green fly,' a charming creature like a large grey
+    blue-bottle with green eyes; it bites a portion of flesh
+    sufficient for its wants, and then goes away to eat�it.]
+
+    [Footnote 14: 'Bug.' Again poetic licence. 'Cimex lectularius' has
+    not been encountered during our stay in Norway this time;
+    nevertheless he is not unknown in the country, as the sojourners
+    in one of the Lillehammer hotels, not the Victoria, can testify.]
+
+    [Footnote 15: 'Skeeter.' The mosquito is a mournful and
+    disgraceful fact; and so are the sand-fly, the stomoxys, and the
+    flea. Memurudalen is more free from insects than any place we have
+    tried.]
+
+
+_August 25._--Still the same glorious weather, rather too glorious for
+our purling rivulet, which has now dwindled away to a mere thread of
+water, while even the larger stream on the hill behind the tent, which
+we use for bathing, is showing a marked decrease in volume.
+
+The Skipper and �la went out stalking directly after breakfast, and Esau
+climbed up on to Bes H� to shoot ryper. John went over to Rus Vand to
+fish, and had a pleasant day. He managed somehow to drop his native
+'tolle kniv' into the lake, and of course immediately discovered that
+that knife was the most precious thing he possessed, in fact, the only
+thing he cared about in this world; though until it fell into the lake,
+he had regarded it with very unenthusiastic feelings--feelings of
+tolle-ration, the Skipper said. So he undressed and dived for it for a
+long time, and at last was lucky enough to recover it.
+
+It would have been a pleasing sight to a spectator, if any could have
+been present, to watch John playing at being a seal all by himself in
+Rus Vand, or standing on a rock poised on one leg like a heron, with his
+head sideways and keen eye piercing the cerulean wave. And it was good
+to see his proud bearing as he returned to camp with the 'tolle kniv'
+slung jauntily at his waist, and carrying over his shoulder the scaly
+spoil snatched from the vasty deep, as we used beautifully to word it in
+Latin verses--meaning the fish he had caught.
+
+  [Illustration: John diving for his knife in Rus Lake]
+
+At 8 P.M. the Skipper had not returned, so we dined, and then sat
+round the fire wondering what could have happened to delay him; and as
+time went on and still he never came, we began to get very uneasy;
+there are so many dangers by which the reindeer hunter may be
+overtaken--avalanches, crevasses, fogs, snowdrifts, broken limbs, or
+getting lost. We could only hope that none of these had happened to the
+Skipper, and at eleven o'clock gave up any hopes of his return that
+night and turned in, there being then a very decided fog a short way up
+the Memurua valley.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+THE SKIPPER'S RETURN.
+
+
+_August 26._--At breakfast-time the drover who had accompanied us to
+shoot ryper at Gjendebod arrived here on his way towards lower and more
+genial regions for the winter. We always feel that we are killing more
+game than we really need, and here was an outlet for our superfluous
+meat, so we gave him half a deer, and he went homewards rejoicing
+greatly.
+
+We had sent Ivar up to the drover's den in Memurudalen at daybreak to
+see if our missing ones had found their way to it and spent the night
+there, but he now came back without having found any traces of them.
+However, under the cheering influence of the morning sun we soon became
+resigned to their fate, and Esau so far regained his spirits that he
+crossed the glacier torrent with a gun, and penetrated the birchwood on
+the other side, to what he called 'shoot the home coverts.' He presently
+brought back a woodcock, which had got up about fourteen times before he
+killed it, and each time he had thought it was a fresh cock, so that he
+had had a regular sporting morning after it, 'seeing lots of cock get
+up, shooting at two, and killing one of them,' the wood being so thick
+that it was almost impossible to get even the snappiest of snap-shots at
+the agile bird.
+
+Esau then busied himself with the construction of a rack to hold all our
+guns and spare rods, cleaning rod, &c., with a shelf near the bottom for
+books, and another one whereon each man might keep his little valuables,
+such as pipes and watch, fly-books and reels. This contrivance was
+chiefly formed of birch boughs of peculiar shape, and when finished and
+placed in its proper position at the further end of the tent just behind
+our pillows, it presented a truly noble appearance.
+
+Lunch-time passed, and still the Skipper had not returned, so we decided
+that he must be defunct, and proceeded to write his epitaph, preparatory
+to organising a search expedition to bring in his remains.
+
+Here is one touching little poem:
+
+  He was rather tall and terribly thin,
+    But remarkably roomy inside;
+  We put up these stones to cover his bones
+    Near the place where we think he died.
+
+This is another:
+
+  IN MEMURUHAMEREN
+  (Hills Round the Camp).
+
+  Our Skipper has gone, our great head cook,
+    On a tour that e'en Cook won't find;
+  In a fissure he's surely taken his hook
+    Nor left any trace behind.
+
+  With a rod or pole he would fish for perch,
+    Now a rod, pole, or perch of ground
+  Is more than he needs, and in vain we search,
+    For his body will ne'er be found.
+
+  Now his angling is finished, though once every fin
+    Which came within reach he'd attack;
+  He was really so clever at reeling them in,
+    And his terms were to fish, 'nett catsh.'
+
+  On a lake or pond, or even a moat,
+    He beamed wherever he went;
+  How cheerfully he would tar his boat!
+    How gaily would pitch his tent!
+
+  After ryper or deer he would walk all day,
+    From the top of a hill to the bottom;
+  And we feel it unpleasantly sad to say
+    That the dear old Reaper's got him.
+
+  But we think it is time that this verse were done,
+    Which to mournfully write we've tried
+  In memory o' our darlin' one,
+    Who in Memurudalen died.
+
+While we were still lingering over these beautiful and appropriate
+sentiments, and deliberating as to whether they should be cut on a stone
+or only on wood, the corpse suddenly walked into the tent and announced
+that he wanted something to eat. We soon got over our natural
+disappointment at the waste of a good epitaph, and really welcomed him
+quite warmly, much more so when �la appeared laden with the tit-bits of
+a reindeer buck. Then we set food before the Skipper, and after he had
+feasted he related unto us his story.
+
+'I left camp yesterday morning determined to beard the savage untamed
+reindeer of the mountains in his lair, and soon came on very fresh
+tracks, which we followed for some time, and at each step seemed to get
+"hotter," as the children say, and the indications of deer being near
+got more and more encouraging. However, by one o'clock we had seen
+nothing, so sat down behind a little rocky eminence to have our 'spise.'
+Mine was a particularly good lunch, as I had spread some gravy from the
+'boss pie' on my slice of bread and butter, and this with the icy cold
+snow-water was very grateful after a four hours' walk uphill under a
+scorching sun.
+
+  [Illustration: The Skipper about to astonish the Reindeer]
+
+'�la also seemed to devour his food with considerable relish. So we had
+been sitting there some time, happily silent, as we cannot talk each
+other's tongue, and I was just preparing to move on, and putting my
+knife back in its sheath, when we heard a slight snort quite close
+to�us.
+
+'�la immediately peeped cautiously over an adjacent stone; then he
+pushed my rifle into my hand and whispering the magic word "Reins,"
+pointed to another stone a few yards away, whither he wished me to
+crawl. To unsling my cartridge-bag lest it should jingle, and creep to
+that stone, was what the novelists call the work of a moment: then I
+raised my head _va-a-ry_ gingerly, and saw forty yards away a single
+four-year-old buck standing broadside to me with his head in the air,
+sniffing suspiciously, and his whole attitude denoting uncertainty and
+caution. This buck, as we found out afterwards from the spoor, had
+walked up to within ten yards of us as we sat at lunch; then he must
+have either heard me or smelt �la, probably the latter, for �la seldom
+washes his hands, never his blood-stained hunting coat; and when I
+encountered his gaze he had evidently just decided that this was not a
+good place for reindeer to be about in. This was an excellent frame of
+mind on his part, but he arrived at it a couple of seconds too late: my
+rifle was levelled, and the shot hit him just above the heart. At that
+distance the express bullet smashed a portion of him about as big as a
+hat, so that he rolled over stone dead, and had no time for lingering
+glances or last words. Half an hour more, and he was skinned,
+gralloched, put in a hole and buried under a heap of stones, to remain
+there until we need his flesh and send the horse to bring him home. Then
+we built a little cairn to mark his resting-place for future use, and
+wandered on in search of the rest of his party.
+
+'Very soon we came on the tracks of four other deer, one of them only a
+calf, but although we followed the spoor all the afternoon we never came
+up with them: probably they were near enough to hear my shot when I
+fired, and at once betook themselves to remote regions.
+
+  [Illustration: �la performing the Funeral Rites]
+
+'It had got so late before we gave up the search, and we were such a
+long way from home, that we determined to go to Gjendebod, at the
+Western end of the lake, hoping to get a boat there and return to
+Memurudalen by water. But on arriving there very tired, hot, and hungry,
+we found that the men had taken their boat down the lake, and would not
+return until to-day. This was a great blow, for it is quite impossible
+to walk along the shores of Gjendin, except, as John says, for a
+bird--and even it would have to fly all the way. Climbing up the
+mountain again was out of the question, as it is a seven hours' walk
+from Gjendebod to our camp, so there was nothing for it but sleeping
+there--a course which was very distasteful to me, as the food is bad,
+and I had no book with me, no tobacco, no hair-brush, and no
+fishing-rod.
+
+'To-day I started for home directly after breakfast. We wished to
+combine a little stalking with the walk, for we had to pass through some
+first-rate deer country--all that part, Esau, where you got your first
+two bucks; but of course we had not much chance of doing anything, as
+the wind was with us all the way. As you know, deer almost always feed
+up wind, so by walking against it you are safe from their ears and
+noses, and also are likely to be warned of their presence by coming on
+their tracks first. But in walking down wind all this is reversed; you
+come upon the deer without any warning, and they are almost sure to
+smell or hear you long before you discover them. Consequently, as we
+expected, we saw nothing on our way here to-day.'
+
+The Skipper's buck is a very good one, the best that has been killed at
+present, and there was much joy at his change of luck. But strictly
+speaking his bad luck has pursued him even in this instance, for if he
+had not been obliged to shoot when he did, in all probability the rest
+of the herd would have appeared on the scene, for their tracks showed
+that they were following the lead of this buck. Besides, there is not
+the same excitement in a chance shot like this as there is when you
+first find the deer, and then spend two or three hours in all kinds of
+uncomfortable modes of progression in order to approach them.
+
+However, when we were in this country before the Skipper had all the
+good luck, and Esau the bad, the former getting five deer and the latter
+only two, so that the present state of affairs may be looked upon as the
+working of retributive justice. When this view of the matter was
+suggested by Esau to the Skipper, he said, 'Retributive justice be
+blowed!'
+
+We celebrated the joyful reunion of loving hearts by a skaal, and so to
+bed, perfectly happy after the events of the day.
+
+
+_August 27._--We sent the men off this morning with the horse to bring
+in some of the meat now lying in the mountains, while we went by canoe
+to Gjendesheim to stay for a couple of days, as we cannot go stalking
+again till the already slain deer are brought home; the fish in the lake
+are not rising well after this long spell of fine weather, and with the
+exception of Esau's 'home coverts' there is no shooting for a
+fowling-piece at Memurudalen.
+
+Very few tourists find their way to Gjendin, but the season for them is
+over, and we expected to have the place to ourselves; but how fallible
+is human prescience! To our astonishment the sportsmen from Rus Vand had
+already occupied the greater part of the house, having abandoned their
+own hut for the same reasons which had led us to forsake our camp, and
+here they were, armed to the teeth with rods and guns.
+
+This seemed unlucky, and although we were outwardly glad to see them, at
+heart we could not help feeling how inconsiderate it was of them to come
+and shoot the fjeld and fish the river just when we wanted to do all
+that ourselves. No doubt they harboured precisely the same feelings
+towards�us.
+
+However, we had dinner together, and introduced the 'boss pie,' now
+rapidly disappearing, to the notice of our Norwegian friends, and as the
+meal advanced a feeling of genial contentment crept over us, which
+seemed to influence all our senses; we began to talk over sport and
+compare our experiences in various countries and in pursuit of various
+animals: some of us were good listeners, others fond of talking, but all
+animated by a love for the same occupation, so that when at length one
+of the enemy handed round the best of cigars, even the Skipper became so
+mellow and pleasant that before going to bed we arranged for a joint
+shoot after ryper to-morrow; and said 'Good night,' feeling that it was
+quite fortunate that we had all come to Gjendesheim on the same day.
+
+One of our new friends is a Russian, an engineer officer; he speaks not
+the English, but we were introduced to him as a man who had shot more
+bears in Europe than any one else living. He has killed forty-two, and
+looks as though he had been hugged by each one of them before it finally
+succumbed. Now he wants to kill a reindeer, and has been attempting the
+feat to-day; apparently he will be _hors de combat_ for the rest of the
+week, as he can hardly move for stiffness: he has not been accustomed to
+the awful walking that stalking round Gjendin entails.
+
+Esau is also rather dilapidated, for he landed at Leirungs� on his way
+down the lake, and walked round the mountain to Gjendesheim, leaving
+John to bring on his canoe. On his way he was obliged to wade across the
+Leirungs River, a�wide and rapid stream, and just in the roughest part
+he trod on a loose stone and fell, cutting his knee and making a bad
+dent in his gun-barrel. Of course he was wet through and a good deal
+hurt, but hardly enough to account for the frightful state of his
+temper, till it came out that though he had walked through miles of
+beautiful ground for ryper, snipe, and duck, he had never got a shot at
+anything.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE GJENDE FLY.
+
+
+_August 28._--This was the hottest, most windless and cloudless day that
+has yet been made. The Russian and F---- went out with Esau and the
+Skipper to shoot ryper, accompanied by a pointer, which the Norwegians
+call a bird-hound. A�brood was soon found and rose in front of Esau, who
+with his usual promptitude got a right and left; whereupon the Russian
+took off his hat, and bowing profoundly, advanced and solemnly shook
+hands with him, protesting that he had frequently seen marvellous
+shooting, but never, never aught like this; at least, that is what we
+imagined to be the translation of the neat little speech which he made
+in Russian.
+
+A ryper is easier to kill, if possible, than the tamest young grouse
+which gets up under a dog's nose on the calmest 12th of August; and Esau
+thinks fame is like an eel on a night-line, easily caught, but very
+difficult to hold afterwards.
+
+Satisfied by having witnessed this extraordinary specimen of our skill,
+the Russian gave up the chase, and returned to Gjendesheim completely
+exhausted by the heat; but the others went on till the afternoon, now
+finding a selfish old cock, whose fate no one regretted; now a young
+brood only just old enough to be shot: anon lying down to rest and eat
+berries, or bathing in the Leirungs Lake, but all the time extremely
+happy.
+
+F---- was so exceedingly polite that he would _not_ shoot unless birds
+enough for all of us happened to get up at once, and one brood escaped
+without a shot being fired, in consequence of our unwonted emulation of
+his courtesy.
+
+Near Leirungs we were fortunate enough to drive three large broods into
+the same bit of willow scrub, and had some very pretty shooting as the
+dog set them one by one; but there was hardly any scent, and the heat
+soon proved too much for our bird-hound, so we returned to Gjendesheim
+with a very considerable addition to the larder.
+
+Then followed hours of inability to do anything except lie on our backs
+with lighted pipes in our mouths, far too exhausted to smoke them; and
+at last--dinner; and soon the cooler air brought relief and engendered a
+return of bloodthirstiness, which impelled the gang of sportsmen to
+sally forth and rake the river till it was quite rough with artificial
+flies.
+
+This was a trying time, for by some means we have established a most
+dangerously flattering reputation as fishermen, and were bound to do all
+we knew to retain it. However, all turned out right; the Skipper went
+into the lake and got several beauties, and Esau did the same in the
+river, so that we came in with the best bags by a considerable margin,
+and could now afford to catch nothing for a whole day without being
+dethroned from our pedestal.
+
+The river, Gjendinoset as it is called, just in front of the rest-house,
+is a wonderful piece of water; there are about 150 yards of rapid in
+which the fish lie, then comes a fall, and below that there are nothing
+at present but small fish, though the big ones will soon begin to drop
+down lower for spawning. Consequently we all fish in the first 150
+yards, and to-day between 50 and 60 lbs. weight has been taken out; the
+same quantity yesterday, and probably for some days before; and the
+fishing will be even better a few days later, for the Gjende fly is
+beginning to hatch, and as long as he lasts the fish will rise well.
+
+We have heard so much of this fly that we had been expecting something
+rather gorgeous, a�monster dragon-fly, or at least a second-rate
+butterfly, or a decent imitation of a stag-beetle; and we have been
+looking up gaudy Scotch and Canadian salmon flies, which we hoped might
+be passable substitutes; but, alas for the vain hopes of foolish man!
+the Gjende fly has come, and he is only a wretched little black beast
+like a very small, unenterprising, common or garden house-fly of Great
+Britain. He cannot fly decently; he is apparently devoid of sense; he
+has no moral, physical, or intellectual attributes for which a human
+being can learn to respect or love him; but--he _can_ CRAWL. If he
+alights on the water it never occurs to him to rise again, and he allows
+the trout, mad with the excitement of a fortnight's prospective
+gluttony, to scoop him down their capacious throats by companies. If he
+enters your mouth, which he does with a numerous retinue every time you
+open it, retreat from that untenable position is the very last thing he
+would think of; and with what may be a gleam of momentary intelligence
+he seems desirous of still further increasing his knowledge of the rest
+of your interior arrangements.
+
+With characteristic obstinacy, unmindful of the teachings of logic, he
+invariably acts on the fallacious maxim that 'an ink-bottle cannot be so
+full that there is not room for just one more Gjende fly.' The whole of
+the river here at the end of the lake, and for thirty yards on each
+side, is now pervaded by this noisome creature; the water looks as if it
+were covered with a mixture of soot and tar, the rocks are black and
+slippery with him, and the atmosphere is charged with him, so that the
+landscape dimly seen through the cloud looks as if it were dancing.
+
+Gjendesheim itself is unfortunately not quite beyond the zone which he
+infests, so that the windows look loathsome with crawling blackness; the
+tablecloth is strewn with the corpses of those who have imbibed the
+honeyed poison of the paraffin lamp and come to an untimely end, and the
+remains of the 'boss pie' would warrant a stranger in the belief that it
+had been composed of currants.
+
+We think Pharaoh must have been a man of extraordinary resolution, or
+else inane mildness of character, otherwise he would have sacrificed
+Moses long before the fourth Plague was concluded.
+
+Fortunately the Gjende fly has no insatiable craving for human flesh;
+the Skipper, indeed, asserted that one fastened on his hand and
+inflicted a wound that swelled enormously and remained swollen for
+several days, but the better opinion is that the creature that
+perpetrated this outrage must have been a viper, though we did not hint
+this to the Skipper, because he is firmly convinced that whisky is the
+only remedy for snake-bites, and that it must be taken in large
+quantities.
+
+If any one stuck up a rod near the river, in two minutes it looked like
+a black fir pole with a bunch on the top; and John, who is a man of
+great entomological knowledge, spent some time in studying this
+phenomenon. He reported that the flies crawled up for fun, intending to
+jump off the top ring, but when they got up it was so much higher than
+they expected that they were all afraid to try, and those at the bottom
+and halfway up kept jeering at the top ones and calling them names, and
+jostling them so much that they could not crawl down again. He also said
+that the swarm in the air was so dense that he wrote his name in it with
+his finger, and it remained visible for nearly a minute.
+
+Probably it is difficult for a man to speak the exact truth with his
+mouth full of (_f_)lies.
+
+When it was too dark to fish we sat round the fire and heard a good deal
+about the various winter sports of Norway, capercailzie stalking, bear
+hunting, elk and reindeer shooting, and running on skier, the snow-shoes
+of the country, which are very different from the well-known Canadian
+shoes, being made of wood, from six to twelve feet long, four inches
+wide in front, three behind, about an inch and a half thick where the
+foot rests, thinner at each end, and turned up and pointed in front.
+Every district has its own peculiar shape; about here the right shoe is
+made six feet long, the left one ten or eleven feet, it being more easy
+to turn if one is shorter than the other: some are made of pine, some of
+birch, and occasionally oak. The men of the Thellemarken are the most
+skilful runners, but it is now quite a fashionable amusement in
+Christiania during the winter, just as skating is in England.
+
+_Sunday, August 29._--Our Norwegian friends departed for the happy
+hunting-grounds of Rus Vand this morning, but before doing so they most
+kindly offered us the hut there any time after this week, at the end of
+which they are going south. We can hardly expect the present glorious
+weather, which has now lasted for three weeks, to go on for ever; and
+when the change comes, a�tent will no longer be the abode of comfort and
+luxury that we at present find it, so that the offer of the hut is most
+opportune for�us.
+
+We parted with great regret from people who have been so kind and
+hospitable, and many were the expressions of good-will and protestations
+of eternal friendship, as we shall not see them again till we pass
+through Christiania on our return home.
+
+That return home has caused the Skipper hours of anxious thought
+already: there is to be a wedding in England about the end of next
+month, at which, although it is not his own, his presence is urgently
+needed. He knows he ought to go, but hates to leave this blissful life
+just when the best stalking is beginning; consequently he devotes much
+time every day to the consideration of the subject, torn by doubts,
+tortured by terrible misgivings, and harassed by indecision.
+
+To-day, after being more than usually disagreeable under the malign
+influence of his conscience, and seeking for inspiration, first in the
+room at Gjendesheim, walking up and down like Weston; then on the lake
+paddling like a penny boat; and finally roosting on a rock at the top of
+the fjeld with his arms folded like Napoleon, and a gruesome scowl on
+his face, or at least on those portions of it which were visible through
+the mask of Gjende flies, he at last concluded to commit his fate to the
+decision of an unbiassed coin, if such could be obtained from any
+confiding friend.
+
+With great difficulty he persuaded Esau to lend him one �re, value 1/100
+of a shilling, which seems on reckoning to be about half a farthing;
+Esau observing as he gave it, 'It isn't that I'm stingy, old fellow,
+though of course I don't expect to see it again, but it _will_ throw my
+accounts out so.' N.B.--Esau's notion of keeping accounts is to put his
+receipts into one pocket, _and his disbursements into another_; if he
+has a vague idea to within 20_l._ or so of how the money has gone, it
+will be more than any one expects; that everything he possesses will be
+spent is a foregone conclusion.
+
+But to resume. The �re coin has no distinct head or tail, so the Skipper
+named one side heads, and tossed. The thing fell on its edge, and rolled
+round the table and about the room till it struck the wall, whereupon it
+fell over 'heads,' and decided that the Skipper must go to the wedding.
+
+So he sat down and wrote a letter saying that they must not expect him,
+and that he should stay out here the whole time that was originally
+intended; for as soon as he had dated the letter it occurred to him that
+it would be childish to allow such a weighty matter to be decided by the
+whim of a half-farthing coin, which might very likely be interested in
+the affair in some way, and which, as he truly said, would possibly have
+turned up 'tails' if it had not happened to fall on its edge and been
+interfered with by an unauthorized wall.
+
+Having thus acted according to his inclinations, and given his missive
+to Andreas to post when he leaves Gjendesheim next week, the Skipper
+became quite pleasant again, and went forth to his fishing 'ever and all
+so gaily�O.'
+
+The ponies of Norway are wonderfully docile and clever; these qualities
+were well shown to-day in a black one belonging to Jens which came to
+take F----'s baggage over the mountain to Rus Vand. This pony was
+brought down near the door of the rest-house, and left standing there
+without any fastening or any one to look after him. The things were not
+ready, so he waited about two hours, occasionally wiping off the Gjende
+flies with his tail when their weight became insupportable, but
+otherwise never moving. The busy world (consisting of Andreas and
+Ragnild) pursued their usual avocations around him, goats ran against
+him, and insects climbed over him, but there he stood placid and
+motionless as a wooden rocking-horse. At last the baggage was ready, and
+they brought it out and piled it on his back until we feared he would
+break, and then Jens turned his head in the direction of Rus Vand, and
+gave him a gentle push to start him; and he went slowly off up the
+mountain, choosing the best way for himself, for no one went with him;
+in fact, Jens did not follow him for about half an hour, but no doubt he
+was found at the right place in the end. The whole performance reminded
+one of a clockwork toy, and John remarked as we stood and watched him
+out of sight over the pass, 'Now, that's what I call a well-trained
+pony.'
+
+During our stay here we had the pleasure of forming the acquaintance of
+an elk-dog. This animal is taken out in a kind of harness to which a
+rope is fastened, the other end of the rope being attached to the
+hunter's belt; and his legitimate occupation is finding elk in a forest
+by scent, and denoting their presence by his behaviour before the hunter
+gets within range of the elk's eyes, ears, or nose. Mr. Thomas brought
+him up here hoping to find reindeer with him in the same manner, as he
+had been unable to get a Finmarker[*] broken to reindeer; but the
+experiment has not been successful, for the dog has been so carefully
+trained to elk, that he exhibits a large and lofty contempt for so
+pusillanimous a creature as a reindeer, and will not confess that he has
+discovered the existence of such a thing at all.
+
+    [Footnote: Finmarker is the kind of dog usually employed for
+    finding reindeer: the name being derived from the district of
+    which it is a native.]
+
+But in addition to the fact that he finds no deer, he is a good deal of
+trouble from the fastidiousness of his appetite. It appears that he is
+accustomed to feed on dogs, and when he cannot get dogs he can rough it
+very well for a short time on boys or any other plain fare; but up here,
+where dogs are few and boys are extinct, he is having a very poor time
+of it. The last place where he had a really square meal was at
+Skj�ggestad, on the journey up, where he was lucky enough to get a whole
+dog and some portions of boy; since then he has only had limbs snatched
+off adventurous observers, and altogether seems to be pining for want of
+proper nourishment. He is about the height of a colley, but with an
+enormous chest and limbs, a�head something like an Esquimaux, a�wiry
+reddish yellow coat, and a most unkindly expression of countenance.
+In the absence of sufficient flesh food he appears to be developing a
+liking for man-diet, so we did not remain long in his society, for which
+indeed we only craved after we had perceived through a chink in the door
+of his dwelling that he was moored to a beam by a kind of anchor chain.
+We have often heard that there is a certain amount of danger in the
+pursuit of the elk; if the hunter is always accompanied by a dog of this
+kind we can easily understand it. However, he was a very interesting
+animal, and if we had a National School at Memurudalen we should
+certainly have tried to buy him, as there is any amount of room for
+_d�bris_ there. What a boon he would be in some of the thickly populated
+districts of England!
+
+In the afternoon we paddled leisurely back to our camp and found it
+looking prettier than ever, but, alas! our little stream had ceased to
+run. However, there is another one not more than forty yards away, so we
+shall not be much troubled by its loss.
+
+
+_August 30._--The sun still shines upon us from a cloudless sky, and
+early in the morning, before any breeze springs up, the lake makes a
+most beautiful picture, with its steep mountain sides and foaming
+torrents so perfectly reflected in the green unruffled water. But,
+lovely as it is, its beauty is rather wasted on us now, for it has been
+just the same for the last three weeks, with the outlines all hard and
+clearly defined, and none of the graduated effects of distance which we
+get from the hazy climate at home: in this clear atmosphere the peaks
+twenty miles away are as bright as those a mile or so beyond the lake.
+Probably this is the reason why we so seldom see pictures of Norwegian
+mountain scenery, and that the few which do appear are often condemned
+as hard, cold, and unsatisfactory.
+
+The most prominent object in looking towards the lake from our camp is a
+curious pyramidal mound, about thirty feet high, close to the water's
+edge. It is so regular in shape that we have devoted many hours of
+cogitation and argument to the discovery of its history.
+
+John (who is a man of considerable arch�ological fame) maintains that it
+is a funeral barrow in which some ancient Viking was buried, and he
+wants us to give up our cartridges for the purpose of constructing a
+mine and blasting him out: we have vainly represented to him that it
+cannot be a Viking's tomb, because there is absolutely nothing to Vike
+up here.
+
+The Skipper says it is a glacial moraine, 'any donkey can see that at a
+glance;' and Esau holds to the opinion that it is an artificial mound
+put up for ancient regiments of Gjendin yeomen and Memurudalen militia
+to practise archery at. Possibly none of these theories give the correct
+solution; but, whatever its origin, it makes a capital rifle butt for
+our occasional shooting. Esau was heard to irreverently remark, as he
+aimed at it with the Skipper's rifle, 'he guessed an express bullet
+would rouse old Jarl Hakon out of that,' but nothing particular
+followed.
+
+To-day the Skipper composed an Irish stew as a _pi�ce de r�sistance_,
+which, when it came to table, was unanimously voted the best of all the
+excellent dishes on which we have feasted here. After dinner we made an
+enormous fire for the sole purpose of warmth, as the nights are now very
+cold, and during this fine weather after sunset a strong draught sets
+down our valley towards the lake. We have ascertained that a like
+draught blows down each of the other valleys running into Gjendin,
+making the lake a centre. That in ours begins gently directly the sun
+has set, and increases in strength until it amounts to a stiff breeze;
+and as it comes direct from the vast snow fjelds, it is a disagreeably
+chilly blast, which freezes that side of our bodies remote from the
+fire, and leads us to envy the happy condition of a leg of mutton
+attached to a roasting-jack. That, 'o�nimium fortunatum!' enjoys equally
+in every part the genial warmth, while man has no mechanical arrangement
+by which his immortal soul can be rendered blissful through the medium
+of a temperate body.
+
+In the morning a breeze begins to blow out of the lake into all the
+valleys; illustrating on a small scale the cause of land and sea breezes
+all over the world. The Skipper and John (who is a man of profound
+science) have elaborated a theory explaining the exact reason of this
+interesting phenomenon; but as their explanation is entirely opposed to
+the teachings of Dr. Brewer and the opinions of Professor Tyndall, and
+involves a rearrangement of existing notions concerning radiation and
+the movements of the heavenly bodies, we think it best to exclude it
+from these pages, as this is not a simply scientific work, and we have
+no desire to hurt the feelings of even the above-named misguided
+philosophers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+DISASTER.
+
+
+_August 31._--We have got quite tired of writing 'Another beautiful
+day,' and in future shall bring notebooks to Norway with these words
+ready printed at the top of each page.
+
+The Skipper paddled away to Gjendebod, to bring home the deerskin which
+he had left there to dry. He returned with a splendid bag of the best
+trout that ever came out of Gjendin, and that means the best in the
+world; but he was in a state of great indignation because he had been
+charged 5s. 6d. for beds, dinners, and breakfasts for himself and �la
+when they stayed there a few nights ago. This is the result of living in
+a cheap country for two months: to the ordinary Englishman it would not
+appear an exorbitant hotel bill, especially when the hotel (!) is fifty
+miles from a town, and only open for two months in the year.
+
+Just at bedtime Esau crawled into the tent saying that he had strained
+his back in lifting a stone: he was in such pain that he could hardly
+stand, and was white and shivering. We undressed him and put him to bed,
+and then produced the liniment from the 'medicine chest,' by which name
+we dignify the cigar-box which contains our little stock of drugs. Then
+John spent an hour viciously rubbing remedies into his victim's back, as
+one rubs oil into a bat, so that Esau presently groaned out, 'Thanks,
+John, I�think that will do, I�feel a great deal better now;' and
+certainly he did seem to experience a kind of relief as soon as the
+rubbing stopped. After this we turned�in.
+
+
+_September 1._--Esau spent a sleepless night, and this morning could not
+move. Thereupon John nobly closed with him for another half-hour's
+rubbing, which had a decided effect, and after giving him some
+breakfast, we carried him out and made a comfortable bed for him under
+the Sycamine tree, and there left him with the library and all his
+belongings in easy reach.
+
+At midday John returned from fishing to lunch with the invalid, and we
+wondered how all our friends in England were getting on with the
+partridges, and almost wished we were there for a few minutes, as we
+pictured to ourselves Eddie and Jack both talking sixteen to the dozen
+at lunch over beefsteak pie and beer (fancy beer, John!); old Blank,
+with two young dogs tied to him, perspiring over the downs; and the
+Major sitting with his cigar aboard the yacht at Cowes, and thinking how
+snug his birds were lying down Gorseham way, not to be disturbed till
+his return next month to shoot at them, while all the time the Furzely
+boys were walking them up, and making them as wild as hawks.
+
+After lunch, John accomplished what has long been his great desire, the
+ascent of the sugar-loaf mountain across the Memurua; and after boiling
+a thermometer at the topmost peak, burying a pocket handkerchief
+(thoughtfully borrowed from Esau, who was too unwell to refuse him
+anything), and 'carving his name on the Newgate Stone with his Tollekniv
+fine tra la,' he returned in raptures about the view, and overcome with
+sublime and poetical emotions, which did not subside until he had poured
+forth his soul to his two friends at dinner.
+
+The Skipper stalked without success, though he found the tracks of a
+good herd that had only just passed over the ground. Though the day was
+so pleasant, he had not exactly enjoyed his walk, for he could not help
+being filled with gloomy forebodings about Esau; picturing to himself
+the difficulties that would arise in getting men to carry the invalid
+down to Christiania in a litter, with him yelling at every step. But
+behold, how untrustworthy a thing is imagination! when the Skipper
+arrived in camp, he was agreeably surprised to find the object of his
+solicitude sitting up and actually stirring the rice for the curry, so
+marvellous had been the effect of John's lubrication; assisted by the
+support to his back of a kind of splint composed of birch bark, a�towel,
+and two straps.
+
+
+_September 2._--John ate new bread again for dinner yesterday, and the
+Skipper was aroused in the middle of the night by a claw reaching out
+from the adjoining bed, which clutched his pillow and rug and tried to
+drag them away; the whole of this being accompanied by blood-curdling
+groans and hideous yells. He became more peaceful after a short time,
+but the Skipper is now in mortal fear lest John should again suffer from
+indigestion, and again stretch out that gruesome claw, and grabbing him
+by the hair, drag him forth from the tent, and with demoniac shrieks
+stamp the life out of his frail body, while he makes the quiet valley
+re-echo to his triumphant mocking laughter. This, the Skipper asserts,
+would be only one step beyond his conduct of last night.
+
+The latest scientific observations have caused us to re-classify the
+different altitudes thus:--First, the country of high cultivation and
+wild strawberries; above that the zone of uncleared pine forests and
+most of the berries; then the belt of stunted birches and black game;
+higher still, that of cows and goats; and above that, the country where
+reindeer flourish and snow lies all the year round. This takes us to the
+summit of all things earthly, and in this zone there is hardly any
+vegetation. Beyond it is the region of eagles, but in the present
+incomplete state of human knowledge we have been content to explore this
+highest zone by letting our spirits soar aloft without our bodies.
+
+Gjendin is just at the highest point of the stunted-birch belt, and when
+the wind gets into the N.W. the thermometer, without waiting to reflect,
+falls a great distance very hurriedly. John, having no sheepskin,
+suffers a good deal from the cold at night; and the haughtiness of his
+spirit is so far broken that he now sleeps in two pairs of trousers,
+three shirts, and a coat, besides all his rugs. A�few short weeks ago he
+turned from us with an air of aristocratic nausea when we were getting
+into bed clothed in a single shirt and pair of trousers, donning for his
+part a linen nightshirt, an effeminacy previously unheard of in camp
+life.
+
+These things are changed now, and it is difficult to persuade him not to
+go to bed with his boots on; but it has to be prevented on account of
+the new bread.
+
+The monotony of an uneventful day was only broken by the occasional
+rubbing of Esau's back, amidst the victim's agonised appeals for mercy,
+as he thinks it is rubbed away to the bone. However, the effect is
+magnificent, and he can now hobble about camp and be useful to a certain
+extent.
+
+                      MENU.--September 2.
+
+     _Vins._         Truite � l'Irlandais.       _L�gumes._
+  Onion Sauce.          Salmi of Ryper.          Crumpets.
+                       Woodcock � l'Oven.
+                Compote of Rice and Wimberries.
+
+After dinner we dug a small hole in the floor of the outer tent, in
+which we placed a spadeful of red-hot embers from the fire. This is a
+capital device for obtaining warmth in a tent, as there is no smoke, and
+the embers keep glowing for a very long time; possibly it might be
+dangerous in a very close-fitting tent, but ours is airy, not to say
+hurricany.
+
+Round this fire we sat and talked and smoked until bedtime, hoping
+against hope for a few more days of sunshine; but when we turned in, the
+wind was howling and moaning along the hill-side in a very ominous and
+unpleasant manner.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+A CHANGE.
+
+
+_September 3._--'Forty below Nero' was the probable position of the
+thermometer during the night. Esau declares that his back is quite well,
+but it is suspected that he only does this in order to avoid the
+administration of further remedies by John.
+
+However, we consider this such a successful cure that we here give our
+recipe for strained backs to an expectant world, not as a sordid
+advertisement, but from pure philanthropic motives.
+
+'Take the patient and place him on a grassy spot in the sun, and
+lubricate with oil; rub this in for three hours with the hand; seize his
+wrist and feel the pulse (if you can find it), displaying at the same
+time a large gold watch; look profound; mutter inwardly. Now shift him
+gently to a shaded position; and having lighted a fire to the windward,
+prepare and cook thereon fourteen or fifteen pancakes, and administer
+while hot (as a mixture, not a lotion). Take care that the aroma of each
+cooking pancake is wafted in the direction of the patient. Carry this
+principle throughout all his nourishment. Explain to him that deer
+abound in the neighbouring mountains; show him quantities of
+fresh-caught fish and newly killed ryper; ensure a week of fine weather,
+and if this do not cure him he must be a _malade imaginaire_.'
+
+Notwithstanding the improvement, of course Esau was not fit to go
+stalking, and this and other reasons suddenly induced us to leave
+Memurudalen to-day for good, and go to Gjendesheim on our way to Rus
+Vand. So we made a last gigantic pie, packed up, lunched, and then
+pulled down the tent, which had been standing so long now on the same
+spot, and embarked everything on board our two canoes and the
+Gjendesheim boat, which had been lent to us. Then the whole fleet sailed
+from these hospitable shores 'neath a stormy sky, with cold wind and
+rain, and the towering heights of Memurutungen all wrapped in angry
+clouds, frowning blackly above�us.
+
+It was quite sad to leave the snug little corner where we have spent
+such a happy, careless time, with all the comforts which we have added
+gradually to our temporary home; and the valley looked very desolate
+without the tent, the cheerful fire, and 'the meteor flag.'
+
+Esau's last act was to fill two brass cartridge cases with water and
+hammer them firmly into each other; the air-tight boiler so formed he
+put into the fire under the oven, and after waiting a short time for the
+explosion, forgot all about it and went away without telling any one.
+Just then John arrived at the spot to see if there were any loose
+belongings lying about, and was horrified to observe the oven suddenly
+elevate itself into the air and disappear among the clouds with a loud
+report. His mind at once reverted to the happy life of a landlord in co.
+Limerick, but he soon realised the true state of affairs, and came down
+to the lake muttering something about 'tomdamfoolery,' a�Norwegian word
+which expresses censure of the silly custom of practical joking.
+
+This morning we found a merlin sitting just outside the tent door; it
+had evidently been stuffing itself with scraps of offal from the camp
+until it was perfectly stupid and could scarcely fly. Esau wanted to
+knock it on the head at first, but more humane feelings came over him,
+so he fetched his rifle and shot it for an hour or so, till at length
+the bird, wearied by the constant noise, retired into the birch woods,
+and we saw it no more.
+
+There are usually several ravens near the camp, which come down to
+'carry off carrion,' but otherwise there are not many birds here: the
+most common are buzzards and kestrels, which abound; two eagles, which
+are generally soaring above Memurutungen; a�pair of ospreys occasionally
+flying about the lake; a�rough-legged buzzard seen once, a�few merlins,
+and a small short-tailed red hawk, with whom we are not acquainted;
+sometimes black-throated divers and scaups on the lake, and a few
+fieldfares and redwings in the birch woods. We have found many nests of
+the latter in the trees, and one of a fieldfare in a bank.
+
+What rare times all the birds and beasts of prey will have for the next
+few days in Memurudalen! only to be equalled by the early days of the
+Australian gold fever. Nuggets of inestimable value in the shape of
+heads, tails, and other portions of reindeer, ryper, duck, and
+trout--intermingled with other delicacies, such as potato skins, jam and
+marmalade pots, and whisky bottles--will from time to time be unearthed
+amidst shrieks of triumph. 'Claims' will be run up to a fabulous price,
+and many a battle royal will be fought in that happy valley where we
+have spent a month of peace. As we depart in mournful silence, brooding
+over the days that are no more, we see in fancy the numerous bright eyes
+which from lairs and eyries are watching our every move, their owners
+all ready to swoop down on our _d�bris_ as soon as we have passed out of
+sight.
+
+The lake was very rough, and we were quite afraid of being swamped and
+losing our baggage from the magnitude of the big little waves; but
+luckily the boat took our heaviest things, or we should not have been
+able to venture; and so the canoes, lightly loaded and with all sail
+set, rode gallantly o'er the foaming billows, and we all got safe to
+Gjendesheim. The cheery fire in the room, with its bare wooden walls and
+benches, made a picture which seemed the perfection of comfort after the
+chilly tent and the freezing N.W. wind.
+
+  'It is the black north-wester
+    That makes brave Englishmen
+  Use very naughty words, and wish
+    Themselves at home again.'
+
+One of the party is always telling us that he intends to inflict on the
+British public a narration of our experiences on this expedition, and
+although he has not yet begun to collect materials for the work, we have
+begun to invent titles for the book that is to be. One is 'England,
+Canada, and Norway,' being a description of Englishmen travelling in
+Norway with Canadian canoes; and we think this title might induce
+schoolmasters to buy it, under the impression that it is a geographical
+treatise on those countries.
+
+The Skipper proposed 'The Fool with the Fowling-piece, or Fishing and
+Flyblows.' John's title was 'Mems. from Memurudalen, or Jottings from
+the Jotunfjeld;' and Esau suggested 'Glopit, top it, and mop it,'
+alluding, he said, to the state of John's forehead whenever he arrived
+at the summit of that mountain; but the explanation was received with
+such a chorus of 'Oh! {drop it!} {stop it!}' from the others that he
+gave up the idea.
+
+  [[The original is printed between lines:
+           {drop}
+      'Oh,        it!'
+           {stop}     ]]
+
+One notion is to make the book a collection of cooking recipes for
+camp life, and call it 'Grunts from a Gourmand in Gulbrandsdalen, or
+Paragraphs from the Pen of a Pig;' but we think we should promote
+a more active sale among respectable people if it were called
+'Self-Improvement, or Lights thrown on Good Living.'
+
+Another idea is that it might get a sale by appearing surreptitiously
+among the Christmas books for the young, and for that purpose we should
+use the names of our two henchmen Anglicised. 'Oola and Eva: a�Tale for
+Girls,' could not fail to attract the favourable attention of parents
+and guardians.
+
+Possibly it might create a greater sensation if it were introduced to
+the world as 'Julia and Pausanias: an Idyll.' It is very difficult to
+decide on a good name, but we are all agreed that the name once found,
+it will be perfectly easy to write the book afterwards.
+
+
+_September 4._--How soothing and pleasant it is, when we hear the storm
+and rain shrieking and beating outside, to reflect that there is a good
+solid roof over our heads, and that we shall not be roused in the night
+by the cry of 'All hands turn out to slack off guy-ropes!'
+
+This morning the lake was so rough that we perceived that we had been
+very lucky to make our voyage yesterday; we certainly could not have
+attempted it to-day. The man from Gjendebod was here, and started for
+the other end of the lake with Andreas in the big boat about nine
+o'clock, but at two they came back dead beat and wet through, having
+been obliged to desist from their attempt before they had gone two
+miles, and they considered themselves lucky to have got back.
+
+  [Illustration: Canoeing after Duck in a Storm]
+
+The appearance of the lake is wonderfully fine as the white-capped
+breakers come rolling in, flinging the spray high up the face of the
+opposing cliffs, and dashing with an angry roar against the black rocks
+where they jut out into the deep part of the lake. The Skipper,
+affirming that he could smell the salt in the air, began to look out
+pollack-flies, while John put on a beautiful brand-new shooting coat,
+and went down to the shore to pick up seaweed and dig on the sands: he
+came back saying that the tide was coming in, and he thought he had seen
+the smoke of a steamer in the offing.
+
+Close to this end of the lake a little promontory runs out, which forms
+a breakwater, so that the sea just opposite the house is comparatively
+calm. In this bay, directly after breakfast, we saw two scaups, and the
+Skipper and Esau manned a canoe to try for them, the former to paddle,
+the latter to shoot. Only one was shot at, and it managed to fly beyond
+the headland before falling dead, and we dare not go after it in our
+frail craft.
+
+  [Illustration: Andreas: our Retriever]
+
+In the afternoon we took all the male inhabitants of this district, viz.
+�la, Ivar, and Andreas, to act as spaniels and retrievers, and went into
+the fjeld above Gjendesheim for ryper. We had quite a sporting
+afternoon, as we managed to find a good many broods: the strong wind had
+made them so much wilder that they got up with reasonable haste and
+energy, instead of waiting to be kicked and then only running away.
+
+  [Illustration: Ola and Andreas capturing a wounded Grouse]
+
+We had great fun also in watching the behaviour of our men, especially
+their method of capturing a wounded bird. One which was hit in the head
+had dropped among some rocks, and �la and Andreas went in pursuit; they
+crawled suspiciously about, peering over the stones as if they were
+stalking reindeer; then suddenly catching sight of the bird, which was
+crouching down as birds hit in the head sometimes do, they advanced
+cautiously upon it, each with an uplifted stick in his hand, and crept
+like assassins nearer and nearer to their victim. At last they stood
+within reach. �la gave the word to strike, and strike they did, as if
+they were breaking stones, and the poor old ryper lay at the feet of its
+murderers a mangled, bleeding corpse.
+
+We shot all the afternoon with almost unvarying luck, hardly ever losing
+a bird; now getting four barrels into a large brood, now picking up a
+solitary old cock that had selfishly separated himself from his family,
+and selected a particularly advantageous feeding-ground for his own
+exclusive benefit, and at intervals having a little recreation afforded
+by our men, especially the professional buffoon, Ivar.
+
+In one marshy bit of ground a pair of short-eared owls were incautious
+enough to fly up in front of Esau, and were promptly added to the bag;
+they were in beautiful plumage, which was luckily not injured by the
+shot, so we were much pleased at getting them. Then we went towards the
+river into the ground frequented by ducks, and got a little shooting
+there, and finished the day by walking round the shoulder of the lower
+fjeld about the time that the ryper were coming there to feed, and so
+back to Gjendesheim. Altogether the walk was most enjoyable, and as we
+returned and gazed over Gjendin, the contrasts of storm and sunshine,
+tumbled clouds and rough waters, and occasional glimpses of the highest
+mountains gleaming through rifts in the surrounding blackness as the
+bright sunbeams lighted up their peaks of snow, formed the most striking
+picture of wild and desolate grandeur that can be imagined.
+
+Esau's shooting is remarkably unerring, and we feel so annoyed with him
+sometimes when he _won't_ miss even a palpably difficult chance, that we
+were quite glad a few days ago when he took such a long shot that it
+strained his gun, and the Skipper exclaimed, 'Ah, I�told you you would,
+I've been expecting it all along.'
+
+  [Illustration: John and the Skipper upsetting in the Canoe]
+
+John had an unstrung kind of day. Starting down the river to fish soon
+after breakfast, he became so engrossed in his sport that he forgot all
+about lunch, and did not return till dinner-time, when he walked
+abstractedly into the room where we were sitting, and pulled out his
+watch; then after studying it and making calculations for a short time
+he remarked slowly, 'I�left here at six minutes past ten, and hanged if
+it isn't ten minutes past six now; my watch must have stopped.' Then he
+wandered off upstairs to his room, still ruminating over this
+extraordinary occurrence to his watch; but in his absence Ragnild had
+changed all his things into another cabin without telling him anything
+about it, so that he found his old habitation swept and garnished, and
+began to think, like Clever Alice, 'This is none of I.' However, he got
+over this difficulty and came down to dinner, still looking a trifle
+abstracted, but with his usual appetite. Afterwards the Skipper paddled
+him across the river to fish, and when coming back, John upset the canoe
+and nearly drowned them both in the presence of Esau and every native in
+the district, who joined in mocking them in the Norwegian tongue from
+the bank.
+
+Finally he informed us that during his wanderings he had composed a
+short poem, 'which,' said he, 'as you have not heard it, I�will now
+proceed to recite.'
+
+So we went to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+RAPID-RUNNING.
+
+
+_Sunday, September 5._--To-day the Skipper and Esau determined to try to
+run the canoes down the river to Sj�dals Lake, where we intend to leave
+them during our stay at Rus Vand.
+
+All things being ready, the Skipper started about eleven o'clock on his
+perilous voyage, closely followed by Esau. The river is full of
+impracticable falls, some of them twenty or thirty feet high, but
+between these places there are splendid rapids, and the excitement of
+running them is delightfully fascinating. When we came to a bad fall we
+carried the canoes round, and enlisted the services of our two men to
+help us in this part of the performance. �la did not like this at all,
+for carrying a canoe of 80 lbs. weight over very rough ground is hard
+work, and �la loveth the fireside and the odour of roasting coffee
+better than hard work on the Sabbath.
+
+Presently we came to a place which the Skipper wanted to run, but which
+Esau declared to be too dangerous; it was a very swift and rocky rapid,
+with two extremely sudden turns, the lower of which was only a few yards
+above a high fall. Esau only ran past the first turn, which was quite
+nervous work enough, and then got to shore and waited on the bank for
+the result of the Skipper's exploit.
+
+Down he came at about fifteen miles an hour, took the first turn most
+successfully, and then, by some extraordinary strokes of his paddle,
+which no man living but himself could have performed, and aided by a
+species of miracle, he got round the second; but then an eddy caught the
+canoe, and she became unmanageable, so that instead of stopping in a
+little creek of quiet water as he intended, he came straight on at a
+terrific speed, and ran high and dry on a ledge of rock just above the
+fall, losing his paddle at the shock. Wonderful to relate, the canoe was
+not a bit injured, but the paddle whirled over the abyss and disappeared
+for ever; and the Skipper was pleased because he had not done the same.
+
+We spent five hours in this kind of amusement, and enjoyed it almost
+more than anything else we have done. The constant danger of a smash or
+an upset, the sensation of speed, the delight of the sudden rush to the
+gliding dip over a fall, with the water roaring past a rock on each
+side; the big waves below the fall, which catch the canoe and toss it
+from one to another till you feel as if you must be thrown out; and the
+curious appearance that the hurrying foam-flecked waters all round
+present, combine to make Sunday rapid-running a very popular pursuit.
+
+While we were doing the last bit above Sj�dals Lake, our men, instigated
+no doubt by �la the Lazy, seized the opportunity given by a long rapid
+to go home, and as we were pretty well tired out with our exertions, we
+left the canoes above the lowest fall and walked back to Gjendesheim.
+But we cannot recommend this river to future voyageurs; there are too
+many places that cannot be run; and we hear that we are regarded as
+decidedly mad for having attempted�it.
+
+  [Illustration: Making a Portage by the Sjoa River]
+
+�la, our stalker, is a man whom we do not much admire. He is a big,
+handsome fellow, with a light beard and moustache, and rather a weak
+face; and his good qualities are extreme cleverness at almost any kind
+of work--carpentry, smith's work, needlework, and saddlery, all seem to
+come alike to him--and as a deer-stalker he is first-rate, and never
+makes a mistake. But we fear that his profession at home is to be an
+independent gentleman, and he is very lazy, and nearly always sulky.
+This sulkiness annoys us more than anything else, but we also get very
+angry with him for being afraid of everything. He is afraid to go in the
+canoes, and nothing has ever induced him to enter either of them. He is
+afraid of rowing against a wind, or going out stalking on two successive
+days, lest he should tire himself; and he is afraid of washing up plates
+and pans lest he should lose dignity, but it does not bore him to sit by
+and watch other people perform the operation.
+
+The Gjende fly was a marvellous sight to-day; we thought him numerous
+before, but we little knew the accumulated villany of which this noxious
+creature is capable. Every fly that we saw here a week ago has now got a
+large and healthy family of some hundreds, and a darkness which may be
+felt broods over the river and its shores. And now that the cold weather
+has set in, he begins to perceive that his short but effectual career of
+annoyance draws near to its close, and the whole face of nature is
+covered with torpid crawling things, that make one turn in disgust from
+everything one touches. May his end come soon, for we love him not.
+
+  [Illustration: A Norwegian Fire-place]
+
+We are very comfortable here at night sitting round the noble fireplace
+in the corner of the room. These corner fireplaces are found in every
+s�ter and homestead in this part of the country, and are very
+picturesque and cheery, vastly superior to the modern stove, that may be
+seen standing up gaunt and inhospitable in every house in more civilised
+regions. Most of them have the chimney supported by a crooked piece of
+birch wood coming down from the roof and hooked underneath the
+projecting angle of stonework, but in some there is instead an upright
+iron bar from the hearth. Generally speaking, they are placed quite
+against the wall in the corner, but we have seen several with a space
+behind large enough to walk through, and one which even had a bed
+behind�it.
+
+
+_September 6._--The sea on Gjendin has organised something remarkably
+like a ground swell under the influence of the continuous storm, and its
+fury is more magnificent than ever; no boat here would have a chance of
+living in�it.
+
+Esau spent the morning packing his bird-skins in a wooden box for their
+journey home, as we hardly expect to get much more in the way of
+specimens. Then we had another afternoon at ryper, not quite so lucky as
+yesterday, but still satisfactory. When we returned we found that
+Andreas had brought from Besse S�ter a vast pile of literature which had
+been accumulating at the Vaage post office for the last month. After
+dinner, when we were all buried in our respective letters and papers,
+occasionally reading out particularly interesting scraps of news,
+Ragnild came in and informed us that a certain Norwegian, whom we may
+call Mr. Fox, had come there to fish. This was a man who had done some
+business for us here two years ago, and we had had a little
+correspondence with him before coming out this year. Thinking we might
+have given him some trouble, and not having any great liking for his
+character, we naturally wished to be especially civil to him; so we
+asked Ragnild to bring him in and stay to interpret for�us.
+
+Presently he entered the room, and after greeting us sat down and
+refused to have anything to drink: this astonished us so much that it
+completely drove our small stock of smaller talk out of our heads. The
+commonplaces of polite conversation sound perfectly ridiculous when
+gravely uttered to an interpreter for transmission to the proper
+recipient, and so Ragnild seemed to think, for her translation always
+sounded much shorter than our flowery sentences. We tried a variety of
+feeble questions to which we already knew the answers, somewhat in the
+following style:--
+
+'We presume, Mr. Fox, that you like Norwegian cheese?'
+
+'Does your brother also like Norwegian cheese?'
+
+'Do you speak German?'
+
+'No? but your brother, we believe, plays the Norwegian german-flute?'
+
+'The friends of your sister's children are also our friends. They live
+in England, but we believe they still like Norwegian cheese.'
+
+'We like much the cheese of the country, and have never suffered
+asphyxia from�it.'
+
+'We shall take a small quantity with us to England for the destruction
+of rats;' and so forth.
+
+Presently Esau, getting impatient, suggested in a loud voice that we
+should 'ask him some questions out of Bennett's Phrase-book.' Then he
+was covered with shame, as he feared that Ragnild would immediately
+translate this to Mr. Fox; but fortunately she did not.
+
+On reference later to the said Phrase-book we find that some very
+appropriate and useful sentences may be gleaned from its fertile pages.
+For instance, 'Who are you? What sort of weather is it to-day?' (these
+two remarks are introductory, as it were, and to inspire confidence in
+the person addressed). Then we come to the point: 'Will you lend me a
+dollar? Be quick! Thank you, you are very kind.' Here the speaker would
+turn to Ragnild and proceed thus: 'Put this in my carpet bag. Make haste
+and bring me a light, open, four-wheeled phaeton carriage, drawn by one
+horse.' Then to Mr. Fox, 'Good morning; I�must go, but I shall return in
+a month.' Then the speaker might wink at John and depart.
+
+Now came the most awful pause that the history of the world in its
+darkest moments can yet point to. We coughed and glared at each other,
+and felt in our pockets as if we might find something to say there; and
+then the Skipper had a brilliant idea, and said, 'Ask Mr. Fox how long
+he intends to stay here.' But Ragnild at once replied, 'Only two days,'
+without referring the question to him at all; so that remark was wasted,
+and our embarrassment became worse than ever; for now not only had we to
+invent subjects of conversation, but also to put them in such a form
+that Ragnild should not be able to answer them without taking Mr. Fox
+into her confidence. He all the time was most annoying, as he would do
+literally nothing to keep up his end of the conversation, and replied to
+our lengthiest and most brilliant efforts of exuberant verbosity by
+monosyllables and inarticulate grunts.
+
+At last, in desperation we presented him with a very nice new English
+knife, for which he did not seem to care at all; and so we parted, both
+sides feeling that the interview had been a failure.
+
+The following note is extracted from one of the journals:--'The common
+cheese of Great Britain is unknown in Norway, but in the roadside inn,
+the smallest s�ter or farmhouse, and the humble cottage dwelling, the
+traveller can always obtain that excellent substitute, the goat's-milk
+cheese of the country.' The colour of this excellent substitute is that
+of Windsor soap; its consistency, leather; and its scent, decomposed
+glue, which causes the natives to keep it under a glass shade. If you
+eat it, your own dog will shun you; if you avoid it, you starve.
+
+
+_September 7._--Esau always wakes up in the most boisterous spirits, and
+as the partitions between the cabins are only made of thin boards full
+of knot-holes, he can be heard all over the house the first thing in the
+morning jeering at John, who sleeps next door, whistling, and crowing
+like a baby in his cot: he continues these little games long after
+breakfast-time, and though he is wide awake, will _not_ get up. All this
+sounds very pleasant and cheery to talk about, but the Skipper, who
+usually wakes in a temper the reverse of angelic, being influenced by an
+unequal liver, wishes that these walls were twice as thick, and that
+Esau was at Hong Kong.
+
+Generally he tries little stratagems to induce Esau to get up, dressing
+operations having a tendency to quiet him. Sometimes he enters the room
+sniffing, and remarks, 'How deuced good the coffee smells roasting!' or
+'We're going to have a tip-top fish for breakfast, but there's very
+little of that pie left; enough for two of us p'raps' (this would mean
+about eight pounds). Or he looks out of the window, and assuming an
+attitude of intense surprise, hanging on to the frame like Irving in
+'the Bells,' says, 'By George, Esau! there's a fellow just below looking
+through a binocular that can give yours six lengths for mechanism.' If
+all these expedients fail, he gives in, and dresses quickly with his
+ears full of tow, leaving Esau aloft, and gets into the eating-room,
+where the floor and ceiling between put a soft pedal on operatic
+selections.
+
+Esau says all this ill-feeling arises because the Skipper cannot whistle
+Berlioz's 'Faust,' and is jealous.
+
+Andreas and Ragnild are making preparations for their departure, which
+takes place to-morrow; then Gjendesheim will be closed, the door
+fastened, the windows shuttered, and the place will be left to itself
+until next June. Very soon now Gjendin will be covered with ice and
+snow: most of the good folks in the s�ters have already gone to the
+valleys for the winter.
+
+We thought it would be more convenient for them if we took our departure
+to-day, so packed our goods on the pony and said 'Farvel' to
+Gjendesheim. Our last view of Gjendin, as we turned to look from the top
+of the pass, was just as it appeared when we first saw it--black,
+gloomy, and forbidding, with the cold north wind sweeping in a hurricane
+over its waters, and heavy rain-clouds hanging over its mountain
+shoulders, making a scene as awfully lonely and desolate as it is
+possible to depict.
+
+  [Illustration: Jens and his Pony on their way over Bes Fjeld]
+
+After the pony had gone with the last load we suddenly discovered that
+the tent had been forgotten: it and its appurtenances make a package
+weighing about 70 lbs. Now we _all_ hate carrying 70 lbs., but
+fortunately at this crisis a _deus ex machin�_ appeared in the person of
+a stranger. At first we thought it must be one of our own men returning
+for something after changing his coat, but on his nearer approach we
+found that he was the rest of the population of the district, whom we
+had not seen before, coming down in a body. This was Hans Kleven, who
+has the reputation of being the best hunter in the country. He is a
+small sturdy man, with amazing shoulders and a pleasant, good-humoured
+face, and a most gorgeous check shooting-coat, of a pattern so enormous
+that there are only three squares on the whole of his back, which is a
+pretty broad one. This coat was given to him years ago, apparently about
+1840, by an English sportsman, and he is as proud of it as ever Joseph
+was of his celebrated garment. To him we committed our tent, which he
+carried over to Besse S�ter, three miles away, without turning a hair.
+We rewarded him with a shilling, and from his profuse gratitude we
+conjecture that he only expected fourpence for the job.
+
+Our first step at Besse S�ter was, as usual, to demand food; and John
+asked for a dish called 'Tuk melk,' which had been recommended to him as
+very Norwegian and very good. A�woman at once went to fetch it from the
+other s�ter, a�quarter of a mile away, and presently brought it in a
+large wooden milk-tub about the size and shape of a sitz bath. How that
+poor woman carried it we know not; it occupied half the table, and was
+so scrupulously clean that we feared to touch it with our sordid hands.
+
+John and Esau at last attacked it in the orthodox manner, which is to
+sit on opposite sides of the table, and to draw a line across the
+surface of the milk with a spoon before beginning, and then to 'eat
+fair' up to that line. It would have amused some of our friends at home
+if they could have seen these two young men of fashion at the moment
+when both of them were engaged with abnormally large wooden spoons,
+silently ladling down 'Tuk melk' out of a tub as big as a drawing-room
+table.
+
+They reported that it was on the whole good; something like curds, but
+with a sourer taste, and it was much improved by sugar; but though they
+ate a large quantity of it, being men of great courage and
+determination, they could not persuade the Skipper to risk his life in
+experiments with untried articles of food. He, however, gave utterance
+to the following refined expression of his sentiments:--'I wouldn't
+touch that beastliness if you gave me fourteen pence a spoonful to
+swallow it.' No one offered the reward.
+
+Out shooting on the other side of the lake, we put up a snipe just at
+evening, which went down again close to us. This species of game is not
+common up here, although we find his cousin the woodcock fairly often;
+consequently we were much excited, and advanced upon the foe with
+insidious step, and bloodthirsty weapons almost at our shoulders in
+order to slay him as soon as he should rise. All went well, and at the
+right moment up he got, and promptly did the Skipper fire and miss him;
+while Esau's gun for the first time on record missed fire, and left him
+using language that ought to have ignited any cartridge. So the happy
+bird zigzagged off into the dim shades of sheltering night, and we went
+on our way full of thought and sorrow.
+
+Arriving again at the s�ter after narrowly escaping shipwreck in the
+passage, we found that Jens had come to meet us, and as he will enter
+our service from this date, we shall no longer need Ivar, and paid him
+off, arranging, however, that he is to come to help us home when we
+leave Rus Vand.
+
+We like Ivar very much now, though we did not by any means dote upon him
+at first. Ivar is a good fellow, but an idiot, perfectly willing to do
+anything in the world, but not understanding _how_ to do anything. His
+budding reputation was blasted in our eyes the first time that we left
+camp and entrusted everything to his care: we were away for three days,
+and in that time he consumed nearly four pounds of our best butter; on
+our return we decided that he was a knave, but we have since learnt that
+it was only his natural impulsiveness that led him to commit such an
+outrage; and now that we have found how eager he is to oblige us in
+everything, we like his strange nature better than �la's awful laziness
+of character. He came into the room this morning to stand for his
+portrait, and the easy, graceful attitude that he assumed for the
+occasion was inimitable. His waistcoat and boots were perhaps his
+greatest charm, but his open countenance and genial smile (six inches in
+diameter) played no small part in causing him to become beloved by us as
+he was.
+
+Ivar always laughed like a nigger on a racecourse, and whenever we took
+him out ryper-shooting he was exactly like an unbroken retriever: if a
+bird was killed, he _would_ rush in to gather it, and we had to shout,
+'Back, Ivar, back! Lie down! Down charge!' to prevent him disturbing any
+birds that might have chanced to remain during the yells and convulsions
+of Christy Minstrel mirth into which the death of a ryper always sent
+him. His behaviour usually made us laugh so much that we attributed any
+missing to the unsteadiness caused by constant hilarity. We gave him our
+spade as a parting present, and dismissed him with our blessing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+RUS VAND.
+
+
+_September 8._--This morning we crossed the fjeld to Rus Vand in a gale
+of wind. Waving a 'Farvel' to the kindly folk at Besse S�ter, we have a
+stiff climb up by the side of the torrent which comes gadareneing[*]
+down from Bes Lake, high above our heads, and presently we stand on the
+open fjeld above the s�ter. Below lie the green waters and birch-clad
+banks of Sj�dals Lake; far away to the east the great fall and larger
+trees that mark the outlet of the lake; and still further, glimpses of
+lower Sj�dals Lake, with its forests of pine, haunt of the black game
+and capercailzie. But we cannot stand long to look, for the side of a
+Norwegian mountain, though eminently suited to hurricanes, is extremely
+_un_suitable for human beings while the stormy winds do blow. En avant,
+Messieurs, en avant! and we fight our way across the flat top to the
+opposite brow. Here we must pause, though �olus himself say nay. 'What a
+glorious sight!' Straight in front, the cloud-girt peak of
+Nautgardstind, all glistening white with newly fallen snow, but of him
+only the top can be seen; his middle is hidden by a never-ending rush of
+scudding clouds. Higher still and westward the jagged summits of
+Tyknings H� and Memurutind, also pure white where the snow can lie, but
+with huge black lines and chasms where the steep rocky face stands up
+gaunt and repellent, so sheer that snow can never lodge; nearer the
+tremendous mass of Bes H� frowns above us; and far below in front the
+Russen River winds its way through barren rocks and patches of willow,
+to warmer and more hospitable regions, leaving with a leap of joy the
+cold storm-rocked Rus Lake, which has been its cradle since its birth in
+the mighty glaciers around.
+
+    [Footnote: Gadareneing, _i.e._ rushing violently down a steep
+    place.]
+
+Such was the scene lying before us on the north side of the mountain,
+grand beyond description, perhaps the finest in Norway, but not exactly
+inviting to shivering hungry mortals, so not much time was spent on it.
+Down we went, with the wind worse than on the other side, howling past
+our ears and screeching in the gun-barrels, and at last arrived at the
+lake to find Jens hauling for his life at the boat which, though filled
+with water by the breakers, had fortunately not been battered to pieces
+on the rocky strand. He had left it dragged up on the beach out of the
+water, but the sea had increased so much in his absence, that if we had
+been a little later it would without doubt have been smashed.
+
+However, we soon baled her out, and with �la as Charon commenced the
+passage. Rusvasoset, as the outlet is called, is not more than 60 yards
+across, but the waves had had seven miles of very open water to get up
+in, and they came rolling down to this end in a very alarming manner.
+With great difficulty we shoved off, and then with �la sculling his
+hardest, and the Skipper keeping our head to wind, we at last got safe
+across with no mishap but the loss of �la's hat and a thorough ducking
+for all of�us.
+
+  [Illustration: A Stormy Crossing at Rusvasoset]
+
+�la was very sorrowful about his hat, which was of pure Leghorn straw,
+double seamed, extra quality lining; and being further embellished with
+a black braid ribbon, it was a great source of pride to him; but we
+mocked when it flew away, and are inclined to bear its departure with
+equanimity, and hope it will be accepted as a propitiatory offering by
+the angry Lady of the Lake.
+
+All the things were at last safely housed, and we soon made ourselves
+comfortable in our new abode, which is luxury itself in this weather
+when compared with a tent.
+
+There are two huts, one by the edge of the lake, the other about 20
+yards away, and it is the latter which we occupy. We enter by a door
+about five feet high, invariably knocking our heads against the lintel
+and swearing as we do so. The first room is about nine feet square, with
+a narrow dresser under the solitary window on the left, and an iron
+cooking stove in the nearest corner to the right, the more remote one
+being tenanted by a bed. Round the room at various heights are shelves
+and hooks adorned by cooking utensils of all kinds, very kindly left for
+us by their worthy owners; two or three stools complete the furniture;
+and on the floor are to be seen carved the effigies of departed trout of
+fabulous weight, with dates and the initials of their captors. Passing
+on through a still smaller doorway we find ourselves in another room of
+the same size, but with three beds instead of one, and an open Norwegian
+fireplace; the same kind of pegs and shelves, and hooks for guns on the
+wall; more profile fishes, and walls covered with records in pencil of
+game killed by former inhabitants, with occasional amusing notes. This
+is our dining, drawing, and bed room; the other is only used as kitchen.
+
+The men's hut near the water is also divided into two rooms: the outer
+and much larger compartment is used as a cellar, larder, and general
+store-room, and presents, to say the least of it, a�somewhat untidy
+appearance, as bottles, barrels, and boards, a�grindstone, reindeer
+bones, a�saw, a�side-saddle, and old nets are piled together without any
+attempt at order. The inner room is very small, about nine feet by four,
+and there our two men sleep; and there also is a large oven built of
+stone, and heated by a fire inside it. As we had no bread, we proceeded
+to bake, and our ignorance of the manners and customs of this oven
+caused the bread to have a terribly trying time of it; for we did not
+make it hot enough at the first attempt, and the bread was left lying on
+the top covered by a cloth for over an hour while the oven was being
+heated a second time.
+
+All's well that ends well, and this batch of rolls turned out the very
+best that frail man ever tasted, and consequently at supper we ate
+enough bread and butter and jam to supply a school feast of the
+hungriest description.
+
+While the Skipper and John attended to the loaves Esau looked after the
+fishes, and very soon got a nice dish of half-pounders in the river.
+As he came back something in the middle of the stream caught his eye.
+'It is, yet it can't be--yes, by George, it is, �la's hat!' wedged in
+between two rocks, and slightly out of shape, but with the
+double-seamed, extra quality lining uninjured, and the pure Leghorn
+straw in very fair condition. The effusion with which �la received it
+was a sight to be seen, but no one else exhibited much enthusiasm.
+
+An inventory of our remaining stores reveals the fact that we have heaps
+of everything except coffee and bacon, which can only last about a week
+longer. In view of this happy state of things the Skipper proposed to
+spend a week of wild and reckless profusion and sinful extravagance.
+
+Esau at once pictured himself seated on a grassy slope giving way to
+Epicurean indulgence, surrounded by three untouched pots of jam, and
+eating from a fourth with a table-spoon; at his side a cup of tea
+blacker than ink, and flavoured with condensed milk thicker than cream,
+while he flipped lumps of sugar into the water instead of pebbles, and
+commanded �la to sand the floor of the hut with pepper.
+
+John suggested as an amendment that we should make some exception to
+show that we possess the power of self-denial. 'Let us,' said he, 'deny
+ourselves in some one thing. Not in luxuries, which are getting scarce;
+in that there would be no merit. No; rather let us exercise our virtue
+in respect of what we have in the greatest abundance, and thereby show a
+great and shining example to the world. Let us abstain entirely from
+water.' (He had ascertained that there was plenty of whisky.)
+
+Esau rose to oppose the remarks of the honourable gentleman. 'Such
+self-denial would be a good action, but the constant performance of
+virtuous actions tends to make one haughty. I�dare say you fellows don't
+know this, but I do, because I've tried it. I�prefer to be wicked and
+humble.'
+
+The motion was not pressed to a division.
+
+We are well provided with all kinds of food, for we found in the larder
+a shoulder of venison, and we have any amount of ryper, which, as John
+says, 'will save our bacon, though they could not save their own;' and
+so with a comfortable hut to live in, a�river full of fish at our door,
+and a blazing fire to sit round, life assumes a rosy hue, and we go to
+sleep in real beds with bright hopes of the future.
+
+The Skipper was heard to murmur as he turned over to sleep, 'I�say, what
+bread that is! When I get home I shall publish a pamphlet, and teach all
+the world to bake like that.'
+
+It is rather rough on the Skipper's pamphlet to publish his recipe here,
+but this is copied from his journal:--
+
+'Take dough in large quantities and place it on a tin. Heat the oven
+till you are sick to death of piling on wood. Smoke a pipe, and remove
+the ashes. Place the dough in the oven, and leave home for an indefinite
+period. If you ever return, remove the decomposed particles, and let
+them get warm in the sun, or else freeze in the snow, it really don't
+matter a bit. Now heat the oven and recommit them. Brood over the oven
+exhibiting the tenderest solicitude. They will soon be done, and perhaps
+will be good, perhaps not; nobody can tell.'
+
+
+_September 9._--Last night was very cold, and this morning there was ice
+on the lake, and the bilge-water in the boat was frozen solid. Esau and
+Jens went up the lake in the boat to stalk, and the Skipper accompanied
+them to fish, while John fished nearer home.
+
+About six o'clock the boat was seen returning loaded with the head and
+skin of a very fine buck, and Esau gave us his history thus:--
+
+'As soon as we landed halfway up the lake we found the spoor of two very
+large bucks and a smaller one which had swum across the lake in the
+night. They seemed to have gone towards the Tyknings glacier, so we went
+in that direction also. The wind was as bad as it could be in that
+valley, for we were obliged to walk exactly with it at first instead of
+against it, in order to get round a sufficiently large piece of country,
+and then work back against the wind. We walked a couple of miles without
+seeing anything, and at last got close to the Tyknings glacier and the
+iceberg lake at its foot. You know that lake well enough, Skipper, full
+of lumps of ice, some of them as big as this hut, which keep breaking
+off from the projecting glacier as it slides down; and I dare say you
+remember what an awful deathly stillness reigns there and what a dismal
+sight the lake is, cold and black under the shade of the crags which
+close in its sides.
+
+'Well, we sat down there and used the glasses for a long time----'
+
+'What do you mean by "using the glasses?"' interrupted John; 'drinking
+whisky and water?'
+
+Esau withered him with a look and went on.
+
+'Well, "spied," if you like, spied for a long time without seeing
+anything; and we had just walked on again a few yards, when the silence
+was suddenly broken by a cry from Jens of "Reins," and there, 300 yards
+in front of us, was a noble buck which had evidently been concealed from
+our view by some rocks, and had now smelt us and was departing at a
+stately trot, apparently despising undignified hurry.
+
+'I fancy his intention was to trot away at that long swinging pace, and
+get into Asiatic Russia in time for tea; so I grabbed the rifle from
+Jens, as of course, now that he was alarmed, a�long shot was our only
+chance; sat down on a stone, and with the faintest hopes of hitting him,
+fired twice, and, of course, missed.
+
+'Now here was where my luck came in. If that buck had not been so proud,
+he could have run straight away from us to the glacier beyond the lake,
+but we were "betwixt the wind and his nobility," and he wanted to get a
+clean breeze, and run against it instead of down it. Consequently, when
+he was about 350 yards away he turned to the right, apparently intending
+to make a circle round us, and so get the wind in his face.
+
+'Directly he turned broadside to us Jens gave a shrill whistle, and the
+buck stopped short for a moment, so that I had just time to make a
+careful shot, and the bullet hit him in the ribs. At the shot he
+stumbled, but recovered himself instantly, and made off a good deal
+faster than before, evidently perceiving that things were getting
+serious, and that "this here warn't no child's play." Before I could
+fire again he got into the ravine which runs down towards Rus Lake, and
+was out of our sight.
+
+'We thought there was just a chance of cutting him off in that extremely
+rough ground, though, of course, we could not tell whether he was much
+hurt or not; so we ran as hard as we could for about a quarter of a
+mile, loading as we ran. Suddenly I caught sight of him going very
+slowly, but luckily he did not see us, so we dodged into a little gully,
+and after another short run came in sight of him standing still, no
+doubt owing to his wound, and about 250 yards away.
+
+'This time he saw us, and darted off as fleetly as ever, no longer with
+his side to us, but straight away. I�was dead beat, and Jens had thrown
+himself down, and was panting like--like----'
+
+'A concertina?' suggested the Skipper.
+
+  [Plate: DEATH OF THE 'STOR BOCK' AT THE ICEBERG LAKE, TYKNINGS H�.]
+
+'Yes, just so. Anyhow, we could not run another yard; you know what it
+is on those stones, so I sat down again, and with the rifle going like a
+pump-handle, fired, and, by the greatest luck, hit him close to the
+tail, and the bullet went clean through his body and smashed his
+shoulder. Down he went, and we raised a yell of triumph, whereupon he
+jumped up again and went off at a slapping pace in a most extraordinary
+manner. I�believe if he could have reached the snow he would have done
+us even now, but we were between him and the glacier, and he had nothing
+but rocks to go on, bad enough for a deer with the proper complement of
+legs and ribs, and very trying indeed to one crippled like this, I'm
+sure.
+
+'However, he kept going at a great pace for a few hundred yards, and we
+lay in a state of exhaustion and watched him through the glass. Soon he
+began to move more slowly, and then to go round and round in a small
+circle, and at last he lay down. By that time I had partially recovered
+my wind, so I stalked him with great care and got within a hundred yards
+of him, took a steady aim for his heart, and pulled. To my horror he
+bounced up again, and ran like a hare for a dozen yards, and then rolled
+over and over as dead as Julius C�sar.
+
+'How Jens and I whooped and shook hands and laughed can be imagined by
+any one who has seen a grand deer almost escape him, and then, by a bit
+of luck and a breakneck run, just nailed him when the chance seemed
+hopeless. After that we lay on our backs and panted for some time, but
+after finishing the whisky and a large portion of the iceberg lake we
+recovered sufficiently to skin our prize and cut him up. He is a most
+splendidly fat "stor bock," Jens says by far the best that has been
+killed in these parts this year; a�beautiful skin, and, best luck of
+all, his horns have got rid of the velvet, and are fit to take home: and
+they have fourteen points. I�measured the fat on his loins, and it was
+two and a half inches thick. Jens tried to bring home a hind quarter as
+well as the head and skin, but before he had gone twenty yards he found
+that it was too much for him, so turned back and buried it with the
+rest.'
+
+At this time of year the biggest bucks of a herd seem to separate
+themselves from the rest and roam about, either alone or perhaps a
+couple together. We think they act wisely in this respect, as the calves
+are now old enough to run as fast as their mothers in case of danger,
+and do not need any paternal protection; and the bucks would no doubt
+become horribly bored if they remained with their wives and children all
+the year round; whereas by this system they are quite independent for a
+time, and roam all over the country, seeing a lot of life and living
+uncommonly well. Very much like a married man, when he gets away on
+board a friend's yacht for a couple of months, and comes back quite
+brightened up at the end of his trip, and positively agreeable and
+good-tempered to his wife and family, insomuch that they are right glad
+to see him home again.
+
+Of course the stalker's great object in life is to shoot one of these
+big bucks; but it is a desire seldom realised, as they are very
+restless, and only haunt the most secluded and difficult country. We
+have only met with two others in this expedition, and those the Skipper
+saw retiring at a good swinging trot over the heights of Memurutungen.
+
+We have obtained some interesting information from Jens about the horns
+of the reindeer. As every one knows, both the bucks and does have horns,
+but they shed them at different times: those of the does and smaller
+bucks are now in velvet, and will not get properly hard until October;
+they will then remain on all through the winter, and be shed in the
+spring. But the large bucks have their horns hard now, and will shed
+them in the winter, and so be defenceless during the time when the snow
+lies thickest.
+
+All this is undoubtedly true, for Jens is thoroughly trustworthy in his
+facts, but what is the reason?
+
+Jens does not know, but he gives us another fact. In the winter, when
+the 'stor bocks' have no horns, the snow is often so deep that only the
+strongest deer can scrape it away to lay bare the moss which at that
+season forms their food. Then come the does and smaller bucks, and with
+their horns push away the unfortunate big ones, and so are saved from
+starvation, while the ill-treated 'stor bocks' have to work double tides
+in order to get anything to eat.
+
+We present this fact in all humility to Mr. Darwin as a solution of the
+problem, 'Why has the female reindeer horns?' Evidently, they originally
+had none, but by constant pushing at their lords and masters they
+developed them by degrees; then, by the survival of the fittest, those
+does with the longest and sharpest horns prospered most, and soon there
+were none of the hornless does left, and all calves began to have horns
+as a matter of course.
+
+Esau is inclined to the belief that, by the same line of reasoning, the
+big bucks, constantly being shot at through untold ages, have developed
+cast-iron ribs, and that that is the reason why they take such a lot of
+killing.
+
+Possibly we have worked the theory in the wrong direction. It may be
+that originally all deer of every kind had horns, and the reindeer doe
+is the only female which now keeps them, because she alone has to fight
+for her living; but the snow and the horns together are cause and
+effect, of that we are convinced.
+
+The _pi�ce de r�sistance_ at dinner was a ryper curry, executed in the
+Skipper's best manner, and worthy of a place amongst the old masters,
+though providentially none of them were here to help us with it. John
+also contributed his share to the menu, a�roley-poley pudding, which,
+when it came to table, looked a trifle doughy at the ends, as even the
+best of such puddings generally�do.
+
+John turned to Esau, and in his sweetest manner said, 'Do you like end,
+old fellow?'
+
+He, a little astonished at this unwonted politeness, replied with equal
+courtesy, 'No, thank you, I�don't think I care about end.'
+
+'Ah,' said John, 'well, the Skipper and I _do_;' and thereupon cut the
+pudding into two portions, and was giving one to the Skipper and the
+other to himself, when the proceedings were interrupted by a brief but
+energetic scene of riot and bloodshed, which was terminated by a treaty
+of peace on the basis of the _status quo_ as regards the pudding, and
+subsequent re-division of the same into three parts by a mixed
+commission.
+
+Among the fish brought in to-day was one enormously long brute which
+ought to have weighed five pounds, but was only three pounds. The
+Skipper captured this prize at the outlet of the lake, which seems to be
+a favourite place for sick and dying fish like this.
+
+Matters of food are generally referred to Esau, because he cares more
+about eating than the other two, as _they_ say, or because he has got
+more sense than they have, as _he_ says. The two explanations are
+probably identical.
+
+When this fish was brought to him for judgment, he promptly said, 'Give
+it to the men.' The Skipper replied, 'My dear chap, whenever we collect
+any kind of food that isn't quite nice, you always "give it to the
+men."'
+
+Esau became grave at once, and answered 'You forget we are not in
+England. At home, truly, we give the best of everything to our servants,
+and are thankful for the worst ourselves; but Norway is a country where
+the canker of civilisation has not yet crept in to taint everything it
+passes over, and where the noisome worm of increasing independence does
+not blossom in the heart of every tree. Our men would be proud and happy
+to chew this aged fish, and we have had instances to convince us that
+they would be prouder and happier if the aged fish were nearly putrid.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+LUCK.
+
+
+_September 10._--The Skipper caused great sorrow this morning at
+breakfast by announcing his intention of leaving Rus Lake on the day
+after to-morrow, which ought to be a Sunday, according to our reckoning.
+It seems that his conscience upbraids him for leaving a brother to be
+married without his assistance, and the House has sadly approved his
+decision.
+
+While Esau was having a great day with the trout in the river, the
+Skipper went after deer, and came back cursing Fortune and all her
+emissaries and signs, which means ravens, horseshoes, spiders, and so
+forth. A�few days ago, when he was starting on a stalk, he heard a raven
+croaking overhead, so refrained from looking up lest he should catch its
+eye, and have bad luck; but that raven was not to be balked of his
+victim, and obtruded himself so that the Skipper _had_ to see him, and
+of course no deer came that day. The next day _two_ ravens crossed his
+path, both cawing in the loudest and most jubilant manner; so he was
+greatly delighted, thinking that this was a sure precursor of good
+sport; but something was wrong, and again no deer resulted. But to-day
+two ravens came and cawed in a gentle, soothing, confident manner just
+outside the window before we got up: this gave the Skipper great belief
+in the turn of luck, and he started with a rope in his pocket to tie up
+the deerskins withal, his knife sharpened like a razor, and his bag full
+of cartridges. Once again he saw nothing, and was nearly withered away
+by the cold wind and rain. Coming home he picked up a horseshoe,
+probably the only one in the Jotunfjeld; but the times are out of joint,
+and these barometers of fortune have become depressed by the prevailing
+bad seasons and the state of the weather, so that they cannot be
+depended�on.
+
+In spite of the absence of sport he came back raving about the glorious
+views of the mountains, which quite repay any one for a long walk now
+that they are newly covered with snow. From Nautgardstind looking
+northwards, away from the glaciers, a�splendid panorama is spread
+out--hill, forest, and lake, lighted up by the bright gleams of the
+September sun, still shining out bravely at intervals although winter
+has begun. Down to the right is the hilly woodland country through which
+we journeyed on our way hither, and on the left a vast plain of rolling
+ground. Far beyond this rises a towering cluster of high-peaked
+mountains, over whose heads float bands of fleecy clouds, while up their
+weather-worn sides the cloud-shadows drift and seem to nestle in sleep.
+They say these peaks are called Ronderne, but surely when seen on such a
+day, 'a�dream of heaven' is a better name; for where else on earth can
+man be so near heaven as in a lofty solitude like this, where he can
+gaze his fill on nature's most beautiful loneliness untouched and
+undisturbed by human hand? �la's ignorance of English enables one to
+gloat in silence over such a scene, without any danger of being rudely
+recalled to earth by a jarring exclamation of 'Ain't it lovely?' or
+'That's about as good as they make 'em,�eh?'
+
+  [Illustration: Gloptind Rock, at the Western End of Rus Lake]
+
+
+_September 11._--The Skipper made a last stalk, with his usual luck, not
+seeing even a track, though he went into ground that we always
+considered a sure find, near the west end of the lake. Near there, and
+under the shelter of the curious sugar-loaf rock called Gloptind, there
+is a little ruined hut, which was built by a former occupier of Rus Vand
+for greater convenience in shooting near that part of the ground. When
+we were here before, Esau was obliged to go home prematurely, and the
+Skipper and Jens went to stay in this den after his departure, and got
+several deer while there. This evening we persuaded the Skipper to tell
+us all about it, and after he had put himself in what he considered a
+comfortable attitude on the bed, and lighted his pipe, he began.
+
+'Well, when Esau went home, Jens and I were left up here, and got on
+very comfortably considering the disadvantages under which the human
+race has laboured ever since that unlucky business of the Tower of
+Babel.'
+
+'What _does_ he mean?' whispered John anxiously to Esau.
+
+'How should _I_ know?' replied the latter. 'Just listen a bit longer,
+and I dare say we shall find out.'
+
+The Skipper went on: 'We went out several days, and walked enormous
+distances without seeing any deer, so one day we decided to put a frying
+pan, some firewood, and a change of clothes into the boat, and row up to
+that little tumbledown stone hut at the other end for a night or two, as
+it is in the heart of the most unfrequented country, and there is
+nothing near to scare the most timid deer.
+
+'We packed everything into the boat and rowed off one fine morning, the
+clouds, however, beginning to hang ominously over the distant mountains.
+Jens rowed slowly, so that I could fish on the way, and our progress was
+further delayed by a head-wind.
+
+'Very soon the clouds closed in all round, and the sky got very dark.
+Jens kept rowing on steadily, from time to time looking up at the high
+mountain ridges that wall in the west end of the lake, while I devoted
+my attention to whipping the water from the stern, hoping to entice some
+unwary fish before the approaching rain should stop our chance of
+getting some fresh food. Suddenly he stopped rowing, and uttering the
+magic word "Reins," pointed up to an apparently deserted mountain slope
+on the Bes H� side, and handed me the glass, by the aid of which I soon
+discovered two reindeer bucks feeding about a mile away, and almost
+straight above�us.
+
+'I had on a blue serge suit, so the first thing to be done was to change
+to my stalking suit then and there in the boat; meanwhile the threatened
+rain began to descend in torrents, and the wind swept by in such squalls
+that Jens had to work hard to keep the boat in her place. At last the
+change was completed, the serge suit stowed away under a mackintosh, and
+we got to shore and began our stalk.
+
+'It was a difficult task to keep out of sight while advancing, and we
+could only move at intervals when the deer shifted for a few moments
+behind a rock or into a hollow in their search for food, so that we had
+first to run, when opportunity offered, for a quarter of a mile over
+very bad ground, then crawl another quarter over more broken ground; and
+at length, after an hour of this, being pretty close to the deer, they
+happened to come more into view, and we had to lie prone on our bellies
+for nearly twenty minutes (while they fed their way into the next
+hollow); and the heavy rain pelted down on us till we were soaked,
+sodden, and nearly perished with cold.
+
+'I thought that time of cramped penance would never end, but at last the
+hindermost buck got his head safe behind a welcome ridge, and then we
+were soon up and after them.'
+
+Here the Skipper stopped to strike a match on his trousers and relight
+his pipe, and then resumed: 'Now we knew we must be close to them, and
+with rifles cocked, and hearts beating uncomfortably, advanced
+expectant. I�forgot to tell you that after Esau went home I allowed Jens
+to take his rifle out, he was so desperately keen about�it.
+
+'Suddenly we came on the bucks only forty yards away, conscious of
+danger, but not knowing what they feared; too unsettled to feed, too
+uncertain to move.
+
+  [Plate: GOOD SPORT, BAD WEATHER. THE SKIPPER'S TWO 'STOR BOCKS.']
+
+'I fired first, and immediately afterwards, as pre-arranged, Jens fired,
+and both deer bounded into the air and disappeared like lightning over a
+ridge beyond them. We followed at our best pace, I�cramming in a couple
+of cartridges as we ran, and saw them again directly, still running, and
+a good deal further away. I�fired two more shots, and one buck fell dead
+at once, while the other galloped on about twenty yards further, and
+then suddenly stumbled and fell head over heels.
+
+'I fancy that our first shots killed them, and that one was really
+killed by Jens, but may I never know for certain! The yell that we gave
+when we saw them both lying dead woke the echoes of that dreary
+solitude, and must have been worth hearing by any student of human
+nature: in a wild shout of triumph there is only one language for all
+nations, and Jens and I joined our voices in the same glorious tongue
+for once.
+
+'Both these deer were "stor bocks," six years old and fat. We skinned
+them there, and leaving the bodies as usual safe under stones, returned
+to the boat with the heads and skins. By the way, John, you must have
+seen the horns of these two deer on the wall of Besse S�ter, for I had
+no means of getting them home, and Jens put them up there.
+
+'The day was drawing to a close when we reached the little stone hut
+which was to be our lodging: its roof was full of holes, and let the
+rain through like a sieve; but we stretched the two deerskins over it,
+and so made it habitable for a time. Inside there is, as you know, only
+just room for two men to lie side by side touching each other; and here,
+after a liberal meal and a contemplative pipe, we turned in and slept
+like honest men.
+
+'Next morning after breakfast, while I was making up a fresh cast for my
+rod, I�saw a man approaching the hut. As this was the only intrusion
+from human beings that we had suffered for more than a month, I�was not
+a little surprised. Where the deuce could a man come from? and what the
+dickens could he want? It soon proved to be old Tronhuus with a note for
+Jens.
+
+  [Illustration: The old stone Hut near Gloptind]
+
+'I must explain that Besse S�ter where Jens lives belongs to a man who
+comes from Christiania, and Jens is only his tenant there. This man had
+arrived at his s�ter two days before this with a young English nobleman,
+whom he was proud to have as his guest, and to whom he naturally wished
+to show some sport; but he had been unable to do so for want of a good
+stalker. This was of course very unfortunate for him and his guest, but
+it by no means justified his present conduct. He had addressed a letter
+to Jens, but written it in English, so that I should read it, sending
+merely a verbal message to Jens by his father, to ensure our both
+knowing the purport of the letter, which was to the following
+effect:--"Jens. If you do not return with the bearer of this letter to
+Besse S�ter to show myself and Lord ---- some deer, you will at once
+lose your tenancy of Besse S�ter." I�could not keep Jens and thus cause
+him to be unfairly ejected from his home, so having no paper with me,
+I�wrote in pencil on the back of the note that Peter had brought: "As
+you must be aware that Jens is acting as my servant this summer, and
+that by calling him away you leave me absolutely alone at the stone hut
+on Rus Vand, I�hope that you will not detain him after receiving this
+note."
+
+'With this missive Jens departed, and soon old Peter followed him, and
+left me, like Robinson Crusoe, alone on my desert highland. I�am bound
+to say that I felt inclined to inquire with Selkirk, "O�solitude, where
+are the charms?" as I turned to perform the duties of the day,
+absolutely deserted in that desolate spot, with no companions but the
+lake and solemn mountain heights around me; so after a short time I put
+the Lares and Penates----'
+
+'Hollo, what's that?' broke in Esau; 'you never said anything about
+bringing that with you before.'
+
+'You duffer!' said the Skipper; 'it's Norwegian for the frying-pan and
+tea-kettle: do you mean to say you've been all this time in the country
+without learning that?'
+
+'Oh, all right,' grunted Esau, 'go on.'
+
+'Well, I put them into the boat and sculled the seven miles back to this
+hut, as I did not feel inclined to remain alone in that little stone
+hutch for the night.
+
+'Three days passed before they let Jens return to me; and during that
+time I was certainly rather dull, and at night felt a trifle creepy, but
+the days did not pass as slowly as you might have imagined; for being
+without assistance my time was fully occupied in catching my daily
+supply of fish, chopping firewood, cooking, washing, and so on. At night
+the wind howled dismally round the cabin walls, but after the hard work
+of the day I soon fell asleep, and at last began almost to like the
+solitary life. Still I longed for Jens to come back, as I could not go
+out stalking alone; the season was far advanced, and the weather very
+cold.
+
+'How I cursed that Englishman' (gentle murmurs of 'Bet you did' from the
+other two) 'as I cleaned out the tea-pot and scoured the frying-pan! and
+how I pictured him to myself wandering with my faithful Jens over the
+best reindeer-fjeld, and scaring away all the deer with his
+loud-sounding Bond Street express!'
+
+'I say, Skipper,' put in Esau, 'did _his_ Bond Street express make any
+more row than _yours_? because�if----'
+
+'My dear fellow,' said the Skipper, 'you always put that kind of
+expression into narrative; it's Homeric; an educated man would be
+pleased with�it.
+
+'I was always expecting Jens; every sound, real or imaginary, caused me
+to look up over the deserted lake, and hold my breath while I listened
+to make out his voice in the distance; and when I went down the river I
+heard his cheery shout in the rush of every rapid and the roar of every
+fall.
+
+'After all it was only three days, and then one afternoon I found him
+waiting for me at the hut. I�was glad to see him--gladder than I am to
+hear the dinner-bell at home, as glad as a bee is to get into the open
+air after bunting its head against a window-pane for three days'
+('Beautiful simile!' from John), 'and especially glad to see how pleased
+old Jens was to return to me again. I�was also not particularly sorry to
+hear that he had found a herd of deer and taken Lord ---- within shot;
+and the only result was a calf, which Jens himself shot after the
+Englishman had missed.
+
+'After this I had a good time with grand fishing and more deer, but we
+did not stay much longer at Rus Vand; as you know, I�was back in England
+by the end of September.'
+
+The story ended, we called the men in and had a great settlement of
+wages and milk bills, and arranged how the Skipper's baggage should be
+transported tomorrow, and the rest next week.
+
+  [Illustration: A Night at Rusvasoset, after a Day at Haircutting]
+
+Then we filled up glasses round with whisky and drank a solemn Skaal
+(pronounced Skole) to every one, and then to Gammle Norg�, and finished
+the evening with 'Auld Lang Syne.' It must have been a ludicrous sight
+as we stood tightly packed in that tiny room, with heads all bent
+towards the centre to avoid the rafters, our hands crossed in orthodox
+fashion, and roaring at our highest respective pitches as much of the
+words as we knew, while we swayed our arms up and down in the manner
+essential to the proper rendering of the good old song.
+
+When the men cleared out, Esau produced a gorgeous counterpane which he
+had commissioned Peter to buy in Vaage six weeks ago, and which the old
+man brought over from Besse S�ter to-day. Its manufacture is peculiar to
+this district; it is woven in most tasteful colours, red, magenta, blue,
+and green being the most prominent, with a kind of diamond pattern in
+white running diagonally across it; but, from the 'What's the next
+article?' air with which Esau exhibited it, we began to suspect that he
+was rather disappointed with it, and wanted to induce some one to buy
+it. Suffice it to say that its introduction was received with coldness.
+
+This was a bad day for sport; we caught very little, and shot less. We
+did spy a reindeer directly after breakfast, but as he was about six
+miles away, close to the top of one of the highest mountains, and
+running as if Loki were after him, no one cared about pursuing him.
+
+John fishing in the lake managed to lose a 'twa and saxpenny' minnow,
+trace, and twenty yards of reel line, and was quite discontented.
+
+At night the wind had increased to a storm, and the clouds were right
+down on the water, and hurrying past in endless wreathing drifts like
+witches trooping to their nocturnal Sabbath.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+NOT LOST, BUT GONE BEFORE.
+
+
+_September 12._--Early this morning we sorrowfully packed the Skipper's
+things on the pony, and then we three and �la marched off down the river
+towards civilisation. The Skipper hoped to get over about twenty-five
+miles before night; Esau wanted to try the river a long way down; and
+John said he 'always liked a stroll on Sunday,' and with that object
+accompanied the Skipper for the first eleven miles of his journey,
+returning to Rusvasoset in time for dinner.
+
+About four miles below Rus Lake, the river, which is there about thirty
+yards wide, suddenly disappears into a narrow cleft in the rocky bed,
+and runs in this curious rift for several hundred yards, and then again
+emerges into daylight. The sides of this rocky prison are just over a
+yard apart at the narrowest place, though the gap only appears to be a
+few inches wide; but the force with which the immense body of water is
+squeezed through the tortuous passage far down below, whirling huge
+boulders along with irresistible force, and covering the surrounding
+rocks with moisture from the ever-rising misty spray, makes it a severe
+trial to the nerves to step across the cleft; the ceaseless din of the
+rushing water is of itself sufficiently appalling.
+
+This channel has evidently been gradually worn down through the solid
+rock, which here appears to be a reef of softer nature than the usual
+formation of this country. On the top and in niches all the way down are
+still to be seen the turn holes caused by stones working round and round
+in an eddy; but the curious fact is that while at the top the cleft is
+only a yard across, it widens regularly out as it gets deeper, and at
+the bottom is fully ten yards in width. Now it seems unlikely that the
+Russen River could ever have been content to run in a bed so much
+narrower than its present one, and from the appearance of the strata we
+imagine that as it worked down and undermined the cliffs at each side,
+they have gradually toppled forward to meet each other. Probably soon
+they will actually touch, after which a very short time will see the
+natural arch so formed covered with vegetation, and the river will run
+in a subterranean passage.
+
+Through this channel no fish could pass alive, so there Esau bade
+'farvel' to the Skipper, and, encumbered with rod and fishing bag,
+leaped like a goat across the intervening Devil's Dyke, and was soon
+lost to view as he fished his way up stream.
+
+The other two pursued their journey steadily, and found it pleasant to
+gradually walk down from the Scotch mist which overhung everything up at
+Rus Vand, into, firstly, dull dry weather just below the clouds, and
+then a little further into real sunshine and warmth. About one o'clock
+they reached Hind S�ter, the tenants of which were still there, but just
+in the act of removing to the valley. Here they feasted together on
+fladbrod, and then the things were packed on a cart, and the Skipper,
+following them as they jolted away under �la's guidance through the pine
+forest, was seen no more by his disconsolate comrade.
+
+When John returned to Rusvasoset a little before dinner-time, we found
+it necessary to bake bread and a pie, our invariable rule 'when in
+doubt.' This was not a case that admitted of any hesitation, for the
+Skipper had taken all the food that he could annex for his sustenance on
+the journey, as he did not expect to find any people in the s�ters on
+his path.
+
+The evening was spent in general tidying, and mending various articles
+which had gone wrong; holes in landing-nets, rents in trousers and
+coats, and inserting new screws in Esau's boots for the stalk he hoped,
+but hardly expected, to make on the morrow. At night the outlook was
+anything but encouraging, dense clouds folding all nature in their cold
+embrace, and the pitiless rain beating down on our poor little hut as if
+it took a pleasure in the occupation.
+
+
+_September 13._--Rain, and nothing but rain.
+
+  [Plate: CHEERFUL! THE HUTS AT RUS LAKE.]
+
+
+_September 14._--We never knew when sunrise and daybreak took place
+to-day, or whether they happened at all, for the prospect was more
+hopeless than ever, and the rain still fell with unabated vigour.
+
+We were at the end of our indoor resources, but fortunately �la returned
+with some English papers which he had found waiting for us at Ransv�rk,
+the s�ter at which he and the Skipper passed the night, and at which
+this bundle of literature had been deposited about a fortnight ago by
+the latest traveller from Vaage. But for this, there would certainly
+have been bloodshed in this remote spot, our tempers not being equal to
+the strain of two days in succession without being able to see ten yards
+in front of us, or to stir out without becoming water-logged.
+
+Even the fish were apparently at last disgusted at not being able to get
+into a dry corner by jumping out of the water, and our efforts to
+persuade them to try the interior of a waterproof bag only met with
+indifferent success.
+
+The stubborn resistance of our well-tried roof has at last been
+overcome, and soon after turning in last night we had to turn out again
+to rig up various hydrostatic appliances with a view to diverting the
+course of some of the superfluous rainfall, and irrigating the floor
+therewith instead of letting the beds get it all. The latter really
+needed it much less than the boards, which were somewhat dusty; but
+probably the mistake arose from John sitting on one of them while he
+mixed the dough, so that it might have been taken for a flour-bed.
+
+
+_September 15._--At last we were relieved by a change in the wind, soon
+followed by a cessation of rain, and then the mist began to lift, and by
+noon the sun was actually beginning to glimmer feebly, and the mountains
+to be visible for half their height.
+
+  [Illustration: Rus Lake from the Western End: Nautgardstind in the
+  Distance]
+
+John went on a general tour of mountaineering and prospecting in search
+of scenery, and came back delighted with himself, having made a higher
+climb than usual, and seen Nautgardstind in all the perfect beauty with
+which the newly fallen snow had endowed him.
+
+It has already been mentioned that John does _not_ like walking uphill,
+and when he makes a self-sacrificing and voluntary ascent as he did
+to-day, he comes home brimming over with an excess of conscious virtue
+which does not pass away until the genial influence of a good meal and a
+pipe has reduced him to the level of all humanity.
+
+On his way home he heard a feeble squeak in a bush, and peering in
+discovered a small animal which he at first took for a guinea-pig; but
+soon, perceiving that it must be a lemming, his natural impulse was to
+poke it with a stick. This was his first interview with one, though they
+are common enough up here; and he is disposed to think them morose in
+disposition; but really he ought to have recognised the fact that the
+thin end of a walking-stick is not a means of intercourse at all likely
+to arouse the sympathy of any animal, least of all that of a juvenile
+lemming, who is obviously overcome with drowsiness, and wants to be let
+alone.
+
+The winter is now coming on apace, and already every fall of rain down
+here is a snowstorm in the mountains, and every clear night means a
+biting frost up there. Esau, scaling the heights of Bes H� with Jens in
+search of deer, found none on account of the mist, and in addition to
+the danger of getting lost, a�new peril was added by the snow. It
+appeared that during the night a severe frost had immediately followed
+the rain and coated everything with ice, then snow had fallen to the
+depth of three inches, and on the top of that rain and sharp frost
+again. The result was that at every step they broke through the crust of
+ice on the top, and sank through the three inches of soft snow on to the
+lower stratum of ice. This was all very well as long as they were on
+rough ground; but the snow making every place look the same, in one
+instance they got on to one of the steep little glaciers which are
+common on Bes H�, without knowing that they had done so: and suddenly
+Jens lost his footing and began to slide downwards at a terrific speed.
+It seemed to Esau that he would shoot straight down into Rus Vand,
+looking very blue and cold three thousand feet below; but a friendly
+boulder intervened, and by its assistance, and by spreading himself out
+like a gigantic spider, he managed to arrest his wild career, and they
+got safe across the treacherous glacier.
+
+They had to cross another on their return, which was done with fear and
+trembling; but although the difficulties of this kind of stalking when
+unaccompanied by deer may seem to outnumber the pleasures, still
+occasionally they were on fairly safe ground, and could get their hearts
+out of their mouths for a few brief moments. At such times the splendid
+view of all our old Gjendin mountains rising tier after tier behind each
+other, a�boundless sea of peaks and domes and jagged crags, all robed in
+purest white, with the sun lighting up the virgin snow almost too
+brightly for the eye to rest on; the keen frosty air; and the solemn
+stillness, only broken now and again by the twittering of a flock of
+snow buntings, amply repaid them for the arduous climb.
+
+Then a few minutes of glorious excitement as, by the aid of glissades,
+they shot down the steeps that it had needed hours of hard labour to
+surmount, and they were back on the shores of Rus Vand, where at present
+the snow had hardly begun to lie.
+
+  [Illustration: Glissading home after a blank day]
+
+In spite of the cold we had some first-rate fishing, and Esau caught a
+trout which he asserted to be the very best fish for shape, condition,
+and colour, that ever came out of Rus Lake, or anywhere else. Though not
+as large as many we have caught, being only 2� lbs., it certainly was a
+beauty, and resembled the perfect fish that are occasionally seen in an
+oil painting, but very seldom encountered in tangible, edible form.
+
+The Rus trout, like those of Gjendin, are quite silvery, almost as
+bright as a salmon, but with a few pink spots instead of black ones, and
+uncommonly pretty they look when fresh out of the water.
+
+  [Illustration: Rus Lake from the Eastern End: Tyknings H� and
+  Memurutind in the distance]
+
+Too soon evening put an end to our sport, and when the last rays of the
+setting sun had tinted the distant snow with a delicate pink hue which
+lingered, paled, and faded as the cold silvery light of the moon began
+to assert its sway, the keen air drove us home, and made us content to
+enjoy from the hut door the lovely clear night which succeeded so bright
+a day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+A LAST STALK.
+
+
+_September 16._--The morning did not belie its fair promise, but opened
+as brightly as the most exacting hunter could require.
+
+  [Illustration: Off! A Reindeer recollecting an engagement]
+
+Esau and Jens made a last laborious and fruitless stalk, trying not only
+the whole Rus Valley, but crossing the mountains northwards into
+Veodalen and traversing all the slopes of Glitretind, a�most splendid
+sight just now with his towering pyramid, 8,140 feet high. Such a walk
+would have been impossible but for the snow, which had been reduced by
+the wind to the consistence of hard sand, and made the going as good as
+it could�be.
+
+Esau, who saw nothing all day, was a little annoyed on his return to
+hear that John had wandered but a short distance up Nautgardstind to
+gloat over the view, and there walked almost into a reindeer buck;
+which, as John was armed with no more deadly weapon than a
+double-barrelled field glass, had escaped uninjured. 'Twas ever thus.
+
+However, the mention of this buck opened on John's devoted head the
+floodgates of Esau's memory, and he insisted on telling about his last
+stalk here two years ago, as follows:--
+
+'By George! I shall never forget how Jens and I turned out that morning
+across the same precipice that you passed to get up Nautgardstind: we
+started pretty early because it was my last day, and I had sworn to
+catch something or perish.
+
+'About ten o'clock we saw four deer, a fine buck and three does, on a
+long narrow snow-drift on the east side of the mountain: they were about
+a mile off and moving away, with the wind blowing straight from them to
+us; so we went after them as fast as we could, without much attempt at
+concealment at first.
+
+'Presently they left the snow and turned to the left, as if to skirt
+round the mountain, we still following and getting rather nearer to
+them. They seemed very restless and kept moving, and at last began to
+trot, and soon got out of our sight.
+
+'We were half an hour without seeing them again, and at last Jens
+discovered them far down below us in the large valley where you saw that
+one to-day. The place where they were was quite unapproachable, but Jens
+pointed out a sort of pass by which he thought it was likely they might
+leave the valley, and so we went and hid ourselves in a convenient nook
+fifty yards to the leeward of that place.
+
+'There we lay in a bitterly cold wind for an hour, and then the deer
+began to come in our direction. Now was the critical moment: there were
+two practicable routes in the pass; would they choose the nearer one,
+which would give me a shot, or the other? They stopped a little time to
+look for food, and provokingly grazed their way very slowly towards the
+wrong one, and then all of a sudden seemed to make up their minds and
+turned to the right one. The cold and cramp were forgotten as the deer
+came within three hundred yards and were nearing us quickly, and, with
+rifle cocked, I�was already wondering whether the buck's horns were in
+velvet or not, and thinking what a splendid coat he had; when without
+any warning a storm of sleet swept down upon us, and a dense mist
+drifted over the mountain and shut out from our gaze the rocky pass and
+deer alike wrapped in impenetrable gloom.
+
+'For fully half an hour this lasted, and then the mist cleared as
+quickly as it had come, the sleet stopped, and the sun shone out, making
+the ground fairly smoke: but, alas! the deer were gone. We looked for
+their tracks, and found that they had actually passed within forty yards
+of us during the storm; but our chance was missed, and there was nothing
+for it but to renew the search.
+
+'Another hour of walking, and Jens' quick eye caught sight of them, this
+time high above our heads on some snow near the top of Nautgardstind,
+and at last, thank goodness, lying down. There seemed to be a
+possibility of getting to them, and we spent another hour crawling like
+serpents in the attempt, only to find our way barred when we were within
+four hundred yards by a ridge over which we could not pass unseen.
+
+'However, from there we saw plainly that we could approach them by going
+up the mountain, and then coming quite straight down above them, with
+hardly any difficult ground to traverse. So we performed that weary
+crawl back again, until we were safely out of sight, and then went up
+Nautgardstind at a speed that has never been equalled.
+
+'Half an hour took us to the top, and then Jens made the only mistake in
+a stalk that I ever saw: he got his bearings wrong somehow, and thought
+that the deer were on one bit of snow, the top end of which we could
+see, while I thought they were on another. Of course I had much more
+confidence in Jens' opinion than in my own, but it turned out that he
+was wrong, and in crawling to the place where he expected them to be, we
+unluckily came into full view of the snow where they really were--a fact
+which was made unpleasantly apparent to us by our suddenly catching
+sight of four deer galloping down the drift two hundred yards away.
+
+'I took a careful aim at the buck, but fired too low, and the bullet
+broke his fore-leg, which did not prevent him from following the does,
+though at a reduced pace. Now I think our best chance would have been to
+remain perfectly still, and trust to his stopping in time in some place
+where I could get to him; but Jens was terribly excited, begging me to
+shoot, and my own head was by no means as cool as it should have been,
+so I sat on a rock and fired away all my remaining cartridges except
+two, at the gradually receding form of the reindeer: I�suppose at the
+last shot he was five hundred yards away, and I don't think I ever hit
+him again.
+
+'Presently he got round the corner to the right, and into the next
+valley, where a few days before I had killed two deer; and as I ran to
+the right above him an astonishing sight met my gaze. The valley was
+full of deer, about fifty altogether, in three distinct herds, and they
+were all running about frightened by the firing, and not sure in which
+direction it would be safe to�go.
+
+'While we watched them from our peak a mile above, a�buck and two does
+with a calf left the herd, and began to come towards the very snowdrift
+on which the four deer were lying when we made the fatal mistake. What
+became of the rest we never knew, nor whither our wounded buck went; for
+when we saw this fresh four making for the drift, it occurred to us to
+run towards the top and try to intercept them if they should attempt to
+ascend the mountain on the snow, as we expected they would.
+
+'Off we ran at top speed over terribly rough ground, and before we got
+nearly in shot of the top of the long drift we saw the deer get on to it
+at the bottom, and begin to gallop up with their untiring stride. It was
+simply a race, with long odds on the Running Rein; and soon we saw them
+standing at the top, while we were still over two hundred yards from it.
+Then for the first time they saw us (for the drift was in a ravine, and
+out of our sight as we ran), and they turned to flee, but Jens somehow
+managed to find breath enough to whistle, and the deer stopped for a
+moment.
+
+'I fired my last two cartridges, but in the condition to which I was
+reduced by the run I could not have hit a haystack, and no damage was
+done. So we turned homewards with deep and abiding sorrow in our hearts,
+too despondent to look again for our wounded buck, or to see what became
+of the other herds.
+
+'In those days I always took out seven cartridges, which I fondly
+imagined to be a lucky number; but after this I solemnly registered two
+vows: firstly, never to go out with so few again; and secondly, never to
+shoot them all away at absurd distances in the forlorn hope of killing a
+wounded deer.' Esau here paused for a moment or two, and then resumed:
+'By Jove, I�did make myself agreeable to the Skipper when I got home
+that night. I�remember he said----'
+
+But John thought it was _his_ turn to have a few weeks' conversation,
+and rudely interrupted Esau's reminiscences by calling his attention to
+some writing which, like Belshazzar, he had detected on the wall above
+his bed. It was in pencil, and seemed to have been written in
+prehistoric times, for it was all illegible except the first two lines,
+and even those required a great deal of deciphering by the aid of a
+dripping candle, while Esau knelt on his bunk and flattened his nose
+against the log wall, before he could read them. Then after licking the
+tip of a pencil for a long time in meditative silence, he scrawled the
+remainder of the poem underneath, so that the whole composition read as
+follows:--
+
+  A reindeer three miles off you spy,
+  And to shoot that reindeer you will try.
+  First a mile at the top of your speed you go,
+  Then you climb a mile up loose rocks and snow,
+  Then a mile on your hands and knees you crawl,
+  And----
+
+(when you have executed these little manoeuvres and arrived at the place
+with your garments all in tatters and your whole body a mass of bruises
+in all probability you will either find that the insidious animal has
+removed himself to the uttermost ends of the earth five minutes before
+your appearance on the scene, or else you _do_ get a shot at him and)
+
+          ----you miss that reindeer after all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+HOMEWARD BOUND.
+
+
+_September 17._--Our ears were gladdened by the sound of Ivar's hoarse
+cachinnation some time during the night or early morning, and on turning
+out he informed us that he should have been here yesterday, but his cart
+had been smashed on the road beyond Hind S�ter: however, he had patched
+it up and got it to the s�ter; so we distributed our goods on the two
+ponies, after seizing our last chance of a 'square meal,' by eating an
+enormous breakfast of venison pie, cutlets, and trout.
+
+All our stores came to an end yesterday, except candles and soap. The
+latter article has for some time been lying in great bars on a shelf as
+a reproach to us, and we were glad to get it out of our sight to-day,
+and 'give it to the men,' as we would anything else that is repulsive to
+our feelings. There were a few scraps of other delicacies which we
+divided among the retainers, and then taking with us a fore-quarter of
+'stor bock' for our own consumption on the journey, and a hind-quarter
+carefully sewn up in the sail of Esau's canoe, and intended as a present
+for Mr. Thomas, we regretfully took leave of the little hut, and started
+for Besse S�ter.
+
+�la and Jens were sent down the Russen River, which is the nearest way
+to Hind S�ter; and Ivar was to meet us at the eastern end of Sj�dals
+Lake as soon as he could get there.
+
+We paused at the brow of the hill to have a last look at the beautiful
+lake and quaint little huts, and to take off our hats to grand old
+Nautgardstind, to whom we hoped we were not bidding an eternal 'farvel;'
+and then we turned across the fjeld, and, losing sight of the Rus
+valley, were soon looking forward again to the change and uncertainty of
+the homeward journey.
+
+From Besse S�ter, which was reached at noon, we launched our craft into
+the lake with a nasty side-wind blowing, which delayed our progress
+considerably, so that we took an hour to reach the lower end of the
+lake, a�distance of not quite four miles.
+
+There we found Ivar with his pony and sleigh, on which the canoe was
+conveyed to the junction of the Sjoa and Russen Rivers, where Esau
+launched her again and ran the rapids down to Ruslien S�ter, a�very fine
+bit of stream, in which the canoe could only just manage to live.
+
+Finding that the s�ter girls were still here, we went in and asked for
+milk. They suggested cream: amendment carried without a division. A�huge
+bowl of the thickest and most delicious cream was set before us, which
+we, armed with two enormous spoons, attacked and soon consumed utterly,
+with an indefinite amount of fladbrod and cheese. Charge for the whole,
+sixpence! We have no hesitation in saying that the cream alone would
+have been worth its weight in gold in Piccadilly.
+
+We then regained our craft, and had a delightful cruise down to Hind
+S�ter, the stream going at mill-race speed all the way, so that we did
+the two and a half miles in fifteen minutes, arriving long before our
+cavalcade of men and ponies, who started twenty minutes before us, while
+we were discussing the cream.
+
+The s�ter was deserted for the winter, but Ivar produced his cart from
+the bed of a stream where he had left it to improve the wheels, and at
+half-past five we, with Jens and one cart, resumed our journey, leaving
+the other two men with the canoe to follow�us.
+
+We had originally intended to make the journey to Lillehammer from here
+entirely by canoe down the Sjoa until it joined the Laagen, but the
+premature departure of the Skipper knocked that little scheme on the
+head.
+
+It would have been a tremendous enterprise, for the Sjoa is such a
+turbulent river that there would have been a great deal of portage to be
+done; but we had agreed to allow a fortnight for it, and were looking
+forward to it with great delight. The Laagen is a fairly navigable river
+all the way, with the exception of a few very large falls; but there is
+a good road by its side, so that we should have had no difficulty if we
+had been lucky enough ever to reach it. However,
+
+  The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
+            Gang aft a-gley;
+
+and we were reduced to the prosaic necessity of walking, and helping to
+hold our luggage onto a jolting cart.
+
+As we gradually descended into the birch-woods we were much struck by
+the beautiful effects of the variegated autumn tints, and soon the
+brilliant reds and yellows of the birches began to contrast with the
+dark green of the fir trees, the light greyish green of the lichen, and
+rich brown and purple of the ground and undergrowth. It was so long
+since we had seen any trees, that their beauty seemed to come to us
+quite as a new sensation.
+
+Below Hind S�ter the road lay through dense forests of pines for mile
+after mile, with hardly any change except where we got occasional
+glimpses of the Sjoa tearing madly along far beneath us--so far that
+only a faint murmur came up from the leaping, hurrying waters. Hour
+after hour we walked, and still the same dark forest gloomed above us,
+so remote from the busy haunts of men that it seems not to be worth any
+one's while to cut the trees except for use in the immediate
+neighbourhood, and hundreds of them lie naked and dead as they have
+fallen before the fury of the gale, and slowly rot or are devoured by
+insects until their place is ready for a successor.
+
+As the shades of evening began to close, we were several times startled
+as the huge body of a capercailzie darted across the road at a pace
+which seemed impossible to such an enormous bird, and with an absence of
+noise that appeared equally unnatural.
+
+About half-past eight we came to a more open part of the forest, and
+soon we saw a glimmering light ahead: Jens cheerily said, 'Ransv�rk;'
+and in a few more minutes we pulled up at the door of a large s�ter.
+
+Without knocking Jens opened the door, and we walked in and struck a
+light. There was the usual fireplace and table, and in the further
+corner a bed, which, as we presently perceived, was occupied by two
+girls. This discovery embarrassed us a little; but no one else, least of
+all the girls themselves, appeared to be at all disconcerted.
+
+In our favoured land a woman would probably be slightly concerned if she
+were aroused from sleep by the unceremonious entrance into her room of
+three men, two of them ruffianly-looking strangers of foreign exterior;
+but not so these artless beings. The elder one at once got out of bed
+and proceeded to dress, while her sister remained where she was and soon
+fell asleep.
+
+When the dressing commenced, we, being innocent young bachelors, retired
+and remained outside till it was finished, but we do not believe she
+appreciated our delicacy at all.
+
+Then this poor girl, no doubt very tired after a hard day's work at
+cheese-making, proceeded to relight the fire, prepare coffee, and broil
+some venison for us. And just as we finished a hearty meal, �la and Ivar
+arrived, so that she had to begin all over again for them. Finally, in
+spite of our remonstrances, she dragged her sister out of the bed, and
+insisted on our having it, while they went and slept in another building
+a few yards away. So John took the bed they had vacated, while Esau made
+a couch for himself in the cheese-room, and we slept the sleep of the
+hard-worked, virtuous, penniless wanderer.
+
+Verily they have a better idea in Norway of true hospitality than in any
+other country under the sun.
+
+
+_September 18._--How strange that our return to the haunts of men should
+be chiefly marked by the sparseness of the fare provided for breakfast!
+A�tin of sardines took the place of the usual trout; and although
+Ransv�rk consists of a group of several s�ters, and almost attains to
+the dignity of a village, and our quarters were in the largest and most
+imposing mansion, there were no forks or spoons to be obtained, and we
+had to fish our sardines out of their native oil with a Tollekniv,
+assisted by a finger, and convey them to our mouths with the same
+implements.
+
+After breakfast Esau and Jens turned out in pursuit of capercailzie,
+which abound in the forest here; but though they persevered until three
+o'clock, and got several shots, the annoying birds all 'went on,' as an
+English keeper generally says when you ask, 'Did you see if I killed
+that rabbit?'
+
+Esau had used up all his large shot at ducks up at Gjendin, and his
+cartridges were perfectly ineffectual at such a strong bird as the
+capercailzie. Besides this, they are extremely wary, and always rise
+about thirty yards from the shooter; they fly quite straight, and so are
+very easy to hit; but though Esau knocked clouds of feathers out of them
+at every shot, and did bring one to the ground which, from the closeness
+of the underwood, could not be gathered, he was obliged to submit to
+disappointment for once.
+
+In one part of the forest they heard a raven shrieking angrily
+('skriking,' Jens called it, which has the same meaning in North country
+dialect), and going to the place were in time to see a goshawk gliding
+swiftly away with some victim in its grasp. In another place there were
+a lot of squirrels, which Jens induced Esau to shoot for some purpose of
+his own. What that purpose was we could only guess by seeing him gather
+a bunch of beautiful wild currants and some flowers just before reaching
+the s�ter, and then brush his hair and march out with his bouquet,
+berries, and squirrel-skins to some place unknown.
+
+Soon after three o'clock we resumed our march, and almost directly
+quitted the good Vaage road along which we travelled last night, and
+took to a cow track on the right. The cart with the canoe had a very
+rough time of it for the first five or six miles, jolting and bumping in
+and out of holes, bogs, and ruts, and over boulders and logs in a most
+appalling manner; then we had a piece of decent road again, and at the
+finish another mile of rough track.
+
+Soon after starting we passed the s�ter where Jens lives when he is not
+hunting in the mountains, and Esau wishing to see what kind of
+snow-shoes they use in this part of the country, Jens ran up to the
+house and fetched his 'skier.' To give an idea of the absurd honesty
+which prevails here, we noticed that though Jens had been absent from
+home for the last two months, and the windows were shuttered up, yet the
+door was only latched; and after the inspection of the snow-shoes, Jens
+would not trouble to take them back, but simply left them by the side of
+the road, to wait his return three or four days hence.
+
+Another instance illustrating the same simplicity occurred to us once
+when travelling in quite a different part of Norway. When changing
+carioles at a station our baggage was all heaped together on the
+road-side, and as we wanted to stay there an hour or so for dinner, and
+this was a main road with a fair amount of traffic, we suggested to the
+landlord that our goods had better be brought inside the station. He
+merely looked up at the sky with a weather-wise eye, and replied, 'Oh
+no, I'm sure it won't rain.'
+
+Our route to-day through the forest was most beautiful, at one time
+descending to the level of the Sjoa, and even struggling along its bed
+where the going on the bank seemed to be inferior, at another climbing
+up and up and ever higher, until we stood on the summit of the range of
+hills which confine this valley on the northern side. It is called
+Hedalen, and is one of those strikingly beautiful half-cultivated
+Norwegian dales which occupy the space between civilisation and the
+untouched realms of nature.
+
+This evening, the setting sun throwing a rich golden glow over the
+scene, and lighting up the brilliant autumnal colours of the trees, gave
+us an opportunity of seeing it quite at its best.
+
+Gradually the forest began to get more open, and the road to improve.
+Several peasants in picturesque garb were seen on the wayside: rough
+buildings became more frequent, and fields and fences quite common; at
+first only pasture land, but soon corn-fields and patches of potatoes.
+
+Then at last in the twilight we make a swift descent from the ridge
+along which the road runs; a�short plunge through a thicket, down a
+grassy track; a�bridge over a little stream; and as we breast the
+opposite bank, a�pile of buildings looming in front and looking
+perfectly gigantic to our eyes, so long accustomed to the tiniest of
+huts; and Jens points up, cracks his whip, and says, 'Bj�lstad.' The
+pony boils up something like 'a�trot for the avenue,' and rattles the
+cart into a large square courtyard, tenanted only by two huge dogs; and
+as a cheery old Norseman rushes out in great excitement to welcome us
+and lead us into a bright, clean, curtained room, we feel that we have
+said farewell to the delights of savage life, and will probably have to
+put on a necktie to-morrow.
+
+Here we parted with our faithful Jens, and very sorry we were to do so,
+as we think him a first-rate fellow: a�man with a bright eye and stolid
+demeanour; naturally silent, but game for anything; a�keen sportsman and
+wonderful stalker, and without a particle of the laziness and sulkiness
+which characterised �la.
+
+Here, for the first time since leaving Lillehammer in July, we slept
+between sheets.
+
+Our own and only Ivar has volunteered to what he calls 'transportare'
+all our baggage in his cart down to Lillehammer, distant about eighty
+miles hence, for the sum of twenty-two shillings. This sounds
+unreasonable, but it was his own suggestion, so we did not argue the
+point, only stipulating that he should be there by noon on Tuesday,
+to-day being Saturday, and leaving the details to him.
+
+Our thoughts were here recalled to the Skipper and his adventures by
+finding the following note from him:--
+
+  'DEAR ESAU,--I have left behind me here certain of what the Romans
+  so appropriately called "impedimenta," and hope that you will be
+  able to bring them home for me. I�got an old, old man with a small
+  cart to bring my luggage down from Ransv�rk. It was a wet day.
+  I�walked the first nine miles while the old man and the rain were
+  both driving. This ancient driveller seemed to imagine it was a
+  fine day, and had hung on his best coat and hat, further
+  aggravating his appearance with a spotted kerchief and a light
+  heart. He seemed remarkably cheerful, as carolling he drove his
+  carjole and cajoled his horse through the dripping pine forests.
+  I�arrived here at midday, and the owner, Ivar Tofte, came out to
+  meet me. He took a great fancy to me, and we finished together a
+  bottle of the most delicious aquavit, which he produced from a
+  cellar where it had been laid down in the time of the Vikings.
+  It is a pity neither of you can speak the language!
+
+    'Yours haughtily,
+
+      'THE SKIPPER.'
+
+We found that the 'impedimenta' of which the Skipper had spoken were 147
+loaded cartridges wrapped up in a flannel shirt, the whole being
+enveloped in a partially cured reindeer-skin.
+
+We were further reminded of our lost one by looking in the Day-book (or
+traveller's name-book), where his was the last English name. This was
+not surprising, for though Bj�lstad is a posting station, it is a very
+out-of-the-way place; but we looked back for two years without finding
+that any other Englishman had been here, and then the Skipper's name
+occurred again. Between these dates the names were all Norwegian, and
+there were not very many even of them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+BJ�LSTAD.
+
+
+_Sunday, September 19._--Bj�lstad is an ancient Norwegian homestead, and
+consists of several separate buildings surrounding a central rectangular
+court. The house that we slept in bears the date of 1818, and is the
+most modern as well as the largest of the group; it is really a suite of
+state apartments for the use of the king on the rare occasions when he
+visits this part of his dominions.
+
+On the left-hand side of the courtyard as we stand at the door of our
+state apartments, is a very quaint and picturesque old house with a
+handsome porch, built in the Byzantine style, date 1743, and in this the
+owner lives whenever he comes to this farm.
+
+Opposite to us is another building even more curious in its
+architecture, and considerably older than the other; and the remaining
+side of the yard is occupied by another more modern edifice, used
+chiefly as a storehouse. Besides these there are several other detached
+outbuildings, in which sleighs, ploughs, spare cooking utensils, rugs,
+and various other useful and useless articles are kept, including all
+the fittings and even the weathercock of an ancient church which used to
+stand close to the farm, but which is now demolished and partly reduced
+to firewood.
+
+  [Illustration: Old Buildings in the Courtyard at Bj�lstad]
+
+The owner of all this grandeur is one Ivar Tofte, a wealthy yeoman who
+has several other farms in other parts of the country, one of which is
+much larger and more important even than Bj�lstad; and we were lucky
+enough to find this Northern Croesus at home, for it turned out that he
+was the cheery old man in the shocking bad hat who had run out to
+welcome us last night.
+
+This morning he came into our room after breakfast, with a bottle of
+aquavit in his hand wherewith to drink our health. Now to refuse this
+ceremony is an unpardonable insult, but we had tasted aquavit before,
+and had a wholesome dread of the nauseous compound, reeking of carraway
+seeds and aniseed, which we were accustomed to expect out of an aquavit
+bottle. So we poured out very small glasses, clinked them in approved
+manner, and raised them to our lips as we uttered the magic word Skaal,
+more with a feeling of disgust than any other sensation. And then it was
+beautiful to see a heavenly smile steal over Esau's ingenuous
+countenance; while John, softly murmuring, 'Chartreuse, by George!'
+reached for the bottle, and with a shout of 'Skaal Ivar Tofte,'
+proceeded to fill himself a bumper. It was a perfect liqueur, soft,
+delicate, and mellow, as probably age alone could have made it; and we
+drank Skaal to 'Gammle Norg�,' and England, and Kong Oscar, and Queen
+Vict_oo_ria, and Ivar Tofte again, and then ourselves again; whereupon
+the old man perceived that we appreciated his 'cuv�e de r�serve,' and
+went for another full bottle, which he left in our room, so that we
+could 'put it to our lips when we felt so dispoged.'
+
+After this, John, feeling at once genial and liberal, announced his
+intention of buying a sheenfelt (sheepskin rug) for importation into
+England; and Tofte with an aged retainer volunteered to show us his
+stores of sheepskins.
+
+First our guide procured a bunch of enormous keys, such as Bluebeard
+would have hanging from his waist in a pantomime, labelled 'Key of the
+Wine-cellar. Umbrella stand. Fowl-house. Potted shrimps. Cupboard where
+the jam's kept,' &c., &c. Then he marched off to one of the buildings,
+followed by us and the other old man, whose profession was apparently to
+exalt Bj�lstad sheenfelts, and to debase--as far as extreme volubility
+and strict inattention to the elements of truth would enable him to
+accomplish that object--an ancient one which John wished to give in part
+payment.
+
+Bluebeard led us up some stairs to the Blue Chamber, where we saw
+hanging in a row the skins, not of his deceased wives, but of many
+'timid-glancing, herbage-cropping, fleecy flocks,' to use the beautiful
+and touching language of the Greek poet. Then the two accomplices
+selected the sheenfelt which they intended us to buy, and began to
+expatiate on its beauties in terms of undisguised admiration; and after
+half an hour's huckstering and haggling, of course they persuaded John
+to take that and no other. However, it was a beautiful specimen of this
+kind of rug, of a dark grey colour, and very thick, warm, and heavy; so
+both sides were highly satisfied, and proceeded to the drinking of more
+aquavit in celebration of the bargain.
+
+The weather was so unpleasant, and Bluebeard and his aquavit were so
+engaging, that we decided not to leave here till to-morrow. Our host was
+delighted to hear this, and at once went for more aquavit, which he
+appears to consider the first necessity of life; and then he proceeded
+to show us round his ancestral halls, as though he were a sober old
+verger of Westminster Abbey.
+
+There was a sort of old-world Rip van Winkle sleepiness about Bj�lstad
+very soothing to men who like us have lived in the nineteenth century
+for some few years. All the varlets and handmaidens were dressed in the
+old native costume, so appropriate to the ancient wooden buildings with
+quaintly carved eaves and doorways, about which they hovered. In the
+courtyard were two enormous dogs, that barked loudly whenever we
+appeared, but at the same time wagged their tails and looked imbecile
+and good natured. There were also four geese, who meant to be sitting
+basking in the rain, but as soon as anybody came to one of the numerous
+doors, or crossed the yard, they all stood up and quacked solemnly
+fourteen times each, then hissed once, and sat down again; and as some
+one was always moving about the court, the quiet rest of those birds was
+more anticipatory than real; but they alone of all the living creatures
+at Bj�lstad appeared to have any fixed employment which demanded
+constant attention.
+
+Bluebeard first took us through the state apartments, which contained
+many curious and interesting things of all ages, from an axe nearly a
+thousand years old, to a Birmingham plated teapot won at the Christiania
+horse show in 1860.
+
+The Toftes boast themselves descended from Harald Haarfager, and are so
+proud of their ancestry, that from time immemorial they have never
+married out of their own family. If dear old Bluebeard may be accepted
+as an ordinary result of this system, it must be confessed that it has
+its advantages.
+
+The things that he chiefly delighted to show us were those which had
+been used by the king during his occasional visits, the most curious
+being a large stone table made of one enormous slab not more than
+three-quarters of an inch thick, but very hard and elastic, more like a
+steel plate than stone; gorgeously embroidered counterpanes and chairs;
+some very old ploughs and sleighs; and a brass-bound box with a
+marvellous representation of Adam and Eve, very evidently before the
+Fall, and the most remarkable thing in serpents which the wildest flight
+of human imagination has yet conceived. There were some very nice silver
+utensils and ornaments, but not many, as most of his plate is kept at
+his largest farm. All that he had here was in a cupboard with a rubbishy
+unlocked deal door, standing in John's bedroom; a�fact which speaks
+volumes for the trusting simplicity and total inability to read a man's
+character from his appearance, caused by a millennium of marrying your
+cousin once removed. Poor Bluebeard! he little thought what a viper he
+was nurturing in his bosom, or rather in his chest (his plate chest),
+and that in that room lay one who could perhaps, if he would, answer the
+questions--
+
+Who took the Gainsborough?
+
+Who has the Dudley diamonds?
+
+Who stole the donkey? and
+
+Where's the cat?
+
+N.B.--John has now a large collection of ancient Norwegian silver,
+counterpanes, belts, tankards, knives, and ornaments to dispose of at
+very low prices if no questions are asked. --ADVT.
+
+
+_September 20._--We left Bj�lstad in carioles on a real road about nine
+o'clock, Bluebeard himself assisting in the operation of harnessing the
+ponies and packing the baggage. Just as we were driving off,
+a�brilliantly original idea occurred to him, and he said, 'Come in and
+taste my aquavit.' We did not like to refuse an old grey-haired man's
+simple request, so descended and drank another Skaal to all the usual
+loyal, patriotic, and festive toasts, and then we drove off murmuring
+somewhat indistinctly, 'Shkaal Iva' Tofte Shhkaal Iv Toffie Shko Toffy.
+Jolly good fler-ole-shole-Toffy.'
+
+All day we drove, and ever as we descended the Hedalen valley with the
+noisy Sjoa on our right hand, the farming kept improving, and the
+country becoming more populous; and we saw many families digging
+potatoes, many pigs roaming free and unmolested as they do in Ireland,
+and a few men bringing up stores from the town for the long season of
+snowed-up dreariness now so near at hand. Jens told us that in winter,
+even so far to the south as Vaage, the sun only rises about eleven, and
+sets at one o'clock, giving barely three hours of daylight in midwinter;
+though he said that in the mountains where he spends his time hunting,
+there is rather more light than in the valleys.
+
+It may be well to explain in what manner so much information was
+obtained from men whose language was unknown to us, and to whom ours was
+equally incomprehensible.
+
+The glorious principle of co-operation did it all. The Skipper spoke
+Norse with great elegance and fluency, but did not understand it at all.
+Esau could understand it perfectly, but was unable to express himself in
+that tongue to even a limited extent; and John could neither speak nor
+understand a word. Consequently our united accomplishments were equal
+to meeting any emergency that might arise, even to the disentanglement
+of such a coil�as--
+
+_Brandforsikringsselskabet_, or--
+
+_Sommermaandernepassagerbekvemmeligheder_,
+
+or any other of the little complex words that an educated Norwegian can
+construct. It is wonderful to hear the natives launch out into one of
+these cataracts: they do it fearlessly, and steer through the whole with
+unflagging fortitude, and very seldom with any fatal results.
+
+The hay harvest seemed to be quite finished except on the roofs of the
+houses, where some people were still cutting and carrying their crops.
+The barley had just been reaped, and was now being dried by the process
+of impalement, a�dozen sheaves, one above the other, being transfixed by
+a pole stuck into the ground, just as a naughty boy sticks a row of
+moths on a long pin, or as the unfortunate Bulgarians were supposed to
+be exhibited during the 'atrocity' scare. Can it be possible that those
+stories arose from the distant contemplation of a barley-field?
+
+  [Illustration: Barley Sheaves: A Norwegian 'Atrocity']
+
+The Norwegians also dry their hay in a different manner from that
+usually practised in England. They erect high hurdles made of larch
+poles in lines at intervals all over the field, and on these they hang
+the hay to dry as we hang towels on a horse, and it is by this means so
+well exposed to both air and sun that it dries very quickly. No doubt
+the hurdles are also very useful in spring as a shelter for the young
+lambs.
+
+The weather kept improving so much that we grew quite jubilant, and the
+ever-changing scenes that opened before us seemed full of life and
+brightness, and we looked with a certain amount of pleasure on even the
+magpies, which sat on the fences in scores, pluming their black-green
+feathers, and talking things over quietly to themselves. So different
+from the wary magpie of England, who, knowing that he is an Ishmael,
+glories in the fact, and shrieks defiance to mankind at the top of his
+voice and a tree.
+
+For three hours we followed the brawling Sjoa through scenery that would
+bear comparison with Switzerland, and then we reached the spot where it
+joins the mighty Laagen, and crossing the latter by a picturesque but
+discouraging bridge, soon struck the main road, and pulled up for our
+first change of ponies at Storklevstad, nineteen miles from Bj�lstad.
+
+At another place further on we found a shop kept by a Norwegian Yankee,
+and entered it to buy some sugar-candy, wherewith to appease our
+cariole-boy. This storekeeper informed us that the emigration from
+Norway to the States was enormous just now, especially to Minnesota and
+Wisconsin, and that no less than sixteen men had gone this year from the
+little village of Vaage--a place which does not strike one as being
+likely to contain that number of able-bodied men at one time. �la had
+told us that five of his brethren were in Minnesota, but that he himself
+had no intention of leaving his native country; and this we thought to
+be well, for if he were to join them we are convinced that any
+enterprise in which they might be engaged would inevitably fail with his
+invaluable co-operation and assistance--unless perhaps the Skipper could
+be induced to go out there and occasionally exhort him.
+
+At Listad we lunched off a real white tablecloth; that is to say, we ate
+not the cloth, but everything eatable that was placed on�it.
+
+We also found a note from the Skipper asking us to bring along one or
+two little things that he had been obliged to leave behind in his
+hurried flight, just as the allied armies kept finding Napoleon's
+belongings at different places after Waterloo. The present loot
+consisted of a coat, sleeping rug, and a towel.
+
+At Kirkestuen we quitted the track for the night, having made fifty
+miles in about ten hours. This, according to our experience, is a fair
+rate of progression in Norway; in fact, the traveller is more likely to
+find the average below this than above, unless he drives the good little
+ponies faster than they like to go, which is wrong.
+
+Here the three women who kept the station were immensely amused because
+we asked for coffee with our food, and one of them took upon herself the
+task of rebuking us for such dissipated habits, and explained at great
+length that no respectable people ever did such a thing. 'Coffee,' she
+said, 'should only be drunk during the day, gruel after sunset.' But we
+persisted in our reckless demand, and they finally gave in, and produced
+the delicious compound that may be expected at any wretched little
+dwelling throughout the country.
+
+This was the first place where the papered rooms and iron stoves of
+modern Norway obtruded themselves on our notice; but in spite of these
+we were very comfortable, and think that Kirkestuen deserves all the
+praise which we cannot find lavished upon it in any of the guide-books:
+it is cheap, comfortable, and clean, and the food is excellent. If the
+three young ladies who preside over its arrangements wish to send us any
+little remuneration for this advertisement, we are agents for several
+Central African Missions, to which we could hand it over; or, as 'best
+aquavit' is a good deal appreciated by the missionaries themselves when
+they are suffering from certain diseases peculiar to the Central African
+climate, we would receive that liqueur in cases of not less than three
+dozen in lieu of money.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+DOWN TO CHRISTIANIA.
+
+
+_September 21._--The steadily improving weather of our homeward journey
+is very pleasant, and already we are beginning to almost forget those
+'Miseries in Cold and Grey' which were so conspicuous during our last
+few days at Rus Vand.
+
+To-day we noticed that the whole population of the country appeared to
+be engaged in the seductive pastime of potato-digging. One family that
+we passed consisted of papa, mamma, and eight children of different
+ages, all absorbed in this pursuit. The parents had gardening tools, the
+elder children were using pickaxes and trowels, the younger ones
+fire-shovels and wooden baking spades, and the mere babies were hard at
+work with spoons and toasting-forks.
+
+Here and there we detected a few people still making hay, presumably
+because they had no potatoes. In Norway the hill-sides are so steep and
+rocky that there is not overmuch room for the cultivation of grass, so
+they have to collect it from every available corner where a few sprays
+of anything green can contrive to exist. As we have mentioned, they are
+now curing grass on the house-tops, and to-day we saw a man with a
+scythe about eighteen inches long, mowing in amongst the stones on the
+river bank, and in some of the places where he went the scythe blade was
+the only blade visible to the naked eye. One thing seems certain, that a
+Norwegian _will_ make hay while the sun shines, even if he can only find
+rocks out of which to make�it.
+
+On this part of our journey we passed a great many spotted black and
+white pigs: these pigs move with a greater dignity of bearing than the
+ordinary white pig of Scandinavia, and altogether seem to consider
+themselves superior to him, although they have not a curly tail.
+Personally we think there is a certain subtle charm about the curly tail
+of the white pig, a�something that sets him off and renders him more
+pleasing to the eye of the beholder than is a spotted pig with a
+straight tail. However, our humble opinion does not seem at all to
+affect the swagger of the spotted pig.
+
+Near Form� we overtook a rosy-cheeked girl of about eighteen, astride a
+bare-backed pony: the pony was seized with a spirit of emulation, and
+insisted on accompanying the carioles for some distance in spite of her
+efforts to stop�it.
+
+The weather was now delightful; the roads were dry and dusty, and the
+sun was so hot that the long cool shadows of the pine woods which at
+frequent intervals hedge in the road were quite a welcome relief both to
+us and our shaggy steeds.
+
+Ever as we followed the almost imperceptible descent of the road, the
+great river Laagen became wider, deeper, and bluer, as it gathered
+increased volume from the numberless tributaries which flow into it from
+every hill, till at length at Fossegaarden it plunged over a series of
+ledges in a splendid succession of falls, and after winding awhile amid
+fir-clad islands and shaded grassy banks, it flowed into the Mj�sen Lake
+and was lost, while we on the road above, rounding the last corner and
+turning to the east, soon found ourselves in Lillehammer, which really
+looked quite a towny little town.
+
+Esau stopped at Fossegaarden a couple of hours to throw a fly in the
+tempting-looking water below the falls, and was rewarded at the first
+cast by a rise from a fish whose peculiar wriggling and rolling soon
+showed him to be a grayling; and before leaving, the bag was filled with
+some very fine specimens of this beautiful and delicate fish.
+
+We were greeted as old friends at the Victoria Hotel, where Ivar had
+already arrived with our things. Then we ordered our own dinner, and
+told the host to supply Ivar with whatever he wanted regardless of
+expense (the result of this reckless munificence was a bill for nearly
+two shillings); and in the happy frame of mind produced on both sides by
+this course we settled our accounts with him, and giving him all our
+worn-out garments and some candles and matches, we parted with the last
+of our henchmen.
+
+By the way, we here found a note from the Skipper asking us to bring
+home a pair of shooting boots, three socks, and the remains of what had
+apparently been a pocket handkerchief; but the obvious course that
+suggested itself was 'give 'em to the men,' and we insisted on Ivar
+taking these valuables.
+
+
+_September 22._--With the utmost difficulty, by threats and coercion
+Esau was induced to leave his bed, and dragged to the steamer in time
+for her departure, as, if left to his own inclinations, he would have
+remained in his insidious couch until this globe had performed its
+diurnal revolution.
+
+As it was, the 'Skibl�dner' was indulging in a final premonitory shriek
+before leaving the pier when we came hurrying and stumbling down the
+hill at all paces, and we only stepped aboard just as she threw off the
+last detaining rope.
+
+The steamer was at first very empty, but more people joined us at every
+stopping-place, of which there are about a dozen on the lake. Some of
+these are little villages, with only the bright roofs and church spire
+peeping out from among the fir trees; others no more than a
+landing-stage projecting into the blue waters, and no other indications
+of life save perhaps a couple of idle fishing boats and a flagstaff.
+
+The morning was so calm and fine, that the grayling playing under the
+shore made the only break in the otherwise unruffled surface of the
+lake, and it seemed strange to find ourselves back in summer again,
+having left winter with its snow and frosts far above us up at Rus Vand
+only a few days ago.
+
+At Hamar some English people came aboard, so that we had some one to
+talk to. At every place where the steamer stopped and fresh passengers
+came off in boats to meet us, it seemed to be customary that they should
+take off their hats to the captain on the bridge as they pulled up
+alongside: even when we passed the smallest places without stopping,
+merely throwing the mail bag into a boat as we darted by, the
+fresh-water sailors on the steamer all took off their hats to the
+fresh-water sailors ashore, the latter always returning the salutation;
+and considering the fact that two steamers pass every day, this
+indicates no small degree of politeness.
+
+There is a great amount of character to be noticed among the natives
+during a voyage on the lake, and although they are badly and even
+grotesquely dressed (for the pretty old costume has quite disappeared in
+this part of the country, and its modern substitute is hideous), still
+their old-fashioned manners and simple courtesy are very striking; and
+in spite of their love of a little mild ostentation they are so quiet
+and well behaved, that they would appear to great advantage if
+contrasted with the crowd that may be found say on a Greenwich steamer.
+
+At Eidsvold we left the steamer for the train which was waiting to
+receive us, and about nightfall were once more in Christiania, and after
+a sumptuous supper went to rest in sumptuous beds, thinking ere we fell
+asleep of how to-morrow we should again have to submit ourselves to the
+yoke of civilisation, to discard our flannel shirts for linen ones and
+stick-up collars, to throw aside our shooting boots, and again bite off
+our nails, which have grown to their natural length under the soothing
+influence of a long spell of unworried conscience.
+
+
+_September 23._--We found Christiania this morning almost as hot as we
+left it, the streets all dry and dusty, and the trees parched for want
+of rain; and the sunshine was very pleasant as we wandered about the
+town into the various shops, purchasing articles by the assistance of
+which we hoped to attain popularity among our relatives on our arrival
+in England.
+
+The shopkeepers were almost all very slow; in fact, the transaction of
+any business is not the hardy Norseman's strong point. We copy this
+extract from the Skipper's journal:--
+
+'I went to the bank this morning to get some circular notes changed, and
+they kept me there fussing over them for fifty minutes before I got the
+money. During this time of expectation I read two letters from home
+through, and had a chase after a torpid fly on the floor with my stick:
+considering his languid condition this fly showed great spirit, but
+after following him about three feet along the floor and nine inches up
+the wall, I�made a fortunate dash at him, and concluded his existence.
+Then I thought for a while and stared all round the room, and cut my
+nails with my knife. Then I counted how many boards there were in the
+floor, and how many nails there were on an average in each board, and
+made a little calculation on these figures to discover how many nails
+there were in the whole room, and what they weighed, how much they cost,
+how many miles they would reach if laid end to end, and how many men at
+how much an hour for how long it had taken to drive them all in. Then
+again I thought for a while, but still the money did not come, and my
+moral reflections on men and things had just led me to the conclusion
+that all mortals were but desolate creatures, and that I of all men was
+most desolate and abandoned, when at the end of forty minutes an
+official arrived with a sort of cheque. And after that it took ten
+minutes more to change the cheque into money in a lower room, where the
+clerks had their hair so beautifully brushed and were so haughty, that
+instead of being angry I could only thank them profusely for giving me
+the money at all.'
+
+After finishing our hunt for curios, it occurred to us that we ought to
+see the vikings' ship recently unearthed somewhere on the fjord, so we
+walked down to the University, where we were told by a student that it
+was not yet open to the public, but that if we would ask the Professor
+of Arch�ology, whom John profanely designated 'the boss that runs the
+antiquity show,' he had no doubt that, being strangers, we should be
+allowed to see the ship.
+
+Would the fact of a man being a foreigner obtain his admission to a
+private view of an English curiosity, save perhaps the plans and
+mechanism of an iron-clad or torpedo? Probably not.
+
+Revolving these thoughts within our minds we sought the professor, and
+he at once left the work upon which he was engaged and took us to the
+ship, which was locked up inside a wooden building that has been erected
+for�it.
+
+Very interesting it was, the preservation of the wood and also the
+ironwork being wonderful. Unfortunately, some arch�ologists of earlier
+date than the present had also made some excavations in search of
+memorials of the past. They had cut a large hole in the side amidships,
+for the purpose of carrying off the ornaments and other valuables by
+which the dead viking was surrounded, in the chamber constructed for his
+body right in the centre of the boat. The modern arch�ologists call
+their predecessors 'sacrilegious robbers,' but we are averse to the use
+of strong language among men of science.
+
+However, the rest of the ship was perfect, even to the shields which
+used to adorn the gunwale, which are now seen to have been made of thin
+wood, and were probably only ornamental. She was a good big boat, rather
+flat-bottomed and low in the water, but with great breadth of beam, and
+built on lines that left no room for doubt as to her seagoing qualities.
+
+The whole day was occupied by this shopping and sight-seeing, and we
+went to bed more exhausted than by a hard day's stalking at Gjendin, and
+not half so much satisfied with our achievements.
+
+It is almost unnecessary to mention that we found at the hotel a note
+from the Skipper, begging us to bring home a waterproof sheet and a few
+clothes that he had been obliged to leave there. We think that this
+young man must have shed nearly all his raiment before leaving Norway,
+and gone home clad in a yellow ulster which we know he had left at the
+hotel in July; for, judging from the fragments that we have picked up
+from time to time on our homeward route, he cannot have much other
+property with him except his gun, rifle, and fishing-gear.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+HOME AGAIN.
+
+
+_September 24._--To-day our Norwegian friends who lent us the hut at Rus
+Vand came to dine with us, and then saw us safely aboard the 'Angelo,'
+and at five o'clock, in the presence of an immense crowd which covered
+the whole quay, some of the people cheering, but many more weeping, we
+steamed out of the harbour.
+
+As the sound of the last bell died away, and the last gangway fell with
+a crash on to the landing-stage, a�hatless, breathless man rushed up the
+companion and darted at the spot where he supposed the gangway to be:
+seeing that he was too late, he yelled to the people on shore, and made
+as though he would have cast himself into the water, but was restrained
+by the passengers. Meanwhile a fleet of little boats endeavoured to
+catch a rope and be towed until he could be lowered into one of them;
+but all failed, and the unfortunate man was carried off to
+Christiansand, so that on his involuntary voyage he would have leisure
+to meditate on the folly of a too prolonged farewell.
+
+With a gentle breeze we steamed down the fjord, which never looked more
+lovely than on this evening; and so beautiful was the night, so warm, so
+radiant, and with such a depth of glorious colouring from the departed
+sun, that people crept away into the shade out of the _moonlight_, from
+pure force of habit, after the heat of the summer.
+
+The influence of such a night, together with a certain sense of
+something completed; the calm ocean all round us, and the soothing,
+monotonous throbbing of the untiring screw, produced a longing for
+confidence in John's bosom, so that he gave utterance to his sentiments
+as he leant with Esau over the rail of the hurricane deck, and watched
+the ever-sparkling phosphorescent lights caused by the passage of the
+vessel through the quiet water.
+
+'Yes, I'm sorry to be leaving Norway, for, you know, there's something
+delightful to me about the simplicity of the people' (Esau's mind
+reverted to Ivar Tofte and his plate cupboard); 'they seem to place a
+childlike confidence in a stranger, which is quite incomprehensible to
+me. Then there is an unwordable calm, an indescribable tranquillity,
+which seems to cling both to the country and its inhabitants; even the
+houses seem to possess an imperturbable serenity of demeanour which you
+will not find on any other island in Europe. In fact, y'know, Esau, it's
+a country where one might live quietly and die in peace, where "moths do
+not corrupt, neither do worms break through and steal," don't you know,
+Esau? And I'm deuced sorry to have to count among past memories the time
+we have spent here, where the unbroken harmony of existence is that
+repose for which my soul has longed these many years; but never until
+now, no, by George! never, has it been able to discover the most
+uncertain tracings of its ideal.'
+
+Here Esau, who had his deck shoes on, seeing what sort of a mood John
+was in, stole away quietly towards the cabin, and left him prosing on to
+the German Ocean. He paused, however, a�moment before descending the
+companion stairs, and caught a few more words which, as the moon had now
+set, John was confiding to the darkness.
+
+'A couple more days, and we shall be back in England, where, y'know,
+I�think civilisation is overdone. My existence there is a perpetual
+state of toadying and being toadied: you see, it's a place where the
+serpent of social emulation creeps into our very beds, and hangs
+suspended over our heads by a mere thread when we least expect him; and,
+y'know, Esau----' But Esau had slunk down the stairs, and the rest of
+this impassioned outburst is, we fear, lost to humanity.
+
+
+_September 25._--We woke up to find ourselves just leaving
+Christiansand, and soon reached the lighthouse at what the Skipper calls
+'the bottom left-hand corner of Norway,' but remained in bed while we
+glared at it through the port.
+
+We were taking out a great number of emigrants for America, fine,
+sturdy-looking young fellows, probably as hard as nails, and quite equal
+to coping with the difficulties of a new country. They all looked so
+cheery and full of hope and expectation, that we could not help thinking
+rather sadly of the day when they will wake up to some of the unpleasant
+realities of Yankee life, and wish themselves back again in their native
+hills among their own simple-minded friends.
+
+The day passed in the manner usual at sea when the water is smooth and
+the ship goes merrily homeward bound. Hardly any one missed a
+meal--rather a difference from the ordinary state of affairs in the wild
+North Sea; and at evening the sun went down in a blaze of scarlet and
+gold, which was reflected from the perfectly calm surface; and we turned
+in with tranquil minds, even Esau being now reasonably hopeful of seeing
+the Humber without suffering the pangs of starvation.
+
+Esau is not a good sailor. On the last occasion of our return from
+Norway he crossed by the 'Angelo' a�fortnight before the Skipper; and
+the latter, on arriving on board prepared for the voyage, saw the
+steward, and asked him, 'What sort of a passage did you have last trip,
+George?'
+
+'Beautiful, sir. I never see a smoother sea.'
+
+Then the Skipper went on, 'Did you see anything of Mr. Esau on the
+voyage?'
+
+To which George replied, 'I seen him come aboard.'
+
+And this brief remark of George's conveyed a world of untold fact.
+
+
+_September 26._--We dropped anchor outside Hull at half-past five this
+evening, in the remainder of the very same drizzling rain that was going
+on when we left England in July.
+
+Hull on Sunday in a soaking rain is not a place to grow romantic about,
+so we omit all reference to our first sensations and maledictions on our
+return to our native climate, and proceed to a more agreeable
+subject--dinner.
+
+It was a merry meal in company with four of our fellow-passengers, who
+were likewise returning from sport in Norway--two from salmon fishing,
+two from red-deer stalking, and with whom there was consequently a bond
+of sympathy.
+
+With these kindred spirits, after British beef had been washed down with
+British beer, a�Skaal drunk in British champagne, and tongues were
+loosened by the confidential pipe and British cigar, we chatted long and
+pleasantly; wandering again with rod and gun among the rugged mountains
+of that wild north land, recalling exploits performed, and perhaps
+indulging in those mild and harmless exaggerations of doughty deeds
+which no traveller or sportsman can resist. Already we found ourselves
+forgetting the few disagreeable incidents that occurred during our trip,
+and viewing everything through that rosy mist which happily arises
+before all past hours of pleasure and discomfort alike. Too soon bedtime
+put an end to our retrospect, and we slept the sleep of the wearied
+traveller, with dreams of trout, ryper, and reindeer--steamboat,
+cariole, and sleigh--mountain, lake, and river--tent and s�ter--paddle
+and pony--hurrying through our brains in wild confusion.
+
+To-morrow, alas! we commence again a life of gilded misery and gloomy
+magnificence. Give to us the untrammelled freedom of 'Gammle Norg�,' and
+the humble crust of fladbrod----_with_ JAM.
+
+  [Illustration: 'FARVEL.' [Three at Home Again]]
+
+
+_Spottiswoode & Co., Printers, New-street Square, London._
+
+
+
+
+  [Map: THE JOTUNFJELD
+  Showing various Routes to it.
+  E. Weller _Lith._]
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+           *       *       *       *
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+Typographical Errors (noted by transcriber):
+
+The word "invisible" means that there is an appropriately sized blank
+space, but the character itself is missing. Some names are written
+differently in the List of Illustrations than elsewhere in the text;
+these are not individually noted.
+
+  _... to that of all other sons of Adam._'  [_final . missing_]
+  a delicious meal off trout, strawberries and cream
+    [_text unchanged: may be error for "of"_]
+  It is eleven miles long; very deep; very blue  [_comma invisible_]
+  the name is a little difficult to pronounce [pronouce]
+  a delicious meal nearly ready cooked by Esau  [delicions]
+  and often gets his deserts.  [_final . missing_]
+  a hole in the ground  [he ground]
+  they expected to meet their boat.  [_final . missing_]
+  'I ran straight on, and following round the shoulder of the hill
+    [_open quote missing_]
+  to assist in the operations there going on.  [_final . missing_]
+  while �la undertook the labour.  [_final . missing_]
+  taking the north side of the lake, Esau the south.  [lake.]
+  Skipper: 'Let me blow it out.'  [_close quote missing_]
+  without the deer seeing us  [dear]
+  [Footnote 9: 'Pandecages,' pancakes.]
+    [Pandecagos _corrected from main text_]
+  to have our 'spise.' ... gravy from the 'boss pie' ...
+    [_single inner quotes as shown_]
+  '�la also seemed to devour his food  [_open quote missing_]
+  'We packed everything into the boat  [_open quote invisible_]
+  carolling he drove his carjole and cajoled his horse
+    [_anomalous spelling "carjole" unchanged: may be intentional_]
+  as the moon had now set, John was confiding  [_comma invisible_]
+
+Phonetic spellings:
+
+  "Pandecages" with macron on second "a":
+    the vowel is broad, as in "father".
+  "cano" with breve over "a":
+    the speaker pronounced the word as "can" + "oh" (that is, neither
+    the Norwegian nor the correct English pronunciation).
+  "Gammle Norg�" ... "Queen Vict_oo_ria"
+    both represent Norwegian pronunciation: final "e" is not silent,
+    and "o" is pronounced like "continental" u.
+
+
+Norwegian:
+
+Written Norwegian has three extra vowels: �, �, �. At the time _Three in
+Norway_ was published, the language generally used Danish spelling. Many
+words written with "�" would now use simple "e", and the letter "�"
+(pronounced like "continental" o) was written "aa".
+
+The letter "�" is equivalent to "�" ("o umlaut"); the correct letterform
+may have been unavailable to the printer.
+
+The spelling "Ragnild" (expected form "Ragnhild") is used consistently.
+The forms "Bred Sj�" : "Bredsj�", "skin tukt" : "skintukt" (see
+Berries), and Jotun Fjeld : Jotunfjeld each occur.
+
+Double vowels representing a single long sound are rare except in a few
+names; the macron on the first "u" in "Tronhuus" is redundant.
+
+The inconsistent capitalization of "Ryper" : "ryper" is unchanged. The
+plural form "ryper" is used throughout for both singular and plural.
+
+Consistent o/� (�) errors:
+
+  �la (the name) _for_ Ola
+  brod, fladbrod _for_ br�d, fladbr�d
+  Form�, kr�ne, m�lte b�r, sp�r, Str�mkarl _for_ Formo, krone,
+    molteb�r, spor, Stromkarl
+
+Other uses of � (�) are correct: �l, �re, h�, sj� and any place names.
+
+Words:
+
+  The men had been complaining that it was a 'dole vei' (bad road)
+  soon after the start, now they said it was 'schlamm'
+    [d�rlig vei; slem]
+  Skoggaggany ... is merely the Norwegian for a scaup duck
+    [_one Norwegian translation says, in paraphrase, "we called it
+    Skoggaggany because we thought it sounded so Norwegian". If the
+    word is real, it should end in _-and_, "duck"._]
+  'Nei' was again the answer, and an ominous whisper of 'landsmand'
+  (the policeman) was plainly audible.
+    [lensmand, _now written_ -mann]
+  'Ingen dyr, ingen fresk sp�r, ingen gammle sp�r,' as the Norsk j�ger
+  would remark
+    [_The spelling with � for � is anomalous. Modern Norwegian would
+    have "jeger", though "j�ger" is correct for the time. The spelling
+    "sp�r" is here an error for "spor" (tracks)._]
+  the "jarraf," as they call it
+    [j�rv, _now written_ jerv]
+  John, feeling at once genial and liberal, announced his intention
+  of buying a sheenfelt (sheepskin rug) for importation into England
+    [skinnfeld, _now written_ -fell]
+
+Berries:
+
+Most of the berries of the country are now just at their best, and
+Memurudalen is a grand valley for all of them, except of course the
+strawberry and raspberry, which will not grow at this altitude. But we
+have 'klarkling' (the English crowberry) in great abundance; blau b�r
+(wimberry), the finest and best ever seen, in quantities; also 'skin
+tukt,' another blue berry rather larger than a wimberry, and with a
+thicker skin and wonderful bloom on it; this we think does not grow in
+England. Then less numerous are a berry something between a raspberry
+and a red currant, but of better flavour than either of them; and the
+great and glorious 'm�lte b�r' (cloudberry); to say nothing of 'heste
+b�r,' and 'tutti b�r,' and several others of unknown names. The last one
+grows in England, but we have forgotten its name; they make jelly from
+it here, and prize it highly for its acid taste.
+
+  'klarkling' (the English crowberry)  [krekling]
+  blau b�r (wimberry)  [bl�b�r (_etymologically "blueberry", but not
+    the same as the American blueberry_)]
+  'skin tukt,' another blue berry
+    [_probably "blokkeb�r", also called "skinntryte"_]
+  something between a raspberry and a red currant  [rips]
+  'm�lte b�r' (cloudberry)  [molteb�r, _also written "multeb�r"_]
+  'heste b�r,'  [_possibly "heggeb�r"_]
+  'tutti b�r,'  [tytteb�r]
+  we have forgotten its name
+    [_English "lingonberry", from its Swedish name "lingon"_]
+
+Song:
+
+  [Footnote 4: 'Brod,' bread. The word does not rhyme to god, being
+  pronounced something like Broat, but it looks as if it rhymed.]
+    [_The Norwegian word is "br�d". Here the writers almost seem
+    to be talking about the German equivalent "Brot"._]
+  [Footnote 8: 'Stor,' big, pronounced Stora before a consonant.]
+    [_The writers have misunderstood a rule. The word does vary
+    between "stor" and "store", but the difference is grammatical,
+    not phonetic._]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Three in Norway, by 
+James Arthur Lees and Walter J. Clutterbuck
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+h5, .five {font-size: 100%;}
+div.maintext h5 {display: run-in; text-align: left; margin-top: 1em;
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+margin-bottom: .33em;}
+h6, .six {font-size: 88%;}
+
+
+p, div.para {margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: 0; line-height: 1.2;}
+
+p.illustration {text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1em;}
+p.plate {text-align: center; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;}
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+div.verse p.stanza {margin-top: .5em;}
+
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+
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+p.smaller {font-size: 88%;}
+
+/* footnotes */
+
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+
+
+/* tables */
+
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+font-family: inherit;}
+
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+
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+
+div.para {display: run-in;}
+table.inline {display: run-in; text-align: left; margin: 0;}
+
+/* contents */
+
+table.toc {width: 80%;}
+table.toc td {padding-top: .25em; padding-bottom: .25em;}
+td.number, td.item {text-align: right;}
+td.item {padding-right: 1em;}
+td.number {width: 2em; padding-left: .5em;}
+
+td.dots {background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: right 75%;
+font-variant: small-caps;}
+td.dots.even {background-image: url("images/widedots1.gif");}
+td.dots.odd {background-image: url("images/widedots2.gif");}
+td.smallest {font-size: 75%;}
+
+table.toc p {margin: 0 2em; text-indent: -2em; line-height: normal;}
+
+span.opaque {color: inherit; background-color: #FFF;
+padding: 0 .25em 0 .1em;}
+
+td.largest {font-size: 125%;}
+
+/* menu */
+table.menu, div.menu {font-size: 92%; text-align: center;
+margin: 1em auto;}
+table.menu td {text-align: center; padding: .25em 2em;
+line-height: 1.3;}
+div.menu p {line-height: 1.3; margin-top: .6em;}
+
+/* text formatting */
+
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+.smallcaps, span.opaque, span.firstword {font-variant: small-caps;}
+
+span.extended {letter-spacing: 0.2em; margin-right: -.2em;}
+
+
+/* correction popup */
+
+ins.correction {text-decoration: none; border-bottom: thin dotted red;}
+ins.norway {text-decoration: none; border-bottom: thin dotted blue;}
+
+/* page number */
+
+span.pagenum {position: absolute; right: 2%; font-size: smaller;
+font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-align: right;
+text-indent: 0;}
+
+/* Transcriber's Note */
+
+.mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000;
+font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 90%;}
+
+div.mynote {margin: 1em 5%; padding: .5em 1em 1em;}
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+</head>
+
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Three in Norway, by
+James Arthur Lees and Walter J. Clutterbuck
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Three in Norway
+       by Two of Them
+
+Author: James Arthur Lees
+        Walter J. Clutterbuck
+
+Release Date: July 7, 2011 [EBook #36597]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THREE IN NORWAY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Louise Hope, Chris Curnow, thanks to Tor Martin
+Kristiansen for the illustration images, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+book was produced from scanned images of public domain
+material from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class = "wholetext">
+<div class = "mynote">
+<p><a name = "start" id = "start">This text</a> uses UTF-8 (Unicode)
+file encoding. If the apostrophes and quotation marks in this paragraph
+appear as garbage, you may have an incompatible browser or unavailable
+fonts. First, make sure that your browser’s “character set” or “file
+encoding” is set to Unicode (UTF-8). You may also need to change the
+default font.</p>
+
+<p>A handful of words use less common diacritics:</p>
+
+<p class = "inset">
+macron (“long” mark): Tronhūus, pandecāke<br>
+breve (“short” mark): căno</p>
+
+<p>These are explained at the <a href = "#endnotes">end of the
+e-text</a>, along with general notes on Norwegian names and words used
+in the book.</p>
+
+<p>Typographical errors are shown in the text with <ins class =
+"correction" title = "like this">mouse-hover popups</ins>. Some
+Norwegian words are <ins class = "norway" title =
+"correct form of word">similarly marked</ins>.
+The word “invisible” means that there is
+an appropriately sized blank space, but the character itself is missing.
+Some names are written differently in the List of Illustrations than
+elsewhere in the text; these are not individually marked. Unless
+otherwise noted, Norwegian terms&mdash;including those that are
+obviously wrong&mdash;were printed as shown.</p>
+
+<p>All full-page plates link to larger versions.</p>
+
+<p class = "center">
+<a href = "#contents">Contents</a><br>
+<a href = "#illus">Illustrations</a><br>
+<a href = "#intro">Introduction</a><br>
+<a href = "#three">Three in Norway</a><br>
+<a href = "#map">Map</a><br>
+<a href = "#endnotes">Notes and Errata</a></p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<!-- png 001 -->
+<h2>NORWAY</h2>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<!-- png 002 -->
+
+<p>‘<i>A man is at all times entitled, or even called upon by occasion,
+to speak, and write, and in all fit ways utter, what he has himself gone
+through, and known, and got the mastery of; and in truth, at bottom,
+there is nothing else that any man has a right to write of. For the
+rest, one principle, I&nbsp;think, in whatever farther you write, may be
+enough to guide you: that of standing rigorously by the fact, however
+naked it look. Fact is eternal; all fiction is very transitory in
+comparison. All men are interested in any man if he will speak the facts
+of his life for them; his authentic experience, which corresponds, as
+face with face, to that of all other sons of <ins class = "correction"
+title = ". missing">Adam.</ins></i>’</p>
+
+<p class = "right smallcaps">Thomas Carlyle</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+
+<!-- png 003 -->
+<!-- png 004 -->
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "frontis" id = "frontis"
+href = "images/frontis_large.png" target = "_blank">
+<img src = "images/frontis.png" width = "465" height = "270"
+alt = "see caption"></a></p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+RUNNING THE RAPIDS BELOW GJENDESHEIM.</p>
+
+<div class = "titlepage">
+
+<a name = "page_iii" id = "page_iii">&nbsp;</a>
+
+<h1>THREE IN NORWAY</h1>
+
+<h2 class = "six"><i>BY</i></h2>
+
+<h2 class = "four"><i>TWO OF THEM</i></h2>
+
+<h3 class = "six">WITH MAP AND FIFTY-NINE ILLUSTRATIONS ON WOOD<br>
+FROM SKETCHES BY THE AUTHORS</h3>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic159.png" width = "476" height = "361"
+alt = "The Colony at Breakfast in Memurudalen"></p>
+
+<h4 class = "five">LONDON<br>
+<span class = "extended">LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO</span>.<br>
+1882</h4>
+
+<p class = "center"><i>All rights reserved</i></p>
+
+</div>
+
+<a name = "page_iv" id = "page_iv">&nbsp;</a>
+
+<h6>LONDON: PRINTED BY<br>
+SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE<br>
+AND PARLIAMENT STREET</h6>
+
+
+<div class = "contents">
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page_v" id = "page_v">v</a></span>
+
+<h3><a name = "contents" id = "contents">CONTENTS</a></h3>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/decline1.png" width = "74" height = "9"
+alt = "----"></p>
+
+<table class = "toc" summary = "table of contents">
+<tr>
+<td></td>
+<td></td>
+<td class = "right smallest">PAGE</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td></td>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">Introduction</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page_xi">xi</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "right smallest">CHAPTER</td>
+<td></td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapI">I.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">The Voyage</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page1">1</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapII">II.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">Christiania</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page6">6</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapIII">III.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">By Rail and Lake</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page14">14</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapIV">IV.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">By Road</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page21">21</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapV">V.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">The First Camp</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page28">28</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapVI">VI.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">Misery</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page39">39</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapVII">VII.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">Happiness</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page45">45</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapVIII">VIII.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">Fly Sæter</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page56">56</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapIX">IX.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">Sikkildal</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page62">62</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapX">X.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">Besse Sæter</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page72">72</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXI">XI.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">Gjendin</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page82">82</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXII">XII.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">The Camp</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page89">89</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXIII">XIII.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">Gjendesheim</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page98">98</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXIV">XIV.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">John</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page105">105</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXV">XV.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">Back to Camp</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page115">115</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXVI">XVI.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">Trout</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page120">120</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXVII">XVII.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">Reindeer</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page127">127</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item">
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page_vi" id = "page_vi">vi</a></span>
+<a href = "#chapXVIII">XVIII.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">Success at last</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page137">137</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXIX">XIX.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">Gjendeboden</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page146">146</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXX">XX.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">A Formal Call</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page153">153</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXXI">XXI.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">Fishing</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page167">167</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXXII">XXII.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">Memurudalen</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page180">180</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXXIII">XXIII.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">A Picnic</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page191">191</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXXIV">XXIV.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">The Skipper’s Return</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page200">200</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXXV">XXV.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">The Gjende Fly</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page210">210</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXXVI">XXVI.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">Disaster</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page224">224</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXXVII">XXVII.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">A Change</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page230">230</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXXVIII">XXVIII.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">Rapid Running</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page242">242</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXXIX">XXIX.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">Rus Vand</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page257">257</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXXX">XXX.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">Luck</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page273">273</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXXXI">XXXI.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">Not lost, but gone before</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page286">286</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXXXII">XXXII.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">A Last Stalk</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page295">295</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXXXIII">XXXIII.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">Homeward Bound</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page303">303</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXXXIV">XXXIV.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">Bjölstad</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page315">315</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXXXV">XXXV.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">Down to Christiania</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page327">327</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXXXVI">XXXVI.</a></td>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">Home again</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page336">336</a></td>
+</tr></table>
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page_vii" id = "page_vii">vii</a></span>
+
+<h3><a name = "illus" id = "illus">LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</a></h3>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/decline1.png" width = "74" height = "9"
+alt = "----"></p>
+
+<h4><i>PLATES</i></h4>
+
+<table class = "toc" summary = "list of full-page plates">
+<tr>
+<td></td>
+<td></td>
+<td class = "smallest">PAGE</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">Running the Rapids below Gjendesheim</span></td>
+<td class = "right" colspan = "2"><a href =
+"#frontis"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">On the Track near Sikkildals Lake</span></td>
+<td class = "right"><i>to face</i></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#plate59">59</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<p><span class = "opaque">On the Top of Glopit. Returning from Rus
+Lake</span></p></td>
+<td class = "center">„</td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#plate172">172</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">Baking by Night in Memurudalen</span></td>
+<td class = "center">„</td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#plate178">178</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">The Camp in Memurudalen</span></td>
+<td class = "center">„</td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#plate182">182</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<p><span class = "opaque">Death of the ‘Stor Bock’ at the Iceberg Lake,
+Tyknings Hö</span></p></td>
+<td class = "center">„</td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#plate267">267</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<p><span class = "opaque">Good Sport, Bad Weather. The Skipper’s two
+‘Stor Bocks’</span></p></td>
+<td class = "center">„</td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#plate279">279</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">Cheerful! The Huts at Rus Lake</span></td>
+<td class = "center">„</td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#plate289">289</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<h4><i>WOODCUTS IN TEXT.</i></h4>
+
+<table class = "toc" summary = "list of smaller illustrations">
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<p><span class = "opaque">Norwegian Arrangement of Dishes at
+Table</span></p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic10">10</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<p><span class = "opaque">Midnight Study of Stockings at
+Dalbakken</span></p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic26">26</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">The Start on Espedals Lake</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic29">29</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">The Skipper’s first Cast</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic30">30</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">Our Camp on Espedals</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic31">31</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page_viii" id = "page_viii">viii</a></span>
+<span class = "opaque">Black-throated Diver</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic36">36</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">View of Bredsjö by Night</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic40">40</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">Sunset at Fly Sæter</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic54">54</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<p><span class = "opaque">Desperate Conflict between Esau and the
+Mosquito</span></p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic58">58</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<p><span class = "opaque">Sæter Girls in a Boat on Sikkildals
+Lake</span></p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic65">65</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<p><span class = "opaque">Old Siva carrying a Canoe up the Sikkildals
+Pass</span></p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic73">73</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">Greenshank</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic77">77</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">Ring Dotterel</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic78">78</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">Scaup</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic80">80</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">Our first View of Gjendin Lake</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic83">83</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">Two of our Retainers: Ivar and his
+Pony</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic87">87</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<p><span class = "opaque">The Skipper returns to Camp disgusted with
+life</span></p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic93">93</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">Throwing for a Rise</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic99">99</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<p><span class = "opaque">The Skipper takes Miss Louise for a Cruise at
+Gjendesheim</span></p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic102">102</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">The Huts at Rusvasoset</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic109">109</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<p><span class = "opaque">John returns from fishing in Summer
+Costume</span></p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic121">121</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">John and Esau: ‘How’s that for high?’</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic122">122</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<p><span class = "opaque">The two ‘Meget Stor Bocks’ (very big Bucks) on
+Memurutungen</span></p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic128">128</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">Hot Soup and Northern Lights</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic134">134</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">Esau and Ola return in Triumph</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic141">141</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">A careful Finishing Shot</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic143">143</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">The Colony at Breakfast in
+Memurudalen</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic159">159</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">An Exciting Moment in Rus Lake
+Shallows</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic168">168</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">Esau’s Best Day among the Trout</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic170">170</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">Esau stalking near Hinaakjærnhullet</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic188">188</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">John diving for his knife in Rus Lake</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic198">198</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page_ix" id = "page_ix">ix</a></span>
+<p><span class = "opaque">The Skipper about to astonish the
+Reindeer</span></p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic203">203</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">Öla performing the Funeral Rites</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic205">205</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">Canoeing after Duck in a Storm</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic236">236</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">Andreas: our Retriever</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic237">237</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<p><span class = "opaque">Ola and Andreas capturing a wounded
+Grouse</span></p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic238">238</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<p><span class = "opaque">John and the Skipper upsetting in the
+Canoe</span></p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic240">240</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">Making a Portage by the Sjoa River</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic244">244</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">A Norwegian Fire-place</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic246">246</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<p><span class = "opaque">Jens and his Pony on their way over Bes
+Fjeld</span></p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic252">252</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">A Stormy Crossing at Rusvasoset</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic259">259</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<p><span class = "opaque">Gloptind Rock, at the Western End of Rus
+Lake</span></p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic275">275</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">The old stone Hut near Gloptind</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic280">280</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<p><span class = "opaque">A Night at Rusvasoset, after a Day at
+Haircutting</span></p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic284">284</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<p><span class = "opaque">Rus Lake from the Western End: Nautgardstind
+in the Distance</span></p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic290">290</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">Glissading home after a blank day</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic293">293</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<p><span class = "opaque">Rus Lake from the Eastern End: Tyknings Hö and
+Memurutind in the distance</span></p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic294">294</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<p><span class = "opaque">Off! A Reindeer recollecting an
+engagement</span></p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic295">295</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<p><span class = "opaque">Old Buildings in the Courtyard at
+Bjölstad</span></p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic316">316</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots even">
+<span class = "opaque">Barley Sheaves: A Norwegian
+‘Atrocity’</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic323">323</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">Three at Home Again</span></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#pic341">341</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr class = "mid">
+
+<h4><i>MAP.</i></h4>
+
+<table class = "toc" summary = "list of maps">
+<tr>
+<td class = "dots odd">
+<span class = "opaque">The Jotun Fjeld</span></td>
+<td class = "right"><a href = "#map"><i>at end of volume.</i></a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<a name = "page_x" id = "page_x"></a>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class = "intro">
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page_xi" id = "page_xi">xi</a></span>
+
+<h3><a name = "intro" id = "intro">INTRODUCTION.</a></h3>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/decline1.png" width = "74" height = "9"
+alt = "----"></p>
+
+<h4><a name = "intro_history" id = "intro_history">HISTORY.</a></h4>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">‘Canadian</span> canoes are the only boats
+that will do’ was our conclusion after a thorough inspection of every
+existing species of boat, and long consultation with ‘Sambo’ of Eton
+about a totally new variety, invented but fortunately <i>not</i>
+patented by one of our number.</p>
+
+<p>Our party consisted of three men, who shall be briefly described
+here. First, ‘the Skipper,’ so called from his varied experience by land
+and sea in all parts of the world, but especially in Norway, whither we
+were now intending to go in search of trout, reindeer, and the
+picturesque. The Skipper is lank and thin, looking as though he had
+outgrown his strength in boyhood, and never summoned up pluck enough to
+recover it again. His high cheek-bones and troubled expression give one
+the idea of a man who cannot convince himself that life is a success,
+which
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page_xii" id = "page_xii">xii</a></span>
+is perhaps pretty nearly the view he actually takes of existence.</p>
+
+<p>Secondly, ‘Esau,’ who received this name in consequence of the many
+points in which his character and history resemble that of the patriarch
+who first rejoiced in it: for our Esau, like his prototype, is
+‘a&nbsp;cunning hunter and man of the fjeld;’ and we are sure that if he
+ever had such a thing as a birthright, he would willingly have sold it
+for a mess of pottage. Esau is short and joyous, and is one of those
+people who never indigest anything, but always look and always are in
+perfect health and spirits. It is annoying to see a man eat things that
+his fellow-creatures can not without suffering for it afterwards, but
+Esau invariably does this at dinner, and comes down to breakfast next
+morning with a provoking colour on his cheek and a hearty appetite. His
+office in this expedition was that of Paymaster; not because he
+possessed any qualifications for the post, but because the Skipper had
+conclusively proved that such employment was too gross and mundane for
+<i>his</i> ethereal soul, by constantly leaving the purse which
+contained our united worldly wealth on any spot where he chanced to rest
+himself, when he and Esau went to spy out the land two years before
+this.</p>
+
+<p>Lastly, ‘John,’ so called for no better reason than
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page_xiii" id = "page_xiii">xiii</a></span>
+the fact that he had been christened Charles: he had never yet visited
+the wilds of Scandinavia. John is an Irishman, whose motto in life is
+‘dum vivimus vivamus:’ he is tall and straight, with a colossal light
+moustache. He generally wears his hat slightly tilted forward over his
+forehead when engaged in conversation; and the set of his clothes and
+whole deportment convey an idea that he is longing to tell you the most
+amusing story in the world in confidence. He is no gossip, and the
+anecdotes of his countrymen, of which he has an inexhaustible supply
+always ready, are merely imparted to his listeners from philanthropic
+motives, and because he longs for others to share in the enjoyment which
+he gleans from their mental dissection.</p>
+
+<p>The general idea of the campaign was that the Skipper and Esau should
+leave England in the early part of July; fish their way up a string of
+lakes into the Jotunfjeld, getting there in time for the commencement of
+the reindeer season; establish a camp somewhere; and then that John,
+starting a month later, should join, and the three of us sojourn in that
+land until we were tired thereof. How we accomplished this meritorious
+design we have tried to relate in the following pages.</p>
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page_xiv" id = "page_xiv">xiv</a></span>
+
+<h4><a name = "intro_geog" id = "intro_geog">GEOGRAPHY.</a></h4>
+
+<p>The map of Norway, apart from Sweden, presents an outline something
+like a tadpole with a crooked irregular tail. The Jotunfjeld is an
+extensive range of the highest mountains which are to be found in
+Northern Europe: before 1820 <span class = "smallroman">A.D.</span> they
+were totally unexplored, and at the present time they are still
+perfectly wild and desolate, their summits covered with eternal ice and
+snow, and even their valleys uninhabited. That part of the Jotunfjeld
+which we intended to make our goal and headquarters is situated about
+the middle of the tadpole’s body, and nearly equidistant from Throndhjem
+and Christiania.</p>
+
+
+<h4><a name = "intro_lang" id = "intro_lang">LANGUAGES.</a></h4>
+
+<p>It is customary when writing a book on any foreign country to scatter
+broadcast in your descriptions words and phrases in the language of that
+country, in order to show that you really have been there. We propose to
+depart from this usage in the course of this work; but if at any time
+the exigencies of narrative seem to demand the use of the foreign
+tongue, we have little doubt that the English language will provide an
+equivalent, which shall be inserted for the benefit of the
+uninitiated.</p>
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page_xv" id = "page_xv">xv</a></span>
+
+<h4><a name = "intro_math" id = "intro_math">MATHEMATICS.</a></h4>
+
+<p>Foreigners have a curious prejudice which leads them to adopt
+different systems of coinage and measurement from those in favour in
+England. But shall a Briton pander to this prejudice by making any use
+of their ridiculous figures? Decidedly not. What matters it to us that a
+Norwegian land-mile contains seven of our miles, and a sea-mile four? we
+speak only of the British mile. What care we that the Norwegian kröne is
+worth about 13½<i>d.</i>? Shall that prevent us from always calling it a
+shilling? Never! And shall the fact that it is divided into ten 10-öre
+pieces (which are little nickel coins worth about five farthings each)
+restrain us from alluding to them as the ‘threepenny bits’ which they so
+much resemble? Not while life remains.</p>
+
+
+<h4><a name = "intro_extra" id = "intro_extra">EXTRA SUBJECTS.</a></h4>
+
+<p>Some of the statements that will be found in these pages may strike
+the reader as being, to say the least of it, improbable. We therefore
+wish to explain that all the incidents of sport and travel are simple
+facts, but that here and there is introduced some slight fiction which
+is too obviously exaggerated to require any comment.</p>
+
+<a name = "page_xvi" id = "page_xvi"></a>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class = "maintext">
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page1" id = "page1">1</a></span>
+
+<h2><a name = "three" id = "three">THREE IN NORWAY.</a></h2>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/decline1.png" width = "74" height = "9"
+alt = "----"></p>
+
+
+<h3><a name = "chapI" id = "chapI">CHAPTER I.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">THE VOYAGE.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>July 8.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">At</span> ten <span class =
+"smallroman">P.M.</span> on the platform of the Hull station might have
+been seen the disconsolate form of Esau, who had arrived there a few
+minutes before. To him entered suddenly an express train, with that
+haste which seems to be inseparable from the movements of express
+trains, adorned as to the roof of one of its carriages by a Canadian
+canoe. From that carriage emerged the lanky body of the Skipper, and
+general joy ensued.</p>
+
+<p>Then in the hotel the Skipper related his perilous adventures; how he
+had crossed London in a four-wheeler with the canoe on the quarter-deck,
+and himself surrounded by rods, guns, rugs, tents, and ground-sheets in
+the hold, amid the shouts of ‘boat ahoy!’ from the volatile populace,
+and jeers from all the cabs that they met (there are many cabs in
+London); how the station-master at King’s Cross&mdash;may
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page2" id = "page2">2</a></span>
+his shadow never be less!&mdash;had personally superintended the packing
+of the canoe on a low carriage which he put on to the train specially;
+and how the G.W. charged four times as much as the G.N. He had seen John
+the day before, and on being asked to ‘wander about, and get some things
+with him,’ the Skipper had replied that it was quite impossible, as his
+time was occupied for the whole day: but when John said, ‘I&nbsp;wanted
+your advice chiefly about flies, and a new rod that I am thinking of
+buying,’ he replied, ‘Sir, I&nbsp;have nothing of the slightest
+importance to do; my time is yours; name the moment, and place of
+meeting, and I will be there.’ Then they twain had spent a happy day;
+for decidedly the next best thing to using your own rod is buying one
+for another man&mdash;at his expense.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Esau had no charming experiences to relate: he was a little
+depressed because an intelligent tyke at Doncaster had looked into the
+horse-box in which his canoe was travelling, hoping no doubt to see some
+high-mettled racer, and had asked if ‘yon thing were some new mak o’
+a&nbsp;coffin.’</p>
+
+<h5>July 9.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>We walked about Hull and made a few last purchases. In the course of
+our wanderings we chanced to come to a shop, in the window of which many
+strawberries, large and luscious, were exposed for sale. We immediately
+entered that shop without exchanging a word, and the Skipper said to the
+proprietress, ‘This gentleman wants to buy a
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page3" id = "page3">3</a></span>
+quantity of strawberries for a school feast;’ while Esau remarked, as he
+fastened on to the nearest and largest basket, ‘My friend has been
+ordered to eat strawberries by his doctor.’ After this a scene ensued
+over which it were best to draw a veil.</p>
+
+<p>At six o’clock we were safely aboard the good ship ‘Angelo,’ and saw
+our baggage stowed. It consisted of three huge boxes of provisions,
+weighing more than 100 lbs. each, two portmanteaus, two smaller bags,
+a&nbsp;tent, a&nbsp;large waggon-sheet intended to form another tent,
+a&nbsp;bundle of rugs and blankets, a&nbsp;large can containing all
+cooking utensils, four gun-cases, seven rods, a&nbsp;bundle of axes,
+a&nbsp;spade and other necessary tools, and the canoes with small wheels
+for road transport. Those wheels were the only things in the whole
+outfit that turned out to be not absolutely necessary. We did use them,
+but only once, and might have managed without them.</p>
+
+<p>When the aforesaid was all on board, there did not appear to be much
+room for anything else in the steamship ‘Angelo;’ registering 1,300
+tons; yet this vast pile was destined to travel many miles over a
+desperately rough country in the two little canoes.</p>
+
+<p>We were warped out of dock about eight o’clock, and steamed down the
+Humber with a west wind and a smooth sea. It was showery up to the
+moment of our departure, but as Hull faded from our sight it became
+fine, and with the shores of England we seemed to leave the cloud and
+rain behind.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page4" id = "page4">4</a></span>
+<h5>July 10.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>The day passed as days at sea do when the weather is all that can be
+wished, and the treacherous ocean calmly sleeps. The passengers were as
+sociable as any collection of English people ever are, and we spent the
+time very pleasantly chatting, smoking, eating enormously, and playing
+the ordinary sea games of quoits and horse-billiards.</p>
+
+<p>The Skipper was much exercised in spirit because Esau had told him
+that he believed a certain passenger to be an acquaintance of a former
+voyage, named, let us say, Jones, and that he was a capital fellow. So
+the Skipper went and fraternised with Jones, and presently, trusting to
+the ‘information received,’ remarked, ‘I&nbsp;believe your name is
+Jones?’ and was a little annoyed when Jones replied, ‘No, it’s not
+Jones; it’s Blueit, and I never heard the name of Jones as a surname
+before.’ Then the Skipper arose and remonstrated with his perfidious
+friend, who with great good temper said, to make it all right, ‘You see
+that man by the funnel? That is a Yankee going to see the midnight sun;
+go and talk to him.’ Now the Skipper has been in America a good deal,
+and likes to talk to the natives of those regions, so he sailed over to
+the funnel and tackled the Yankee. Presently, with that admirable tact
+which is his most enviable characteristic, he observed,
+‘I&nbsp;understand that you have come all the way from America to see
+the midnight sun: it is a very extraordinary phenomenon. Imagine a
+glorious wealth of colour glowing
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page5" id = "page5">5</a></span>
+over an eternal sunlit sea, and endowing with a fairy glamour a scene
+which Sappho might have burned to sing; where night is not, nor sleep,
+but Odin’s eye looks calmly down, nor ever sinks in rest.’ As he paused
+for breath the Yankee saw his opportunity, and said, ‘No, I&nbsp;was
+never in America in my life. I&nbsp;am a Lincolnshire man, and am going
+over to Arendahl to buy timber. I&nbsp;have seen the midnight sun some
+dozen times, and I call it an infernal nuisance.’ Here the Skipper
+hastily left, and came over and abused Esau until he made an enemy of
+him for life.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page6" id = "page6">6</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapII" id = "chapII">CHAPTER II.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">CHRISTIANIA.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>Sunday, July 11.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">We</span> reached Christiansand about six,
+and set sail again at eight. There was what the mariners called a nice
+breeze with us. Esau declared it to be a storm, and was prostrate at
+lunch, owing as he said to attending church service, which was conducted
+under considerable difficulties, members of the congregation
+occasionally shooting out of the saloon like Zazel out of her cannon, or
+assuming recumbent postures when the rubric said, ‘Here all standing
+up.’ However, we came along at a great pace, and arrived at Christiania
+about nine at night, after a first-rate passage.</p>
+
+<p>The Fjord was not looking as beautiful as usual, as there had been a
+great deal of rain, and the storm clouds and mist were still hovering
+about the low hills, so that no glories of the northern sunset were
+visible.</p>
+
+<p>We arranged that the Skipper should go straight to the Victoria Hotel
+for rooms, as we heard that the town was very full, and Esau was to
+follow with the luggage. Now there was a young Englishman on board, very
+talkative, extremely sociable, remarkably
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page7" id = "page7">7</a></span>
+kind-hearted, and overflowing with the best advice. He had gone round
+the whole ship entreating every one to go to the ‘Grand,’ as he intended
+to do, because it was by far the best hotel.</p>
+
+<p>Just as the Skipper had engaged our rooms at the ‘Victoria,’ in
+rushed this guileless child of nature, panting from the speed at which
+he had come from the quay, and the Skipper had the gratification of
+witnessing his discomfiture and listening to his apologies for having
+lied unto us, which of course he had done in order to get rooms for his
+own party at the ‘Victoria.’</p>
+
+<p>We say nothing against the ‘Grand’ because we know it not, but any
+one who has once tried the ‘Victoria’ will go there again: the man who
+is not at home and happy there must be a very young traveller.</p>
+
+<p>This hotel possesses a spacious courtyard, surrounded by galleries
+from which bedrooms and passages open, very much like that historical
+hostelry in the Borough at which Mr. Pickwick first encountered Sam
+Weller.</p>
+
+<p>These galleries, and indeed most portions of the hotel, are made of
+wood, and the building is not of recent date, for now no houses in
+Christiania are allowed to be constructed of timber only.</p>
+
+<p>In the centre of the court is a fountain which keeps up a gentle
+plashing, very pleasant to listen to on a day when the thermometer is at
+90 in the shade,
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page8" id = "page8">8</a></span>
+as it generally is about this time of year in Christiania. All round the
+fountain are small tables and chairs, ready for the little groups who
+will assemble at them after dinner for the cup of coffee and glass of
+cognac which form an indispensable part of a Norwegian dinner. The
+dinner itself is, during the summer months, always served in a large
+oblong tent in the same courtyard at 2.30, and a very pleasant meal it
+is, if you are not too much wedded to English habits to be able to
+secure an appetite at that hour. At short intervals down the table large
+blocks of ice are placed, which perform excellent service in helping to
+keep the tent cool.</p>
+
+<p>Then there is another delightful resort, the smoking-room, which is
+upstairs on an extension of the gallery overlooking the courtyard. It
+also is covered by a sort of tent, in the roof of which divers strange
+and gruesome birds and beasts disport themselves, or seem to do so: we
+have reason to believe that they are stuffed, as we notice that the
+flying capercailzie never seems to ‘get any forrader;’ the fox stealing
+with cautious tread upon the timid hare, unaccountably delays his final
+spring, but perhaps he is right not to hurry, for the hare does not
+appear to be taking any measures for her safety, but sits calmly
+nibbling the deeply dyed moss which it were vain to inform her is not
+good to eat. But there are other birds which we <i>know</i> are stuffed,
+for we helped to stuff them, and these are the sparrows, which come
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page9" id = "page9">9</a></span>
+gaily flying in at the open side of the smoking balcony; hopping on the
+chairs and tables, pecking at the crumbs on your plate, and behaving
+generally in that peculiarly insolent manner which can only be acquired,
+even by a sparrow, after years of study, and the most complete
+familiarity with the subject. These birds are a source of endless
+delight to Esau, who certainly gives them more than can be good for
+them; they eat twice as much as the capercailzies, though the latter are
+considerably larger. And if the sparrows are not enough entertainment,
+there are tanks of gold-fish and trees of unknown species in pots; but
+neither of these perform very interesting feats.</p>
+
+<p>In this room it is the custom of the ordinary traveller to have his
+breakfast and supper. Breakfast is very much like a good English one,
+except the coffee, which is not at all like English coffee, being
+perfectly delicious; but the supper is a meal peculiar to Norway, and is
+generally constructed more or less on the following principles:</p>
+
+<p>Caviare, with a fresh lemon cut up on it.</p>
+
+<p>Norwegian sardines, garnished with parsley and bay leaves.</p>
+
+<p>Cray-fish boiled in salt water.</p>
+
+<p>Prawns of appalling magnitude.</p>
+
+<p>Bologna sausage in slices.</p>
+
+<p>Chickens.</p>
+
+<p>Slices of beef, tongue, and corned beef.</p>
+
+<p>Reindeer tongue.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page10" id = "page10">10</a></span>
+<p>Brod Lax (spelling not guaranteed), meaning raw salmon smoked and cut
+in thin slices.</p>
+
+<p>Baked potatoes.</p>
+
+<p>Good butter, and rolls which no man can resist, so fresh are they,
+and light, and crisp.</p>
+
+<p>Drink: ‘salon öl,’ which is the best Norwegian beer.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic10" id = "pic10">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic10.png" width = "524" height = "364"
+alt = "Norwegian Arrangement of Dishes at Table"></p>
+
+<p>This supper does not come in in courses, but the whole of it is
+placed on the table at once; not spread out all over the surface of the
+board as at home, but arranged in small oval dishes all round the
+consumer, and radiating within easy reach from his plate, making his
+watch-chain the centre of a semicircle, and thus entirely dispensing
+with that creaking-booted fidget, the waiter. Such an arrangement
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page11" id = "page11">11</a></span>
+cannot fail to coax the most delicate appetite. There is no coarse
+<i>pièce de résistance</i>; no vast joint to disgust you; but like the
+bee, you flit from dish to dish, toying, now with a prawn, now with a
+merry-thought, till you suddenly discover that you are unconsciously
+replete, and you rise from the table feeling that it was a good supper,
+and that existence is not such a struggle after all.</p>
+
+<p>Altogether the ‘Victoria’ is a most charming inn, either to the
+wave-worn mariner wearied by the cruel buffetings of the North Sea, or
+to the weather-beaten sportsman returning straight from the bleak
+snow-fields of the interior of Norway. We never stayed there for more
+than two days, but for that time it is an uninterrupted dream of
+delight.</p>
+
+<h5>July 12.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>We had a very hard day, buying all sorts of things to make our stores
+complete: jam, butter, whisky, soap, and matches, Tauchnitz books, and
+several other necessaries. The butter is most important, as the best
+variety that can be got up country is extremely nasty; the worst is
+unutterably vile, though it is quite possible to acquire almost a liking
+for the peculiarities of the better kind after starvation has stared you
+in the face. We were much put out at not being able to get a small keg
+of whisky, as we fear that the bottles will fare badly in the rough
+travelling we shall have.</p>
+
+<p>Accounts of Christiania may be found in many excellent guide-books,
+with which this simple story
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page12" id = "page12">12</a></span>
+cannot hope to compete, so we will not attempt to describe the town,
+since, though our knowledge of all the grocers’ shops is voluminous and
+exhaustive, we are totally ignorant of the interior arrangements of
+either the churches or police stations.</p>
+
+<p>The Skipper was very anxious to get some violet ink, because he is
+firmly convinced that it is the only sort fit for a gentleman to use.
+‘A&nbsp;man,’ he said, ‘is known by his ink;’ so we went into many shops
+and asked for that concoction, always in the English tongue. Then we
+arrived at a shop where they did not speak our language; and here
+suddenly, to the intense surprise of Esau, the Skipper broke forth into
+a long harangue in Norse, concluding with an extremely neat peroration.
+The shopkeeper listened with respectful admiration, and then said, ‘No,
+this is a stationer’s shop, we do not keep it.’ Then Esau gave way to
+irreverent laughter, and the shopkeeper concluded that we were
+attempting a practical joke, and we had to fly. The Skipper was not
+angry, but very much hurt. It afterwards transpired that he had got up
+the whole of that magnificent burst of eloquence out of ‘Bennett’s
+Phrase Book,’ and then it had failed for want of two or three right
+words; truly very hard.</p>
+
+<p>We took our canoes to the railway station, and despatched them to
+Lillehammer this afternoon; they had been a source of great interest to
+all beholders since our arrival, especially to the Norwegians, who
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page13" id = "page13">13</a></span>
+have all a sort of natural affinity with any kind of boat, and seem very
+much pleased with the combined lightness and strength of their build. As
+far as we can learn they are the first of the kind that have yet been
+brought to this country.</p>
+
+<p>At the station they were surrounded by a crowd of inquiring Norsemen,
+all of them wondering much what the name of ‘Nettie’ on the bows of the
+Skipper’s craft could mean, and spelling it over very slowly and
+carefully aloud. When we came away, one of them, evidently a linguist,
+had just translated it into his own language, and was proceeding to
+conjugate it as an irregular verb.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page14" id = "page14">14</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapIII" id = "chapIII">CHAPTER III.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">BY RAIL AND LAKE.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>July 13.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">We</span> were engaged till late at night
+putting the finishing touches to our packing. The last thing we did was
+to put our most gorgeous apparel, and any articles not likely to be
+needed during our camp life, into two portmanteaus, with strict orders
+to the Boots to keep the same until our return. This morning, after an
+early breakfast, on descending to the courtyard we found these
+portmanteaus roped down on the roof of the omnibus which was to take all
+the luggage to the station <i>en route</i> for Lillehammer. This we
+rectified, and then set off to walk to the station ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>Now Esau is possessed by an insensate craving for anchovy paste,
+which he considers a necessity for camping; he said, ‘It imparts a
+certain tone to the stomach, and aids digestion;’ and added that ‘no
+well-appointed dinner-table should ever be without it,’ which sounds a
+little like an advertisement, but which he asserted was a quotation from
+the rules laid down for his diet by Dr. Andrew Clark. In Christiania
+these rules are not strictly adhered to either by
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page15" id = "page15">15</a></span>
+Esau or the inhabitants of the place, for anchovy paste is not to be
+obtained there: this we know, because we went into every shop in the
+town, and asked for it without success. And in this supreme moment, when
+we were walking to the station with only a few minutes before the train
+should start, he insisted on diving into a wretched pokey little shop,
+which had escaped our notice yesterday, and demanding ‘anchovy paste’ in
+a loud English voice. The Skipper devoutly thanked Providence it could
+not be bought, as he declared the smell of it alone was enough to put a
+man off his breakfast, and that he had such a morbid longing for hair
+grease, that he could not have prevented himself from putting it on his
+head.</p>
+
+<p>We got our baggage safely booked, and ourselves also, after a scene
+of riot that was nothing like a football match, but something like
+Donnybrook fair, and at last found ourselves in a compartment with five
+other passengers, all of whom had a most inconsiderate amount of luggage
+with them in the carriage, while we contented ourselves with four guns,
+seven fishing-rods, two axes, one spade, four hundred and fifty
+cartridges, two fishing-bags, and a pair of glasses. We calculated that
+we saved at least one and fourpence by taking these things with us; and
+although our fellow-passengers were rather profane at first they soon
+settled down, and we had time to digest the fact that we were one and
+fourpence to the good. It
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page16" id = "page16">16</a></span>
+was very warm in there; outside the thermometer was 92° in the shade;
+but we survived it, and after that no mere heat has any terrors
+for&nbsp;us.</p>
+
+<p>Two of our fellow-passengers were an Englishman and his wife, who had
+a maid travelling with them through to Throndhjem; and when getting the
+tickets the booking clerk informed them that there were no second-class
+through tickets issued, ‘but,’ he added, ‘this will do as well,’ and
+handed them one first and one third through ticket, which we thought an
+extremely ingenious way out of the difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>A railway journey is not interesting anywhere, and less so in Norway
+than other countries, as there is not even the sensation of speed to
+divert your mind, and keep you excited in momentary expectation of a
+smash. Uphill the pace is slow because it cannot be fast; downhill it is
+slow for fear of the train running away.</p>
+
+<p>There are only two trains a day, one very early, one rather late, but
+timed to arrive at its destination before dark, for there is no
+travelling by night. Directly darkness comes on the train is stopped,
+and the passengers turned out into an hotel, where they remain to rest
+till dawn. From Christiania to Eidsvold is about a three-hour journey,
+and during that time the guard came to look at our tickets 425 times. He
+wanted to incite us to commit a breach of the peace, or to catch us
+offending against some of his by-laws, and was always appearing at a new
+place; first at
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page17" id = "page17">17</a></span>
+one door, then the other, anon peeping at us through the hole for the
+lamp, and again blinking from the next carriage, through the ice-water
+vessel. But we were aware of his intention, and did nothing to annoy
+him, and always showed the same tickets till they were worn out, and
+then we produced strawberry jam labels, which seemed to be quite
+satisfactory.</p>
+
+<p>We reached Eidsvold at twelve, and went aboard the steamer
+‘Skiblädner,’ where we found the canoes already nicely placed, lashed on
+the paddle-boxes.</p>
+
+<p>We had a delightful voyage up the Mjösen, on the most beautiful of
+Norwegian summer days, in the best of Norwegian steamers. The Mjösen is
+the largest Norwegian lake, about fifty-five miles long, and the
+guide-books say it is 1,440 feet deep, but we had not time to measure
+it, as we were busy admiring the scenery on the saloon table most of the
+way. This steaming up the Mjösen is a very pleasant way of spending a
+fine day: the shores are nowhere strikingly beautiful, but always pretty
+and charming; the steamer goes fast, so that there is a sensation of
+getting on and not losing time. There are intervals of mild excitement
+whenever we come to a village, and take up or disembark passengers;
+generally speaking they come out in boats, but occasionally we come to a
+larger and more important place where there is a pier, or even a
+railway, and at these the excitement is greater and the crowd quite
+worthy of
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page18" id = "page18">18</a></span>
+the name. The folks all take off their hats directly we get within
+sight, and continue to do so till they fade away or sink below the
+horizon; and we in the steamer all do the same. But the great attraction
+is undoubtedly dinner, which is uncommonly well served in the saloon,
+every luxury that can be obtained being placed before us, concluding
+with wild strawberries and cream of the frothiest and most captivating
+appearance.</p>
+
+<p>Both on this boat and her sister the ‘Kong Oscar’ they take great
+pride in doing things well, very much as the old mail-coaches which
+occupied a parallel position in England used to do. The ‘Kong Oscar’ is
+rather the faster boat, but we consider the captain of the ‘Skiblädner’
+to be lengths ahead of his rival, being a first-rate old fellow; on the
+other hand, the ‘Skiblädner’ handmaidens are not comely, whereas they of
+the ‘Kong Oscar’ are renowned for their beauty, not only in Norway, but
+in certain stately homes of England that we wot of. Esau lost his heart
+to one of them two years ago, and still raves about her, though the only
+way in which he endeavoured to win her affection was by sitting on a
+paddle-box with his slouch hat tilted over his eyes, gazing at her with
+mute admiration from a respectful distance, while she, alas! was totally
+unconscious of his passion. He never told his love, because he could not
+speak Norse.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page19" id = "page19">19</a></span>
+<p>We arrived at Lillehammer about eight o’clock, and went to the
+Victoria Hotel, from the flat roof of which, after an excellent dinner,
+we enjoyed a pipe and one of the prettiest views, in a quiet homely
+style of prettiness, that any one could wish to see: just at our feet
+the wooden village, with its many-coloured houses and their red roofs;
+then some green slopes, and 100 feet below the vast extent of the Mjösen
+lying calm and still and looking very green and deep, with the
+landing-stage and deserted steamers apparently quite close below us. On
+the opposite side of the lake highish hills covered with fir trees, and
+to the right the river Laagen with its green waters hurrying down from
+the mountains in a broad and rapid stream as far as the eye could reach.
+Just across the road in front of the hotel there is a nice little stream
+which turns a saw, and rejoices in a cool splashing waterfall, the
+soothing sound of which refreshes us by day and night. The same torrent
+can be seen higher up the mountain in a place where it makes some rather
+fine falls, which only look like a long white rag fluttering amongst the
+trees at this distance. This was the view we had at midnight, when it
+was, apparently, no darker than immediately after sunset, and a good
+deal lighter than it generally is in London at midday; the while the sky
+was covered with the rich glow of colouring which can only be seen in
+the Northern summer.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page20" id = "page20">20</a></span>
+<p>There were two Englishmen with us on the roof, with whom, aided by
+coffee, we roamed over the greater part of the civilised and uncivilised
+world&mdash;Australia, Canada, Japan, Turkey, and Ceylon, and we all
+agreed that none of them can ‘go one better’ than a summer night in
+Norway.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page21" id = "page21">21</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapIV" id = "chapIV">CHAPTER IV.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">BY ROAD.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>July 14.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">We</span> arose pretty early, wishing to
+get over thirty-eight miles of ground before evening, which with the
+canoes would be a long day’s work; as we had the natives to contend
+with, who by reason of their dreadfully lazy habits are most difficult
+to ‘bring to the scratch.’</p>
+
+<p>We have decided, after long experience, that nothing that you can do
+has any effect in hurrying them; but that it is quite possible to make
+them slower by losing your temper, or taking any vigorous measures of
+acceleration. They seem to get more deliberate and aggravatingly slow as
+they grow older.</p>
+
+<p>Norwegian boys are distractingly restless and full of energy, and
+look as if they have had nothing to eat, which is generally the actual
+fact, judging by an English standard of what constitutes food. At the
+age of fifteen they become better fed, and their energy departs
+altogether, and after entirely disappearing it keeps getting less every
+year. A&nbsp;full-grown man does not seem to need much food, certainly
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page22" id = "page22">22</a></span>
+not as much as an Englishman, and prefers that of the worst kind,
+conveyed to the mouth at the end of a knife-blade. We have never noticed
+any description of food which he does not make sour, rather than eat it
+when sweet. Bread, milk, cream, and cheese, jam and cabbages, for
+instance, are articles which he prefers fermented or sour. He reminds
+one of the cockney who complained that the country eggs had no flavour,
+or of the Scotchman who, replying to the apologies of a friend in whose
+house he happened to get a bad egg, said, ‘Ma dear freend, ah
+<i>prefair</i> ’em rotten.’</p>
+
+<p>But his laziness and love of nasty food are almost the only bad
+qualities that we have discovered in him. He is ridiculously honest,<a
+class = "star" name = "tag1" id = "tag1" href = "#note1">*</a> and his
+kindness and hospitality are beyond praise. This morning, however, the
+laziness was the quality chiefly conspicuous, and though we ordered our
+conveyances last night and got up early (for us), we did not succeed in
+starting till twelve o’clock.</p>
+
+<p class = "footnote">
+<a class = "star" name = "note1" id = "note1" href = "#tag1">*</a>
+Save, perhaps, on three points&mdash;fishing tackle, strong drinks, and
+straps or pieces of cord, which may be committed to memory as
+‘a&nbsp;fly, a&nbsp;flask, and a fastener.’</p>
+
+<p>We first despatched the canoes and baggage packed on a kind of low
+waggon, and then got into a double cariole (which is something like a
+gig) ourselves, and drove gaily off along the Throndhjem road. We did
+not, however, follow it far, but turning to the left down a steep hill,
+we crossed the Laagen by a long and
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page23" id = "page23">23</a></span>
+rather handsome bridge, and then up a winding road on the further side,
+all looking very pretty on such a glorious day. The road became more
+picturesque the further we got from Lillehammer, every turn bringing us
+to some fresh combination of mountain, pine-trees, rock, and
+waterfall&mdash;especially rock. There are so many tracts of country in
+Norway entirely composed of rock, that, as Esau remarked, ‘probably no
+one will ever find a use for it all.’</p>
+
+<p>We lunched at a nice little station called ‘Neisteen;’ a delicious
+meal <ins class = "correction" title =
+"text unchanged: may be error for ‘of’">off</ins> trout, strawberries and cream, and fladbrod, for which
+they charged us a shilling each.</p>
+
+<p>‘Fladbrod’ is the staple food of the country folk in Norway; they
+make it of barley-meal, rye-meal, or pea-meal, but the best and
+commonest is that composed of barley-meal. It is simply meal and water
+baked on a large, flat, circular iron, and is about the thickness of
+cardboard, of a brownish colour, and very crisp. The taste for it is
+easily acquired in the absence of other food, and with butter it becomes
+quite delicious&mdash;to a <i>very</i> hungry man.</p>
+
+<p>At Neisteen there was a little shop where the Skipper at last
+obtained his violet ink, but Esau was foiled in his dastardly attempt at
+retaliation with anchovy paste.</p>
+
+<p>After this our road lay along a lovely river for fishing, and we were
+much tempted to stop and try a cast in it, especially as we saw natives
+luring fish
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page24" id = "page24">24</a></span>
+from their rocky haunts by the time-honoured Norwegian method. They
+first settle how far they want to cast&mdash;say thirty feet. Then cut
+down a thirty-foot pine tree; take the bark off it; tie a string to the
+thin end and a hook to the string; stick a worm on the hook, and go
+forth to the strife. When the fish bites, they strike with great
+rapidity and violence, and <i>something</i> is bound to go; generally it
+is the fish, which leaves its native element at a speed which must
+astonish it; describes half of a sixty-foot circle at the same rate, and
+lands either in a tree or on a rock with sufficient force to break
+itself.</p>
+
+<p>But we had no time to spare, especially as for this stage we had a
+bad, shying, jibbing horse, and a perfect fool of a driver.</p>
+
+<p>Near the last station we passed three English people on the road, who
+our driver informed us lived near there. He told us their name was
+Wunkle, but the man at the next station said it was Punkum, and we could
+not decide which of these two common English names it was most likely
+to&nbsp;be.</p>
+
+<p>Kvisberg, the last station on this road, was reached at 9 <span class
+= "smallroman">P.M.</span>, but before this the road, which had
+gradually got worse all the way from Lillehammer, had faded away and
+disappeared: and as the road got worse, so did the hired conveyances; so
+that we were gradually reduced from the gorgeous double cariole with red
+cushions with which we started, and a horse that could hardly be held
+in, to a springless, jolting
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page25" id = "page25">25</a></span>
+stolkjær (country cart), and a pony that required much persuasion to
+induce him to boil up a trot.</p>
+
+<p>Kvisberg is situated, with peculiar disregard for appropriateness of
+position, on the side of an almost unclimbable hill, about a quarter of
+a mile from the place where the road departs into the Hereafter. No
+English horse would take a cart up such a hill, but Norwegian ponies are
+like the Duke’s army, and ‘will go anywhere and do anything,’ only you
+must give them plenty of time. We mounted to the station,
+a&nbsp;wretched little place, and being hungry ordered coffee and eggs,
+for which repast we paid twopence-halfpenny each, and then at ten
+o’clock got a man to carry our few small things the last six miles to
+Dalbakken, where we intended to sleep the night. The walk was
+delightful, through a precipitous thickly wooded gorge, at the bottom of
+which the river which we had followed all day went leaping and foaming
+along, though it was now reduced to a mere mountain torrent.</p>
+
+<p>About a mile from our journey’s end we were overtaken by a Norwegian
+student on a walking tour, who spoke a little English and walked with us
+the rest of the way, as he too was bound for Dalbakken.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic26" id = "pic26">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic26.png" width = "363" height = "481"
+alt = "Midnight Study of Stockings at Dalbakken"></p>
+
+<p>We reached it at midnight, and were not much gratified to find that
+it was a very small poor building, and that our luggage had not arrived.
+We had been hoping against hope that it might have done so, as we had
+not seen it anywhere on the road. The next
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page26" id = "page26">26</a></span>
+pleasant discovery was that four other travellers had arrived before us
+and taken all the rooms. This fact was first conveyed to our minds by
+seeing four pairs of socks hanging out of the upstair windows to dry; at
+which sight we began to suspect that things were going to turn out
+unpleasant for us; but at last we got a room with one very small bed
+between us. We tossed for this bed, and the Skipper won; so Esau passed
+the night on the floor, on a sheepskin, and was very
+comfortable&mdash;at least he said so next morning. The natives here
+were much impressed by all
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page27" id = "page27">27</a></span>
+our habits and belongings, but especially by our sleeping with the
+window open; wherefore the old woman of the Sæter<a class = "star" name
+= "tag2" id = "tag2" href = "#note2">*</a> below kept bouncing into the
+room at intervals during the night to see us perform that heroic feat;
+and though it was flattering to be made so much of, still fame has its
+drawbacks.</p>
+
+<p class = "footnote">
+<a class = "star" name = "note2" id = "note2" href = "#tag2">*</a>
+A Sæter is a mountain farm, to which all the cattle are driven during
+the summer, so that the lowland pastures can be mown for hay.</p>
+
+<p>The general appearance of the place caused us to expect nightly
+visitations from other foes, not human, but to our surprise there were
+none.</p>
+
+<p>Dalbakken is only three quarters of a mile from a lake called
+Espedals Vand, where we propose to commence our cruise. It is
+beautifully situated on a small flat bit of ground halfway up the north
+side of the gorge: the hills on the south side not far away are so steep
+that they could not be climbed by all the branded alpenstocks that
+Switzerland ever produced. Looking to the east the gorge is very wild
+and grand, covered with pine trees and steep crags, and no dwelling in
+sight; while to the west, in which direction Espedals Vand lies, it is
+more level and open, and slopes gradually downwards again, Dalbakken
+itself being the highest point in the track.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page28" id = "page28">28</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapV" id = "chapV">CHAPTER V.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">THE FIRST CAMP.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>July 15.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">We</span> slept well, and at eight o’clock
+the Skipper, always first to wake, got up, and looking out of the window
+saw thence the four bad men who had taken the rooms before us and hung
+their socks out of the window, just starting on their journey, and
+looking as if they did so with an easy conscience.</p>
+
+<p>Some men can carry with a light heart and gay demeanour a weight of
+crime that would wreck the happiness of less hardened ruffians.</p>
+
+<p>Then he turned his gaze in the opposite direction, and oh, joy! our
+luggage and boats were in sight, and arrived directly afterwards. The
+man in charge said he had travelled all night with them without
+sleeping, and to judge from his appearance we imagined that his
+statement was correct. He had been sitting on the Skipper’s bag for
+thirty-eight miles, and from the state of its interior we calculated his
+weight to be about twenty-two stone. He was very ill-tempered after his
+mere trifle of a journey and vigil, and asked for more money on hearing
+that he had three quarters
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page29" id = "page29">29</a></span>
+of a mile further to go. This was very sad, and we thought showed an
+unchristian spirit; but we sternly urged him forward, and all ended
+happily on our arrival at Espedals, when we paid him his money and a
+shilling extra.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic29" id = "pic29">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic29.png" width = "454" height = "339"
+alt = "The Start on Espedals Lake"></p>
+
+<p>It only took us a quarter of an hour to get to the lake, and after
+unpacking there and dismissing the men we put the canoes into the water,
+and then put water into the canoes until they sank; while we sat on the
+shore watching the trout rising all over the rippled surface of the
+lake, occasionally eyeing our sunken canoes in an impatient, longing
+sort of way, but never attempting to start on our great voyage.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic30" id = "pic30">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic30.png" width = "540" height = "420"
+alt = "The Skipper’s first Cast"></p>
+
+<p>These tactics to an inexperienced ‘voyageur’ might look like the acts
+of an ordinary lunatic; but
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page30" id = "page30">30</a></span>
+it should be explained that the long exposure to the sun which the
+canoes had undergone had caused them to leak badly, and they required
+soaking to swell up the joints, before they could be intrusted with our
+valuable property and persons. Besides this we were hungry, and thought
+it a good opportunity for lunch, and had to make some previously
+arranged alterations in the baggage with a view to lightening it. As
+long as the land journey lasted, strength was the chief object to aim
+at, but now lightness was of more importance. About one o’clock, when we
+had got all our things aboard and were just starting, a&nbsp;strong
+head-wind arose. This was always our luck. We decided to make only a
+short voyage. The waves were fairly big, but the canoes weathered
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page31" id = "page31">31</a></span>
+them bravely, though they were very low in the water, and we had to keep
+the pumps going (<i>i.e.</i> mop them out with our sponges) during the
+whole voyage.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic31" id = "pic31">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic31.png" width = "532" height = "412"
+alt = "Our Camp on Espedals"></p>
+
+<p>We landed not more than a mile and a half from the end of the lake,
+and found a very nice camping-ground about ten yards from the shore on
+the south bank, with what the poets call ‘a&nbsp;babbling brook’ close
+to it; pitched the tent, and had a simple dinner of bacon, eggs, and
+jam, the last dinner during our trip at which trout did not find a
+place. Then we sallied forth in the canoes to fish. Esau was the last to
+leave the shore, and as he paddled off he noticed the Skipper’s rod in
+the familiar Norwegian shape of a bow, and found him struggling with two
+on at the
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page32" id = "page32">32</a></span>
+same time, both of which he landed, and found to be over 1 lb. each.
+‘First blood claimed and allowed,’ to quote the terse language of the
+prize ring. Not a bad beginning, but we only got a few more about the
+same weight. They came very short, but were remarkably game fish when
+hooked, and in first-rate condition. We turned in about eleven, when it
+began to rain a little, and slept with our heads under the blankets, the
+mosquitoes being in countless multitudes.</p>
+
+<h5>July 16.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>It was a lovely morning, and the lake looked its best, but it is not
+strikingly beautiful compared with many that we have seen. It has high
+rugged hills on both sides, and pine woods down to the water’s edge, and
+some small islands dotted about the upper end of it; but the lake is
+rather shallow, the pine trees rather stunted, and there are a good many
+wooden huts and sæters on the hill-sides, which, although they appear to
+be mostly uninhabited, detract from the wildness of the scenery.</p>
+
+<p>The natives have one or two boats on the lake, and do some fishing on
+their own account. To-day we saw a man engaged in the atrocious
+employment of fishing with an ‘otter.’</p>
+
+<p>Any natives who see our camp when rowing past come to shore to
+inspect us and our belongings. They all adopt the same course of
+procedure. They land, and stare, and say nothing; then they pull up
+their boat and make it safe, and advancing close
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page33" id = "page33">33</a></span>
+to the tent stare, and say nothing either to each other or us. Then Esau
+says confidentially, as if it was a new and brilliant idea (he has done
+exactly the same thing some scores of times), ‘We’d better be civil to
+these fellows; perhaps they could bring us some eggs, and they look
+pretty friendly.’ The natives are all the time staring and saying
+nothing. Then Esau remarks in Norwegian, ‘It is fine weather to-day;
+have you any eggs?’ To this the chief native replies at great length in
+his own barbarous jargon, and Esau not having understood a single
+syllable answers, ‘Ja! ja! (yes), but have you any eggs?’ Then aside to
+the Skipper, ‘Wonder what the deuce the fool was talking about?’ Soon
+the natives perceive that their words are wasted, and relapse into the
+silent staring condition again, and after a time and a half, or two
+times, they depart as they came. Sometimes they return again with eggs
+in a basket, when we pay them well and give them some fish; at other
+times they look upon us as dangerous lunatics, and avoid us like the
+plague.</p>
+
+<p>Esau learnt this habit of asking for eggs when we were on a fishing
+expedition near the south coast of Norway. On one occasion there we
+arrived at a small village, with an enormous quantity of trout that we
+had caught in the adjoining fjord; and found a small crowd of about
+fourteen or fifteen seafaring men, idly lounging round an open space
+between the cottages. He first went round and
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page34" id = "page34">34</a></span>
+presented each of those men with two trout solemnly, without a word, as
+though it were a religious ceremony. Then he began at the first man
+again and said, ‘Have you eggs?’ and receiving a reply in the negative,
+he went on to the next, and to each one of the group asking the same
+weird question.</p>
+
+<p>The men, who had been chatting busily amongst themselves up to the
+moment of our arrival, became silent; they did not laugh, but only
+looked at one another; and one of them shyly felt in his pocket to see
+if there were any eggs there whose existence he might have chanced to
+forget.</p>
+
+<p>Presently, as we could get no eggs, we moved off sorrowfully but not
+discouraged; and the men remained looking after us silent and uncertain.
+Thus the interview ended, and we regained our boat.</p>
+
+<p>The beach here was capital for bathing, and we enjoyed a delightful
+tub this morning, the more pleasant indeed because at Dalbakken we slept
+in our clothes, and only had a soap-dish to wash in next morning.
+Immediately after bathing we lit a fire, and the cook commenced
+operations; the office of cook being held alternately by each of us for
+one day. The man from Dalbakken brought us some milk, so we indulged in
+coffee. When we have only ‘tin milk’ we drink tea; for though tin milk
+will do fairly with tea, we think it wretched with coffee. After
+breakfast we each took our canoe, and went fishing wherever the spirit
+moved us, taking lunch
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page35" id = "page35">35</a></span>
+with us. On a day of this sort, if the fish are rising we have a great
+time, and if they won’t rise, we lie on the bank in the sun and smoke,
+or sketch, or kill mosquitoes, and have a great time in that case also,
+so that the hours pass in a blissful round of enjoyment, and all is
+peace. Having each one his own ship we are quite independent, only
+taking care to return to camp about six o’clock to get dinner ready.
+After that there is nearly always a rise, and we fish till about eleven,
+when we generally turn in, though it is by no means dark by that time;
+and on a few occasions when the fish were rising very well, we have
+fished on all through the night and into the next day, losing count of
+the almanack, and conducting life on the principles of going to bed when
+tired, and eating when hungry, so that, like the Snark, we might be
+said&nbsp;to&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class = "verse">
+<p>Frequently breakfast at five o’clock tea,</p>
+<p class = "indent">And dine on the following day.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>There was very little wind to-day, and these fish being very shy, and
+apt to come short, it was almost impossible to get them without a ripple
+until evening, when large white moths began to show on the water, and
+the trout became bolder; consequently we did not make great bags, though
+the fish caught were very good ones.</p>
+
+<p>At night there was one of the most lovely sunsets ever seen. The sun
+went down right at the other end of the lake, so that we had an
+uninterrupted view,
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page36" id = "page36">36</a></span>
+with all the glorious colours of the sky reflected in the water; and we
+agreed that the effects about half-past ten this evening formed as good
+a symphony in purple and orange as a man could expect to find out of the
+Grosvenor Gallery.</p>
+
+<h5>July 17.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>The morning began with a dead calm, but this soon gave place to such
+a wind down the lake that we were induced to strike the camp, pack the
+canoes, and proceed on our voyage into the unknown.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic36" id = "pic36">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic36.png" width = "305" height = "199"
+alt = "Black-throated Diver"></p>
+
+<p>We started soon after eleven, lunched near Megrunden,<a class =
+"star" name = "tag3" id = "tag3" href = "#note3">*</a> and saw there two
+black-throated divers on the lake, which Esau pursued for some time, but
+of course never got near them. Some of the dives they made to avoid his
+advancing canoe seemed to be about half a mile in length. Just below
+Böle we caught several fish, but kept paddling on with our
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page37" id = "page37">37</a></span>
+favourable wind, casting every now and then in likely places, and soon
+came to a rapid with a rough bridge thrown across its upper end. The
+rapid was very shallow, so that we did not dare to attempt to run it
+with loaded boats, and had to make a portage. Even then we got a few
+bumps in running it, but arrived at the bottom all right. Now the scene
+changed; we were in a smaller and narrower part of the valley; buildings
+had entirely disappeared; there was nothing to be seen but gloomy pine
+forests and black-looking mountains: the weather also was quickly
+changing, and evidently intending to be wet and stormy; so we pushed on
+rapidly, one coasting on each side of the lake till we reached its
+further extremity, where Esau was nearly swamped crossing the waves, as
+the wind began to blow harder every minute. Soon the rain was upon us,
+while we looked for a camping-ground but found none, as the shores were
+everywhere very swampy for a quarter of a mile inland. At length we came
+to a second rapid, where the natives have thrown a clumsy weir across
+for some unknown purpose, and here we found a fairly dry spot, made our
+portage in heavy rain and wind, with a great deal of groaning, misery,
+and brandy and water; pitched the tent, and after struggling for about
+half an hour, got a dyspeptic fire to fizzle, and so cooked some fish
+and eggs, and then had tea in the tent. After this we were a little more
+comfortable, as it was very nice and dry inside; but it was
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page38" id = "page38">38</a></span>
+midnight before we had finished all our portage, got the canoes down
+into the next lake, and made everything snug for the night, so that we
+were quite exhausted, as our day had commenced at seven <span class =
+"smallroman">A.M.</span> The mosquitoes were more numerous here than at
+any place we have yet seen.</p>
+
+<p class = "footnote">
+<a class = "star" name = "note3" id = "note3" href = "#tag3">*</a>
+The various places mentioned on the voyage are not villages, as one
+might imagine from the dot that marks them on the Ordnance map, but
+generally only a single one-roomed log hut, and for the most part not
+inhabited or habitable.</p>
+
+<h5>Sunday, July 18.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>It rained all night, but as Tweedledum said of his umbrella, ‘not
+under here,’ and a ditch we made last night kept our floor quite dry.
+Lighting a fire for breakfast was a toilsome business, but at last we
+found some wood dry enough to burn. It continued raining in a nice
+keep-at-it-all-day-if-you-like kind of manner, so we resided in the
+tent, and read, and indulged in whisky and water for lunch to counteract
+any ill effects of the reading&mdash;for some of it was poetry.</p>
+
+<p>Our tent was about three-quarters of a mile from the end of Bred Sjö,
+and after lunch we both went in one canoe to reconnoitre the next rapid,
+which is a long one down to Olstappen Vand. We found that it is quite
+impracticable for canoes; the river simply running violently down a
+steep place till it perishes in the lake; about a mile of rapid with
+hardly enough decently behaved water in the whole of it to hold a dozen
+trout. But there <i>were</i> a dozen, for we caught them, one wherever
+there was a little turnhole. How we were to get down that river was
+concealed in the unfathomable depths of the mysterious Future.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page39" id = "page39">39</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapVI" id = "chapVI">CHAPTER VI.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">MISERY.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>July 19.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">It</span> rained all night again and all
+day. This was dreadful, and not at all like Norway.</p>
+
+<p>We have always made a rule that we may fish on Sunday, but not shoot.
+Some people draw an even finer distinction, and say it is allowable to
+shoot with a rifle, but not with a gun: this we have always thought too
+subtle. Now yesterday was Sunday, and Esau having observed two divers on
+the lake while the Skipper was out fishing, went and secreted himself
+with a gun where he expected them to come over, hoping that they would
+be alarmed by the other canoe on its return. This soon happened, and
+they flew within forty yards of him. Both barrels were discharged, and
+Esau returned to camp, muttering something about ‘birds of that kind
+having immortal bodies if they hadn’t immortal souls.’ The result of
+Sabbath-breaking was no doubt this miserable weather.</p>
+
+<p>The camp to-day presented a most cheerless prospect. The canoes were
+drawn up on land and turned bottom upwards; the kitchen stowed away
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page40" id = "page40">40</a></span>
+under a soaked sack; a&nbsp;very third-rate camp fire smouldering before
+the tent, surrounded by old egg-shells, backbones of fish, bacon-rind,
+and some apology for firewood; our two rods standing up against the
+gloomy sky with the wind whistling through their lines, and all the
+scenery blotted out with rain and mist, and scudding, never-ending
+clouds that drifted down the valley, and gave very occasional glimpses
+of extremely wet mountains. The cook, clad in a macintosh with a spade
+in his hand, watching a pot which was trying to boil on the spluttering
+fire, his trousers tucked into his socks, and his boots shining with
+wet, would have given any one a pretty good idea of the meaning of the
+expression ‘played out.’</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic40" id = "pic40">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic40.png" width = "533" height = "330"
+alt = "View of Bredsjö by Night"></p>
+
+<p>The mosquitoes were bad here, and we spent much of our leisure time
+making war against them.
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page41" id = "page41">41</a></span>
+Esau’s favourite way of ‘clearing the road’ was to bring in a smoking
+log of pitch pine, close up the ventilation, and fill the tent with
+smoke. It forced us to quit, but not the mosquitoes, as they appeared to
+fall into a deep and tranquil sleep, from which they awoke refreshed and
+ready to renew the attack just a few minutes before the tent again
+became habitable for human beings. Prowling round the tent and squashing
+them with our fingers was perhaps the best plan, but we were obliged to
+sleep with a rug over our heads and covered up at every point, to avoid
+their intrusion at night.</p>
+
+<h5>July 20.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>Still rain, and nothing but rain; it stopped for an hour or two last
+night, and the lake looked uncommonly pretty among its dark
+surroundings, but the downpour soon began again.</p>
+
+<p>In our desperation yesterday afternoon we arranged with a native,
+whom the Skipper discovered, to bring a horse and sleigh to-day to meet
+us at the next rapid, and help us down with our baggage to Olstappen.
+Therefore we got up early and were down at the rapid about ten o’clock,
+where we found our man waiting. The rain at this period was the worst
+variety we have yet seen, and it has tried all kinds during the last
+four days. We packed everything on the sleigh, covered it with our
+ground sheets, and then put the wheels on our canoes, and followed down
+the track.</p>
+
+<p>There is a saw-mill halfway down the river which
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page42" id = "page42">42</a></span>
+is simply perfect. It is perched on piles over the middle of the stream,
+where it dashes through a rift in a huge black cliff, and the water goes
+tearing past down a long shoot made of logs, and plunges down at the end
+churned into a mass of white foam, with noise and spray that quite
+bewilder one.</p>
+
+<p>We got down to Olstappen at last, not without a good deal of hard
+work, and paid our man 4<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> On our way we met a
+Norwegian tourist, who was on a walking tour with his sister, and had
+left her rained up, so to speak, in a Sæter, and was strolling about in
+the forest to wile away the time: he spoke a very little English, and we
+had a long talk with him; as he had a fellow-feeling for us, and was
+quite ready to curse the rain with us or any one else.</p>
+
+<p>The Norwegians, men and women, seem to go a good deal on walking
+tours, and probably know infinitely more of their fatherland than does
+the average Briton of this island, the superiority of which he seldom
+fails to impress on the long-suffering foreigner.</p>
+
+<p>At midday we launched our canoes on Olstappen, which is a fine wide
+lake, and not so rainy as Bredsjö, being several hundred feet lower. We
+paddled across to the mouth of the Vinstra River, a&nbsp;rather perilous
+undertaking, for where the wind met the river there was a nasty sea on,
+and we shipped some water, but got safe to land. We could not find a
+decent camp till we had walked a quarter of a mile
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page43" id = "page43">43</a></span>
+from the lake up the river. There we found a nice sheltered place,
+pretty, and close to the river, made our portage, and pitched the tent,
+and with tea our drooping spirits began to revive (who is proof against
+a hot meal of trout and bacon, buttered eggs, and tea?), even though our
+clothes and equipments were all wet through, and we had a damp change of
+raiment, sleeping rugs, and boots. But now the wind had changed, and we
+looked forward to the morrow as the wearied traveller always <i>does</i>
+look forward to the morrow.</p>
+
+<p>There were many sandpipers at the mouth of this river; we caught one
+young one, and had serious thoughts of taking its innocent life for our
+tea, but better feelings prevailed, and we released it as an offering
+for fine weather, and caught four trout instead.</p>
+
+<h5>July 21.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>Hurrah! the rain stopped during the night, and this morning actually
+the sun shone out now and then. We heaped up a huge fire and dried all
+our belongings, and then had nearly a whole day before us free for
+fishing.</p>
+
+<p>A voyaging day is a big business. We calculate that it takes us two
+and a half hours to pack up from an old camp, breakfast, and get aboard
+ship; but to pitch the camp in a new place takes much longer. First you
+have to find a suitable place, often a matter of great difficulty in a
+country like this, where level spaces a yard square are very rare; dig a
+trench; pitch the tent, and arrange everything in it; collect
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page44" id = "page44">44</a></span>
+firewood, and make a place for the fire; see that the boats and
+everything about the tent are safe from harm should the stormy winds
+begin to blow; and then cook dinner. All this cannot be done under three
+hours of hard work; so that if in addition you propose getting over a
+considerable amount of ground, it is sure to be a long and toilsome day.
+But the following day you wake up with a glorious feeling of duty
+performed and pleasure to look forward&nbsp;to.</p>
+
+<p>The Skipper, with a hankering after cleanliness, washed a lot of
+clothes, and himself, having left the rain to perform the latter
+operation for the last two or three days; but Esau, not being troubled
+with any such absurd remnants of civilisation, went up the river
+reconnoitring in his natural condition. He came back to dinner in a
+perfectly rapturous state, having caught a remarkably nice bag of fish,
+got a beautiful view of the Jotunfjeld Mountains, and found a waterfall,
+which he said was the best in Norway, and therefore in the world. The
+Skipper had tried the lake in the afternoon without success, so after
+dinner we both went out and soon discovered the reason. Seven boats full
+of natives were out with a huge flue net, which they shot in a circle,
+and then beat the water enclosed till all the wretched fish were in the
+net. We saw them get thirty in one haul, and besides this there was a
+boat ‘ottering;’ and although we captured a few fish, it was obvious
+that with all this netting it would be impossible for the lake to be
+good.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page45" id = "page45">45</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapVII" id = "chapVII">CHAPTER VII.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">HAPPINESS.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>July 22.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">This</span> was a really fine day, such as
+we consider proper to Norway; no uncertain half-and-halfness, but a day
+when an untiring sun shone down from an immaculate sky; and everything
+looked lovely. Our tent was on a nice bit of turf close to the Vinstra
+River, which is about as broad as the Thames at Eton, but with probably
+twice the volume of water, and certainly three times its rapidity; it
+rushed past our door at such a pace that no boat could stem it; and as
+far as we could see up the reach it came down in an equally swift
+torrent, so that all day and all night there was a swilling, rushing
+sound very pleasant to hear, and creating a sensation of coolness in
+warm weather. Esau considered it just the <i>beau ideal</i> of a trout
+stream, for any fish hooked in it gave a lot of trouble before he was
+safe in the bag. It ran into the lake about a quarter of a mile from our
+tent, forming a good-sized delta at its mouth. At the further side of
+the delta there were some fishermen’s huts (from which emanated the
+seven
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page46" id = "page46">46</a></span>
+boat-loads of natives whom we saw yesterday netting), and thence a track
+leads up the banks of the river to a lake called Slangen, two miles
+away.</p>
+
+<p>The inhabitants of these huts came in a boat this morning to see our
+camp while we were at breakfast inside the tent. They poked their heads
+in, grinning and staring, and saying nothing. Then we did the honours,
+showed them our most interesting possessions&mdash;American axes,
+fly-books, knives, rods, &amp;c., with all of which they were greatly
+impressed; then one picked up a bar of yellow soap that was lying on a
+box, and they all ‘wondered much at that;’ then we talked to them for a
+brief space, chiefly out of ‘Bennett’s Phrase Book,’ and considered the
+interview at an end, but they <i>would</i> not go, and remained silently
+staring at all our movements. So at last we ignored their presence
+altogether, which we have found the most effectual way of getting rid of
+a Norwegian peasant, and they gradually departed one by one till only
+one was left. To this man we gave a cup of our now cold coffee, which
+was not at all good, especially when compared with the delicious coffee
+which is always forthcoming even in the meanest Norwegian hut. He drank
+this, for they consider it a breach of etiquette to refuse proffered
+food; and immediately left, as if he remembered an engagement, having
+first thanked us in a rather constrained manner.</p>
+
+<p>We were glad when our callers were gone, for we
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page47" id = "page47">47</a></span>
+had found them ‘difficult,’ as the French say; but we took advantage of
+their arrival to make arrangements with one of them to bring three
+ponies and sleighs to the other side of the delta to-morrow morning,
+when we hope to renew our journey.</p>
+
+<p>After this we both went up the river on opposite sides; for the
+Skipper had become inflamed by a wish to see the waterfall which Esau
+discovered yesterday.</p>
+
+<p>One of the great advantages of Norway consists in being able to leave
+your tent and all other belongings quite to themselves, even when you
+know that there are several people about, and shrewdly suspect that the
+place where you have made your camp is a hay meadow belonging to one of
+them. We had a dim idea that such was the case here, not because there
+was any grass, but because there were very few stones, and a Norwegian
+mows down everything for hay except the stones. The Skipper came back
+with a very pretty bag of fish; he had been up to the fall, and thought
+it quite deserved all Esau’s commendation; and his opinion is worth more
+because he has seen many of the great American falls and other stock
+sights of the world. It is not marked on the Ordnance map; there is no
+path to it, or near it, but you come on it suddenly by following the
+river up through the pine forest, and on turning a corner see the whole
+body of the Vinstra shooting over a cliff in one mad leap of perhaps a
+little more than a hundred
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page48" id = "page48">48</a></span>
+feet. Of course the height and volume of water are insignificant
+compared with many falls, but the beauty of its situation can scarcely
+be excelled; and to us its greatest charm is its solitude and freedom
+from paths, tourists, and all the other unpleasant attributes of show
+places.</p>
+
+<p>Esau following up the north bank of the river was not so successful
+fishing, and after crossing the Slangen River (which joins the Vinstra
+about a mile above our camp) he struck across the forest to see his
+beloved fall again, and try to sketch it. He came back in a bad temper,
+saying that he thought Ruysdael and Turner could make something of
+it&mdash;the former to do the water, and the latter the spray, mist,
+rainbows, and roar&mdash;and he wanted to write home and get them to
+come out on purpose; and when the Skipper suggested that they had given
+up painting, he said it was a great pity, for he had not time now to do
+it himself.</p>
+
+<p>There is a corduroy bridge over the Slangen River, close to its
+junction with the Vinstra, and over this bridge we shall go to-morrow:
+we had intended to cruise up the Slangen and fish Slangen Lake, but we
+found that it would be impossible to continue our journey from the
+further end of it if we did so, and therefore decided to omit that part
+of the programme, though we are sorry to leave out Slangen, as it is a
+beautiful lake.</p>
+
+<p>We have probably been repaid for the miseries of
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page49" id = "page49">49</a></span>
+the last week by the beauty of our waterfall, the volume of which has
+doubtless been much increased by the exceptional rain of the last few
+days.</p>
+
+<p>Early to bed&mdash;</p>
+
+<h5>July 23.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>And early to rise. We breakfasted soon after seven, and then packed
+everything, and crossed the mouth of the Vinstra in two Norse boats,
+assisted by two or three men who had come to help our horses and sleighs
+on the journey. We had terrible difficulty in getting the canoes placed
+in what we considered a safe position on the sleighs, but it was done at
+last, and the motley caravan started about 10.30.</p>
+
+<p>First the noble owners; then a man who had got nothing on earth to do
+with the affair, then two women laughing and yelling like lunatics, then
+a sleigh drawn by a large pony, and carrying two boxes, cans, guns, and
+canoe; next some boys urging the large pony to herculean exertions; then
+the organiser of the transport department, who was apparently a
+professional fool, by the inordinate laughter which his every action
+caused; then some more women, and a smaller pony and sleigh, with the
+other canoe and all the rest of the luggage excepting one bag; lastly,
+another man leading an extremely small pony and sleigh with absolutely
+nothing on it, the man carrying the remaining bag for fear of tiring the
+pony. This mob of loafers had arrived in boats from Svatsum, which is a
+small village five miles distant at the north
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page50" id = "page50">50</a></span>
+end of Olstappen. But they only accompanied us for a quarter of a mile,
+when they all departed except the three men, who remained to manage the
+ponies.</p>
+
+<p>The pace was not very great, about a mile an hour, for these little
+ponies insisted on stopping to rest every hundred yards when the path
+was good, and every twenty when it was bad.</p>
+
+<p>We followed the river till we crossed the Slangen bridge; after that
+the path began to rise and get rapidly worse. We strolled along very
+leisurely, sitting down from time to time to rest and admire the view.
+The scenery was occasionally very beautiful, with the Jotun Mountains
+gleaming white in the background; and the forest itself was an endless
+delight, with its hoary moss-covered pine trees, and many-coloured
+carpet of berry-bearing plants, and the delicious odours with which a
+Norwegian forest in summer always abounds. In a fir tree here Esau came
+upon a family of cole titmice, and another of creepers, all very busy
+swinging themselves about, and creeping up and down the tree in search
+of dinner. They appeared to take a certain amount of interest in his
+proceedings, but showed no fear, and after watching them a long time he
+put the point of his rod up to one of the titmice, which actually pecked
+it rather angrily, but seeing that it made no impression took no further
+notice, but returned to its occupation of collecting food. In the next
+tree was a little spotted woodpecker which they call a ‘Gertrude bird.’
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page51" id = "page51">51</a></span>
+The story is so prettily told in ‘Forest Life in Norway and Sweden,’
+that it shall be inserted here.</p>
+
+<p>‘This woodpecker&mdash;or an ancestor of hers&mdash;was once a woman,
+and one day she was kneading bread in her trough, under the eaves of her
+house, when our Lord passed by leaning on St. Peter. She did not know it
+was our Lord and His apostle, for they looked like two poor men who were
+travelling past her cottage door. “Give us of your dough for the love of
+God,” said the Lord. “We have come far across the fjeld, and have fasted
+long.”</p>
+
+<p>‘Gertrude pinched off a small piece for them, but on rolling it in
+the trough to get it into shape, it grew, and grew, and filled up the
+trough completely. “No,” said she, “that is more than you want;” so she
+pinched off a smaller piece and rolled it out as before, but the smaller
+piece filled up the trough just as the other had done, and Gertrude put
+it aside too, and pinched a smaller bit still. But the miracle was just
+the same, the smaller bit filled up the trough as full as the largest
+sized kneading that she had ever put into&nbsp;it.</p>
+
+<p>‘Gertrude’s heart was hardened still more; she put that aside too,
+resolving as soon as the stranger left her to divide all her dough into
+little bits, and to roll it out into great loaves. “I&nbsp;cannot give
+you any to-day,” said she. “Go on your journey; the Lord prosper you,
+but you must not stop at my house.”</p>
+
+<p>‘Then the Lord Christ was angry, and her eyes
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page52" id = "page52">52</a></span>
+were opened, and she saw whom she had forbidden to come into the house,
+and she fell down on her knees. But the Lord said, “I&nbsp;gave you
+plenty, but that hardened your heart, so plenty was not a blessing to
+you. I&nbsp;will try you now with the blessing of poverty; you shall
+from henceforth seek your food day by day, and always between the wood
+and the bark” (alluding to the custom of mixing the inner rind of the
+birch with their rye-meal in times of scarcity). “But forasmuch as I see
+your penitence is sincere, this shall not be for ever; as soon as your
+back is entirely clothed with mourning this shall cease, for by that
+time you will have learnt to use your gifts rightly.”</p>
+
+<p>‘Gertrude flew from the presence of the Lord, for she was already a
+bird, but her feathers were even now blackened from her mourning, and
+from that time forward she and her descendants have all the year round
+sought their food between the wood and the bark; but the feathers of
+their back and wings get more mottled with black as they grow older, and
+when the white is quite covered the Lord takes them for His own
+again.</p>
+
+<p>‘No Norwegian will ever hurt a Gertrude bird, for she is always under
+the Lord’s protection, though He is punishing her for the time.’</p>
+
+<p>Whether this is the true reason or not, the fact remains that the
+bird is never harmed by any one, and is as tame as possible.</p>
+
+<p>We continued climbing slowly up the hill till
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page53" id = "page53">53</a></span>
+about one o’clock, when we came out above the forest on an open plateau
+covered with rocks, grass, and low scrub: this was the Fjeld. At Finböle
+Sæter we stopped to refresh on milk. The road&mdash;which had gradually
+dwindled from a decent path to a sleigh track, then a footpath,
+a&nbsp;cow-path, and a goat-path, just sufficient to swear by, or
+at&mdash;now lost itself altogether. The men had been complaining that
+it was a ‘<ins class = "norway" title = "dårlig vei">dole vei</ins>’
+soon after the start, now they said it was ‘<ins class = "norway" title
+= "slem">schlamm</ins>’&mdash;a very expressive word; and Esau agreed
+with them, and said it was ‘damm schlamm,’ which does not sound like
+proper Norsk; but it was such heart-rending work to see our beloved
+canoes bumping and jolting along, every moment in imminent danger of
+getting staved in, that to indulge in a few such Norwegian idioms was
+only human; and we decided to walk on and spare ourselves the agony of
+the sight: so, taking the bearings of ‘Fly Sæter’&mdash;which was our
+destination for the evening&mdash;we rambled on across the fjeld&mdash;a
+splendid walk, with some of the most beautiful mountains in Norway all
+round&nbsp;us.</p>
+
+<p>We got on very well with the assistance of an Ordnance map and
+compass, till we came to the river Hinögle, after passing Hinögelid
+Sæter. The bridge here was not in the place marked on the map, so that
+after crossing it we had some trouble in finding Fly Sæter, and might
+perhaps have perished miserably like the Babes in the wood, had we not
+opportunely
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page54" id = "page54">54</a></span>
+met a mediæval fisherman in a red night-cap, looking like one of the
+demons in ‘Rip van Winkle,’ who was going thither and conducted us. We
+arrived at seven o’clock, and appeased our hunger with the usual meal of
+trout and coffee, and <i>such</i> cream!</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic54" id = "pic54">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic54.png" width = "538" height = "333"
+alt = "Sunset at Fly Sæter"></p>
+
+<p>The sæter was a long low house, with three little rooms and only two
+windows. Its legitimate tenants were a very nice man and his equally
+nice wife and three children; but there were some occasional visitors
+here to-night in the shape of ourselves, our three men, the mediæval
+angler, and another traveller, twelve altogether to be apportioned among
+four beds; and to make matters worse, the rooms were continually invaded
+by sheep, pigs, and goats, of which there were a large stock.</p>
+
+<p>The Norwegians are so uniformly kind to all their animals, that their
+tameness is really troublesome;
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page55" id = "page55">55</a></span>
+they insist on going where they like, and following one about begging
+for food like dogs, causing the Skipper to exclaim,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>‘Ite domum saturæ, venit Hesperus, ite capellæ;’ which he
+translated&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Out of the house in the evening! Get out, ye goats of the sæter!</p>
+
+<p>We slept in the cheese-room very comfortably, one on the floor, the
+other on a good hay bed, and were warm for the first time for several
+nights, as we have not had sufficient blankets in the tent. Where the
+other ten people slept we did not inquire, but hoped they were happy.
+Our men and sleighs did not arrive till 10 <span class =
+"smallroman">P.M.</span>, at which time a most glorious sunset was going
+on, so that we could not attend to them at once. The sky, at first blue
+and yellow, gradually deepened into purple and orange, and finally the
+most brilliant red and almost black clouds, the hills all the time
+glowing with exquisite tints. After it was concluded we turned to the
+men, and were much delighted to find that nothing was smashed so far:
+the men had been very careful, and took eleven hours to perform a
+journey of ten miles.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page56" id = "page56">56</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapVIII" id = "chapVIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">FLY SÆTER.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>July 24.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">The</span> morning was again beautifully
+fine, and the coffee at the sæter was passing delicious, even for this
+country, where coffee is always good. No doubt the chief reason of this
+is that it is never roasted and ground till just when it is wanted, not
+only at the hotels, but at the smallest sæters. The grinding of coffee
+and the frying of trout are grateful sounds to the wearied traveller,
+and if the walk across the fjeld has failed to give him an appetite, he
+has still the chance of obtaining one from the fragrant aroma of the
+roasting berry.</p>
+
+<p>This sæter is in a most beautiful situation, perched on a little flat
+bit of ground on the mountain side, and looking down on a
+wide-stretching sea of grey undulating hills, with lakes lying among
+them dotted about near and far, and all the lower ground covered with
+the everlasting pine forest. To the south can be seen the river Hinögle,
+which runs out of the Heimdal Lakes, threading its way with gleams of
+white through the dark green and grey of
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page57" id = "page57">57</a></span>
+the forest and fjeld. To the north far below in the valley is Aakre
+Vand, a&nbsp;beautiful irregularly shaped lake dotted with fir-clad
+islands; while beyond, high up, there can be just distinguished Aakre
+Sæter, and frowning over it the dark mass of Aakre Kampen,
+a&nbsp;mountain of considerable height. Aakre Vand is a lake that we had
+intended to fish after Slangen Vand, but as there seemed to be no
+possibility of getting our property from one to the other we gave up the
+notion. According to all accounts it is a good lake for fish, and its
+shores are untainted by the habitations of man.</p>
+
+<p>We started about 9.30, having paid 5<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> for the
+board and lodging of ourselves and our numerous retinue, including the
+price of a sack-full of hay for our beds, as this was the last place at
+which we expected we could get any.</p>
+
+<p>After watching for a short time our valuables jolting, plunging, and
+splashing over the uneven ground, covered with rocks, junipers, and
+occasional logs and brooks, the wear and tear on our heart-strings
+became too severe, and we decided to walk on to Sikkildals Sæter, about
+four miles, and leave the baggage to its fate under the guidance of our
+three charioteers. It took us till eleven o’clock to get within half a
+mile of the sæter, and there we sat down and watched the track intently
+for two hours: then two hours more&mdash;and we began to lose patience;
+then another hour&mdash;and we began to lose hope
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page58" id = "page58">58</a></span>
+also. Something must have happened; either a canoe was smashed, or
+washed away crossing a stream, or one of the sleighs was upset and
+broken, or they were bogged, or the man carrying the bag had fainted, or
+his pony become unmanageable and dashed through a shop window; or, most
+dreadful thought, the men had got at our whisky and become hopelessly
+drunk.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic58" id = "pic58">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic58.png" width = "332" height = "265"
+alt = "Desperate Conflict between Esau and the Mosquito"></p>
+
+<p>Another hour passed, and our small remaining stock of good temper
+went: we were very hungry, and all our food was on the sleighs, and the
+mosquitoes seemed to be even more hungry than we were. Hope deferred,
+with nothing but mosquitoes to distract one’s thoughts, maketh the heart
+very sick indeed: and these were most annoyingly large mosquitoes; the
+finest brand that we have yet inspected, and with more strength of
+character than the ordinary kind. We were so much annoyed with the world
+in general, and each other, that we were obliged to separate, and Esau
+retired for a short time to attempt a sketch. He
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page59" id = "page59">59</a></span>
+came back very angry, because just at the critical moment a mosquito had
+knocked his hat off, and he had had a desperate and perspiring conflict
+with it under a tropical sun; but eventually the brute was vanquished
+and its head cut off, which he said he would have stuffed, to hang up in
+his ancestral halls. He certainly bore on his face the marks of the
+struggle, so that there seemed to be no reason to doubt the story.</p>
+
+<!-- png 079 -->
+<!-- png 080 -->
+<p class = "plate">
+<a name = "plate59" id = "plate59"
+href = "images/plate59_large.png" target = "_blank">
+<img src = "images/plate59.png" width = "463" height = "271"
+alt = "see caption"></a></p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+ON THE TRACK NEAR SIKKILDALS LAKE.</p>
+
+<p>Our state of despondency waxed worse and worse; we had not the
+slightest confidence in our head driver; he was undoubtedly the Svatsum
+village fool, for he talked all day, and the other men went into roars
+of laughter at whatever he said, though the Skipper said <i>he</i>
+couldn’t see anything funny in most of his remarks; but possibly the
+Skipper was jealous because this man made better Norsk jokes than his
+own. Besides this, the fact that neither of us understood the language,
+detracted from the merits of the jests.</p>
+
+<p>Years rolled away, and at six o’clock something came slowly into
+sight. ‘Out with the glass!’ (the spy-glass). ‘Yes, by George! it is the
+men and sleighs at last. Out with the other glass!’ and we finish the
+‘wee drappie’ that we were saving to the last extremity. They soon
+arrived at Sikkildal Sæter with us, and we found that nothing had gone
+wrong, but the men had been <i>very</i> careful, and so had taken nine
+hours to make a journey of four miles.
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page60" id = "page60">60</a></span>
+The track certainly would be a disgrace to a Metropolitan Vestry, and
+they managed well to arrive with everything uninjured. We consider the
+village fool to be a most painstaking and praiseworthy idiot.</p>
+
+<p>At Sikkildal Sæter we got some food and called at a small house close
+to it, where a Mr. B., a&nbsp;Norwegian barrister, was staying for the
+summer. He is the owner of the Sikkildal Lakes, and we wanted permission
+to camp on his land and fish in his lakes. He understood English as well
+as all the upper classes in Norway do; and was very civil, giving us the
+permission most willingly.</p>
+
+<p>We have heard from a good many people that the wealthier Norwegians
+do not like the English, and will not do anything to oblige them; but in
+all our wanderings we have met with nothing but the greatest kindness
+and hospitality from all classes. Several people have gone out of their
+way to voluntarily offer fishing and shooting, and in no instance has
+the slightest incivility been shown. Certainly Norway will compare with
+England very much to advantage in this respect, though of course we do
+not mean to say that similar conduct would be possible in England.</p>
+
+<p>At about seven in the evening we got all our cargo shipped again and
+started up the lower Sikkildals lake&mdash;having first paid our
+charioteers 3<i>l.</i> for the trip from Olstappen, three men, horses
+and sleighs, sixteen miles over the rockiest, brookiest, and juniperiest
+country in this world; and offered them whisky and
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page61" id = "page61">61</a></span>
+water all round, including two men from the sæter who came to our
+assistance when the smallest pony, not being accustomed to the
+deceitfulness and treacherous wiles of this life, got up to its neck in
+a bog close to the lake, and the man with the bag followed it. However,
+they were extricated with no damage done, as our provisions were all
+securely soldered up in tins. Curious to relate, our three men did not
+like whisky, but just sipped for ‘manners,’ and only the two old men
+from the sæter would drink it; but these two old men liked it very much,
+and drank all they could get&mdash;that is to say, their own glasses
+full, and the other fellows’ glasses full, and just a drop after that,
+and then just a taste to top up with. Then we shook hands all round, and
+feeling in charity with all men, sailed joyously away up the lake.</p>
+
+<p>It was a real Norwegian night, with the warmth and light of the
+departed sun still lingering on the mountain tops, and a midnight
+twilight glowing in the valleys. We had a beautiful full moon to help us
+on our way, so we went right to the upper end of the first lake, and
+found a camping-ground halfway between the two lakes, which are about a
+hundred yards apart. The portage took us some time, but we were full of
+energy from the cool night air, so refreshing after the long hot summer
+day. We dug out a nice level place for the tent, and got everything
+settled and ourselves in bed about midnight.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page62" id = "page62">62</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapIX" id = "chapIX">CHAPTER IX.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">SIKKILDAL.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>Sunday, July 25.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">We</span> arose soon after seven; not
+because it is our nature to get up at that time, still less because we
+think it our duty to do so; but because the sun made the tent so
+intolerably hot that there was no pleasure to be derived from staying in
+bed any longer. Naturally after this we were very cross, which the
+Skipper says all really pious people are on Sunday morning; and he
+abused Esau shamefully, because the latter wanted the eggs buttered and
+the Skipper wanted them fried. Esau laid down the axiom that ‘no
+gentleman ever eats fried eggs,’ in a peculiarly offensive manner, and
+proceeded further to make ill-natured remarks with reference to violet
+ink; and the Skipper retorted with the observation, ‘Wish you’d brought
+that anchovy paste.’ Esau: ‘Why?’ Skipper: ‘Because it’s just the stuff
+to grease your boots with in a place like this; smells strongish, and
+keeps the mosquitoes at a distance.’ Altogether we made ourselves as
+disagreeable as possible to each other&mdash;just as we do in our happy
+homes on the
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page63" id = "page63">63</a></span>
+Sabbath morn in England. Fortunately Sunday only comes once a week.</p>
+
+<p>Breakfast over, the Skipper devoted himself to the occupation of
+greasing his boots and shaving, which he seems to do at the same time,
+so that one brush may be used for both the soap and the grease; while
+Esau did some washing.</p>
+
+<p>We had some trouble in getting good firewood, for Sikkildals Vand is
+more than three thousand feet above sea level, and consequently we were
+above the region of pine forests, and had only the stunted birch and
+juniper from which to obtain our supply. We divide the altitudes rather
+differently from the system adopted by other great explorers. The lowest
+belt is that of pine forests and strawberries, then comes the zone of
+stunted birches, above that only juniper and bitter willow are found;
+and the highest belt of vegetation contains only rocks,
+reindeer-flowers, and moss, and then eternal snow.</p>
+
+<p>Now birch trees do not make good firewood, for when they die they
+appear to get water-logged, and never burn well. The juniper is the most
+invaluable of all trees, for it will burn quite green; but at Sikkildals
+Vand it is very scarce, and so it took us quite a long time to collect
+enough dry wood to last our stay out, but it was done at last. We
+carried one canoe across the spit of land between the two lakes, and in
+it the Skipper went forth to get fish for the larder, while Esau took
+the other canoe
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page64" id = "page64">64</a></span>
+down the lower lake to get some milk from Sikkildals Sæter.</p>
+
+<p>The scenery here is very fine. The lakes are narrow, and highish
+mountains rise on each side: those on the south side had snow upon them,
+though this would disappear before the end of the summer, as we are not
+yet in the regions of perpetual snow; on the north side there is a very
+remarkable mountain called Sikkildals Horn, with a perfectly
+impracticable front of overhanging rock, very high and rugged. There was
+a constant rumbling and booming proceeding from it, as rocks from time
+to time broke off and came crashing down; but our tent&mdash;though
+seemingly under this cliff&mdash;was well out of their reach. At the
+further end of the upper lake we could see an apparently impassable
+mountain ridge. Beyond this, about four miles further according to the
+maps, was Besse Sæter, a&nbsp;farm, or ranch, only one day’s journey
+from our final resting-place. How we were to cross that mountain with
+our canoes and baggage, was a matter only to be determined by prophets
+and other beings of a higher order of intelligence than ours. Our friend
+Mr.&nbsp;B. thought it was almost impossible; the Skipper boldly
+asserted that it <i>was</i> impossible, and requested to be allowed to
+die here; while Esau, with the sanguine joyousness begotten of total
+ignorance, said of course it could be managed. We determined to move to
+the end of the lake the next day, and try the pass on the one
+following&mdash;barring earthquakes.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page65" id = "page65">65</a></span>
+<p>Esau had a most interesting voyage. His fishing was not very
+successful at first, and he paddled steadily on towards the Sæter,
+overtaking a boat quite full of girls, dressed in the very picturesque
+native costume which the people in these primitive regions still adhere
+to, especially on Sundays. The girls about here are rather pretty than
+otherwise, and these were a particularly good selection, and of course
+all in their cleanest and smartest clothes for Sunday. They <i>would</i>
+stop to watch him fishing, till he got quite shy, and gave up throwing
+till they rowed&nbsp;on.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic65" id = "pic65">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic65.png" width = "537" height = "381"
+alt = "Sæter Girls in a Boat on Sikkildals Lake"></p>
+
+<p>Soon he came to a brood of pochards under the leadership of the old
+duck, and spent half an hour trying to capture one by rapid paddling, in
+which endeavour he was nearly but not quite successful.
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page66" id = "page66">66</a></span>
+There were a good many teal and pochards on the lower lake, and plenty
+of sandpipers on the shores of the upper one.</p>
+
+<p>At last he reached the Sæter, and found there all the girls of the
+boat, and at least another boat-load and five or six
+strangers&mdash;quite a crowd: possibly they had been having a church
+service, but probably not, as they all seemed in the best of tempers,
+and were most amiable.</p>
+
+<p>He got the milk, and coming back tried a few casts, and found that
+the fish were rising properly; the result was nineteen good trout in
+about an hour and a half. We had not been catching many fish lately; so
+after his return to camp we concluded that this was the hour and we were
+the men to revel in a fiendish glut of capture. So there was a regular
+stampede in that camp, and after dinner we <i>all</i> went out armed to
+the teeth with rods and fly-books, and clothed in landing nets and Freke
+bags, with our teeth firmly set and a bloodthirsty look in our eyes,
+intending to struggle with the great trout in his native element or
+perish in the attempt.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.</p>
+
+<p>About ten o’clock that night there might have been seen toiling
+wearily back to camp under a cloudy sky and with a chilly blast
+a-blowing, two forlorn youths, ‘sans’ fish, ‘sans’ hope, but still armed
+to the teeth with the weapons of the chase.</p>
+
+<p>However, we had now tried both lakes, and got some knowledge of their
+capabilities. The upper one
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page67" id = "page67">67</a></span>
+is, we think, the better of the two, but more difficult to catch fish
+in. The Skipper got some in it to-day, and they were larger fish than
+those of the lower lake, and a different sort, more like the silvery
+trout of the Jotunfjeld, whereas the others are the ordinary brown or
+yellow trout.</p>
+
+<p>This afternoon Mr. B. and his wife with a friend came up in a boat to
+see our camp, at which they seemed much pleased. We took them short
+cruises in the canoes, showed them our various arrangements, and
+endeavoured to be agreeable.</p>
+
+<p>The friend was the manager of the government stud for this district,
+and spoke English fairly. He told us that the government provides a
+certain number of good stallions, which are turned out on the fjeld and
+run with the peasants’ mares, and that they take great trouble to
+provide the best that can be got, so as to improve the breed. He
+considered that there are very decidedly good results.</p>
+
+<h5>July 26.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>A beautiful fishing morning, just beginning to blow up for rain. The
+Skipper fished his way down to the Sæter for more provisions, and had
+first-rate sport, catching twenty-two beautiful fish, mostly over a
+pound. He had such an exciting time of it that lunch was forgotten till
+three o’clock, a&nbsp;fact which spoke volumes for the excellence of the
+sport, for we generally acquire a very keen appetite every three or four
+hours so long as the sun is performing his daily duty (of standing still
+while we circulate
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page68" id = "page68">68</a></span>
+feebly round ourselves). He came back to the tent, presenting rather a
+distended appearance, having stuffed most of his pockets full of
+potatoes, and a packet of salt in his hat; and while with his right hand
+he folded to his bosom a bottle of cream, and another of milk, in his
+left he grasped a rod, a&nbsp;landing net and paddle, and the rest of
+him was hung with fish. The Skipper objects to making two journeys where
+only one is necessary.</p>
+
+<p>Esau thinks that ‘flesh-meat’ is a necessary of life, so he took his
+gun up the upper lake, and returned with the noble spoil of five
+sandpipers which he had shot out of the canoe by creeping along the edge
+of the lake, a&nbsp;most entertaining pastime.</p>
+
+<p>There is an old ruined fisherman’s hut at our end of the lake, and
+this had apparently been taken as a habitation by a family of stoats,
+which Esau espied at their gambols on his return. Cartridges are
+precious here, but the instinct of destruction of a stoat was too much
+for him, and having chirped till two of them stood close together and a
+third just behind, he fired into the crowd and mortally injured the lot.
+Poor little things! It is rather a shame to kill them, for there is so
+little game that they cannot do much harm, probably feeding chiefly on
+mice and lemmings, which are very numerous; and they always look
+uncommonly pretty playing about the rocks. No more graceful animal
+exists than a stoat.</p>
+
+<p>After dinner had been cooked and despatched we
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page69" id = "page69">69</a></span>
+went forth to fish again, and had some good sport; but presently
+lowering clouds settled down over the surface of the deep, mosquitoes
+gathered round us in swarms, and a few spots of rain drove us home to
+the snug retreat of the tent, where hidden away under the warmth of our
+bedding we smoked in thoughtful silence, and gloated over the day’s
+doings and our larder stocked with fishes.</p>
+
+<h5>July 27.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>The day commenced with showers, and as there are no inhabitants here
+to whom we can give the surplus fish, we did not like to catch any
+more&mdash;for it is against our principles to waste food wilfully,
+woeful want being too near and probable a state to be trifled
+with&mdash;consequently we determined to move on, but first to bake some
+bread.</p>
+
+<p>This, in a temporary camp, is done by putting the kneaded dough into
+a tin pot made on purpose without solder; this pot is then placed in a
+hole in the ground in which we have previously kept a good fire for
+about half an hour; before putting the pot in, all the embers and ashes
+are cleared out, and then raked back on to the top of the tin and all
+round it, and a small fire is kept going on the top. If well managed
+this bakes excellent bread in about twenty minutes, but of course it
+requires considerable experience and care to turn out really
+satisfactory bread. When we get to our permanent camp we shall make a
+proper oven.</p>
+
+<p>To-day, when we had baked successfully, packed up our things, and
+were taking advantage of a break
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page70" id = "page70">70</a></span>
+between the showers to start, we were hailed from the bank, and saw
+there old Peter Tronhūus, the tenant of Besse Sæter (whither we are
+going) and father of Jens Tronhūus, our former hunter, who is now
+getting what we require in the shape of food, ponies, and men, and whom
+we expect to meet at Besse Sæter. Peter had a great deal to tell us
+about all our affairs, which seem to be prospering under Jens’ auspices.
+He talks English very badly, so the interview lasted some time, and then
+we pushed off and paddled straight away to the extreme end of the lake,
+where we found an inferior place to pitch the tent, very damp and
+unwholesome in appearance, sadly in need of sanitary inspection, but no
+doubt good enough for one night. We fished with fly and minnow all the
+way, but took nothing, there being a good deal of thunder round about;
+but Esau shot some more sandpipers.</p>
+
+<p>Our tent is pitched at the commencement of an extremely vague track,
+which we believe to go over our mountain pass to Sjödals Vand
+(pronounced Shoodals), and to-morrow we hope to follow its wanderings,
+if two men and horses&mdash;with whom we have made an arrangement to
+transport us&mdash;turn up. These two men and horses are the sole
+inhabitants of this very thinly populated district, so that we are at
+their mercy, and if they do not come we must inevitably die of
+starvation after we have eaten all our provisions and candles.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page71" id = "page71">71</a></span>
+<p>Late in the evening Herr B&mdash;&mdash; and a scientific friend who
+had just come to stay with him, came down the mountain to our tent. They
+had been for a short walking tour to Lake Gjendin&mdash;our future
+goal&mdash;where it seems that a tourist’s hut of a superior sort has
+lately been built, and at this hut several kinds of food are kept, such
+as tinned meats and beer. B&mdash;&mdash; and his friend have therefore
+been there shopping. The news of this hut is rather unpleasant to us,
+for Gjendin was chosen chiefly for its wildness and remoteness from
+civilisation, and now we are haunted with the idea that there may be
+tourists, and consequently no fish or reindeer. On the other hand, it
+has been erected so short a time that it can hardly have affected the
+country round about yet, and it will certainly be convenient for us from
+a commissariat point of view.</p>
+
+<p>We were just beginning supper when they arrived, but they would not
+stop, for which we were secretly glad, as there was only enough soup for
+two; so we had a whisky ‘skaal’ (health-drinking) instead, and they went
+on their way full of beans and benevolence, as Mr. Jorrocks
+hath&nbsp;it.</p>
+
+<p>We ‘whisky’ every one who turns up at camp, and as a rule they like
+it. We are not much of drunkards ourselves, so we can afford to give it
+to other people.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page72" id = "page72">72</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapX" id = "chapX">CHAPTER X.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">BESSE SÆTER.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>July 28.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">Our</span> two men arrived while we were at
+breakfast this morning, and brought two sleighs in the boat with them;
+these they deposited on the shore, and then one of them departed into
+some secret haunt of his own in search of a horse. The last we saw of
+him was a wee dot struggling up over the mountain crest; and we began to
+feel what a hopeless sort of task was before&nbsp;us.</p>
+
+<p>When we had finished our breakfast there were certain remnants of
+food, and these we offered to the other man, because he seemed to want
+something to do. We left him in the tent with a frying-pan containing
+two trout fried in butter, and a tin pot nearly full of soup. Some time
+afterwards we looked in, and saw him eating greedily off his
+knife-blade, and after a further interval we noticed that he had
+finished; then we examined the culinary utensils out of which he had
+been feeding, and found he had left the trout untouched, but the butter
+they were fried in he had utterly consumed off the blade of his knife,
+and also all the soup through the same medium. But there
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page73" id = "page73">73</a></span>
+was not more than a gallon and a half of the latter, so we did not
+grudge&nbsp;it.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic73" id = "pic73">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic73.png" width = "319" height = "316"
+alt = "Old Siva carrying a Canoe up the Sikkildals Pass"></p>
+
+<p>Apparently he was like a giant refreshed after his meal, and seizing
+one canoe he carried it up to the top of the mountain, and then came
+back for the other and did the same with it; after this he returned
+again and borrowed our axe, saying he wanted to make the path better for
+the sleigh. He disappeared among the stunted birches, and we heard him
+chopping and slowly getting further up the track for about an hour. We
+naturally supposed that he was clearing away trees that obstructed the
+path, but when we came to traverse that path ourselves, soon afterwards,
+we discovered that he had only been filling up holes in the road by
+felling trees across it. Now a road that can be improved by this process
+is in a very bad state and this one was decidedly improved.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page74" id = "page74">74</a></span>
+<p>Just before we started an English tourist came down the mountain and
+arranged with Siva (one of our men) to go down the lake in his boat. He
+was the first of our fellow-countrymen whom we have seen since
+Lillehammer, and proved to be the only one we met all through our trip
+in the mountains.</p>
+
+<p>After some time we perceived three dots wending their way down the
+path again, and presently they arrived, proving to be our other man and
+two extremely shaggy ponies; and after the complicated Norwegian harness
+had been put on we began the ascent. The path was as bad as bad could be
+for a short distance, but when the level was reached it became much
+better than we had had hitherto; it was only the first climb up from the
+lake that presented any difficulty. The canoes could only have been
+transported as they were, on a man’s back.</p>
+
+<p>It continued showery, but we had a very pleasant walk, and launched
+our canoes on Sjödals Vand at about three o’clock. A&nbsp;short paddle
+across the lake, not more than three quarters of a mile, and we were at
+Besse Sæter.</p>
+
+<p>Sjödals Vand is a long straggling lake, very much exposed to the
+wind, and not in any way beautiful except for its wildness, as its
+shores are almost treeless and rather flat. Its most remarkable
+characteristic is the colour of its water, which is a light greenish
+blue, like a starling’s egg, and stands out in
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page75" id = "page75">75</a></span>
+striking contrast against the yellow shore and dark mountain heights
+which surround&nbsp;it.</p>
+
+<p>Besse Sæter is only three miles from Gjendin Vand&mdash;the haven
+where we would be; and the snow-capped mountains, which have been
+gradually getting nearer all the way from Olstappen, are now
+magnificently towering above us on three sides.</p>
+
+<p>The Sæter is a hut, built as they all are, entirely of wood, and only
+inhabited during the summer months. The hut in which we are living is
+not strictly speaking a sæter at all, but has been built for the
+convenience of travellers, and the Tronhūus family are entrusted with
+the duty of taking care of those who come hither while wandering about
+this, the wildest and grandest part of Norway. The real sæter is a
+larger building about a quarter of a mile from this hut, and higher up
+the mountain. And further away still there is yet another building, or
+collection of buildings, also called Besse Sæter.</p>
+
+<p>Our hut has three rooms, two of which&mdash;a bedroom and
+eating-room&mdash;are occupied at present solely by us: in the other
+room dwell two girls, apparently guests of the Tronhūus. Peter Tronhūus
+himself and his numerous family live in a one-roomed hut just opposite
+this. At present the family appears to consist of two men, five women,
+and two children, relationship to each other unknown.</p>
+
+<p>Peter and his son Jens&mdash;who was with us on a former
+expedition&mdash;are both away at present; the
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page76" id = "page76">76</a></span>
+latter engaged in procuring various articles for us, such as potatoes,
+men, ponies, and dogs, about which we wrote to him from England; and he
+is expected back to-morrow.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of the crowd of people living here, everything is
+beautifully clean and tidy, and our eating-room looks very nice, with
+its floor always covered with fresh juniper sprays, and a cheerful fire
+burning in that most charming of fireplaces, the primitive Norwegian
+corner-hearth, which is being rapidly superseded everywhere by horrid
+tall, black, iron stoves, that look like coffins set up on end, and
+smell like flat-irons and rosin when they are lighted.</p>
+
+<p>We shall have to make this place our home until Jens turns up; and we
+are not at all sorry to do so, for they take the greatest trouble to
+make us comfortable, and the trout, fladbrod, and coffee are simply
+perfection. Besides, we are only a short day’s journey from Memurudalen,
+where we intend to camp, and there is nothing to be gained by getting
+there before August 1, the opening day of the reindeer season.</p>
+
+<p>After supper we sallied out, the Skipper with rod, Esau with gun, to
+see what we could catch. Esau landed on the marsh at the head of the
+lake, to try and circumvent some duck he had descried; in this he
+failed, but shot a greenshank, of which there were several flying
+about.</p>
+
+<p>The Skipper fished the river without success. Sjödals Vand is a fine
+lake, but not much good for
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page77" id = "page77">77</a></span>
+fishing, because of the great amount of netting that is carried on in
+the summer by the dwellers in the Sæter; nevertheless there are good
+fish in it, as we have seen many of two and three pounds weight, that
+they have caught in the nets.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic77" id = "pic77">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic77.png" width = "304" height = "256"
+alt = "Greenshank"></p>
+
+<h5>July 29.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>A friend of ours began the opening chapter of his virgin novel with
+the words ‘It was a thoroughly cussèd morning towards the latter end of
+July.’ The same applied exactly to this morning: but the arrival of Jens
+encouraged us; and Esau walked outside to look at the sky; where,
+thrusting his hands in his pockets and lodging an eye-glass in his eye,
+he focussed the heavens generally, with a cruel, inquisitive stare; and
+shaking his head knowingly, indulged in a prophecy concerning the
+weather&mdash;‘that the wind now being in the west, there would be
+continuous sunshine for three weeks at least.’ Then he walked in again,
+and we all shivered over the fire.</p>
+
+<p>Jens arrived at breakfast-time, and after greetings
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page78" id = "page78">78</a></span>
+had been exchanged, reported all his achievements on our behalf. He had
+secured for us a stalker, one Öla, a&nbsp;hewer of wood and drawer of
+water, by name Ivar (his last office seems likely to be a sinecure, but
+we can work him double at the first-mentioned employment), a&nbsp;horse,
+and a sack of potatoes; all of which will arrive at Memurudalen in time
+for August 1. We hoped for a dog for Ryper, but he had not been able to
+get one.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic78" id = "pic78">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic78.png" width = "250" height = "163"
+alt = "Ring Dotterel"></p>
+
+<p>Esau is always bemoaning the law which prohibits him bringing dogs
+from England; it is suspected that he has a large collection of useless
+animals there, that he wishes to import into Norway and sell to the
+guileless and unreflecting native. Unassisted by any of the canine
+tribe, however, we have now accumulated what we call ‘a&nbsp;good larder
+of bird-meat;’ for certain wild fowl were observed to-day to secrete
+themselves in the marsh at the head of the lake, whither we followed
+them with all our dread artillery, and we now have a lot of teal,
+greenshanks, sandpipers, and a ring dotterel stowed away and engaged in
+preparing themselves by decomposition for our
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page79" id = "page79">79</a></span>
+consumption. Some of these birds are almost unknown to the table of the
+ordinary Briton; but if he will consider that our daily food depends
+entirely on what we shoot or catch, we hope, as the writers of books
+say, ‘the kind reader will excuse’ the sandpipers and dotterel.</p>
+
+<p>We were wet through on the marsh, and not at all sorry to return to a
+comfortable fire in a warm room, instead of the streaming sides of a
+cold and cheerless tent. Shooting as we did above our knees in water,
+the rain did not make any appreciable difference in our great wetness.
+After the point of saturation is past, we have discovered that the human
+frame is as impervious to moisture (external) as a macintosh.</p>
+
+<p>This summer so far has been remarkably wet and cold for Norway, but
+we have now the inexpressible consolation of knowing that they are in
+worse case at home; for we have received our first batch of letters and
+papers from England, which have been a fortnight <i>en route</i>.</p>
+
+<h5>July 30.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>Prophets are without honour in these parts; they are also without
+truth, honesty, or any good quality or proper feeling. This day is worse
+than usual, and the good people here have been going about with blanched
+cheeks, whispering with bated breath of a great flood which occurred in
+the time of one Noah. We spent all the morning trying to teach the cows,
+goats, and poultry to walk two and two in
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page80" id = "page80">80</a></span>
+case of any emergency arising, and the Skipper&mdash;who was engaged in
+building what he called a Nark&mdash;was repeatedly coming into the
+Sæter to ask how many yards there were in a cubit. However, at
+lunch-time the land was still visible, so we sallied forth into the
+marsh again, and secured some more teal; and then Esau went off in his
+canoe after some scaup ducks on the lake; and brought home two, after
+following them&mdash;according to his after-dinner account of the
+struggle&mdash;for about six hours, while they swam, and flew, and
+dived; and he paddled, and swore, and shot. They appear to have roamed
+over the whole extent of this vast lake, seeking safety from his
+unerring barrels. And he now points to a little hill, far below the
+distant horizon, beneath which he affirms that he brought the last
+victim to bay and slew him. He was absent on the expedition an hour and
+a quarter; a&nbsp;canoe will go about five miles an hour; and the lake
+is seven miles long. But we did not come out here to do arithmetic.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic80" id = "pic80">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic80.png" width = "292" height = "154"
+alt = "Scaup"></p>
+
+<p>We settled not to go to Gjendin ourselves to-day, as the weather was
+so very unfavourable, but we
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page81" id = "page81">81</a></span>
+packed and despatched some of our luggage this evening, and purpose
+following it to-morrow.</p>
+
+<p>Before doing this we had a long interview with Jens Tronhūus, with
+the main object of settling all accounts. Now a long interview between
+three men who cannot speak two words of each other’s languages is a
+somewhat intricate business, and would be decidedly amusing to
+beholders. How we got through it is beyond the wit of man, but
+nevertheless the fact remains that everything is beautifully arranged;
+we thoroughly understand each other; both sides are satisfied; and we
+concluded everything without the aid of that potent mediator, Whisky,
+the Great and Good.</p>
+
+<p>Besse Sæter grows upon one: the people are all so simple and kind,
+and cook our food so well, that we shall be quite sorry to leave, even
+though trout and reindeer are in prospect.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page82" id = "page82">82</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapXI" id = "chapXI">CHAPTER XI.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">GJENDIN.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>July 31.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">The</span> morning appeared rather fine, so
+we packed the rest of our baggage, and climbed the track which leads
+over the shoulder of the mountain between Sjödals Vand and Gjendin
+(pronounced ‘yendin’). It is rather steep, but nothing approaching the
+villany of the tracks near Sikkildals Sæter, so the transit did not take
+long, and we got to Gjendesheim about twelve o’clock.</p>
+
+<p>Gjendesheim is a very good two-storied wooden building, with a large
+dining-room, and about eight tiny cupboards of bedrooms; it has been
+erected just where the Sjoa River runs out at the eastern extremity of
+the lake, for the benefit of travellers, who can get food and lodging of
+a sort there, and generally boats to take them up the lake.
+Ragnild&mdash;the woman who presides over it&mdash;is very nice, kind,
+and attentive, and talks English well. Her latter qualification hardly
+gets fair play, as not many English people come here; and indeed the
+Norwegians who visit the lake are not very numerous. From the book we
+can only
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page83" id = "page83">83</a></span>
+see two English names before us this year; and yet Gjendin is perhaps
+the most beautiful, certainly the wildest and grandest lake in Norway,
+and is well worth a visit from any tourist who has time at his
+disposal.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic83" id = "pic83">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic83.png" width = "524" height = "406"
+alt = "Our first View of Gjendin Lake"></p>
+
+<p>It is eleven miles long; very deep; very <ins class = "correction"
+title = ", invisible">blue,</ins> and on all sides rising sheer out of
+the water for from 1,000 to 4,000 feet are vast black mountains with
+snow-clad summits; for it lies in the very heart of the highest
+mountains in Norway. It may not unfairly be likened to an unfrequented
+and awfully desolate Lake of Lucerne.</p>
+
+<p>At 3,200 feet altitude it is of course above the fir trees, and only
+in a few sunny nooks along its sides can even stunted birches, juniper,
+and willow
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page84" id = "page84">84</a></span>
+earn a precarious living. It is at these places alone that there is any
+exit from the lake; for along the greater part of its length there is no
+level place large enough to pitch a tent; no vegetation except berries
+and moss; and no possibility of scaling the frowning cliffs by which it
+is surrounded. But there is a great fascination in such a scene; and
+although its first appearance is almost repellent, every moment of
+gazing seems to increase its beauty and awe-inspiring grandeur.</p>
+
+<p>At lunch here a great event happened; we had Salon öl (bottled beer),
+and immediately bought the whole remaining stock, consisting of six
+bottles. These we degraded by packing with the inferior baggage in the
+canoes, and commenced the final stage of our journey, or
+voyage&mdash;whichever is the right term.</p>
+
+<p>About two miles from Gjendesheim, on the south shore, we came to a
+waterfall which runs out of a small lake lying a short distance away up
+in the valley. At the mouth of this fall was a small neat hut in which a
+Christiania professor had just taken up his abode for a few days’
+stalking; we stopped a few minutes to talk to him, and then paddled on,
+trying a few casts now and then until we came to Memurudalen&mdash;our
+intended camp.</p>
+
+<p>It is about halfway up the lake on the north shore, and is a very
+pretty little valley, profusely supplied with edible berries, surrounded
+by thick birch
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page85" id = "page85">85</a></span>
+covert, and with more grass than we ever expected to find at this
+altitude; but it is by far the most favourably situated bit of the
+Gjendin shores, as it is sheltered from the cold winds and gets the sun
+all day.</p>
+
+<p>We found a remarkably nice level bit of grass, screened by a rocky
+bank, and with what the Skipper called ‘a&nbsp;brattling brooklet’ in
+front, about two hundred yards from the lake. There we pitched the tent
+and made everything comfortable, but of course we shall not decide
+whether to stay here or not until we have tested its capabilities as
+reindeer ground.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond the purling streamlet, and about thirty yards from our front
+door, the Memurua River goes tearing down, the colour of dirty soap-suds
+from the mud which is ground into it by the mighty Memuru Glacier,
+whence it springs. This glacier is about three miles from us up the
+valley, but not in sight from our tent; in fact, the hills are so steep
+that we are quite shut in, and can see very little except the
+snow-fjelds and peaks just opposite to us across the lake. These peaks
+spring from the highest plateau in Norway, which has an altitude of
+about 6,000 feet, and both the plateau and peaks are almost inaccessible
+to the hunter, as it is a day’s work to climb them, and any one doing so
+would probably have to pass the night on the top. This is annoying, for
+it is a capital place for deer.</p>
+
+<p>An ancient hunter, some years ago, spent a long
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page86" id = "page86">86</a></span>
+time in conveying with incredible exertions to the top of the central
+peak, materials out of which he constructed a windmill; then he
+descended and never went near the place again, and his windmill scared
+all the deer away from that table-land, so that they frequented places
+where a man could get to them; and the cunning hunter was rewarded by
+many ‘stor bocks’ (big bucks). But now the windmill has been destroyed
+by time and weather, and we fear that the deer again roam there
+unmolested and unscared.</p>
+
+<h5>Sunday, August 1.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>It is our custom to rise on this day singing, ‘Come, rouse ye, then,
+my merry, merry men, for it is our opening day,’ but on this occasion it
+would not have been appropriate. We were not at all merry, because it
+was Sunday, and raining; we were frozen in the night, our men and
+potatoes have not come, and altogether we could see nothing to be merry
+about, especially as the opening day having fallen on a Sunday, we did
+not feel justified in going out to pursue.</p>
+
+<p>So we devoted ourselves to the pleasures of the table. Last night we
+had dotterel and sandpipers for dinner, this morning greenshanks, which
+are very good birds indeed. There was also a large brew of a meritorious
+composition known as Skoggaggany soup; the name is a little difficult to
+<ins class = "correction" title =
+"text reads ‘pronouce’">pronounce</ins>, but the soup does not taste anything like
+it; it is merely the Norwegian for a scaup duck. In England people have
+been known to call scaups unfit for food, but here,
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page87" id = "page87">87</a></span>
+under the perfectly awful appetites that we have developed, the
+Skoggaggany soup has very little chance.</p>
+
+<p>After trying unsuccessfully to catch fish, we walked up the valley
+after lunch to look for a hut which is marked on the Ordnance map, and
+to see if there were any better camping-ground than the place we chose
+yesterday. We saw some beautiful reindeer ground, but could not find the
+hut or a camp.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic87" id = "pic87">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic87.png" width = "431" height = "269"
+alt = "Two of our Retainers: Ivar and his Pony"></p>
+
+<p>On our return we perceived two men loafing about the tent, who we
+naturally concluded were thieves and murderers, and the Skipper hurried
+on to do battle with them to the death for the possession of our
+greatest treasure, the Salon öl. But on his arrival the robbers did not
+fly, but stood and stared with their hands in their pockets; so he
+lifted his hat and said, ‘Öla?’ (for of course he might have been a Dook
+in
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page88" id = "page88">88</a></span>
+disguise); and one of them replied, ‘Ja;’ and cordiality being thus
+established, produced the sack of potatoes and the cook, like a
+conjuring trick, from somewhere behind him, out of his hat or coat
+tails.</p>
+
+<p>Then we went into all kinds of details with him about his and Ivar’s
+wages, which he did not understand, and he replied at great length in
+Norsk, which we did not understand, and so the interview concluded to
+the gratification of all concerned. Öla is a big good-looking man,
+rather too much of a gentleman, we fear: but Ivar is without doubt a
+perfect ass, and will never be able to do anything in the way of
+cookery, except perhaps boil a potato, and even in that enterprise we
+consider it would be six to four on the potato.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page89" id = "page89">89</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapXII" id = "chapXII">CHAPTER XII.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">THE CAMP.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>August 2.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">The</span> Skipper won the toss (he always
+does, chiefly because the device on Norwegian coins is ‘sorter
+indifferent like,’ and when Esau has called heads or tails, he looks at
+it carefully, and gravely declares it to be the opposite), and was away
+eight hours wandering about the mountains without seeing a living
+creature except two buzzards, and hardly any ‘spoor.’ He returned to
+camp very tired and rather cross, to find a <ins class = "correction"
+title = "text reads ‘delicions’">delicious</ins> meal nearly ready
+cooked by Esau, for the man whom we ironically call the cook has gone to
+fetch his horse, for which we are to pay 1<i>s.</i> 2<i>d.</i> a day as
+long as we have it. The cook’s wages are to be 2<i>s.</i> 4<i>d.</i> a
+day, and those of the stalker 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> We consider the
+latter cheap at that rate. He is a very tall man; very big, very heavy,
+and very bearded, and we hire the whole of him for the trifling sum
+above stated.</p>
+
+<p>Besides cooking the dinner, Esau had been employed in rigging up the
+waggon-sheet as a continuation of the sleeping tent by planting an
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page90" id = "page90">90</a></span>
+upright pole securely in the ground in front of the door, and connecting
+its top with the old tent by a birch tree ridge pole: it thus makes a
+very convenient place for all our large stores, and gives us much more
+room in the tent. We had expected the men to sleep in it, but they
+prefer living in a wretched little stone dog-kennel, which looks as if
+fleas would swarm in it, and has been built by drovers, or some other
+dirty people, for their lodging when they chance to come here: it is
+about 200 yards from our tent, and, as the men prefer it, it is very
+convenient for&nbsp;us.</p>
+
+<p>The ground that the Skipper tried to-day seemed a first-rate reindeer
+fjeld; this means an uneven tract of mountain country, too high for
+vegetation, except occasional reindeer flowers and patches of gentian,
+but not high enough to be entirely covered with perpetual snow: this
+fjeld&mdash;where it is not snow&mdash;is made of rocks large and small,
+from the size of a haystack to that of road metal, some of them firm,
+but mostly loose, jagged, and sharp; the winter snow and frost leave
+them in this condition by continually splitting and re-splitting them:
+they are dark grey in colour, and at a distance look almost black.</p>
+
+<p>What the reindeer can find attractive in such a place, possibly some
+one can tell; we cannot. There is apparently nothing for any beasts of
+the field to eat up there; but if you do happen to find deer before they
+see you, they are certain to be feeding, and Esau thinks they are eating
+the rocks; but the Skipper says
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page91" id = "page91">91</a></span>
+it cannot be so, and inclines more to the theory that they feed on their
+‘young,’ like tame rabbits, or possibly on their own blood, like the
+pelican of the wilderness. As for the reindeer flower, which is supposed
+to be their staff of life, it averages about half a stalk to the square
+acre, but possibly it is possessed of many highly nutritious qualities,
+and a little of it goes a long way. Anyhow, they thrive on their food,
+whatever it may be; they are always very fat, and uncommonly good to eat
+when you chance to slay one.</p>
+
+<p>After dinner we tried all this portion of the lake for fish without
+success, and coming back received the awful intelligence from Öla that
+there are no fish in any parts of Gjendin except the extreme ends, and
+the waterfall where Professor N&mdash;&mdash; is living. This is a
+dreadful blow to us, for we always count upon fishing as our main
+employment, and fish as our staple food; and if we cannot get any here
+we shall have to leave. At present we have some which we brought with us
+from Sjödals, but when they are exhausted there will be a mutiny in this
+camp unless sport of some kind presents itself.</p>
+
+<h5>August 3.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>A curious accident happened to-day; there was no rain. We have in
+vain tried to account for this phenomenon, and can only fall back on the
+somewhat unsatisfactory theory that it is all used up. Esau went after
+deer on the Rus Vand side, and came back very tired to dinner without
+having seen
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page92" id = "page92">92</a></span>
+any, but reported fresh tracks; he was full of the glorious view that
+the fine day had given him. He had been close above the Memuru Glacier,
+which is a very large one, and stretching beyond it as far as the eye
+can reach is a sea of snow mountains, most of them peak-shaped, but some
+domes or irregular precipices with immense glaciers lying between them,
+and here and there the greenish-blue waters of a lake distantly gleaming
+in the sunlight.</p>
+
+<p>It is curious to note how the north and east sides of every peak are
+torn and ragged, with huge masses of rock riven from them by the action
+of the weather, while on the south and west they are comparatively
+regular.</p>
+
+<p>The Skipper spent the day in camp, completing the erection of the
+outside tent. Our abode is now sumptuous in the extreme, as the new wing
+holds all the lumber which formerly blocked up our bedroom. There was
+some discussion as to whether we should call it the ‘Criterion Annexe,’
+until we remembered that there are always policemen about that
+celebrated building, and this decided us not to do&nbsp;so.</p>
+
+<h5>August 4.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>The Skipper went on to Bes Hö stalking. This is a high mountain 7,400
+feet above sea level. It is close to us, between Gjendin and Rus Vand,
+and is one of the dome-shaped species.</p>
+
+<p>The Norwegians call their mountains either ‘Tind,’ which means a
+cone, or ‘Hö,’ a&nbsp;round top; ‘Piggen,’ a&nbsp;peak rather more
+jagged than a Tind; ‘Horn,’ apparently
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page93" id = "page93">93</a></span>
+one steep side and one more gradual; and ‘Kampen,’ apparently a rough
+hill with nothing striking about its shape. Most of the mountains round
+here are Tinden, the finest being Memurutind, Skagastolstind, and
+Glitretind, the last over 8,000 feet, only surpassed in height by
+Galdopiggen, which, though in sight of us, is beyond our reach.</p>
+
+<p class = "figfloat">
+<a name = "pic93" id = "pic93">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic93.png" width = "244" height = "500"
+alt = "The Skipper returns to Camp disgusted with life"></p>
+
+<p>From Bes Hö the Skipper got a good view between the storms of Gjendin
+lying encircled by its enormous steep black banks of snow-capped
+mountains,
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page94" id = "page94">94</a></span>
+the whole of its eleven miles of length being visible at once. Its
+colour is a creamy greenish blue, caused by the snow-water which comes
+straight into the lake by scores of torrents, which collect it from the
+various glaciers. The Skipper, who is always bubbling over with poetic
+similes, said it looked like a cupful of very blue milk in a crease of
+brown paper; but, beautiful as this idea is, who can take any pleasure
+in scenery without a little, ever so little, sport to flavour it withal?
+Certainly not the Skipper; so he came back from his long tramp disgusted
+with life, and longing to find that Esau had played the fool in his
+absence, so that he might be able to pick a quarrel with him.
+Unfortunately Esau was provokingly amiable, and had been performing acts
+of virtue, such as making soup, improving the tent, and swearing at the
+cook the whole day, so that the seething volcano of the Skipper’s temper
+had to content itself without an eruption. We did manage to get up an
+approach to a row about the Memuru Glacier, which the Skipper had
+visited to-day: he described its beauty and the extraordinary blue of
+the ice, where the large crevasses near its lower end gave glimpses of
+its real formation&mdash;for of course it is covered thickly with snow
+except just where it begins to break up. Then he went on to say how
+curious it was to think that this huge mass, covering square miles of
+ground, is always moving onwards, and that no more powerful agent exists
+for altering the arrangement of the earth’s crust than
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page95" id = "page95">95</a></span>
+that cold, placid field of ice. Esau said it did <i>not</i> move. He
+watched it for half an hour yesterday and it never stirred, and he even
+pushed it with his stick without the smallest effect.</p>
+
+<p>It is impossible to argue with a man of that kind.</p>
+
+<p>Tyndall and Geikie being disposed of, we had a discussion in the tent
+over the map, with the result that we determined to leave the camp for
+four days in charge of Ivar; and we and Öla would go to Gjendesheim, and
+live there, and drink beer, and catch fish until the 8th, when we
+calculated that John ought to arrive; and we hope by that time some
+reindeer will have sought safety from other guns by flying to the
+sheltering embrace of our fjeld.</p>
+
+<p>We always do our baking just before bedtime, when the men have gone
+to their hutch, and in a permanent camp it soon gets reduced to a
+certainty. We prefer milk to water for mixing with the flour, as it
+makes the bread crisper and shorter, and it does not matter how sour the
+milk is. This is most providential, as we have generally plenty of sour
+milk. We send twice a week to Besse Sæter, distant about eight miles,
+and the long journey does not agree with the milk, so that it is
+generally turned before it arrives here.</p>
+
+<p>Another important article of food is soup, of which we have several
+varieties. When made of scaup duck, it is&mdash;as already
+mentioned&mdash;called Skoggaggany
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page96" id = "page96">96</a></span>
+soup; but our present brew is ‘gipsy soup,’ which is made from potatoes,
+fishes chopped into small lumps, a&nbsp;square of ‘Kopf’s compressed
+vegetables’&mdash;a most invaluable article&mdash;and all the bones from
+the birds that we happen to be using. We never empty the pot, but keep
+adding water and bones as fast as we consume it, and it simmers by the
+fire all day. But when times are very bad, and we have no meat, and are
+living on fish, our soup is then called ‘prairie soup,’ and is composed
+of every scrap that we can collect&mdash;fish-bones; bacon; potatoes;
+milk; dandelion, and sorrel; bread, and biscuits: and whenever it
+develops any unusual flavour, we look suspiciously round to see if that
+boot-lace or candle-end is missing, or if any of the tent-pegs have been
+newly whittled. It is always very good, and we call it ‘prairie’ because
+of the dandelion, which is a prairie flower.</p>
+
+<p>There is yet one more kind, known as ‘Argonaut soup,’ the recipe of
+which was introduced from America by the Skipper; but our resources have
+never yet been so low that we could not make something better than
+this.</p>
+
+<p class = "center"><i>Recipe for Argonaut Soup.</i></p>
+
+<p>Take a pail of water and wash it clean. Then boil it till it is brown
+on both sides. Pour in one bean. When the bean begins to worry, prepare
+it to
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page97" id = "page97">97</a></span>
+simmer. If the soup will not simmer it is too rich, and you must pour in
+more water. Dry the water with a towel before you put it in. The drier
+the water, the sooner it will brown. Serve hot.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page98" id = "page98">98</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapXIII" id = "chapXIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">GJENDESHEIM.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>August 5.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">Such</span> a lovely morning at last that
+we were quite tempted to stay, but nobly stuck to our resolve, heaped
+everything we possessed except rods, guns, and a change of raiment, into
+the inner tent, and covered them with a ground-sheet; then packed the
+selected weapons into the canoes, and sailed from these inhospitable
+shores.</p>
+
+<p>Not far from camp we saw some fish rising under a cliff, and though
+it was a dead calm, and the sun as bright as sun could be, we stopped to
+try for them.</p>
+
+<p>Esau soon tired of casting, and mentioning that ‘if <i>he</i> could
+not catch those fish no one could,’ paddled off to make a formal call on
+the Professor, and ask if he had got any deer.</p>
+
+<p>The Skipper persevered, and was rewarded with two fish weighing about
+three pounds, and the most perfect fish for shape and condition that we
+have ever seen. This was an important event for us, for it entirely
+demolished Öla’s theory of the non-existence of fish here, and gave us
+new hope for the future, especially
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page99" id = "page99">99</a></span>
+as the weather has been so bad all the time until now, that we should
+hardly have caught any even if they swarmed.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic99" id = "pic99">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic99.png" width = "479" height = "406"
+alt = "Throwing for a Rise"></p>
+
+<p>The Skipper is devoted to the sport of ‘throwing for a rise,’ which
+he thinks the perfection of fishing. It can hardly be pursued with
+success anywhere but in Norway, for only there do fish seem to rise
+greedily after a constant succession of fine, hot, sunny days, with
+never a drop of rain or cat’s-paw of wind.</p>
+
+<p>The great charm to him is the extreme delicacy required. You
+<i>must</i> put on your thinnest cast, your smallest fly, and throw your
+lightest; and unless you throw a very long line you have not a chance
+for the beggar. Then, if he comes at you, you can see him
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page100" id = "page100">100</a></span>
+through the calm clear water, and watch the whole performance. You get a
+rather better chance where two fish are rising close together, as there
+is some jealousy and competition between them, and each of them is
+likely to rush at your fly without sufficient meditation, lest the other
+one may get it first.</p>
+
+<p>The Skipper has studied fish from a moral point of view, and says
+that they are very much like men: and he invariably turns his knowledge
+of their habits to good account. Throwing for a rise&mdash;in a lake
+like this, where the fish run large&mdash;on a calm bright day is
+decidedly his forte; his motto in fishing being ‘far and fine.’ Whereas
+Esau shines more in a rapid stream than elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>The latter had a great time with the Professor, who he said was a
+capital fellow, and gave him whisky which they drank ‘to better sport;’
+and they both agreed that there were no reindeer to be found in the
+district at present, and the Professor said he was going further north
+if matters did not mend speedily.</p>
+
+<p>After the fishing and visiting were concluded, we hoisted sails of
+primitive construction, formed of a rug and a landing net, which, with a
+fair wind, soon brought us to Gjendesheim.</p>
+
+<p>We think this wind is the chief cause of our misfortune. When we were
+in these parts before, the wind was always against us whenever we
+journeyed; and in that year we had first-rate sport, both in shooting
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page101" id = "page101">101</a></span>
+and fishing. But this time the wind has always been with us, and we pay
+for the luxury by getting no shooting and not much fishing. ‘No
+mahtterr&mdash;a time will come.’</p>
+
+<p>After food the Skipper with Öla went over to Leirungen&mdash;a small
+lake about three quarters of a mile distant. Öla carried his canoe, and
+did not like the job. It gives us considerable satisfaction to make Öla
+do any work, he is so abominably lazy.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed that the tide of luck was already changing, as both he and
+Esau&mdash;who was throwing a fly on the river nearer home&mdash;brought
+in a few nice fish.</p>
+
+<p>Just before bedtime there arrived at the rest-house three Norwegian
+tourists of the sterner sex, and a young lady the daughter of one of
+them. The father was a barrister, and the other two were the Lord Chief
+Justice of what they imagine to be Common Pleas, and a very thin,
+dried-up student of theology. They all talked English, and the young
+lady seemed anxious to practise the language.</p>
+
+<h5>August 6.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>After a gay breakfast Esau went his way to fish, while the
+Skipper&mdash;ever devoted to the fair sex&mdash;offered Miss Louise a
+cruise in his canoe.</p>
+
+<p>The sun shone brightly as they moved over the quiet waters, and the
+fish were too lazy to rise, but lay idly thoughtful at the bottom of the
+lake. The Skipper was very polite to his charming companion, as she sat
+in a state of blissful comfort amongst the rugs which he had placed for
+her in the bows of the
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page102" id = "page102">102</a></span>
+boat; and no sound was heard but the gentle plash of the paddle in the
+water, and in the distance the Sæter girl calling home the grazing
+cows.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic102" id = "pic102">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic102.png" width = "526" height = "414"
+alt = "The Skipper takes Miss Louise for a Cruise at Gjendesheim"></p>
+
+<p>But presently a cloud gathered over the mountain tops, and thunder
+was heard rolling among the distant hills; a&nbsp;gentle breeze stirred
+the surface of the water, and every lazy fish woke up to seek his food.
+The Skipper longed to go and fetch his rod. He hinted at this, and at
+last became impatient; but, by Jove! Miss Louise would not go. There she
+sat and prattled on, charming, pleased with herself, and utterly
+unmindful of the rising fish and the fretting Skipper. Time kept passing
+on, till at length her father brought relief by appearing on the shore
+to call her in to
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page103" id = "page103">103</a></span>
+dinner; but then the Skipper had to get his food too, and when he had
+bolted the humble but indigestible crust and cheese, and rushed out
+again to seize his rod, he found it too late, as the lake was now dark
+with clouds, and the fish had left off rising.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after lunch it began to rain like a waterfall, and Esau arrived
+with a lot of fish&mdash;spoils from the Leirungen Ocean, and the result
+of Spartan indifference to the attractions of woman. There is a shining
+moral in this tale.</p>
+
+<p>He also brought a romance about a rainbow, which had been so close to
+him that the two ends met at his feet. The rain hereabouts is very
+thick.</p>
+
+<p>The evening proved too wet to fish, and this indefatigable young lady
+captured Esau, and after exhausting all the ordinary topics of
+conversation, began to show him every kind of puzzle that the mind of
+man ever conceived, puzzles with coins and puzzles with string; and she
+puzzled him with matches, and paper, and corks, till the poor young man
+became perfectly dazzled, and only longed for bedtime to put an end to
+his misery. Then she asked him riddles, first English and then French.
+The Skipper, apparently deeply interested in a book at the further end
+of the room, overheard Esau’s answer to the first French riddle; it was
+‘Je le donne en haut.’</p>
+
+<p>Presently, when they went up to bed, the Skipper said, ‘I didn’t
+quite follow your answer to that first riddle of hers. You said, “Je le
+donne en haut.”’
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page104" id = "page104">104</a></span>
+‘Oh! ah!’ answered Esau. ‘That’s idiomatic French, and means a good deal
+that you don’t understand; I&nbsp;always use it to gals, especially when
+they’re pretty.’ The Skipper coughed, and turned into his bedroom
+without saying ‘good night.’</p>
+
+<p>We have always been told that the Norwegian aristocracy particularly
+dislike the English sportsman in Norway. We think, therefore, that our
+fair friend cannot have been of very noble lineage. But she was very
+nice and rather pretty.</p>
+
+<p>She left early next morning, and Esau said he was glad she was gone,
+as the Skipper was getting entangled with her.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page105" id = "page105">105</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapXIV" id = "chapXIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">JOHN.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>August 7.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">We</span> began another day by catching a
+beautiful bag of fish, and about midday were just starting to shoot our
+way over to Besse Sæter, when a man came in sight stumbling down the
+mountain track towards the rest-house. He was red and sunburnt, with a
+beard of about three days’ growth. He was coatless, collarless, and
+apparently exhausted. On his nearer approach we saw he was an
+Englishman, and presently when a few yards from us we
+recognised&mdash;John! Not the smart young beau we have always seen him
+in London; no longer the devotee to society and his club, but an almost
+unrecognizable John, so sunburnt and hot and hungry. Formal greetings
+were exchanged: ‘Dr. Livingstone, I&nbsp;presume?’ ‘Mr. Stanley,
+I&nbsp;believe?’ and we rushed into each other’s embrace.</p>
+
+<p>Then we besought him to refresh himself on fladbrod, milk, and
+coffee; which he did, largely. After this he became calm enough to give
+us a
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page106" id = "page106">106</a></span>
+brief summary of his adventures since he left England.</p>
+
+<p>He had done the journey from Christiania in very quick time, and had
+left all his luggage twenty miles behind at Hind Sæter, which is the
+nearest place to us to which wheeled vehicles can get. From thence he
+had started at five o’clock this morning. How he found the way is a
+marvel, but by great good fortune he met a man when he was about three
+miles out of the track, who put him right; otherwise he would probably
+never have arrived anywhere.</p>
+
+<p>He has brought additional stores for the camp, as arranged before we
+left England, and we had left a note in Christiania asking him to call
+at the shop in Vaage, and try to get a small stove for the tent, or at
+any rate find out the price of one. Vaage is our nearest village, about
+fifty miles distant.</p>
+
+<p>When John arrived there, seeing the shop as he drove past, he
+descended from his cariole and entered. The shop was full of people
+buying all the necessaries of life; for in these villages there is only
+one shop, which is a general store for everything. John was a little
+confused at his first experience of a Norwegian shop, but at last pulled
+himself together, and seeing a stove standing in the middle of the room,
+intended for heating the place, he walked up to it, and stroking it
+gently with his hand, looked round at the people generally and remarked,
+‘Hvor meget’ (How much)? Dead silence not unmingled with awe followed
+this
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page107" id = "page107">107</a></span>
+observation; for those simple rustics thought there was a maniac among
+them. This perplexed John, and as everybody was staring at him, and he
+began to find himself in a remarkably tight place, he concluded to make
+another remark, so asked in Norsk, ‘Have you any whisky?’ The
+storekeeper having no licence looked horrified, and said, ‘Nei.’ So John
+pursued his advantage by inquiring, ‘Have you any aquavit?’ ‘Nei’ was
+again the answer, and an ominous whisper of ‘<ins class = "norway" title
+= "lensmand, now written -mann">landsmand</ins>’ (the policeman) was
+plainly audible. John thought he had asked enough about stoves to quiet
+his conscience, and guessed it was time to quit that shop. So rapidly
+regaining his cariole, he vanished before any of the crowd had made up
+their minds what to&nbsp;do.</p>
+
+<p>We kept to our plan of going to Besse Sæter, starting as soon as John
+had finished his lunch, and got several teal and a greenshank on the
+way. On one little bit of water we spied three teal near the bank, and
+having both together made a most skilful stalk, got them all.</p>
+
+<p>Arriving at Besse Sæter we found one of the two rooms occupied by two
+Swedish ladies, who were travelling about by themselves for the sake of
+their health. One of them spoke English well, and told us they had been
+up several of the high mountains round, and intended to wander about all
+the summer.</p>
+
+<p>We three had to be content with the other room, and two beds; odd man
+out for the whole one.
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page108" id = "page108">108</a></span>
+Those who only had half a bed reported it rather a crowd in the
+morning.</p>
+
+<h5>Sunday, August 8.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>Our object in coming to Besse Sæter was to break the journey to a
+place called Rus Vand, where a Norwegian owns a lake and hut: it is
+distant about two hours’ walk from Besse Sæter, and we had a letter of
+introduction to Mr. Thomas, the owner, which we were anxious to deliver,
+so as to obtain leave to fish in the lake, the western end of which
+comes to within walking distance of our camp in Memurudalen; and the
+fishing is remarkably good.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore this morning we started to clamber up the steep mountain
+side that has to be crossed between Besse Sæter and Rus Vand, and
+skirting the shores of Bes Vand&mdash;which lies on a small plateau at
+the summit&mdash;we soon found ourselves scrambling down over the loose
+stones, and through the willow scrub that covers the uneven slopes
+approaching the east end of the lake.</p>
+
+<p>From our side of the river&mdash;when we reached its banks, while a
+boat was crossing to fetch us&mdash;we saw several men, and a couple of
+English-looking setters, a&nbsp;pointer, and a target fixed up about 200
+yards from the huts, so that the place presented a very sporting
+appearance.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Thomas received us very kindly, and at once gave us permission to
+fish in his lake. Both he and his wife spoke English perfectly, as did
+another lady
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page109" id = "page109">109</a></span>
+staying with them, and as most emphatically did <i>not</i> another
+sportsman also living there.</p>
+
+<p>These two ladies and two gentlemen were all living in a little
+two-roomed hut, each room being about nine feet square, and the doorway
+about five feet high and two wide; the gentlemen’s bedroom being also
+the kitchen. How the ladies managed to turn themselves out in such
+faultless apparel was a mystery, but it was done, for we
+saw&nbsp;it.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic109" id = "pic109">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic109.png" width = "519" height = "395"
+alt = "The Huts at Rusvasoset"></p>
+
+<p>It is a very plucky thing for ladies to come up here and live for a
+month, even now when there is a wheel-road (of a sort) to within fifteen
+miles, but the same thing was done by English ladies ten years ago, when
+there was no road nearer than forty miles. Are their names not written
+in the chronicles which
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page110" id = "page110">110</a></span>
+adorn the walls of the hut, and carved on the profile fishes which
+decorate the floor?</p>
+
+<p>In the other hut&mdash;which is little more than a boat&mdash;there
+are living Jens Tronhūus, our old stalker; ‘Siva,’ the man who carried
+our canoes up the mountain at Sikkildal, and another native, also the
+dogs; besides bottles and churns, grindstones, pack-saddles, saws, axes,
+and all the other heterogeneous articles which accumulate in a place of
+this kind. It looked full.</p>
+
+<p>We found the party just sitting down to breakfast after a rather
+unsettled night, as they had been roused about half-past two in the
+morning by some one hammering at the door, and found it was a young
+Norwegian, named, let us say, Coutts, who was making a walking tour, and
+was more or less lost. They succoured him with coffee and other
+refreshments and sent him on his way with Jens to guide him. Coutts’s
+intention was to struggle on to Besse Sæter, but we had seen nothing of
+him there.</p>
+
+<p>We stayed some time at the huts, talking and looking at all the
+memorable objects that were there under our <i>régime</i> (as we had
+occupied these huts and had the fishing to ourselves two years
+previously). There was Esau’s celebrated ‘biggest trout whatever was
+seen,’ carved on the floor; the Skipper’s favourite cast, and the ice
+safe that we cunningly devised and constructed in the lower hut. The
+Thomas’s are in even worse case than we, for like us they have seen
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page111" id = "page111">111</a></span>
+no deer, and they have so many more mouths to feed. However, they have
+any quantity of fish, for Rusvasoset is as good a place as the Sjoa at
+Gjendesheim, which is saying a great deal.</p>
+
+<p>About one we commenced the homeward journey. Two of Jens’ sisters had
+come with us, nominally to see their brother, but really&mdash;John
+asserted&mdash;for the purpose of flirting with <i>him</i>. He was
+extremely polite to one of them&mdash;though of course he could not
+speak to her&mdash;and would insist on carrying her shawl and other
+impediments; and he confided to us afterwards that ‘women were generally
+a good deal taken by that sort of mute homage.’ She was a dear little
+girl, and we called her the ‘Sæter darlen;’ which we believe to be the
+only Norwegian pun we ever attempted.<a class = "star" name = "tag4" id
+= "tag4" href = "#note4">*</a></p>
+
+<p class = "footnote">
+<a class = "star" name = "note4" id = "note4" href = "#tag4">*</a>
+John said this pun might be elucidated with advantage to the British
+public, as he did not believe any one could possibly see it. Who cares?
+Down it goes, and we can assure any one who likes to wrestle with it
+that it is something very good indeed.</p>
+
+<p>The walk home to Gjendesheim is a long one, and although it was
+Sunday Esau insisted on making a détour over the marsh with his gun, as
+he said he had lost his knife there yesterday and wanted to look for it.
+He arrived late at Gjendesheim with a satisfied air on his face; without
+his trusty steel, but with his pockets thrust full of too trustful teal,
+that had adventured themselves within his reach.</p>
+
+<p>At Gjendesheim we found the young Norwegian who had roused up the
+Thomas’s at Rus Vand, and
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page112" id = "page112">112</a></span>
+perceived that he was not without some peculiarities of character.
+Although the weather was as wet and cold as weather could be, he was
+attired in a suit of white duck clothes like an English mechanic; even
+his hat was of white duck, and Esau declared afterwards that his boots
+were made of the same material; that he had a cigar-case and cigars of
+it, and ordered white ducks for his dinner. The appearance of his head
+caused us to be very anxious about any little articles of value that we
+had about us, for it looked as if it had been shaved all over about two
+days previously to our making his acquaintance. He looked very strong,
+tough, and active, and no doubt was so, for he had just performed a most
+extraordinary walking feat. He is going over all the Jotun Mountains by
+himself, and yesterday morning he started from a place an unknown number
+of miles away at 6 <span class = "smallroman">A.M.</span> He walked all
+day and all night, till it got dark, at which time he was somewhere near
+Glitretind, in a country he had never seen, with only a vague notion of
+where he wanted to get to and a pocket compass to do it with. The
+country about there is perfectly awful to walk over even by day; but he
+kept at it through the dark, following a torrent up till he crossed the
+watershed, and following another torrent down till he got to Rus Vand,
+and staggered into the hut there at 2.30 <span class =
+"smallroman">A.M.</span> almost fainting, for he had had nothing to eat
+all day: true, he might have got fladbrod at the sæters during the day,
+but he said
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page113" id = "page113">113</a></span>
+he did not care for fladbrod: certainly, he had plenty of chocolate in
+his knapsack, but he was tired of chocolate. At Rus Vand he got some
+coffee, as Thomas told us; and then he walked over the mountain with
+Jens to Besse Sæter, intending to sleep there: but we were snoring at
+our ease in all the beds of Besse Sæter, and he hated sleeping on
+floors, so he walked on again to Gjendesheim, arriving there at
+half-past five this morning.</p>
+
+<p>Then he produced his knapsack, which he said weighed twenty-five
+lbs.: it seemed to be chiefly filled with packets of most delicious
+chocolate, some of which he gave&nbsp;us.</p>
+
+<p>We thought him a first-rate fellow, but certainly a little peculiar.
+He has been all over the world, and is great at natural history, having
+stuffed many birds in foreign countries for the museum at
+Christiania.</p>
+
+<p>The Skipper had the next room to his, and told us that at bedtime he
+washed himself all over, cleaned his teeth, and brushed his hair: he
+then stayed in bed till eleven o’clock next morning, when he rose and
+went through the whole performance again. Now we did not mind him
+washing, or brushing his teeth; we even respect him for doing it; but
+brushing his hair was a simple insult to common sense, and a wicked
+waste of time; for not a bristle on his head&mdash;whether hair,
+moustache, or beard&mdash;was more than an eighth of an inch long, and
+all of it was much stiffer than any hair-brush yet made. It was
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page114" id = "page114">114</a></span>
+suggested that perhaps he was only combing his hair-brush with his head;
+and with this explanation we had to rest content.</p>
+
+<p>We luxuriated on meat to-night, for they have actually caught and
+killed a sheep.</p>
+
+<p>We fish with considerable success now at every odd moment of the day,
+as the canoes are moored to the shore, not six yards from the house; and
+it takes no time to get into them and push out into the deep lake, or
+hover about the brink of the long rapids where the lake begins to be a
+river.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page115" id = "page115">115</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapXV" id = "chapXV">CHAPTER XV.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">BACK TO CAMP.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>August 9.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">The</span> morning was again very wet, but
+we are men of great decision and firmness; what our friends call
+‘obstinate’ if they are civil, and ‘pig-headed’ when they want to be
+disagreeable, as friends usually&nbsp;do.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore we started for the camp after lunch: that is to say, the
+Skipper and Esau started, as John remained to await the arrival of his
+baggage, for which Ivar had been despatched. At present his wardrobe is
+not very extensive, and he will perhaps be more comfortably fixed after
+the arrival of his valise. He has one coat, one flannel shirt without
+collar, one pair of trousers, socks, and boots, one pipe, one cap; one
+fishing rod, line, and fly-book; one watch-chain, and a newspaper of
+July&nbsp;23.</p>
+
+<p>About two miles from Gjendesheim on the north side of the lake there
+is an apparently perpendicular cliff, half a mile long and over 1,000
+feet high: this is called the Beseggen, and at the top of it lies Bes
+Vand, so close to the edge of the cliff that it seems
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page116" id = "page116">116</a></span>
+impossible to believe that the lake is 1,000 feet above Gjendin, with
+nothing but a narrow strip of rock to hold it within its bounds, and yet
+the books say it is so, and we always believe anything we find in a
+book. The cliff looks perfectly unscaleable, but we believe it has been
+descended twice by an Englishman who used to live here, and once by a
+Norwegian youth.</p>
+
+<p>Bes Vand is so high that fish will not live in it; the professional
+liars of these parts say it freezes solid every winter, and kills any
+that have been put into it. It is a little difficult to believe this
+statement, as it is a large and deep lake; but John says that a man who
+will believe a guide-book can believe anything; so we all do our best to
+swallow it (the statement, not the lake; we have hardly enough whisky to
+make the latter palatable).</p>
+
+<p>Gjendin is liable like all mountain lakes to be suddenly visited by
+squalls, so that we generally like to paddle pretty near the side, but
+on this voyage it was not safe to do so; for under the influence of the
+rain, which was coming down as if it had never done so before, stones
+and boulders were rattling and crashing down the sides of the lake, and
+plunging into it, in a most alarming manner; and as far as we could see,
+the steep black rocks were thickly streaked with white lines, denoting
+torrents rushing down in places where ordinarily none were to be
+seen.</p>
+
+<p>Just as we were passing the Beseggen, a dull
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page117" id = "page117">117</a></span>
+boom like that of a distant cannon was heard, and looking up we could
+see far above our heads a huge spout of muddy water shoot out from the
+cliff, carrying with it masses of stone and <i>débris</i> of all sorts;
+evidently some bank had given way under the increased pressure of this
+enormous rainfall. We thought for one brief moment that it might be Bes
+Vand let loose on us, for even in fine weather it can always be seen
+leaking through fissures in the rock, so narrow is the division between
+the two lakes; but we did not stop to ascertain where it came from.</p>
+
+<p>It soon became necessary to land and empty the canoes, by reason of
+the heavy rain, the bottom boards being completely under water, though
+we had only been afloat for half an hour.</p>
+
+<p>Just before we got to Memurudalen the sun came out; Esau had a chase
+after a black-throated diver that came up from a dive quite close to his
+canoe, and then we both fell to fishing and got several good fish. This
+is just our luck: we had left camp for the last few days on purpose to
+get fish for food; we had caught many and salted them, and brought back
+40 lbs. weight with us in a large tin can, and then, behold! we caught
+fresh fish in a place where we were assured by Öla that there were none,
+not even salted ones.</p>
+
+<p>We found the camp looking uncommonly pretty and comfortable, and all
+our things perfectly dry and nice. The sun shone, and blue sky appeared,
+so that
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page118" id = "page118">118</a></span>
+hope, contentment, and joy reigned supreme, for we knew that it could
+not rain any more now for at least a month, from the way it stopped
+quite with a jerk as the supply ceased.</p>
+
+<p>John spent his day at Gjendesheim in eating, drinking, and fishing,
+especially the two former amusements. Truly that is a glorious country
+where a man can over-eat himself three times a day, and never have
+indigestion!!</p>
+
+<h5>August 10.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>Esau stalked with the usual result, ‘Ingen dyr, ingen fresk spör,
+ingen gammle spör,’ as the Norsk jäger would remark; which means ‘no
+deer, no fresh tracks, no old tracks;’ and he returned to camp to find
+the Skipper had erected a flagstaff on the little mound beside our tent,
+and from this staff now floats proudly ‘the flag that braved a thousand
+years &amp;c.,’ which we brought with us for this purpose:
+a&nbsp;smaller one always adorns the ridge of the tent. We do not know
+exactly the use of this flag; we say it is hoisted to annoy the
+Norwegians, but this reason will not bear criticism, for that is the
+last thing we should think of doing, and it certainly never seems to
+have that effect on any one who has yet seen it. But we think that no
+gentleman’s residence is complete without a red ensign, therefore on
+high days and holidays that rag will flaunt itself in the breeze; and
+every day will now be a holiday, for the fine weather has begun at
+last.</p>
+
+<p>The Skipper had made all sorts of improvements
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page119" id = "page119">119</a></span>
+in our domestic arrangements, and after tea we completed the alterations
+in the bedroom which were necessary before John arrived. This he did in
+a boat with Ivar about nine o’clock, pretty well tired with his row
+against a head wind. He was received with much kindness by the barbarous
+islanders, but it took us until late at night to get everything
+comfortably and conveniently placed under canvas; for John made no
+slight addition to our already ponderous stores, in the shape of two
+more boxes containing tea, coffee, candles, sugar, jam, and at last
+Esau’s long-desired anchovy paste.</p>
+
+<p>We placed the three beds side by side in the inner tent, John being
+in the middle for the sake of greater warmth, for the nights are very
+cold. Among the things that we obtained through Jens were two sheepskin
+rugs, invaluable for protection against cold. Till we got them we were
+more or less wretched every night, but since they came our sleep has
+been perfectly luxurious. John has only two ordinary Scotch rugs, and
+feels the cold a good deal, so we, from our impervious sheepskins, give
+him any coats, shirts, or trousers that we do not want.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page120" id = "page120">120</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapXVI" id = "chapXVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">TROUT.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>August 11.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">Last</span> night at sunset we ‘could not
+see a cloud, because no cloud was in the sky;’ the distant mountains
+looked as black as coal, and the heavens were yellow-ochre colour;
+whereupon Öla committed himself to the statement that the fine weather
+would now be a permanent institution. Consequently our life has once
+more resumed its proper phase of perpetual picnic, and we roam about
+without coats or waistcoats, or any other garments that seem superfluous
+unto us; and to John all garments except a landing-net and boots appear
+to be unnecessary incumbrances. Reversing the natural order of things,
+we put on all our available clothes when we go to bed, and peel for the
+day when we get&nbsp;up.</p>
+
+<p class = "figfloat">
+<a name = "pic121" id = "pic121">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic121.png" width = "208" height = "529"
+alt = "John returns from fishing in Summer Costume"></p>
+
+<p>It is difficult to believe that only two days ago we were shivering
+with cold, wrapped in gloom and india-rubber clothing, and wet through
+all day, when now the horizon is dancing with heat, the lake is
+perfectly calm, with the high snow mountains mirrored in its blue
+depths, and we are delighting in every little bit
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page121" id = "page121">121</a></span>
+of shade, having pawned our macintoshes and thrown the tickets into the
+glacier torrent.</p>
+
+<p>That same stream has been a source of great annoyance to John during
+the night. He wants to have it turned off, because its roaring kept him
+awake, and he was going first thing after breakfast to see the turncock
+about it; but, of course, it is hopeless. The municipal arrangements
+here are much the same as in London, and that official cannot be found
+when
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page122" id = "page122">122</a></span>
+wanted; so he will have to content himself with damming&nbsp;it.</p>
+
+<p>The hot sun has brought out flies in great profusion; the fish are
+rising freely, and man goeth forth to his labour rejoicing, and cometh
+home with a heavy bag and a light fly-book, for the fish here seem to be
+all good-sized; and as we have to use the finest tackle and smallest
+flies, the odds are rather in favour of the finny prey.</p>
+
+<p class = "figfloat">
+<a name = "pic122" id = "pic122">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic122.png" width = "275" height = "527"
+alt = "John and Esau: ‘How’s that for high?’"></p>
+
+<p>We all went fishing, and made a very pretty catch
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page123" id = "page123">123</a></span>
+among us, the Skipper securing the greatest weight, and Esau the largest
+fish, weight 3½ lbs. The Skipper also made some interesting notes on the
+moral and physical characteristics of these Gjendin trout. He said there
+seemed to be three methods of feeding in vogue among them. Some were
+moving in a large circle about two hundred yards in diameter, and rising
+at very short intervals as they went&mdash;these never came within ten
+yards of the shore. Then there were some that were travelling along
+about a yard from the shore, and these seemed to be rising even more
+frequently than the others, as there were more flies close to the rocks
+than out in mid-ocean; and there were a few cunning old beggars that had
+got a comfortable hole under a rock which they did not like to leave,
+and only rose at longer intervals, as especially tasty morsels
+floated&nbsp;by.</p>
+
+<p>All the fish, to whichever class of risers they might belong, often
+took the moving artificial fly in preference to real dead ones that were
+lying on the surface of the water close by: from which we opine that
+they resemble us to the extent of liking fresh food better than stale;
+for our flies had no attractive tinsel to commend them to the notice of
+an epicurean trout, being the best imitations we can manage of the
+predominant fly, which is a small dark-coloured winged ant, with a
+little reddish orange about the long black body.</p>
+
+<p>These flies have but a brief and disastrous existence.
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page124" id = "page124">124</a></span>
+They only flew for the first time this morning, most of them had died by
+noon&mdash;for the lake was strewn with their corpses&mdash;and the
+survivors were all worried and consumed by fish before nightfall.
+Luckily there are plenty more where they came from, and the process can
+be repeated on new flies tomorrow.</p>
+
+<p>It is very interesting to catch a fish off these rocks on a perfectly
+calm day like this; for in the clear water you can see the whole of the
+struggle, from the moment the fish rises till he is lying panting and
+exhausted in the net. How beautiful a big fish looks when he first comes
+ashore! How brightly he shines in the sunlight, and how sleek is his
+portly person!</p>
+
+<p>Even if you cannot see your fish rise and take the fly, you can soon
+tell by his behaviour whereabouts the needle will come if you succeed in
+getting him on to the weighing hook. A&nbsp;large fish very seldom rises
+with any dash or swagger, but just a smothered ripple; perhaps a glimpse
+of his nose as he sucks in the fly; and he moves as if he were a nobody:
+then when he feels the hook, there is none of that dash and wriggle that
+you find in a small fish, but generally a rush like a rocket towards the
+middle of the lake, making you tremble for the safety of your reel line,
+and after that a stately diving and calm, dignified resistance for five
+or ten minutes till he has to give in. Sometimes, though not so often,
+the rocket business will be repeated more than once, and a fish that
+does
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page125" id = "page125">125</a></span>
+this deserves to escape, and often gets his <ins class = "correction"
+title = ". missing">deserts.</ins> There is something very fine about
+the proud bearing of a big trout in difficulties; for here in the lake
+he has not the same chance as his relations in the running water at
+Gjendesheim.</p>
+
+<p>The largest fish seemed to be those feeding in a circle, and it was
+one of these that Esau caught, which he said was the father of all fish.
+He lost another much larger&mdash;no doubt the grandfather of all fish.
+He said it weighed five pounds. It is an extraordinary piscatorial fact
+that the largest fish always do get away.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon Esau commenced excavating the long-promised oven
+from the face of the little hill against which our tent is pitched. It
+stands about a hundred yards from our hall door, and is constructed
+chiefly of large stones and mud&mdash;clay not being
+obtainable&mdash;with a flue cut in the hill-side: a&nbsp;single stone
+acts as the floor of the oven, under which the wood furnace is kindled,
+and a sod of turf, from time to time renewed, does duty as a door.</p>
+
+<p class = "center">Dinner at seven.</p>
+
+<p>John wishes that the <i>menu</i> should be occasionally inserted for
+the benefit of gastronomic readers:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table class = "menu" summary = "menu written out">
+<tr>
+<td><i>Vins.</i><br>
+Tea.<br>
+Beer.</td>
+<td><i>Potage.</i><br>
+Prairie.</td>
+<td><i>Legumes.</i><br>
+Potatoes,<br>
+Fried and Boiled.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td></td>
+<td><i>Poisson.</i><br>
+Fried Trout.</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td></td>
+<td class = "center"><i>Entrées.</i><br>
+Sardines.</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "center" colspan = "3">
+<i>Gibier.</i><br>
+Teal. &nbsp; Greenshank.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "center" colspan = "3">
+<i>Entremets.</i><br>
+Compôte of Rice and Wimberries.<br>
+Jam. &nbsp; Marmalade.<br>
+Whisky.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page126" id = "page126">126</a></span>
+
+<p>After this Esau finished the oven, and accomplished a bake of bread
+therein, which proved so successful that on returning from fishing at
+about ten at night, we all turned our attention to the production of the
+staff of life, nor desisted from our labours till eleven o’clock, by
+which time there was a goodly show of rolls and loaves spread out, and
+we went to bed feeling that we had spent a glorious day.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page127" id = "page127">127</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapXVII" id = "chapXVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">REINDEER.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>August 12.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">We</span> wonder whether our friends in
+Scotland and Yorkshire have such a day as this: if they have, it is
+rough on the grouse.</p>
+
+<p>There is not a breath the bottle-green wave to curl, and the sun
+shines as if Odin had redeemed his other eye.</p>
+
+<p>The Skipper and Öla went forth to pursue, and walked over an enormous
+distance into the previously unknown region of Memurutungen. Up on the
+mountains life on a day of this kind is bliss; there is more air there
+than in the valley, and it is delightful to be far away from the busy
+world&mdash;consisting of your two pals and Ivar&mdash;below; surrounded
+by the snowy peaks and sky, with not a living thing save perhaps an
+eagle in sight.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic128" id = "pic128">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic128.png" width = "471" height = "291"
+alt = "The two ‘Meget Stor Bocks’ (very big Bucks) on Memurutungen"></p>
+
+<p>In the middle of the day they came on fresh deer tracks, at which of
+course their flagging interest revived; and presently they descried on a
+snow fjeld about a mile away, two deer ‘scooting’ over the opposite
+mountain side. These they followed, and
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page128" id = "page128">128</a></span>
+made a long détour to get the right side of the breath of wind that
+occasionally made itself felt up there, for the reindeer has probably
+the most acute scent of all the deer tribe. In the midst of this détour
+they suddenly came in sight of two other bucks, about 300 yards away,
+much finer animals than the first two; in fact, they had the best heads
+the Skipper ever saw. But luck was against him; they were wrong for the
+wind, and a puff came just at the moment, which carried the unwelcome
+intelligence to those deer that their hated enemy was upon them, and
+they departed round a corner at a rapid trot, and were no more seen.
+Then Öla looked at the Skipper with a sorrowful shake of the head, and
+said, ‘Meget store bocks!’ (very big bucks), and the Skipper replied
+with a still more portentous shake, ‘Meget, meget.’ So they were left
+with their mouths wide open, muttering,
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page129" id = "page129">129</a></span>
+‘Meget, meget store bocks.’ And after following the tracks some time
+without seeing anything more of the deer, they gave up the chase and
+returned to camp, getting home in a very exhausted state about 6.30.</p>
+
+<p>During dinner old Peter Tronhūus arrived in camp with a packet of
+letters and papers, and a fore-quarter of venison from Rus Vand. Mr.
+Thomas had been like ourselves reindeer-less until yesterday, when he
+found a large herd, and was lucky enough to get two out of them.</p>
+
+<p>Peter also told us that two friends of Thomas’s who had been staying
+with him were walking over the mountain to see our camp, and would then
+go to Gjendesheim with him in the boat in which he had come.</p>
+
+<p>Presently these two men arrived extremely hot, and looking as if they
+would like beer; so we appeased them with one of our few remaining
+bottles, and after showing them all the sights of the camp took them out
+on the lake in the canoes. One of them spoke a little English, the other
+only French and Norwegian. The latter asked the Skipper, in the Gallic
+tongue, ‘if we had entrapped many fish?’ and ‘if we had not fear to
+venture on the lake in such small boats?’ and informed him that ‘there
+were many savage ducks about this year.’ The other one, regardless of
+his own life and safety, and also of Esau’s&mdash;in whose canoe he was
+sitting&mdash;<i>would</i> keep throwing up his arms and exclaiming, ‘It
+gives us
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page130" id = "page130">130</a></span>
+moch playsure to make a travel in the Canadian căno.’ But we think they
+were proud and thankful when the experiment was over, and they were safe
+in Peter’s boat. These strangers displayed unwonted courage, for the
+ordinary native has a wholesome dread of our frail craft. The hardy
+Norseman’s house of yore was doubtless on the foaming wave, but that was
+before the days of Canadian canoes.</p>
+
+<p>At dinner John informed the company that his bath in the lake
+yesterday was the third of a series the first of which took place in
+Montenegro, the second in Algiers, and now this in Norway. He calls this
+a humble tribute to the geniality of the English summer, and thinks that
+he may be termed ‘a&nbsp;polyglot ablutionist.’ Some of the sojourners
+in this camp say it may be so, but it does not speak highly for John’s
+love of water when undiluted with whisky.</p>
+
+<p>Subsequently we found that the bath which he swaggered about only
+occurred because he fell off a rock into the lake, and so dabbled about
+afterwards while his clothes were drying, which does not take long in
+this weather. This also accounts for the condition in which he returned
+to camp, ‘sans bags, sans shirt, sans everything,’&mdash;barring his
+boots.</p>
+
+<p>Late at night Esau, who was up last, put his head into the tent to
+remark that there was a first-rate comet on view, but he was received
+with such execrations from the other two lazy people in bed that he
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page131" id = "page131">131</a></span>
+thought it prudent to say no more about it, and not to look at it any
+more himself.</p>
+
+<h5>August 13.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>We spent the morning making a meat safe. This meat safe consists of a
+hole in <ins class = "correction" title = "text reads ‘he’">the</ins>
+ground, neatly flagged with flat stones, and walled with the same, and
+furnished at the top with a wooden frame, into which fits a lid with
+hooks underneath it for birds. The whole is covered with a piece of
+muslin to keep off the villanous bluebottles. The muslin was brought to
+make into mosquito nets inside the tent, but in this happy spot the
+‘skeeter’ is unknown, the sand-fly very rare, and the great green-eyed
+Möge&mdash;which bites a lump out of your leg and then flies to the
+nearest tree to eat it&mdash;is conspicuous by its absence.</p>
+
+<p>We have always been very careful not to prepare in any way for game
+before it is killed, but this usually successful plan has been a failure
+this year, so now we are desperate, and have made a safe which will hold
+a reindeer, and probably with a little more bad luck shall even go out
+stalking with ropes in our pockets ready to tie up the animal when
+killed. We caught Öla a week ago carving a piece of stick into the
+double-ended thing that butchers put between the legs of sheep to keep
+them apart (name unknown), but we promptly seized it, and made it into
+the handle of a frying-pan. But who can escape his destiny? We hoped
+that we had averted misfortune, but the deed was done, and no doubt it
+was owing to
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page132" id = "page132">132</a></span>
+this that the Skipper failed to get a shot at the ‘store bocks.’</p>
+
+<p>When John and Esau had finished the safe and succeeded in catching
+enough nice fish for the requirements of the camp, they were seized with
+the desire of making a good bath. We have no first-rate bathing-place
+near the camp, as the glacier-river has made the lake too shallow round
+its mouth, and it is some distance to where the shore becomes bold and
+rocky.</p>
+
+<p>They selected a nice little stream on the hill just above the tent,
+and toiled like navvies there for about four hours under a blazing sun,
+excavating and paving with flat stones, making a most palatial bath in
+the bed of the stream; when behold! just as it was completed, to use the
+graphic language of one of the constructors, ‘May I be dodderned, and
+doggoned, and dingblamed by Pike, if the blooming stream didn’t cease to
+run!’ It did just supply about a pint of water before it quite stopped,
+into which Esau’s watch flew as he flung on his coat with some slight,
+and perhaps excusable, show of temper. A&nbsp;pint of water is not
+enough for a man to bathe in, but it is quite sufficient to saturate a
+watch, especially if a stone obligingly smashes the glass and makes a
+hole in its face obliterating the vii. viii. and ix. at the time of its
+immersion. However, he dug the mud out of the works, filled them with
+Rangoon oil, and is under the impression that that watch can be made to
+go again, and that a new face and glass and silver case
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page133" id = "page133">133</a></span>
+will make it look all right. He is of a sanguine disposition.</p>
+
+<p>They returned to camp saying that it would be all right as soon as
+the first rain came, but they reckoned without their host; the stream
+came from a little snowdrift on the mountain, and next time that Esau
+went up there he found that the heat of the last few days had melted it
+all away; hence its sudden stop. It never ran again. Perchance some
+future traveller will find the bath ages hence, and rejoice in its
+luxurious arrangements. In anticipation of this John wrote the following
+beautiful lines on the most prominent rock:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class = "verse">
+<p>‘Stranger, pause and shed a tear:</p>
+<p>There used to be a streamlet here;</p>
+<p>But seeing Esau strip to lave</p>
+<p>His sordid body ’neath its wave,</p>
+<p>All filled with shame and blushing red,</p>
+<p>The streamlet left its gravel bed;</p>
+<p>Its only wish from him to flee,</p>
+<p>It ran away and went to sea.’</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The Skipper returned rather late with some very good fish from our
+old lake Rus Vand, and dinner was consequently at the extremely
+fashionable hour of 8.30.</p>
+
+<div class = "menu">
+<p>MENU.</p>
+
+<p><i>Poisson.</i><br>
+Truite à la Norvège.</p>
+
+<p><i>Gibier.</i><br>
+Teal en matelote de Bacon.<br>
+Pommes de terre sautéd in a frying-pan.</p>
+
+<p><i>Potage.</i><br>
+Skoggaggany.</p>
+</div>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page134" id = "page134">134</a></span>
+<p>Potage is frequently eaten last, for it keeps hot longer than the
+other dishes, and as we always feed in the open air in fine weather,
+they cool more quickly than in civilisation.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic134" id = "pic134">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic134.png" width = "530" height = "413"
+alt = "Hot Soup and Northern Lights"></p>
+
+<p>About nine o’clock a splendid display of northern lights was produced
+for our benefit, and we stayed up till twelve o’clock baking bread and
+gazing at the ever-changing beauties of this glorious sight. In the
+course of conversation it transpired that the same thing happened last
+night in a milder form, and it was this that Esau had announced as a
+comet. To-night he was immensely delighted with the show, because he
+says it will bring good luck; quoting ‘Aurora bright, dear harbinger of
+dawn.’ He said this
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page135" id = "page135">135</a></span>
+was Shakespeare, and if Shakespeare called Aurora a ‘deer harbinger,’
+that ought to be enough for us. The other two agreed, but did not
+believe Shakespeare ever wrote that, or anything like it. ‘What play was
+it in?’ ‘Play!’ said Esau, with the utmost contempt, ‘you awful duffers,
+it’s in the sonnets; I&nbsp;dare say you never read all of them.’ This
+was unanswerable, for of course no one ever did read all the sonnets.
+But in revenge John composed some poetry about Esau, after the manner of
+Walt Whitman, he said.</p>
+
+<p>If Walt Whitman ever wrote anything like this, he ought to be made to
+read it. We give a few lines:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class = "verse">
+<p>‘’Twas he who culled the bluest berry sweet,</p>
+<p>And with his jodelling made the heights reply</p>
+<p>To airs that oft have graced the music hall:</p>
+<p>Anon when work or sport was put aside,</p>
+<p>The fragrant omelette he would deftly roll;</p>
+<p>No better man to fry the curling trout,</p>
+<p>None with more appetite to make it scarce.</p>
+<p>When tired nature seeks repose in bed,</p>
+<p>To lie when others rise and calmly rest,</p>
+<p>He most surpassed the seven Sleepers’ selves.</p>
+<p>This is the sort of rubbish men can write</p>
+<p>Who to inanity devote their minds;</p>
+<p>But nought save great experience will suffice</p>
+<p>To do the trick; no amateur can hope</p>
+<p>To vie with those who’ve studied it from youth.’</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>And so on for pages.</p>
+
+<p>On examining the diaries which we all keep, the following remarks on
+the aurora were found:&mdash;</p>
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page136" id = "page136">136</a></span>
+
+<p class = "center smallcaps">No. 1.&mdash;By the Skipper.</p>
+
+<p>‘The heavens were illuminated by most brilliant northern lights,
+which flickered in a great arch over the starry sky.’</p>
+
+<p class = "center smallcaps">No. 2.&mdash;By Esau.</p>
+
+<p>‘A most glorious display of northern lights, huge bands of light
+across the sky; waving, flickering, and disappearing, then suddenly
+shining out again more brilliantly than before, while all the time
+straight streamers of light were shooting upwards from the horizon.’</p>
+
+<p class = "center smallcaps">No. 3.&mdash;By John.</p>
+
+<p>‘The glow of a remarkably fine aurora borealis, whose silvery
+shimmering shafts flickered incessantly all over the heavens in the most
+fantastic shapes.’</p>
+
+<p>It will be observed that we all agree in the flickering, consequently
+you may bet it <i>did</i> flicker. But for this fortunate fact it would
+be hard to recognise the three descriptions as identical, and yet this
+is the way history is written.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page137" id = "page137">137</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapXVIII" id = "chapXVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">SUCCESS AT LAST.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>August 14.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">This</span> was a most eventful day in our
+quiet life, and one fraught with episode. For the first time there was a
+breeze, so the Skipper went out fishing, and John to practise canoeing
+in a wind, which is an art requiring considerable dexterity in these
+Canadian canoes. They are beautiful sea boats, and beat the ‘Rob Roy’
+hollow for any purposes where room for baggage is required. In our two,
+which are only small, we have transported between 800 and 900 lbs.; but
+their worst feature is decidedly exhibited in a wind, for the broad flat
+bottom and absence of keel cause them to drift very fast, and make it
+difficult to keep them straight. It can only be done by paddling from
+amidships instead of from the stern.</p>
+
+<p>Esau went out stalking, full of hope from the aurora and the
+favourable wind.</p>
+
+<p>The Skipper was lucky and caught some very good fish, and then
+returning to camp constructed a most lovely wimberry tart. He had just
+finished the enclosure of the same in the oven, and was proceeding
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page138" id = "page138">138</a></span>
+to remove the flour and ashes and other debris from his hands, while
+John reclined at his ease under an awning with our latest
+‘Field’&mdash;three weeks old&mdash;when they heard a hail overhead, and
+behold a swarm of visitors from Rus Vand! Mr. and Mrs. Thomas, Miss
+A&mdash;&mdash;, and their friend F&mdash;&mdash;, who is the most
+celebrated deerstalker in the country. He is reported to never miss a
+shot, and occasionally shoots flying ryper with a rifle.</p>
+
+<p>They tumultuously demanded lunch, and the Skipper with John had a
+pretty busy time of it for about twenty minutes, and the wimberry tart
+had to be left to its fate in the sultry climate of the oven. Our larder
+just now is not well supplied with anything except fish; so that the
+utmost exertions could only produce a meal which to people who have had
+reindeer for several days must have seemed poor indeed. Fried trout,
+Skoggaggany soup, tea, beer, bread, biscuits, and marmalade, was the
+bill of fare, for there was no time to do anything in the ‘gibier’ line,
+birds taking some time to pluck and clean. However, to our guests there
+were some points of this meal decidedly worthy of attention, viz. the
+beer, marmalade, and bread: they have none of these at Rus Vand, as
+their attempts at bread have hitherto been failures, while ours has been
+very first-rate ever since the oven was built, and was much
+appreciated.</p>
+
+<p>We have been informed that the proper thing in these days, when
+writing a book, is to recommend
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page139" id = "page139">139</a></span>
+some condiment or patent medicine to the notice of the confiding public.
+As there is no chance of our meeting any Arab sheiks in Memurudalen, we
+have to fall back on this episode of the bread, and seize the
+opportunity to sing to the world the praises of ‘Yeatman’s Yeast
+Powder,’ by far the best that we have tried, and invaluable on an
+expedition of this kind for bread, pastry, and pancakes. Now let old
+Yeatman send his hundred guineas, care of Esau, and we will see that
+they are devoted to a proper use.</p>
+
+<p>To return to our guests. We made an awning on what we call the
+lawn&mdash;size six feet by fourteen feet&mdash;out of two rugs and some
+birch poles, and lunched under that, as the sun was cruelly hot. There
+was a good deal of the ordinary picnic about the meal, as we have only
+four plates, cups, knives, &amp;c., and had to eat fish out of the
+frying-pan, and drink beer out of a jam pot, and a condensed-milk tin
+with the top cut off and the sharp edge turned down. But all these
+drawbacks were met in the true picnic spirit, which ‘de minimis non
+curat’ so long as there is something to eat. Our two last bottles of
+beer were sacrificed, and it went to our hearts to have to pour away our
+beloved Skoggaggany soup when the cups were wanted for tea, for our
+visitors did not ‘go for’ the soup with the same alacrity that
+distinguishes us. Possibly it occurred to them that the middle of a
+blazing hot August day was not the most suitable
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page140" id = "page140">140</a></span>
+time for highly seasoned, substantial, nearly boiling liquid to be
+poured down their throats.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. and Mrs. Thomas and Miss A&mdash;&mdash; all spoke English well,
+but their friend young F&mdash;&mdash; could neither speak it nor
+understand it: however, he wished to be genial and polite, and replied
+‘Oh yase, tank you,’ whenever any remark was made to him. In consequence
+of this amiable trait, John, who thought he could talk our language as
+well as the others, supplied him with beer, whisky and water, tea, soup,
+and marmalade all at the same time, to each of which articles when
+offered he had replied ‘Oh yase, tank you.’ This made a sad run on our
+limited supply of crockery.</p>
+
+<p>Lunch ended, the Skipper volunteered as usual to take the party one
+by one for a cruise in his canoe. This with the ordinary English lady
+would be a matter of considerable risk, but all Norwegians&mdash;ladies
+as well as men&mdash;are accustomed to boats, and very nearly all of
+them can swim. But the trip was quite dangerous enough, for both the
+ladies insisted on kneeling in the right position and paddling
+themselves, and there was a good sea on, with a distant threatening
+storm. While Mrs. Thomas was pursuing her adventurous career, her
+husband danced on the bank after the manner of a hen with ducklings
+crying, ‘Come back! come back! you go too far out!’ but we grieve to
+record that she did not care a little bit, and was so delighted with the
+canoe that the
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page141" id = "page141">141</a></span>
+Skipper had some difficulty in persuading her to return. May she live
+long to paddle that canoe, for it now belongs to her.</p>
+
+<p>About four o’clock the call came to an end, and our friends departed
+over the mountain to Rus Vand, at the west end of which they expected to
+meet their <ins class = "correction" title = ". missing">boat.</ins>
+Before going they made us promise to go and see them next Tuesday, and
+will send a boat to convey us down the lake.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic141" id = "pic141">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic141.png" width = "480" height = "372"
+alt = "Esau and Ola return in Triumph"></p>
+
+<p>Soon after six Esau came into camp in an offensively jaunty manner,
+followed by Öla with the heads and skins, and what the lawyers call the
+appurts, to wit, the heart, kidneys, feet, and liver of two reindeer
+bucks. Then was there great rejoicing
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page142" id = "page142">142</a></span>
+in that little colony, and dinner was served and disposed of with light
+hearts, even the neglected wimberry tart being a complete success, for
+owing to its gigantic size, its long baking in a cooling oven had not
+been too much for it, and it was finished to the last crumb of paste and
+spoonful of juice.</p>
+
+<p>Our custom is, when a man returns with deer, that he shall lie on the
+sheepskin of indolence if so disposed, while the other fellows prepare
+dinner; and after the meal is finished and men are beginning to lean
+back and fill their pipes, he is expected to relate his adventures
+without interruption; after this he is never to refer to them again
+unless specially requested. Now for Esau’s story.</p>
+
+<p>‘We went on to Memurutungen and began to find fresh tracks and signs
+of deer almost directly, so were on the tiptoe of expectation all the
+morning. About midday Öla found two deer on a small patch of snow, five
+or six miles from camp, in a very favourable place for approaching them,
+with the wind as right as it could be. We made a lovely stalk; but when
+after an hour’s creeping we got to the spot, we were just in time to see
+them disappear, slowly feeding over the hill. We followed as fast as
+possible, and soon came in sight of them again, for as the deer always
+feed against the wind there is no danger of alarming them by following
+on their tracks. A&nbsp;few minutes of breathless crawling like
+serpents, and we were within 100 yards, nearer than I ever got to
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page143" id = "page143">143</a></span>
+reindeer before. One of them soon gave me a nice side shot, and when I
+fired he almost fell, but recovered himself, and they both ran down the
+hill towards a little glacier. I&nbsp;fired again at him and missed; and
+then ran as hard as I could towards the glacier, cramming in cartridges
+as I ran. They were both out of sight for a moment behind some rocks,
+and then the unwounded one came into view again, and I had a nice shot
+at him at about 150 yards, and was lucky enough to send a bullet just
+above his heart, which killed him instantly at the edge of the
+glacier.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic143" id = "pic143">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic143.png" width = "528" height = "411"
+alt = "A careful Finishing Shot"></p>
+
+<p><ins class = "correction" title = "open quote missing">‘I</ins> ran
+straight on, and following round the shoulder of the hill, saw the other
+one standing about 100
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page144" id = "page144">144</a></span>
+yards away, unable to go any further. I&nbsp;was in about the same state
+myself, so sat down, took as careful an aim as I could, and fired a shot
+which finished him. How he had ever got so far is a mystery, as the
+first shot only missed his heart by about an inch. The second went in
+touching the hole made by the first, and killed him at once.</p>
+
+<p>‘We gralloched them, and built the meat up with stones to preserve it
+from ravens, and the great bugbear of hunters, the “<ins class =
+"norway" title = "jærv, now written jerv">jarraf</ins>,” as they call
+it; filfras is its English name. I&nbsp;think it is identical with the
+North American wolverine or glutton.’</p>
+
+<p>The lecturer concluded his observations amid great applause.</p>
+
+<p>Let it be understood that the running which is done in pursuit of
+deer is a gymnastic performance of the utmost difficulty, for these
+mountains are almost entirely composed of loose stones with sharp, clean
+edges. These stones vary in size, but otherwise are all similar, and
+have no more tendency to stick together and lie quiet than the lumps in
+a basin of sugar. So that running over them means&mdash;for an extremely
+active man&mdash;a pace of perhaps four miles an hour; for a deer about
+six or seven. Consequently the deer always when disturbed try to get on
+to snow, for there they can go a great, but unascertained
+pace&mdash;apparently somewhere about eighty miles an hour.</p>
+
+<p>We find that after all we were quite right to make
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page145" id = "page145">145</a></span>
+the meat-safe before killing the deer, for we only made it to hold one,
+and now we have killed two, and so are quite properly behindhand with
+our arrangements, and shall be obliged to make another.</p>
+
+<p>After dinner Esau went down to the lake and tried a few casts from
+the shore. He speedily hooked a fish, which he thought the biggest ever
+made, and never got a sight of it for twenty minutes. He thought this a
+grand top up for a truly successful day, but on landing it, it only
+weighed a pound, but was hooked in the tail, hence the struggle.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page146" id = "page146">146</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapXIX" id = "chapXIX">CHAPTER XIX.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">GJENDEBODEN.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>Sunday, August 15.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">Still</span> the same beautiful weather. We
+spent the morning fishing and bathing. Esau distinguished himself by
+falling into the lake off a cliff, just as he had finished dressing
+after a bath; nearly swamping his canoe, full of fish, rugs, and other
+valuables. There was such a sun that he merely hung his things on the
+rocks and went on fishing without them until they were dry, which took a
+very short time. He always had savage tendencies, and would like to live
+without clothes, but we consider this is not dignified, and will not
+tend to promote discipline among our retainers. The Skipper got the best
+bag, as he generally does on a calm day.</p>
+
+<p>After lunch we packed our rods, fowling-pieces, and change of raiment
+into the canoes, and started on a voyage of discovery up the lake,
+intending to spend the night at Gjendebod&mdash;a hut at the western end
+somewhat similar to Gjendesheim at the eastern, though not so large or
+so well built, for the upper end
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page147" id = "page147">147</a></span>
+of the lake does not get as many visitors as the lower.</p>
+
+<p>The expedition commenced with a disaster, owing, no doubt, to its
+being Sunday. As John and Esau in the larger canoe were crossing the
+glacier stream, something caused the boat to almost swamp, but
+fortunately right again with a good deal of water in it. Esau said it
+was John’s clumsiness; John said it was Esau’s recklessness in crossing
+at such a rapid place, and much recrimination ensued. They went to shore
+and emptied the water out, and then continued the voyage, nothing being
+wet except the rugs used to kneel on. Only the Skipper lingered on the
+voyage to fish; the other two paddling against a heavy head wind
+completed the journey of five miles in about an hour, and had dinner
+cooked and ready by the time the Skipper made his appearance with a
+beautiful basket of trout.</p>
+
+<p>Our dinner was made from the shoulder of venison sent us by Mr.
+Thomas. It was utterly ruined in the cooking, for we are getting
+fastidious after our own luxurious meals, and think as poorly of
+Gjendebod cookery as a certain friend of ours did of English, when he
+complained that ‘in all the houses of the rich and great which he had
+ever known, he had never seen a decent hot dinner served except when
+they had it cold for lunch.’</p>
+
+<p>We found here a young Norwegian who spoke English well, and gave us
+some very interesting information,
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page148" id = "page148">148</a></span>
+chiefly about the winter life in Norway; also a very intelligible
+account of the land system of the country, which we intend to send to
+Mr. Gladstone for use in his next Irish Land Bill. We think it
+peculiarly adapted for Ireland, because, though we all understood it
+perfectly at the time, we cannot agree about any of its main features on
+comparing notes afterwards.</p>
+
+<p>Presently there arrived here Coutts&mdash;our Gjendesheim
+acquaintance who had made the extraordinary walk over the mountains. His
+hair had either not grown since we last saw him, or else he had
+sand-papered it off again. He had just achieved another remarkable feat.
+This was a climb to the top of ‘Stor Skagastolstind,’ a&nbsp;mountain
+which has only been ascended twice previously; first by an Englishman
+who spends most of his time in doing such things, and afterwards by a
+Norwegian, the last time being two years ago. Many others have tried and
+failed. The ordinary traveller will find the feat of pronouncing its
+name fluently in the course of conversation quite difficult enough; but
+it can be done by the exercise of an iron will, and if not attempted
+more than once in a day, no fatal effects need be apprehended. Once we
+met a very careworn-looking man who told us he had been trying to make a
+pun on the name, but we felt no pity for so foolhardy a wretch.</p>
+
+<p>The authorized procedure for those who accomplish the ascent, is to
+enclose their name and some coins in a bottle, and build a little cairn
+round the bottle,
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page149" id = "page149">149</a></span>
+leaving their handkerchief with it, and bringing down the corresponding
+articles left by the last man. Coutts showed us the handkerchief and
+bottle which he found on the top, but the coins he must have spent in
+drinks on his way home, or else did not like to trust us with them, as
+he could not produce them. He had, of course, left his own handkerchief,
+and John, who is short of these useful though not indispensable
+articles, was seized with a great longing to risk his life and go to the
+summit of that mountain for Coutts’s. At least, he was very keen about
+it immediately after the description of the ascent and hiding of the
+treasure; but since he became calmer we almost persuaded him not to go,
+as he hates walking, especially uphill walking; it takes two days to
+ascend the peak, one to get down again; and the whole performance is
+slightly more difficult and hazardous than the ascent of the
+Matterhorn.</p>
+
+<p>It will probably be unnecessary to remark that Coutts did not for a
+moment condescend to follow the path chosen by former climbers, but
+having after considerable search found one at least twice as dangerous,
+he chose that, as he had not time to look for a worse one.</p>
+
+<h5>August 16.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>After breakfast we found a drover, who was living in a hut here, and
+impressed him to come out with us after Ryper&mdash;his function being
+that of the dog. There are many of these drovers in the mountains during
+the summer. They get cattle&mdash;how,
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page150" id = "page150">150</a></span>
+we do not know; whether they buy them, or merely drive them on
+commission for the owners; then they feed them on the common lands, and
+drive them to some town at the end of the summer. The huts that they
+live in are wretched little places. There is one about two miles from
+our camp, built of rough stones against a rock which forms two of the
+sides, without any door or window, and only a hole to creep in at. No
+Englishman would keep his dog in such a place, unless it were dead; but
+we are told that a drover lived there for a month this year before we
+came, and it is considered of sufficient importance to be marked on the
+Ordnance map, otherwise we should never have seen&nbsp;it.</p>
+
+<p>Our drover, however, was rather a great man, living in a hut with a
+real door and a window, and a live woman inside to cook for him and iron
+his shirt&mdash;at least, we imagined she must be doing this, as he had
+not got one&nbsp;on.</p>
+
+<p>Ryper shooting began by law yesterday, but our Sabbatarian
+proclivities prevented us from going forth to the chase. The true reason
+is that we superstitiously believe it will rain again if we shoot on
+Sunday, though no one will confess that this is the feeling by which we
+are possessed.</p>
+
+<p>We crossed the lake in the canoes&mdash;the Skipper and Esau to
+shoot, John and Herr Drover to beat. There was a narrow belt of birch
+trees between the lake and the willow belt in which we hoped to find
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page151" id = "page151">151</a></span>
+the birds, and before we got through this, our ears were gladdened by
+the sound of two shots from Esau, who had walked on to two old birds and
+got them both; but, alas! disappointment was in store for us. We walked
+up hill and down dale, dry ground and marshy, willow belt and birch
+belt, but never saw another ryper for five hours, and then we put up one
+old cock who fled away with a derisive crow before we got within sixty
+yards of him. It is hopeless work hunting ryper without dogs. We found
+plenty of places where they had fed or sat, or been running on wet
+ground; but they hate flying unless they are compelled, and on a day of
+this sort lie like stones, though we have seen them after windy weather
+get up almost as wild as Yorkshire grouse. But we feel that we have done
+our duty in trying to shoot ryper, and so now can go back to our fishing
+and stalking with a quiet conscience.</p>
+
+<p>And if we got no more ryper we found such a quantity of ‘möltebær,’
+that there is every prospect of Esau being seriously ill for some days,
+which would be a distinct gain as far as the consumption of our stores
+goes. The ‘möltebær’ is a berry like a large yellow raspberry, very good
+indeed to eat, with a sort of honey flavour about it. The Norwegians
+think it better than the strawberry, though we hardly indorse this
+opinion. It is a beautiful scarlet before it is ripe, and a dirty pale
+yellow when ready to gather. It
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page152" id = "page152">152</a></span>
+grows low down, and is difficult to find, as it conceals itself in low,
+swampy, and rather dark places.</p>
+
+<p>When we returned from the pursuit of the disobliging ryper, there was
+a fair breeze down the lake, so we hoisted sails and were soon back at
+Memurudalen.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page153" id = "page153">153</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapXX" id = "chapXX">CHAPTER XX.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">A FORMAL CALL.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>August 17.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">This</span> was the day appointed for our
+visit to the Thomas’s at Rus Vand, but though we told Öla as usual to
+call us at 7.30, he never came until about half-past eight. His watch is
+a curiosity among bad watches; he sets it by one of ours every night,
+and it has always gained or lost several hours before morning: on one
+occasion it actually lost nearly a fortnight while we slept. The Skipper
+says it ‘ain’t worth a smothered oath;’ and this morning, as we
+specially wished to get up early&mdash;and did get up, owing to Öla’s
+watch, more than usually late&mdash;he is getting lower in his
+valuation, and estimates it at a ‘whispered d&mdash;&mdash;.’</p>
+
+<p>We have begged Öla to pawn it, or refrain from winding it up, but
+without effect, and Esau lent him his&mdash;which has never moved since
+its bath, and is fixed at 5.20. This was very successful for two days,
+as it made Öla call us about six o’clock, and we had lots of time to go
+to sleep again afterwards; but after that the discontented fellow came
+and asked for one
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page154" id = "page154">154</a></span>
+that would go faster, and of course we have nothing that will compare
+with his own either at trotting or cantering.</p>
+
+<p>First thing this morning the Skipper was seen shaving his meagre chin
+with no little care, and reflecting himself with considerable interest
+in a slip of looking-glass that he keeps under his pillow. We all made
+elaborate toilets, but the Skipper was especially beautiful by reason of
+his necktie, and the least thread-bare of his two coats, which he wore
+with what he considered a careless grace.</p>
+
+<p>We started up the mountain at half-past ten, and arrived on the
+shores of Rus Vand very hot and tired in about two hours. There we saw a
+dim speck on the distant horizon which we imagined to be the boat coming
+to take us down the lake. So we began to fish till it should arrive; and
+it was a considerable time before we realised the fact that the speck we
+had seen was indeed the boat, but it was <i>going</i>, not coming, for
+the soulless wretch who had control of it had presumed to think, and his
+thoughts being of course the mere unreasoning impulses of a brutish and
+degraded mind, had caused him to suppose we were not coming. This was a
+terrible blow, but at last we bravely decided to walk on to the
+hut&mdash;about eight miles. During the next six pages of this book we
+walked and walked and walked, with hunger and thirst raging inside us,
+a&nbsp;broiling sun over our heads, and the most frightful language
+proceeding from our
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page155" id = "page155">155</a></span>
+lips; tramping along cattle tracks, wading through mountain torrents,
+and stumbling over willows and rocks, till about half-past three in the
+afternoon, when turning the last corner we came on the two huts, and our
+olfactory nerves were greeted by the welcome scent of adjacent cooking
+food.</p>
+
+<p>Thomas was most profuse in his maledictions of the idiot who had left
+the west end of the lake without waiting for us, and we had great
+difficulty in persuading him not to shed his blood there and then. Thus
+far the misery.</p>
+
+<p>But now a change came o’er the scene. Behold the wearied travellers
+lying on the sward, in the cool shadow cast by the hut; surrounded by
+iced whisky punch, brandy and water, rum and milk, and claret, and
+drinking them all at once under the entreaties of our hospitable
+entertainers. Anon a sumptuous feast was spread under the canopy of a
+tent pitched just above the roaring waters of the Russen River where it
+leaves the calm of the lake for the turmoil and trouble of a hurried
+descent to busier regions. That trout, reindeer, roast ryper, and the
+various smaller birds will be remembered by all of us as long as we
+live.</p>
+
+<p>The Skipper confessed afterwards that all along that burning
+shadeless cattle track&mdash;with its atmosphere perfectly blue with
+execrations&mdash;he had thought that life was but a ‘wale of tears’ at
+the best of times; but when after dinner cigars and black coffee were
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page156" id = "page156">156</a></span>
+produced, he began to believe we had had rather a pleasant walk after
+all.</p>
+
+<p>We left the hospitable hut about six, in the boat, Thomas himself and
+Jens coming with us. Jens rowed, and we four fished all the way up the
+lake, so that the water was stiff with minnows and flies. John with a
+minnow caught one three-pound trout and some smaller ones, and the
+Skipper and Esau several good fish with the fly, but we had no time to
+really try to catch fish, but kept rowing steadily on and getting what
+we could on the way. Thomas got out halfway up the lake to fish from the
+bank, and John at once trampled on a spare rod which had been brought in
+the boat, and reduced it to matchwood. Then to witness John’s polite
+protestations and apologies from the boat to Mr. Thomas on shore was
+truly gratifying to us as spectators. When they were concluded we rowed
+on to the end of the lake, climbed over the dreadful
+mountain&mdash;which was by no means a pleasant task in the
+dark&mdash;and reached camp at half-past ten&mdash;just twelve hours
+employed in making a formal call. Think of that, ye gentlemen of England
+who grumble at having to leave a card on the people the other side of
+the square.</p>
+
+<h5>August 18.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>We all stayed at home to-day, as the weather&mdash;although still
+perfectly fine&mdash;was not favourable for any sort of sport with which
+we are acquainted except kite-flying; and the tent was constantly in
+such imminent danger of being blown from its moorings,
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page157" id = "page157">157</a></span>
+that we feared if we went away, we should not be able to find it when we
+came back. It was great fun during breakfast to watch Ivar sailing after
+our goods and chattels whenever a sudden gust of wind sent them scudding
+over the ground till brought to a standstill by a juniper or a rock.
+Before starting in pursuit he always opened his mouth to its utmost
+width&mdash;which is enormous&mdash;and then extending his arms and legs
+till he looked like a demoniac wind-mill, he swooped down on the quarry,
+never failing to secure the fly-away article, dish-cloth, or towel, or
+whatever it might&nbsp;be.</p>
+
+<p>The Skipper was the only one who attempted fishing, and he had but
+poor sport, and soon returned to camp to assist in the operations there
+going <ins class = "correction" title = ". missing">on.</ins> The most
+important of these was the construction of a new game cellar in the
+ground near the old one. Esau was ‘bossing’ this thing, while Öla
+worked. Esau, being very lazy himself, takes a fiendish delight in
+getting any work out of Öla; and now his portion of the job seemed to be
+standing with an axe in his hand revolving things in his great mind
+while Öla undertook the <ins class = "correction" title =
+". missing">labour.</ins> The Skipper and John devoted themselves to
+baking, and produced an enormous quantity of bread and biscuits; and
+when these were finished the united strength of the company engaged
+itself on a meat pie.</p>
+
+<p>The division of labour in this enterprise is always managed thus.
+Esau is butcher&mdash;an employment in
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page158" id = "page158">158</a></span>
+which he revels, and at which he is decidedly an adept. He cuts up
+reindeer in convenient slices for placing in the pie-dish; adding
+thereto slices of bacon, and two or three hard-boiled eggs, with some
+liver, heart, and birds if we have any to spare. Meanwhile the Skipper
+concocts the dough for the crust from flour, butter, and boiling water;
+and after rolling the same on the top of one of the boxes with an empty
+beer-bottle, neatly lines the smaller of the two low tins with it; fills
+it with the various ingredients and plenty of pepper, salt, and some
+water, and then covers it with a thin disc of paste perforated with
+holes, and adorned with fantastic images of reindeer and birds. Now the
+pie is ready for the oven&mdash;which all this time John has been
+stoking indefatigably with arm loads of wood; and when he announces that
+the oven is fit the pie is borne in solemn procession to it, and safely
+enclosed by the sod which acts as the oven door, and conceals it from
+our gaze for a time, which varies according to the size of the pie and
+heat of the oven.</p>
+
+<p>We have some difficulties to contend with in the top of our oven, for
+the sods which fill in the holes thereof are liable to crumble with the
+intense heat and fall down in fine dust on our food gently stewing in
+its cosy nest. The only way to obviate this is to water the top of the
+oven every morning as if it were a spring garden, and then the clods
+never get dry enough to play their evil little games. The Skipper
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page159" id = "page159">159</a></span>
+compares the baking of a pie to burial by cremation (if that is not a
+bull). Certainly it always comes out etherealised; a&nbsp;thing of
+beauty and a joy for at least two days. Esau called this pie after its
+resurrection ‘a&nbsp;harmony in yellow and brown quite too too utter and
+distinctly precious;’ and John added, ‘Begorra, me jewel, it is that
+same, bedad.’</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic159" id = "pic159">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic159.png" width = "476" height = "361"
+alt = "The Colony at Breakfast in Memurudalen"></p>
+
+<p>We shall now be free to do what seems good in our eyes for several
+days without the trouble of baking: altogether our stock of provisions
+is enormous. This is always the way in camp life; first a week of
+existence on the verge of starvation, and then a time of milk and honey
+and tables overflowing with plenty.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page160" id = "page160">160</a></span>
+<h5>August 19.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>Some of the bread that John makes is rather heavy. Yesterday we were
+constrained to point this fact out to him. He pretended not to be able
+to see it, and in support of his theory ate at supper a quantity of the
+rolls that we had condemned. The consequence was that about two o’clock
+<span class = "smallroman">A.M.</span> we were roused from our peaceful
+slumbers by John jumping spasmodically out of bed and rushing to the
+tent door, uttering at the same time most ghastly yells. At the door he
+appeared to be awake, so we said, sitting up in bed with our hair on
+end,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>‘<i>Now</i> then, John. What’s the row?’ To which he answered very
+quietly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>‘Why, my line’s caught on that rock over there. I wish you would stop
+the boat a minute.’</p>
+
+<p>Then he went gently to bed again and continued his unbroken
+slumbers.</p>
+
+<p>A sleeping man is selfishly regardless of the disquiet he brings on
+his fellow-creatures, and John, although he must have dreamt all sorts
+of funny things, did not dream that he was disturbing our night’s
+rest.</p>
+
+<p>The other night when we were returning from our visit to Rus Vand,
+John casually seated himself on a rock at the extreme top of the
+mountain. It was quite dark except for a subdued glow of light caused by
+the setting moon behind the mountains on the other side of Gjendin Lake.
+Now the Skipper and Esau take a good deal of interest in moons, because
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page161" id = "page161">161</a></span>
+they are considerably affected by the pallid luminary when at the full;
+consequently they were aware that she had already passed her highest
+point for that night, and would not show above the peaks until the
+following evening; but John did not know this, and so when we asked his
+reason for sitting down on a very sharp and cold stone 5,000 feet above
+sea level, with the quicksilver right through the bottom of the
+thermometer, at a time when all honest folk were in bed, he
+replied,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>‘You fellows go on; I’m going to wait here and see the moon
+rise.’</p>
+
+<p>We never disturb a man when he feels poetical, lest it should break
+out in some more dangerous form; so we left him on his ‘cold grey
+stone,’ and made the best of our way to camp.</p>
+
+<p>When we had about half finished our soup, he came struggling and
+wading in through the shrubs and swamp, and sat down to supper without
+making any remarks about the scenery, neither did he touch upon the
+subject of silver shafts, or shimmering sheen, or a network of frosted
+filigree chaining down the ripples. He was evidently disappointed about
+something, and we possessed too much delicacy of feeling to ask what was
+wrong, and so the matter dropped. But at breakfast this morning the
+Skipper happened to tell a story about a man he knew, who waited on the
+quay for some friends who had arrived in a steamer that day. This man
+had ordered a sumptuous
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page162" id = "page162">162</a></span>
+banquet directly the steamer was signalled, then waited three hours
+expecting a boat to come off every minute, but at last perceived that a
+curious flag was flying on the steamer, and on inquiry found that she
+was quarantined for a fortnight. Then Esau could not resist the
+opportunity, and remarked,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>‘Just like waiting for the moon to rise when she ain’t due over the
+mountains for twenty-four hours,’ and the harmony of the meeting at once
+ceased to exist.</p>
+
+<p>The Skipper went after deer, but only had a very long walk without
+seeing any. We have now got the kitchen into a great state of
+perfection, so that within ten minutes of his return a recherché repast
+was on the table. This is rather a difficult thing to manage, as we
+never know to within a couple of hours what time the hunters will
+return; but it can be done by having the chops, steaks, or birds ready
+in one frying-pan, the trout in the other, the potatoes partially
+cooked, and the tea or coffee made: the leaves or grounds of the latter
+we remove always after eight minutes’ brewing, so that it does not alter
+by standing. The table of course is ready laid.</p>
+
+<p>Once and only once there was a long delay, owing to a misfortune with
+the water that had been boiled for the tea; but the explosion of wrath
+from the famishing hunter on that occasion was so dreadful, that the
+utmost endeavours have since been successfully used to prevent its
+recurrence.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page163" id = "page163">163</a></span>
+
+<div class = "menu">
+<p>MENU.&mdash;August 19.</p>
+
+<p><i>Potage.</i><br>
+Mulligatawny.</p>
+
+<p><i>Poisson.</i><br>
+Truité à la Maître d’Hôtel.</p>
+
+<p><i>Entrées.</i><br>
+Venison Pie.</p>
+
+<p><i>Rots.</i><br>
+Venison Pie.</p>
+
+<p><i>Gibier.</i><br>
+Venison Pie.</p>
+
+<p><i>Entremets.</i><br>
+Pancakes.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Our procedure with pancakes is for every man to fry and toss his own;
+the frying of the first side is easy enough, but the tossing requires
+skill, for we do not allow the mean practice of helping the delicacy
+over with a knife, indulged in by some weak-spirited cooks.</p>
+
+<p>John’s first became a mangled heap of batter under his repeated
+efforts, and was finally eaten by him in that condition; his second
+ascended towards the heavens most gracefully when he tossed, and was
+absent for some minutes, but unfortunately he failed to hold the pan in
+the right place on its return, and it fell on the ground, where it was
+immediately seized and devoured by Ivar. The third was a complete
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page164" id = "page164">164</a></span>
+success, and so were the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh; the eighth
+stuck to the pan, and was a failure; and after that he got along all
+right to the thirty-fourth, when he had another partial failure, owing
+to over-confidence. This made him more careful, and all the rest were
+quite perfect. When we had finished we gave the rest of the batter to
+the men, who fried it all in one huge pancake, about two inches
+thick.</p>
+
+<p>We notice that all the diaries agree for once; the following note
+occurs in all:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>‘Pancakes for dinner to-day; the other two fellows over-ate
+themselves.’</p>
+
+<p>We told John this morning of his adventure with the boat and fishing
+line during the night, so he ate all the new bread at lunch, thereby
+laying its restless spirit long before bedtime; no doubt he and his
+dinner will slumber more peacefully to-night.</p>
+
+<p>It may be remembered that we brought a lot of fish slightly salted
+with us from Gjendesheim. Ever since our return here we have caught
+plenty of fish every day, and as we prefer fresh food to salt, the
+Gjendesheim fish which were placed in a little barrel have been
+neglected. Five or six days ago we noticed an unpleasant odour, and
+found that it proceeded from this barrel, the fish being in an advanced
+stage of decomposition, and the men told us they were making ‘raki
+fiske,’ a&nbsp;thing which they informed us in Norwegian is ‘real jam.’
+We were very angry, and gave orders that the whole thing
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page165" id = "page165">165</a></span>
+should at once be thrown into the glacier torrent. After this the affair
+faded from our minds, but yesterday we again noticed a suspicion of the
+same smell, and this morning it was so powerful that we began to invent
+theories to account for&nbsp;it.</p>
+
+<p>John, who is a man of great scientific attainments proved to his own
+complete satisfaction, that it proceeded from the bodies of prehistoric
+reindeer which had been engulfed by an avalanche ages ago and entombed
+in the glacier until now, when at last their decaying corpses were being
+washed down the stream.</p>
+
+<p>He said Huxley had often observed the same thing and told him
+about&nbsp;it.</p>
+
+<p>Esau’s theory was that the glacier itself was decomposing. ‘Look what
+a long time it had been standing exposed to the air, and most likely in
+a damp place; everybody knew that snow water was not good to drink,
+witness the goître of Switzerland; and why was it not good? Simply
+because it was putrid, and now that the hot sun was shining upon it, no
+wonder it smelt a little.’</p>
+
+<p>He concluded his remarks by inquiring who Huxley might be, and was
+just setting off up the valley with a bottle of Condy’s fluid to pour
+over the glacier, when the Skipper, who had wandered down to the Memurua
+River instead of arguing, suddenly rushed back with his fingers tightly
+holding his nose, and shaking his fist at Öla, said something
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page166" id = "page166">166</a></span>
+that began with ‘Dab,’ and went on with other unknown words.</p>
+
+<p>At last we gathered from his expressions that the barrel of ‘raki
+fiske’ had not been thrown into the torrent at all, but our villanous
+retainers had secreted it near the stream, intending to have a feast as
+soon as it should have become rotten enough to please their cultivated
+taste. Truly a Norwegian has the nastiest notions of food. Now the ‘raki
+fiske,’ barrel and all, is buried a yard deep, a&nbsp;long way from
+here, and life is again pleasant, but we have little doubt that Öla and
+Ivar will come back and root about and dig it up after we have left the
+country say a month hence: it ought to be in perfect condition by that
+time.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page167" id = "page167">167</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapXXI" id = "chapXXI">CHAPTER XXI.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">FISHING.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>August 20.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">The</span> first thing this morning we sent
+Öla to Gjendesheim with some venison for the people there, who have been
+very kind in sending milk, eggs, rice, onions, &amp;c. to us. We have
+more meat than we shall be able to eat if the weather continues as fine
+and hot as it is at present.</p>
+
+<p>We three walked over the mountain to spend the day at Rus Vand,
+taking our lunch with us. We got there about half-past ten, and the fish
+were then rising well, so we separated and commenced fishing, the
+Skipper and John taking the north side of the <ins class = "correction"
+title = ". for ,">lake,</ins> Esau the south. After catching a few fish
+the rise stopped, as it always does on these lakes about midday.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic168" id = "pic168">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic168.png" width = "532" height = "351"
+alt = "An Exciting Moment in Rus Lake Shallows"></p>
+
+<p>There is no doubt that on a Norwegian lake the fisherman should above
+all things ‘make haste while the fish rise.’ It is all very well for the
+ancient sportsman to remark, ‘Take your time, my young friend, there are
+as good fish in the sea as ever came out of it.’ It is no doubt true
+enough; but at this time of
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page168" id = "page168">168</a></span>
+year they will not rise to fly for more than about a couple of hours
+twice a day, and if you do not make the best of your opportunities then,
+where are you? Put yourself in the place of the fine old veteran
+three-pounder who has got into the habit of taking his meals at regular
+hours for fear of spoiling his digestion, and has selected the hours
+between 10 and 12 <span class = "smallroman">A.M.</span> and 4.30 and
+6.30 <span class = "smallroman">P.M.</span>, because he knows from long
+experience that these are the most likely times to find flies on the
+water. He has come in from roaming in deep waters to the shades of the
+rocky coast, and has a certain appetite to allay after his bath and
+morning stroll. There he waits, and thinks of old times, and of how fat
+and shiny his tummy became the last hot summer there was, when flies
+were plentiful, and he had not to resort to this
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page169" id = "page169">169</a></span>
+abominable device of catching small trout and eating mice<a class =
+"star" name = "tag5" id = "tag5" href = "#note5">*</a> to keep him in
+daily food, as he nearly always has to do now that the summers are so
+wet, and he is no longer active enough to compete with his younger
+relations in the struggle for existence. ‘What times those were, and how
+he wishes he were a year or two younger again, and not crippled with
+useless length; and, by George! now he comes to look at his reflection
+against that stone, he’s getting quite yellow and bilious under the
+belly, and&mdash;&mdash;’ But he can’t stop to moralise, there is a
+luscious March Brown of unusual solidity skating right over his pet
+rock, and he can’t let it pass. So up he comes and gulps it down, with a
+lazy flop of his tail that leaves quite a swirl on the lake surface.
+‘Why, the thing’s got no flavour, and how I’ve hurt my jaw with it!’
+Poor old chap, his day is over, and after ten minutes’ struggle he has
+left his favourite haunt to be occupied by another tenant, and is safe
+in the landing net, a&nbsp;good three-pound fish, but, like most of
+those who have reached this size, not quite in as good condition as he
+was at 2½ lbs., and just a shade longer than he ought to be. Don’t stop
+to gaze at him, put him in the bag with all speed&mdash;it is necessary
+to hurry up and fish on while the rise lasts.</p>
+
+<p class = "footnote">
+<a class = "star" name = "note5" id = "note5" href = "#tag5">*</a>
+We have found as many as three mice in the stomach of a Rus Vand
+trout.</p>
+
+<p>But all this time the hours have been slipping away, and we have
+lunched, and smoked, and sketched
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page170" id = "page170">170</a></span>
+till the rise began again soon after four, and though there was a strong
+cold west wind, the change seemed to encourage the fish to feed more
+greedily than usual, for trout are terrible Radicals, and rejoice in any
+alteration of the existing condition of things.</p>
+
+<p class = "figfloat">
+<a name = "pic170" id = "pic170">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic170.png" width = "315" height = "519"
+alt = "Esau’s Best Day among the Trout"></p>
+
+<p>Our old experience of Rus Vand taught us that one side was
+sporting-looking and interesting, while the other was bleak and ugly;
+but Esau, who took the ugly side, had much the best of it to-day, as the
+place seemed alive with fish, and he kept catching them all
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page171" id = "page171">171</a></span>
+the time, so that his little ten-foot rod was continually to be seen in
+the form of a hoop, from which position it reassumed the perpendicular
+in a way that reflects no little credit on Mr. Farlow.</p>
+
+<p>When we met again at the end of the lake on our way home, we found
+that we had twenty fish, weighing just 44 lbs., of which Esau had caught
+fifteen weighing 32½ lbs., the Skipper four of 9 lbs. weight, and John,
+who was very unlucky, only a single two-and-a-half-pounder. The smallest
+of the bag was a little over a pound, the largest three pounds, which
+was reached by more than one; and nearly all were caught in water so
+shallow that the dorsal fin of the fish was often visible in his mad
+rushes hither and thither; this made it extremely difficult to prevent
+the tail-fly being hung up on a rock whenever the fish was hooked on the
+dropper, and not a few were lost in this manner. All were caught on two
+patterns of fly, namely&mdash;&mdash;No, philanthropy has limits, and no
+man can expect to be told patterns of flies. Go to Norway, and the time
+and trouble spent in acquiring that knowledge will be amply repaid by
+the pleasure that no one could fail to derive from a visit.</p>
+
+<p>No doubt, with the usual discontentedness of man we shall regret for
+ever that we did not all go to the ugly side of the lake, of which Esau
+was obliged to leave the best piece untouched as he came back, from
+sheer inability to carry any more fish over the rough ground. But the
+ways of fish are inscrutable; we
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page172" id = "page172">172</a></span>
+hardly ever caught any number on that side before, and probably shall
+not do so again. It was just Esau’s day. Kismet.</p>
+
+<p>After weighing our catch, we cleaned them and cut off their heads to
+lighten them for the journey over Glopit, and even without this extra
+weight we were a good deal troubled and felt overburdened on the uphill
+side, which is terribly steep and rough, only just practicable for a man
+on foot.</p>
+
+<p>When we got back to camp we found that Öla had not returned from
+Gjendesheim, which caused us some sorrow, as Esau wanted to go out
+stalking on the morrow, and could not go alone. At least, he would be
+extremely unlikely to see any deer, for the reindeer being exactly the
+same colour as the mountains among which they live, it is almost
+impossible to see them before they see the enemy and depart hastily.</p>
+
+<p>These native hunters are wonderful at the profession, and seem to
+know by instinct when they are in the vicinity of deer, as if they could
+feel their presence in the air. No doubt they really see indications
+that we should never observe, for they always begin to go cautiously,
+crouching and peering over rocks when deer are about, long before we
+amateurs are aware from the ordinary signs of footprints, nibbled
+reindeer flowers, or newly moved stones, that there is likely to be any
+sport.</p>
+
+<!-- png 195 -->
+<p class = "plate">
+<a name = "plate172" id = "plate172"
+href = "images/plate172_large.png" target = "_blank">
+<img src = "images/plate172.png" width = "466" height = "270"
+alt = "see caption"></a></p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+ON THE TOP OF GLOPIT. RETURNING FROM RUS LAKE.</p>
+<!-- png 196 -->
+
+<h5>August 21.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>It was cold and windy last night, so we turned into bed early and lay
+in luxurious comfort
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page173" id = "page173">173</a></span>
+while John read out choice bits, all of which we know by heart, from the
+works of Mark Twain. We all think Mark Twain the best writer for camp
+life that has yet been discovered, and we have three or four of his
+books here. Besides these our library of light literature consists of
+Shakespeare, Longfellow, Dr. Johnson’s Table-talk, and novels by Whyte
+Melville, Walford, and Thackeray. But Mark and William get more work
+than all the rest.</p>
+
+<p>It is quite dark now during the night, and we have made a wooden
+chandelier out of a curiously bent piece of birch wood, which holds two
+candles and hangs down from the ridge pole by a string. In the daytime
+it is hoisted up to the roof, but at night we let it down till it swings
+about two feet above our heads as we lie in bed. This contrivance is
+capital for reading, and also affords considerable diversion to the last
+man into bed. The candles are just too high to be reached with a puff
+easily from a recumbent position, and yet we persistently try to blow
+them out without moving. Just as sleep is creeping over two of the
+wearied sportsmen, the last man begins blowing and cussing at these
+candles every night regularly. The scene is generally this. Skipper and
+John just dropping off to sleep. Esau lies down, makes himself extremely
+comfortable, and then&mdash;puff, whoo, whew, puff,&mdash;gasp for
+breath, rest a moment. Pouf. Chandelier swings round under the impulse
+of the strong wind thus created. Esau makes a brilliant
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page174" id = "page174">174</a></span>
+flying shot at one candle, as it circles swiftly past. Skipper: ‘Thank
+goodness.’ Pause. Esau: Poof, whoo, whoof. John: ‘Dash it all, get up
+and put it out.’ Esau: ‘Get up yourself.’ Skipper: ‘Let me blow it <ins
+class = "correction" title = "close quote missing">out.’</ins> Pouf,
+puff, whoosh. Chandelier swings madly round, drops grease on John’s
+nose. John: ‘Tare an ’ouns.’ Throws tobacco pouch at it, more grease all
+over the place, tobacco pouch rebounds from tent into Esau’s mouth.
+Recrimination for five minutes. Chandelier at last stationary. Everybody
+at once: ‘Puff, boo, pouf, whew, &mdash;&mdash; it, &mdash;&mdash; it,
+pouf, &mdash;&mdash; it, &mdash;&mdash; the &mdash;&mdash; thing &mdash;
+&mdash; &mdash; pouf. Thank goodness;’ and we all turn over with a sigh
+of relief, to repeat the performance the following night.</p>
+
+<p>Öla not having turned up, there could be no stalking, so the
+beautiful morning was wasted. The Skipper got so angry about it that he
+said he would go in his canoe to find the absentee, and take at the same
+time a lot of our surplus fish for the people at Gjendesheim.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving the tent on its grassy sunlit lawn he walked down to the edge
+of the great lake, and turning over the smaller of the two canoes, which
+were lying bottom uppermost, launched her and got in with rod and
+fishing bag, and pushed off into the deep. Opposite to the place where
+the canoes were drawn up, and apparently only a hundred yards distant
+though really more than a mile away, were the snow-capped mountain
+steeps that rise almost perpendicularly
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page175" id = "page175">175</a></span>
+from two to three thousand feet out of the lake; and for these he made,
+gradually becoming a mere twinkling speck till he faded out of sight
+from the tent. The lake was as smooth as glass, only occasionally
+rippled as some monarch of the deep, excited for once in his life by
+some specially fascinating fly, condescended to make a rush for it
+instead of the gentle suck by which he usually took his food, and the
+Skipper paddled leisurely along within twenty yards of the rocks, with
+his rod bending over the stern, and trailing behind a couple of flies in
+the hope of catching a trout without the trouble of angling for him.</p>
+
+<p>It is very pleasant to be alone once in a way in this overcrowded
+world. Not alone as it is possible to be in England, but absolutely
+alone, with no living thing near except the trout, the insects, and
+one’s image in the water. Oh, blessed Norway! when we get back to the
+turmoils, troubles, and pleasures of a London season how we shall long
+for you! There is only one word to express this existence, and that is
+Freedom&mdash;freedom from care, freedom from resistance, and from the
+struggle for life. What a country! where civilised man can relapse as
+much as seems good to him into his natural state, and retrograde a
+hundred generations into his primeval condition.</p>
+
+<p>But we forget that the Skipper is coasting up towards Gjendesheim in
+search of the miscreant Öla.</p>
+
+<p>He proceeded for a couple of hours, catching a
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page176" id = "page176">176</a></span>
+few fish now and then, but presently as midday approached, the sun
+became too hot to be pleasant, the fish would not move, and the Skipper
+began to get impatient and annoyed at not meeting Öla. After a while a
+black speck with two flashing arms appeared rounding a promontory; this
+was Öla in the boat. The Skipper was boiling with rage under the
+influence of various incentives as he approached. Öla, like most
+Norwegians, was calm, placid, and utterly unconscious of the flight of
+time and the shortness of life. The Skipper had been primed to exploding
+point by his two friends before starting, and as he had now paddled five
+miles from home without meeting the adversary, he was, to put it mildly,
+‘indignant.’ So, when he found Öla smoking serenely, and sculling along
+as though his brief span were going to stretch through the unending
+cycles of eternity, he gave way to the most horrible outbreak of temper
+in English, which must have lasted four or five minutes, and then
+telling the caitiff in Norwegian to take the fish to Gjendesheim and
+return to camp by five o’clock whatever the weather might be, he turned
+and left that hardy Norseman open-mouthed and bewildered, looking as
+though he had seen the Strömkarl, or had had an interview with his
+mother-in-law.</p>
+
+<p>Then a great wind arose, and blew against the Skipper all the way
+home, but he arrived in the most beatific frame of mind in spite of it;
+the relief of the storm of temper and bad language had been so great
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page177" id = "page177">177</a></span>
+to him, that he was filled with a blessed joy. He said it was the most
+invigorating and refreshing pastime he ever indulged in, for Öla could
+not understand a word of it, and therefore no remorse could follow the
+outburst, not a thoughtless expression or hasty word could go home to
+his heart and there rankle, to recoil on some future occasion, but the
+whole vial of pent-up wrath could be emptied on its object without fear
+of retribution.</p>
+
+<p>The explosion must have been something very fine to enable the
+Skipper to make light of the head-wind, for a wind on Gjendin is not to
+be scoffed at in any boat, and least of all in a cockle-shell of a
+canoe. The mountains are so high and steep that the lake lies as it were
+in a trench, and any wind always draws straight up or down the length,
+and soon gets a big sea up. All the Norwegians we have seen say it is
+the height of madness to go on Gjendin at all in such boats, the sudden
+squalls are so dangerous; and neither of our men can be persuaded to go
+a yard in them.</p>
+
+<p>Esau and John, for want of better employment, after fishing a little,
+began to bake, and had laid out a goodly show of dainty confections, two
+dozen rolls, four wimberry tarts, a&nbsp;lot of biscuits, and a venison
+pie of the ordinary size (9&nbsp;inches diameter). When the Skipper
+returned it was decided to make another, as we imagine the meat has a
+better chance of keeping when hoarded up in pies than when left in its
+raw state.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page178" id = "page178">178</a></span>
+<p>So we each took our usual share in the construction of a PIE, before
+which all other pies should be as nought.</p>
+
+<p>It was made in our largest baking tin, 12 inches across, and
+contained nearly a hind quarter of venison, our last six eggs,
+a&nbsp;heart, a&nbsp;liver, and about 1½ lb. of bacon. The crust was put
+on about nine o’clock, and after we had all gazed at it and unanimously
+agreed that it was the ‘boss pie,’ we bore it proudly but gingerly to
+the oven, heated by John seven times hotter than before, and now gaping
+to receive it; a&nbsp;great full moon rose up from behind the mountains
+and seemed to smile on our good work; the bright fire shed a red glow
+over the three figures bending o’er the simmering treasure, and a more
+peaceful, domestic group it would be impossible to conceive.</p>
+
+<p>About eleven John and the Skipper turned in, but outside could be
+seen for some time the solitary form of Esau still crouching over the
+expiring embers of the oven, and tending with a mother’s care the
+tempting food that he already tasted in imagination.</p>
+
+<!-- png 203 -->
+<p class = "plate">
+<a name = "plate178" id = "plate178"
+href = "images/plate178_large.png" target = "_blank">
+<img src = "images/plate178.png" width = "463" height = "272"
+alt = "see caption"></a></p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+BAKING BY NIGHT IN MEMURUDALEN.</p>
+<!-- png 204 -->
+
+<p>Most of the <a name = "berry_text" id = "berry_text">berries</a> of
+the country are now just at their best, and Memurudalen is a grand
+valley for all of them, except of course the strawberry and raspberry,
+which will not grow at this altitude. But we have ‘klarkling’ (the
+English crowberry) in great abundance; blau bær (wimberry), the finest
+and best ever seen, in quantities; also ‘skin tukt,’ another blue
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page179" id = "page179">179</a></span>
+berry rather larger than a wimberry, and with a thicker skin and
+wonderful bloom on it; this we think does not grow in England. Then less
+numerous are a berry something between a raspberry and a red currant,
+but of better flavour than either of them; and the great and glorious
+‘mölte bær’ (cloudberry); to say nothing of ‘heste bær,’ and ‘tutti
+bær,’ and several others of unknown names. The last one grows in
+England, but we have forgotten its name; they make jelly from it here,
+and prize it highly for its acid taste.</p>
+
+<p class = "mynote">
+See <a href = "#berry_notes">end of text</a>.</p>
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page180" id = "page180">180</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapXXII" id = "chapXXII">CHAPTER XXII.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">MEMURUDALEN.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>Sunday, August 22.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">We</span> woke up this morning with a
+bright sun shining through the canvas of the tent, and making it
+intolerably hot inside; and as we threw open the door of the inner
+compartment, the fragrant aroma of the ‘boss pie’ was wafted to us on
+the morning air.</p>
+
+<p>We spent the morning in quiet Sunday fashion, chiefly in lying under
+the shade of an awning made with rugs which we call the ‘sycamine tree,’
+and eating wimberries and cream. Besides this we perpetrated a great
+deal of high art; every one was seized with the desire of sketching the
+camp, and so we sat around on pinnacles like so many pelicans, libelling
+the unfortunate place from every position whence it could be seen.</p>
+
+<p>It is looking very comfortable just now. The tent itself is pitched
+in an angle of a steep little cliff which effectually protects it from
+cold winds at one side and the back, and at the other side we have put
+up a thick fence of birch branches to temper the
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page181" id = "page181">181</a></span>
+storm to the sleeping-tent. We find it very convenient to have the two
+compartments: the inner one is only used for sleeping in, and always
+immediately after reveillé is plunged in an apparently hopeless
+confusion of rugs, sheepskins, mattresses, and boots, with here and
+there a book or a hat protruding (to use the Skipper’s beautiful simile)
+like brickbats in a dust-heap. After breakfast all the bedding is
+dragged out to be aired on the rocks, and the tent generally tidied.</p>
+
+<p>But the outer tent is always a picture of order and neatness, for
+here we keep our stores, boxes of flour and biscuits, cartridges,
+cooking utensils, tools, whisky, and potatoes. One of the boxes was made
+specially under Esau’s directions to be used as a table: the top and
+bottom are both hinged, and so when the box is put on its front and
+these two lids opened it makes a very good large table; the lids are
+held up by a batten screwed underneath them, and for greater security we
+have added two legs. But at present the weather is so pleasant that we
+always feed outside, a&nbsp;few yards from the tent and nearer to the
+oven.</p>
+
+<p>On the extreme left, as the penny showman says, you will observe one
+of the meat safes, the other one ‘thou canst not see, because it’s not
+in sight,’ being close to the back of the tent. Also behind the tent may
+be faintly seen the mustard and cress garden, always covered with a
+sheet by day to save it from
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page182" id = "page182">182</a></span>
+the heat of the sun, and with the same sheet by night, to guard it from
+the cold, so that the poor thing never gets any light, and does not
+flourish very exceedingly. None of the mustard seeds have as yet grown
+up as big as the one in the parable, but when one does we mean to make a
+lot of salad out of it, enough for all the camp.</p>
+
+<p>Above the middle of the outer tent are three things which look like
+lightning conductors, but are only our rods, which are always stuck in
+the ground there when not in use. At their foot under the rock is the
+egg larder, neatly constructed of stones and turf, with a wooden lid;
+and hanging from the cliff hard by is a very pretty and curious spider’s
+nest made of paper, like a miniature wasp-nest, about two inches in
+diameter.</p>
+
+<p>High up in the centre is ‘the meteor flag of England,’ engaged in its
+customary occupation of ‘yet terrific burning,’ there being absolutely
+no Dutch Boers here. Underneath its shelter are many forked poles with
+cross-bars, all made from the birch with which the valley abounds just
+here, and on which clothing of some sort is always hanging out to dry;
+so that the place looks like a laundry-ground, and deceives even the
+ravens, which come down in swarms from the mountains in search of maids’
+noses to devour. In the midst of these poles may be seen the oven, with
+its flue reaching halfway up the hill, and its two openings, the lower
+one for fuel, the upper for food.</p>
+
+<!-- png 209 -->
+<p class = "plate">
+<a name = "plate182" id = "plate182"
+href = "images/plate182_large.png" target = "_blank">
+<img src = "images/plate182.png" width = "465" height = "272"
+alt = "see caption"></a></p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+THE CAMP IN MEMURUDALEN.</p>
+<!-- png 210 -->
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page183" id = "page183">183</a></span>
+<p>Right in front of the tent is the fireplace, a long trench in the
+ground, faced with stones of such a size and shape that they form
+apertures suitable for our numerous pans; and simmering by the fire is
+the perennial soup. Nearer to the front is the wood pile, and nearer
+still the board on which the cooking things are placed after washing up.
+In front again of this is the little stream which supplies us with
+water, now rapidly beginning to fail under the influence of the long
+drought: it may be noticed that the engineers have changed its course in
+several places for greater convenience in getting water, and to give
+more room on the camp side.</p>
+
+<p>The foreground is a mass of juniper, wimberries, skintukt,
+crowberries, and rocks, and then comes about thirty yards from the tent
+the Memurua torrent, all thick and milky from the glacier, cold as
+Christmas, fishless, uninteresting, not drinkable, only useful as a
+refrigerator for milk, and only agreeable to look upon from a distance,
+but faithfully keeping up the unceasing roar that is customary among
+such torrents. This river makes the waters of the lake too cold to bathe
+in and too cheerless for fish to abide in near our camp, but it does not
+come into the picture, partly because it runs in a ravine, but more
+because it was right behind the artist.</p>
+
+<p>The lake itself is to the extreme right, with unclimbable snow-capped
+rocky mountains forming the opposite coast.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page184" id = "page184">184</a></span>
+<p>To-day we dined at 4 <span class = "smallroman">P.M.</span> in order
+to get an uninterrupted evening’s fishing, but the experiment was not a
+success and will not be repeated, for it spoilt the dinner and we caught
+no fish. On returning to camp at night rather cold, very cross, and
+exceedingly hungry, we agreed that the best antidote for these dangerous
+symptoms would be hot soup, so John put the pot on the fire while the
+Skipper and Esau were attending to the tent and domestic duties.</p>
+
+<p>Soon the caldron was heated and brought into the tent, and the eager
+crowd drew near with cups and spoons, and one lifted the lid, while
+another plunged his cup into the steaming savoury mess. And then arose a
+great cry of horror and desolation, and the sleeping valley rang with
+the wail of men in despair, for John had put the wrong pot on the fire,
+and we had been presented with boiling dirty water in which the
+dinner-things had been washed up; while all the time the soup pot was
+quiet, untouched and cold in the corner of the tent where it is
+kept.</p>
+
+<p>But three hungry men are not to be balked of a meal on which their
+hearts are set by any trifle like this, so we all commenced with a will
+to stoke that fire up and put that other pot on, and we got our soup and
+were snugly packed in bed long before the gentle August moon had sunk to
+rest behind the sheltering mountain tops.</p>
+
+<p>The Skipper, by the way, is very much exasperated with this same moon
+just now. He says she is a
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page185" id = "page185">185</a></span>
+fraud, for this morning when we got up, there she was high in the
+heavens.</p>
+
+<p>‘What right,’ he wants to know, ‘has this moon&mdash;any moon, in
+fact&mdash;to be up there blinking away in the middle of the day when we
+have plenty of sun to light us? forward, dissipated thing! and then
+probably after this week we shall have ever so many nights without any
+moon at all, and all the earth left in total darkness to take care of
+itself; while here we are to-day with an absurdly round moon at one end
+of this comparatively diminutive valley, and a most extravagantly
+blazing sun at the other.’ The whole thing is ridiculous, he says, and
+it must be confessed that there is some justice in his complaint; though
+no doubt there could be a good deal said on the other side.</p>
+
+<h5>August 23.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>While Esau went out after deer the other two crawled up the mountain
+and over to Rus Vand to fish, and had a good day. Two of the Skipper’s
+fish were three pounds each, but, like most of the biggest fish, not in
+that beautiful condition which the smaller ones always show. The Skipper
+is sure that the old worn-out fish creep up to the stony shallows at the
+western end of the lake to die in a sunny spot, just as we men creep
+away in our old age to Bath, Cheltenham, Cannes, or Algiers, to breathe
+our last in a warm place, thereby taking one step in the direction of
+the proverbial future.</p>
+
+<p>Esau arrived in camp about half-past seven, quite
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page186" id = "page186">186</a></span>
+exhausted, and followed by Öla, also dead beat, and again bearing the
+heads and skins of two deer, a&nbsp;buck and a doe. He was hailed with
+fervent joy and many congratulations: it is certainly great luck to fall
+in with deer on two stalking days in succession, for they are by no
+means numerous here this year. Dinner was served in a marvellously short
+time.</p>
+
+<div class = "menu">
+<p>MENU.&mdash;August 23.</p>
+
+<p><i>Poisson.</i><br>
+Truite à la Fried in Butter.</p>
+
+<p><i>Entrées.</i><br>
+Kari of Reindeer Tongue.</p>
+
+<p><i>Rôts.</i><br>
+The Boss Pie.</p>
+
+<p><i>Gibier.</i><br>
+Ryper à la Spitchcock.</p>
+
+<p><i>Entremets.</i><br>
+Jam. Wimberry tart. Marmalade.</p>
+
+<p><i>Potage.</i><br>
+Could not eat any.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Then came Esau’s romance.</p>
+
+<p>‘We walked up the Memurua to the great glacier, and then skirted its
+south side. We found many fresh tracks, and about two o’clock, when we
+were seven miles from home, Öla spied three deer chewing stones about
+three quarters of a mile away. The
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page187" id = "page187">187</a></span>
+wind was just in the right direction to allow us to approach them, and
+they were in capital ground for stalking, full of little hollows and
+slopes. But there was a serious drawback: on one side was a lake, on the
+other an impassable precipice; and before we could get into a place out
+of their sight we should be obliged to cross a narrow strip of ground in
+full view of them, though perhaps half a mile from them. We sat down and
+had our lunch, and waited an hour watching for them to lie down, and at
+last they did so; then we determined to risk the passage of the
+dangerous strip, and by crawling like serpents and aided by luck got
+across without the <ins class = "correction" title =
+"text reads ‘dear’">deer</ins> seeing us. Then we had to creep along the side of a
+scandalous precipice for the next half-mile, in no danger of being seen,
+but with our hearts constantly in our mouths as, despite our care, some
+stone was dislodged and went clattering down the rocks, sounding to my
+strained ears as if it must disturb every living thing within a mile.
+Very slow and difficult was our progress, occasionally dangerous, but at
+last we arrived at a spot 200 yards from the deer, which were still
+lying down, and pronounced by Öla to be a buck and two does.</p>
+
+<p>‘This was a very awkward place to shoot from, and I thought I could
+see my way to a better one much nearer, so tried it and found it was
+just possible, and after about a quarter of an hour’s worming,
+I&nbsp;arrived at a place only 100 yards from them. From
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page188" id = "page188">188</a></span>
+this I could see both the does well, but only the head of the buck, and
+so had to lie there an hour waiting for him to get up. Both the does did
+so twice, offering beautiful shots, but he would not move, and they lay
+down again. I&nbsp;dare not whistle to make him jump up, for fear the
+does might possibly be in the way at the moment. So there I lay,
+miserably uncomfortable, with cramp in every muscle; and at last I tried
+to crawl to another stone about five yards away, from which I thought I
+could see to shoot at the buck. When I got to it and peered cautiously
+over, I&nbsp;was horrified to see the deer some distance away, and
+running as hard as they could towards a small glacier which was close to
+them.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic188" id = "pic188">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic188.png" width = "531" height = "411"
+alt = "Esau stalking near Hinaakjærnhullet"></p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page189" id = "page189">189</a></span>
+<p>‘Of course I instantly lost my head, and jumping up fired at the buck
+without much aim, and missed him. Then I recovered my senses and made a
+careful shot at the last doe, knocking her over like a rabbit. The other
+two were just then out of sight in a hollow, but they appeared directly
+going up the hill on the snow at a great speed; and getting a broadside
+shot at the buck I broke his shoulder; after this he went slowly, but
+still kept on up the hill, and when he was about three hundred yards
+away I fired two more shots, one of which hit him in the ribs, and the
+other cut one of his horns off. Then he gave up trying to mount the
+hill, and turned down towards the lake out of my sight. I&nbsp;ran as
+hard as I could across the shoulder of the glacier, and saw him standing
+down below me among the rocks close to the water, and sitting down I
+fired another shot which killed him.</p>
+
+<p>‘This is not a creditable performance in the shooting line; but my
+solid bullets have a good deal to do with the matter: either of the
+first two shots would have stopped him at once if fired from an express
+with hollow-pointed bullets.</p>
+
+<p>‘The doe is a barren one with a beautiful skin, and very fat, and the
+buck is the best we have killed at present this year,
+a&nbsp;four-year-old, what Öla calls a “litt stor bock” (little big
+buck), which I suppose is the next best thing to the mythical “meget
+stor bock,” whose footprints we are always seeing, but who carefully
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page190" id = "page190">190</a></span>
+absenteth himself whensoever the jovial hunter goeth forth to pursue
+him.</p>
+
+<p>‘We saw a great deal of fresh spoor to-day, so that we may hope the
+deer are beginning to come to our part of the country: perhaps the poor
+things have been very much bullied in other places. Anyhow, they won’t
+find any better country in Norway than where we went to-day; and the
+scenery there is glorious.’</p>
+
+<p>Esau was so tired that he fell asleep once in the midst of his
+exciting narrative, and as dinner was very late we all turned in almost
+as soon as it was finished.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page191" id = "page191">191</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapXXIII" id = "chapXXIII">CHAPTER XXIII.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">A PICNIC.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>August 24.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">There</span> is a brood of ryper on the
+brow of the mountain above our camp, which we always put up when we walk
+over Glopit armed with rods, but never when we take a gun. There were
+originally eight of them, but one has succumbed to a merlin which hunts
+up there; and they are remarkably tame, so that when we put them up we
+throw stones at them, and fully expect to kill them by that means, but
+somehow they have escaped with their lives until now. This conduct has
+become unbearable, and we have sworn ‘this day that brood shall die;’ so
+the first thing after breakfast Esau and the Skipper toiled up the
+mountain with pockets full of cartridges and guns ready for the
+slaughter of the innocents. It takes just three quarters of an hour to
+get to the top; and after reaching it we tramped over some millions of
+acres in search of that brood, and of course it never obtruded itself on
+the scene. Finally the Skipper went home in disgust, remarking that ‘he
+wished every ryper in Norway was at the
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page192" id = "page192">192</a></span>
+bottom of Gjendin;’ while Esau said ‘he would stay up there a month or
+two and find those birds if they were anywhere on our sheet of the
+Ordnance map.’</p>
+
+<p>The Skipper had hardly walked 200 yards towards camp before he trod
+on the old cock, who got up observing kek! kek! kekkekkek<i>kek</i>,
+kurrack: kur<i>rack</i>; kurrack, krackrackackckkkkk! in an extremely
+indignant tone of voice, and the rest of the family immediately followed
+him, astonishing the Skipper so much that he missed the lot; and though
+we marked them down quite near we could not persuade any of them to risk
+their lives in flight again.</p>
+
+<p>The language used on this occasion scorched the herbage off so large
+a patch of ground, that John down below thought that Glopit had suddenly
+commenced a volcanic eruption.</p>
+
+<p>There are two kinds of birds known as ryper in Norway&mdash;the fjeld
+or skarv ryper, which is, we think, identical with our ptarmigan; and
+the dal or skog ryper, which we believe to be the same bird as the
+willow grouse of North America. The former of these is not numerous
+anywhere, but a few are always seen by the reindeer hunter up on the
+highest parts of the mountains, among the snow and rocks. They do not
+attempt much concealment, but their grey bodies and white wings are so
+exactly the colour of their habitation that it is very difficult to see
+them, as they sit perfectly still on the stones. If you do happen to
+catch sight of one, in all probability after
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page193" id = "page193">193</a></span>
+looking at him for a little you will suddenly be aware that there is a
+small family of others all about him, and will wonder how they escaped
+your notice at first. They are not very useful for sporting purposes, as
+they are never found in great numbers, are too tame to give any trouble,
+and not particularly good to eat. The skog ryper is the bird which takes
+the place of the British grouse for the sportsman in Norway: he lives at
+a lower altitude than the skarv ryper, among the willows, wimberries,
+and stunted birches. In plumage he is not unlike our grouse, but not
+quite so red in shade, and with a white wing. During the summer he feeds
+on wimberry leaves, heather, and occasional bits of willow, and he is
+then almost if not quite equal to a grouse in flavour, but in winter,
+when there is nothing but willow to be had, the flesh becomes bitter and
+not nice to eat: the poor birds are then snared in great numbers, and
+may be seen hanging in English shops as ‘ptarmigan,’ which with their
+then white plumage they much resemble. After a good breeding season
+these skog ryper are very numerous in any favourable place in Norway,
+but they are so much inclined to lie close, that without dogs it is
+impossible to do much with them. Gjendin is too steep and desolate for
+them, but between the east end of the lake and Sjödals Vand there is
+some first-rate country, and also a little at the west end.</p>
+
+<p>After lunch we all manned Esau’s canoe, which is the largest, because
+he is the smallest man; and
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page194" id = "page194">194</a></span>
+set off down the lake to Leirungsö, the place where the professor’s hut
+is built at the edge of the waterfall which runs out of a small lake
+there (not the real Leirung’s Vand, which is further to the east).</p>
+
+<p>The Skipper had noticed a remarkably fine bed of mölte bær there,
+which we expected to be just about ripe now, and so we had determined to
+picnic&nbsp;(!) there, forsooth, as if our life were not one perpetual
+and perennial picnic.</p>
+
+<p>Leirungsö is nearly four miles from our camp, and the professor’s hut
+is an extremely comfortable and convenient little dwelling, in a most
+charming situation. Only one thing has been wanting, reindeer: he never
+found any, and left his hut a fortnight ago for a place further north,
+where we afterwards heard he had good sport.</p>
+
+<p>After landing, the Skipper and Esau climbed up the valley to the
+little lake in search of something to shoot, while John remained to
+bathe and fish at the fall. There were lots of duck on the little lake,
+and in the rushy swamp at its upper end, and the Skipper put up a large
+brood of ryper, which we marked into a very small patch of willow scrub
+surrounded by bare ground. We walked through and through that patch, and
+threw so many stones into it that we fancy we must have killed and
+buried most of them, for we only persuaded four of them to fly again,
+three of which we secured. Our shooting was soon over, and then we
+gathered a lot of mölte bær,
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page195" id = "page195">195</a></span>
+and returned to John, who was getting dinner ready; and after a regal
+repast of kidneys, reindeer pie, and mölte, paddled home by moonlight,
+arriving soon after nine.</p>
+
+<p>We beguiled the journey home by songs and accompaniments by the
+following celebrated artists: Messrs. John, Skipper, and Esau. Among
+other songs was an original composition by John&mdash;air, ‘Bonnie
+Dundee’&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class = "verse">
+<p class = "center"><a name = "song_text" id = "song_text">ODE TO THE
+LAST POT OF MARMALADE.</a></p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+To the fishers of Gjendin the bold Skipper spoke:</p>
+<p>‘There is one two-pound pot that as yet is unbroke;<a class = "tag"
+name = "tag1s" id = "tag1s" href = "#note1s">1</a></p>
+<p>So rouse ye, my gallants, and after our tea</p>
+<p>Let us “go for” our Keiller’s<a class = "tag" name = "tag2s" id =
+"tag2s" href = "#note2s">2</a> own Bonnie Dundee.’</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+(<i>Chorus.</i>) Come! up with the Smör!<a class = "tag" name = "tag3s"
+id = "tag3s" href = "#note3s">3</a> Come! out with the Brod,<a class =
+"tag" name = "tag4s" id = "tag4s" href = "#note4s">4</a></p>
+<p class = "indent2">We’ll have one more Spise<a class = "tag" name =
+"tag5s" id = "tag5s" href = "#note5s">5</a> that’s fit for a god;</p>
+<p class = "indent2">Come, whip off the paper and let it gae free,</p>
+<p class = "indent2">And we’ll wade into Keiller’s own Bonnie
+Dundee.</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+You may talk of your mölte<a class = "tag" name = "tag6s" id = "tag6s"
+href = "#note6s">6</a> with sugar and milk,</p>
+<p>Your blueberry pasties, and jam of that ilk;</p>
+<p>They are all very well in the wilds, don’t you see?</p>
+<p>But they can’t hold a candle to Bonnie Dundee.</p>
+
+<p class = "deep">
+<i>Chorus as before.</i></p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+Oh! the pies they were good, and the oven baked true,</p>
+<p>With its door of green sod, and its sinuous flue.</p>
+<p>Oh! the curry was toothsome as curry can be,</p>
+<p>But where is the equal of Bonnie Dundee?</p>
+
+<p class = "deep">
+<i>Chorus again, gentlemen.</i></p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+There are ryper on Glopit<a class = "tag" name = "tag7s" id = "tag7s"
+href = "#note7s">7</a> as fleet as the wind,</p>
+<p>And the Stor<a class = "tag" name = "tag8s" id = "tag8s" href =
+"#note8s">8</a> Bock roams on the Skagastolstind;</p>
+<p>There are trout, teal, and woodcock, a sight for to see,</p>
+<p>But what meal can be perfect without our Dundee?</p>
+
+<p class = "deep">
+<i>Chorus, if you please.</i></p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page196" id = "page196">196</a></span>
+<p class = "stanza">
+Pandecages<a class = "tag" name = "tag9s" id = "tag9s" href =
+"#note9s">9</a> are tasty, and omelettes are good;</p>
+<p>Our eggs, though antique, not unsuited for food;</p>
+<p>You can always be sure of at least one in three,</p>
+<p>But blue mould cannot ruin our Bonnie Dundee.</p>
+
+<p class = "deep">
+<i>Chorus, only more so.</i></p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+Take<a class = "tag" name = "tag10s" id = "tag10s" href =
+"#note10s">10</a> my soup, though ’tis luscious, my öl,<a class = "tag"
+name = "tag11s" id = "tag11s" href = "#note11s">11</a> though ’tis
+rare,</p>
+<p>My whisky, though scanty, beyond all compare;</p>
+<p>Take my baccy, take all that is dearest to me,</p>
+<p>But leave me one spoonful of Bonnie Dundee.</p>
+
+<p class = "deep">
+<i>Chorus ad lib.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Esau supplied an encore verse:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class = "verse">
+<p>It has made our lot brighter, and helped us to bear</p>
+<p>Our troubles, the rain, mist, and cold northern air;</p>
+<p>And the Gjende fly,<a class = "tag" name = "tag12s" id = "tag12s"
+href = "#note12s">12</a> green fly,<a class = "tag" name = "tag13s" id =
+"tag13s" href = "#note13s">13</a> bug,<a class = "tag" name = "tag14s"
+id = "tag14s" href = "#note14s">14</a> skeeter,<a class = "tag" name =
+"tag15s" id = "tag15s" href = "#note15s">15</a> and flea,</p>
+<p>We should ne’er have done Deeing them but for Dundee.</p>
+
+<p class = "deep">
+<i>Chorus (of big, big D’s).</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class = "mynote">
+See <a href = "#song_notes">end of text</a>.</p>
+
+<div class = "footnote">
+<p class = "center">NOTES ON THE ABOVE COMPOSITION.</p>
+
+<p><a class = "tag" name = "note1s" id = "note1s" href = "#tag1s">1</a>
+‘Unbroke.’ This is bold poetic imagery, meaning unopened. Breakages were
+unknown during our expedition, and long experience justifies us in
+assuring the world that breaking the pot, though an effectual way of
+getting at the marmalade, is not a satisfactory method. It will be found
+much better to remove the bladder at the top. This may be
+depended&nbsp;on.</p>
+
+<p><a class = "tag" name = "note2s" id = "note2s" href = "#tag2s">2</a>
+Need we explain that ‘Keiller’s own Bonnie Dundee’ alludes to the
+marmalade made by that great and good man? No, a&nbsp;thousand
+times&nbsp;no!</p>
+
+<p><a class = "tag" name = "note3s" id = "note3s" href = "#tag3s">3</a>
+‘Smör,’ Norwegian butter, pronounced Smoeurr&mdash;and it tastes like
+that, too.</p>
+
+<p><a class = "tag" name = "note4s" id = "note4s" href = "#tag4s">4</a>
+‘Brod,’ bread. The word does not rhyme to god, being pronounced
+something like Broat, but it looks as if it rhymed.</p>
+
+<p><a class = "tag" name = "note5s" id = "note5s" href = "#tag5s">5</a>
+‘Spise,’ a meal, pronounced Speessa.</p>
+
+<p><a class = "tag" name = "note6s" id = "note6s" href = "#tag6s">6</a>
+‘Mölte,’ cloudberry, pronounced Moulta.</p>
+
+<p><a class = "tag" name = "note7s" id = "note7s" href = "#tag7s">7</a>
+‘Glopit,’ the mountain between Gjendin and Rus Vand.</p>
+
+<p><a class = "tag" name = "note8s" id = "note8s" href = "#tag8s">8</a>
+‘Stor,’ big, pronounced Stora before a consonant.</p>
+
+<p><a class = "tag" name = "note9s" id = "note9s" href = "#tag9s">9</a>
+‘<ins class = "correction" title =
+"text reads ‘Pandecāgos’ but see main text">Pandecāges</ins>,’ pancakes.</p>
+
+<p><a class = "tag" name = "note10s" id = "note10s" href =
+"#tag10s">10</a>
+‘Take.’ This word is only used by poetic licence, and must not be
+construed literally. When we attempted to ‘take’ John’s whisky on our
+return to camp, there was a good deal of ill-feeling engendered, and he
+said that no one but himself understood the subtleties of æsthetic
+metaphor.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page197" id = "page197">197</a></span>
+<p><a class = "tag" name = "note11s" id = "note11s" href =
+"#tag11s">11</a>
+‘Öl,’ the ale of the country, ‘rare’ both in quality and, alas! in
+quantity.</p>
+
+<p><a class = "tag" name = "note12s" id = "note12s" href =
+"#tag12s">12</a>
+‘Gjende fly,’ a fly peculiar to this lake, of which more anon.</p>
+
+<p><a class = "tag" name = "note13s" id = "note13s" href =
+"#tag13s">13</a>
+‘Green fly,’ a charming creature like a large grey blue-bottle with
+green eyes; it bites a portion of flesh sufficient for its wants, and
+then goes away to eat&nbsp;it.</p>
+
+<p><a class = "tag" name = "note14s" id = "note14s" href =
+"#tag14s">14</a>
+‘Bug.’ Again poetic licence. ‘Cimex lectularius’ has not been
+encountered during our stay in Norway this time; nevertheless he is not
+unknown in the country, as the sojourners in one of the Lillehammer
+hotels, not the Victoria, can testify.</p>
+
+<p><a class = "tag" name = "note15s" id = "note15s" href =
+"#tag15s">15</a>
+‘Skeeter.’ The mosquito is a mournful and disgraceful fact; and so are
+the sand-fly, the stomoxys, and the flea. Memurudalen is more free from
+insects than any place we have tried.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<h5>August 25.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>Still the same glorious weather, rather too glorious for our purling
+rivulet, which has now dwindled away to a mere thread of water, while
+even the larger stream on the hill behind the tent, which we use for
+bathing, is showing a marked decrease in volume.</p>
+
+<p>The Skipper and Öla went out stalking directly after breakfast, and
+Esau climbed up on to Bes Hö to shoot ryper. John went over to Rus Vand
+to fish, and had a pleasant day. He managed somehow to drop his native
+‘tolle kniv’ into the lake, and of course immediately discovered that
+that knife was the most precious thing he possessed, in fact, the only
+thing he cared about in this world; though until it fell into the lake,
+he had regarded it with very unenthusiastic feelings&mdash;feelings of
+tolle-ration, the Skipper said. So he undressed and dived for it for a
+long time, and at last was lucky enough to recover it.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page198" id = "page198">198</a></span>
+<p>It would have been a pleasing sight to a spectator, if any could have
+been present, to watch John playing at being a seal all by himself in
+Rus Vand, or standing on a rock poised on one leg like a heron, with his
+head sideways and keen eye piercing the cerulean wave. And it was good
+to see his proud bearing as he returned to camp with the ‘tolle kniv’
+slung jauntily at his waist, and carrying over his shoulder the scaly
+spoil snatched from the vasty deep, as we used beautifully to word it in
+Latin verses&mdash;meaning the fish he had caught.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic198" id = "pic198">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic198.png" width = "307" height = "308"
+alt = "John diving for his knife in Rus Lake"></p>
+
+<p>At 8 <span class = "smallroman">P.M.</span> the Skipper had not
+returned, so we dined, and then sat round the fire wondering what could
+have happened to delay him; and as time went on and still he never came,
+we began to get very uneasy; there are so many dangers by which the
+reindeer
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page199" id = "page199">199</a></span>
+hunter may be overtaken&mdash;avalanches, crevasses, fogs, snowdrifts,
+broken limbs, or getting lost. We could only hope that none of these had
+happened to the Skipper, and at eleven o’clock gave up any hopes of his
+return that night and turned in, there being then a very decided fog a
+short way up the Memurua valley.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page200" id = "page200">200</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapXXIV" id = "chapXXIV">CHAPTER XXIV.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">THE SKIPPER’S RETURN.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>August 26.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">At</span> breakfast-time the drover who had
+accompanied us to shoot ryper at Gjendebod arrived here on his way
+towards lower and more genial regions for the winter. We always feel
+that we are killing more game than we really need, and here was an
+outlet for our superfluous meat, so we gave him half a deer, and he went
+homewards rejoicing greatly.</p>
+
+<p>We had sent Ivar up to the drover’s den in Memurudalen at daybreak to
+see if our missing ones had found their way to it and spent the night
+there, but he now came back without having found any traces of them.
+However, under the cheering influence of the morning sun we soon became
+resigned to their fate, and Esau so far regained his spirits that he
+crossed the glacier torrent with a gun, and penetrated the birchwood on
+the other side, to what he called ‘shoot the home coverts.’ He presently
+brought back a woodcock, which had got up about fourteen times before he
+killed it, and each time he had thought it was a fresh cock, so that he
+had had a regular sporting
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page201" id = "page201">201</a></span>
+morning after it, ‘seeing lots of cock get up, shooting at two, and
+killing one of them,’ the wood being so thick that it was almost
+impossible to get even the snappiest of snap-shots at the agile
+bird.</p>
+
+<p>Esau then busied himself with the construction of a rack to hold all
+our guns and spare rods, cleaning rod, &amp;c., with a shelf near the
+bottom for books, and another one whereon each man might keep his little
+valuables, such as pipes and watch, fly-books and reels. This
+contrivance was chiefly formed of birch boughs of peculiar shape, and
+when finished and placed in its proper position at the further end of
+the tent just behind our pillows, it presented a truly noble
+appearance.</p>
+
+<p>Lunch-time passed, and still the Skipper had not returned, so we
+decided that he must be defunct, and proceeded to write his epitaph,
+preparatory to organising a search expedition to bring in his
+remains.</p>
+
+<p>Here is one touching little poem:</p>
+
+<div class = "verse">
+<p>He was rather tall and terribly thin,</p>
+<p class = "indent">But remarkably roomy inside;</p>
+<p>We put up these stones to cover his bones</p>
+<p class = "indent">Near the place where we think he died.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This is another:</p>
+
+<div class = "verse w24">
+<p class = "center">IN MEMURUHAMEREN</p>
+
+<p class = "center smaller">(HILLS ROUND THE CAMP).</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+Our Skipper has gone, our great head cook,</p>
+<p class = "indent">On a tour that e’en Cook won’t find;</p>
+<p>In a fissure he’s surely taken his hook</p>
+<p class = "indent">Nor left any trace behind.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page202" id = "page202">202</a></span>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+With a rod or pole he would fish for perch,</p>
+<p class = "indent">Now a rod, pole, or perch of ground</p>
+<p>Is more than he needs, and in vain we search,</p>
+<p class = "indent">For his body will ne’er be found.</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+Now his angling is finished, though once every fin</p>
+<p class = "indent">Which came within reach he’d attack;</p>
+<p>He was really so clever at reeling them in,</p>
+<p class = "indent">And his terms were to fish, ‘nett catsh.’</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+On a lake or pond, or even a moat,</p>
+<p class = "indent">He beamed wherever he went;</p>
+<p>How cheerfully he would tar his boat!</p>
+<p class = "indent">How gaily would pitch his tent!</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+After ryper or deer he would walk all day,</p>
+<p class = "indent">From the top of a hill to the bottom;</p>
+<p>And we feel it unpleasantly sad to say</p>
+<p class = "indent">That the dear old Reaper’s got him.</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+But we think it is time that this verse were done,</p>
+<p class = "indent">Which to mournfully write we’ve tried</p>
+<p>In memory o’ our darlin’ one,</p>
+<p class = "indent">Who in Memurudalen died.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>While we were still lingering over these beautiful and appropriate
+sentiments, and deliberating as to whether they should be cut on a stone
+or only on wood, the corpse suddenly walked into the tent and announced
+that he wanted something to eat. We soon got over our natural
+disappointment at the waste of a good epitaph, and really welcomed him
+quite warmly, much more so when Öla appeared laden with the tit-bits of
+a reindeer buck. Then we set food before the Skipper, and after he had
+feasted he related unto us his story.</p>
+
+<p>‘I left camp yesterday morning determined to
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page203" id = "page203">203</a></span>
+beard the savage untamed reindeer of the mountains in his lair, and soon
+came on very fresh tracks, which we followed for some time, and at each
+step seemed to get “hotter,” as the children say, and the indications of
+deer being near got more and more encouraging. However, by one o’clock
+we had seen nothing, so sat down behind a little rocky eminence to have
+our <ins class = "correction" title =
+"single quotes unchanged">‘spise.’</ins> Mine was a particularly good lunch, as I had
+spread some gravy from the <ins class = "correction" title =
+"single quotes unchanged">‘boss pie’</ins> on my slice of bread and butter, and
+this with the icy cold snow-water was very grateful after a four hours’
+walk uphill under a scorching sun.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic203" id = "pic203">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic203.png" width = "516" height = "311"
+alt = "The Skipper about to astonish the Reindeer"></p>
+
+<p><ins class = "correction" title = "open quote missing">‘Öla</ins>
+also seemed to devour his food with considerable relish. So we had been
+sitting there some time, happily silent, as we cannot talk each other’s
+tongue, and I was just preparing to move on, and putting my
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page204" id = "page204">204</a></span>
+knife back in its sheath, when we heard a slight snort quite close
+to&nbsp;us.</p>
+
+<p>‘Öla immediately peeped cautiously over an adjacent stone; then he
+pushed my rifle into my hand and whispering the magic word “Reins,”
+pointed to another stone a few yards away, whither he wished me to
+crawl. To unsling my cartridge-bag lest it should jingle, and creep to
+that stone, was what the novelists call the work of a moment: then I
+raised my head <i>va-a-ry</i> gingerly, and saw forty yards away a
+single four-year-old buck standing broadside to me with his head in the
+air, sniffing suspiciously, and his whole attitude denoting uncertainty
+and caution. This buck, as we found out afterwards from the spoor, had
+walked up to within ten yards of us as we sat at lunch; then he must
+have either heard me or smelt Öla, probably the latter, for Öla seldom
+washes his hands, never his blood-stained hunting coat; and when I
+encountered his gaze he had evidently just decided that this was not a
+good place for reindeer to be about in. This was an excellent frame of
+mind on his part, but he arrived at it a couple of seconds too late: my
+rifle was levelled, and the shot hit him just above the heart. At that
+distance the express bullet smashed a portion of him about as big as a
+hat, so that he rolled over stone dead, and had no time for lingering
+glances or last words. Half an hour more, and he was skinned,
+gralloched, put in a hole and buried under a heap of stones, to remain
+there
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page205" id = "page205">205</a></span>
+until we need his flesh and send the horse to bring him home. Then we
+built a little cairn to mark his resting-place for future use, and
+wandered on in search of the rest of his party.</p>
+
+<p>‘Very soon we came on the tracks of four other deer, one of them only
+a calf, but although we followed the spoor all the afternoon we never
+came up with them: probably they were near enough to hear my shot when I
+fired, and at once betook themselves to remote regions.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic205" id = "pic205">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic205.png" width = "406" height = "233"
+alt = "Öla performing the Funeral Rites"></p>
+
+<p>‘It had got so late before we gave up the search, and we were such a
+long way from home, that we determined to go to Gjendebod, at the
+Western end of the lake, hoping to get a boat there and return to
+Memurudalen by water. But on arriving there very tired, hot, and hungry,
+we found that the men had taken their boat down the lake, and would not
+return until to-day. This was a great blow, for it is quite impossible
+to walk along the shores of Gjendin,
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page206" id = "page206">206</a></span>
+except, as John says, for a bird&mdash;and even it would have to fly all
+the way. Climbing up the mountain again was out of the question, as it
+is a seven hours’ walk from Gjendebod to our camp, so there was nothing
+for it but sleeping there&mdash;a course which was very distasteful to
+me, as the food is bad, and I had no book with me, no tobacco, no
+hair-brush, and no fishing-rod.</p>
+
+<p>‘To-day I started for home directly after breakfast. We wished to
+combine a little stalking with the walk, for we had to pass through some
+first-rate deer country&mdash;all that part, Esau, where you got your
+first two bucks; but of course we had not much chance of doing anything,
+as the wind was with us all the way. As you know, deer almost always
+feed up wind, so by walking against it you are safe from their ears and
+noses, and also are likely to be warned of their presence by coming on
+their tracks first. But in walking down wind all this is reversed; you
+come upon the deer without any warning, and they are almost sure to
+smell or hear you long before you discover them. Consequently, as we
+expected, we saw nothing on our way here to-day.’</p>
+
+<p>The Skipper’s buck is a very good one, the best that has been killed
+at present, and there was much joy at his change of luck. But strictly
+speaking his bad luck has pursued him even in this instance, for if he
+had not been obliged to shoot when he did, in all probability the rest
+of the herd would have appeared
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page207" id = "page207">207</a></span>
+on the scene, for their tracks showed that they were following the lead
+of this buck. Besides, there is not the same excitement in a chance shot
+like this as there is when you first find the deer, and then spend two
+or three hours in all kinds of uncomfortable modes of progression in
+order to approach them.</p>
+
+<p>However, when we were in this country before the Skipper had all the
+good luck, and Esau the bad, the former getting five deer and the latter
+only two, so that the present state of affairs may be looked upon as the
+working of retributive justice. When this view of the matter was
+suggested by Esau to the Skipper, he said, ‘Retributive justice be
+blowed!’</p>
+
+<p>We celebrated the joyful reunion of loving hearts by a skaal, and so
+to bed, perfectly happy after the events of the day.</p>
+
+<h5>August 27.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>We sent the men off this morning with the horse to bring in some of
+the meat now lying in the mountains, while we went by canoe to
+Gjendesheim to stay for a couple of days, as we cannot go stalking again
+till the already slain deer are brought home; the fish in the lake are
+not rising well after this long spell of fine weather, and with the
+exception of Esau’s ‘home coverts’ there is no shooting for a
+fowling-piece at Memurudalen.</p>
+
+<p>Very few tourists find their way to Gjendin, but the season for them
+is over, and we expected to have the place to ourselves; but how
+fallible is human prescience! To our astonishment the sportsmen from
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page208" id = "page208">208</a></span>
+Rus Vand had already occupied the greater part of the house, having
+abandoned their own hut for the same reasons which had led us to forsake
+our camp, and here they were, armed to the teeth with rods and guns.</p>
+
+<p>This seemed unlucky, and although we were outwardly glad to see them,
+at heart we could not help feeling how inconsiderate it was of them to
+come and shoot the fjeld and fish the river just when we wanted to do
+all that ourselves. No doubt they harboured precisely the same feelings
+towards&nbsp;us.</p>
+
+<p>However, we had dinner together, and introduced the ‘boss pie,’ now
+rapidly disappearing, to the notice of our Norwegian friends, and as the
+meal advanced a feeling of genial contentment crept over us, which
+seemed to influence all our senses; we began to talk over sport and
+compare our experiences in various countries and in pursuit of various
+animals: some of us were good listeners, others fond of talking, but all
+animated by a love for the same occupation, so that when at length one
+of the enemy handed round the best of cigars, even the Skipper became so
+mellow and pleasant that before going to bed we arranged for a joint
+shoot after ryper to-morrow; and said ‘Good night,’ feeling that it was
+quite fortunate that we had all come to Gjendesheim on the same day.</p>
+
+<p>One of our new friends is a Russian, an engineer officer; he speaks
+not the English, but we were introduced to him as a man who had shot
+more bears
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page209" id = "page209">209</a></span>
+in Europe than any one else living. He has killed forty-two, and looks
+as though he had been hugged by each one of them before it finally
+succumbed. Now he wants to kill a reindeer, and has been attempting the
+feat to-day; apparently he will be <i>hors de combat</i> for the rest of
+the week, as he can hardly move for stiffness: he has not been
+accustomed to the awful walking that stalking round Gjendin entails.</p>
+
+<p>Esau is also rather dilapidated, for he landed at Leirungsö on his
+way down the lake, and walked round the mountain to Gjendesheim, leaving
+John to bring on his canoe. On his way he was obliged to wade across the
+Leirungs River, a&nbsp;wide and rapid stream, and just in the roughest
+part he trod on a loose stone and fell, cutting his knee and making a
+bad dent in his gun-barrel. Of course he was wet through and a good deal
+hurt, but hardly enough to account for the frightful state of his
+temper, till it came out that though he had walked through miles of
+beautiful ground for ryper, snipe, and duck, he had never got a shot at
+anything.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page210" id = "page210">210</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapXXV" id = "chapXXV">CHAPTER XXV.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">THE GJENDE FLY.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>August 28.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">This</span> was the hottest, most windless
+and cloudless day that has yet been made. The Russian and
+F&mdash;&mdash; went out with Esau and the Skipper to shoot ryper,
+accompanied by a pointer, which the Norwegians call a bird-hound.
+A&nbsp;brood was soon found and rose in front of Esau, who with his
+usual promptitude got a right and left; whereupon the Russian took off
+his hat, and bowing profoundly, advanced and solemnly shook hands with
+him, protesting that he had frequently seen marvellous shooting, but
+never, never aught like this; at least, that is what we imagined to be
+the translation of the neat little speech which he made in Russian.</p>
+
+<p>A ryper is easier to kill, if possible, than the tamest young grouse
+which gets up under a dog’s nose on the calmest 12th of August; and Esau
+thinks fame is like an eel on a night-line, easily caught, but very
+difficult to hold afterwards.</p>
+
+<p>Satisfied by having witnessed this extraordinary specimen of our
+skill, the Russian gave up the
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page211" id = "page211">211</a></span>
+chase, and returned to Gjendesheim completely exhausted by the heat; but
+the others went on till the afternoon, now finding a selfish old cock,
+whose fate no one regretted; now a young brood only just old enough to
+be shot: anon lying down to rest and eat berries, or bathing in the
+Leirungs Lake, but all the time extremely happy.</p>
+
+<p>F&mdash;&mdash; was so exceedingly polite that he would <i>not</i>
+shoot unless birds enough for all of us happened to get up at once, and
+one brood escaped without a shot being fired, in consequence of our
+unwonted emulation of his courtesy.</p>
+
+<p>Near Leirungs we were fortunate enough to drive three large broods
+into the same bit of willow scrub, and had some very pretty shooting as
+the dog set them one by one; but there was hardly any scent, and the
+heat soon proved too much for our bird-hound, so we returned to
+Gjendesheim with a very considerable addition to the larder.</p>
+
+<p>Then followed hours of inability to do anything except lie on our
+backs with lighted pipes in our mouths, far too exhausted to smoke them;
+and at last&mdash;dinner; and soon the cooler air brought relief and
+engendered a return of bloodthirstiness, which impelled the gang of
+sportsmen to sally forth and rake the river till it was quite rough with
+artificial flies.</p>
+
+<p>This was a trying time, for by some means we have established a most
+dangerously flattering reputation
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page212" id = "page212">212</a></span>
+as fishermen, and were bound to do all we knew to retain it. However,
+all turned out right; the Skipper went into the lake and got several
+beauties, and Esau did the same in the river, so that we came in with
+the best bags by a considerable margin, and could now afford to catch
+nothing for a whole day without being dethroned from our pedestal.</p>
+
+<p>The river, Gjendinoset as it is called, just in front of the
+rest-house, is a wonderful piece of water; there are about 150 yards of
+rapid in which the fish lie, then comes a fall, and below that there are
+nothing at present but small fish, though the big ones will soon begin
+to drop down lower for spawning. Consequently we all fish in the first
+150 yards, and to-day between 50 and 60 lbs. weight has been taken out;
+the same quantity yesterday, and probably for some days before; and the
+fishing will be even better a few days later, for the Gjende fly is
+beginning to hatch, and as long as he lasts the fish will rise well.</p>
+
+<p>We have heard so much of this fly that we had been expecting
+something rather gorgeous, a&nbsp;monster dragon-fly, or at least a
+second-rate butterfly, or a decent imitation of a stag-beetle; and we
+have been looking up gaudy Scotch and Canadian salmon flies, which we
+hoped might be passable substitutes; but, alas for the vain hopes of
+foolish man! the Gjende fly has come, and he is only a wretched little
+black beast like a very small, unenterprising, common or garden
+house-fly of Great Britain. He cannot fly decently;
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page213" id = "page213">213</a></span>
+he is apparently devoid of sense; he has no moral, physical, or
+intellectual attributes for which a human being can learn to respect or
+love him; but&mdash;he <i>can</i> <span class =
+"smallroman">CRAWL</span>. If he alights on the water it never occurs to
+him to rise again, and he allows the trout, mad with the excitement of a
+fortnight’s prospective gluttony, to scoop him down their capacious
+throats by companies. If he enters your mouth, which he does with a
+numerous retinue every time you open it, retreat from that untenable
+position is the very last thing he would think of; and with what may be
+a gleam of momentary intelligence he seems desirous of still further
+increasing his knowledge of the rest of your interior arrangements.</p>
+
+<p>With characteristic obstinacy, unmindful of the teachings of logic,
+he invariably acts on the fallacious maxim that ‘an ink-bottle cannot be
+so full that there is not room for just one more Gjende fly.’ The whole
+of the river here at the end of the lake, and for thirty yards on each
+side, is now pervaded by this noisome creature; the water looks as if it
+were covered with a mixture of soot and tar, the rocks are black and
+slippery with him, and the atmosphere is charged with him, so that the
+landscape dimly seen through the cloud looks as if it were dancing.</p>
+
+<p>Gjendesheim itself is unfortunately not quite beyond the zone which
+he infests, so that the windows look loathsome with crawling blackness;
+the tablecloth is strewn with the corpses of those who have
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page214" id = "page214">214</a></span>
+imbibed the honeyed poison of the paraffin lamp and come to an untimely
+end, and the remains of the ‘boss pie’ would warrant a stranger in the
+belief that it had been composed of currants.</p>
+
+<p>We think Pharaoh must have been a man of extraordinary resolution, or
+else inane mildness of character, otherwise he would have sacrificed
+Moses long before the fourth Plague was concluded.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately the Gjende fly has no insatiable craving for human flesh;
+the Skipper, indeed, asserted that one fastened on his hand and
+inflicted a wound that swelled enormously and remained swollen for
+several days, but the better opinion is that the creature that
+perpetrated this outrage must have been a viper, though we did not hint
+this to the Skipper, because he is firmly convinced that whisky is the
+only remedy for snake-bites, and that it must be taken in large
+quantities.</p>
+
+<p>If any one stuck up a rod near the river, in two minutes it looked
+like a black fir pole with a bunch on the top; and John, who is a man of
+great entomological knowledge, spent some time in studying this
+phenomenon. He reported that the flies crawled up for fun, intending to
+jump off the top ring, but when they got up it was so much higher than
+they expected that they were all afraid to try, and those at the bottom
+and halfway up kept jeering at the top ones and calling them names, and
+jostling them so much that they could not crawl down again. He also said
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page215" id = "page215">215</a></span>
+that the swarm in the air was so dense that he wrote his name in it with
+his finger, and it remained visible for nearly a minute.</p>
+
+<p>Probably it is difficult for a man to speak the exact truth with his
+mouth full of (<b><i>f</i></b>)lies.</p>
+
+<p>When it was too dark to fish we sat round the fire and heard a good
+deal about the various winter sports of Norway, capercailzie stalking,
+bear hunting, elk and reindeer shooting, and running on skier, the
+snow-shoes of the country, which are very different from the well-known
+Canadian shoes, being made of wood, from six to twelve feet long, four
+inches wide in front, three behind, about an inch and a half thick where
+the foot rests, thinner at each end, and turned up and pointed in front.
+Every district has its own peculiar shape; about here the right shoe is
+made six feet long, the left one ten or eleven feet, it being more easy
+to turn if one is shorter than the other: some are made of pine, some of
+birch, and occasionally oak. The men of the Thellemarken are the most
+skilful runners, but it is now quite a fashionable amusement in
+Christiania during the winter, just as skating is in England.</p>
+
+<h5>Sunday, August 29.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>Our Norwegian friends departed for the happy hunting-grounds of Rus
+Vand this morning, but before doing so they most kindly offered us the
+hut there any time after this week, at the end of which they are going
+south. We can hardly expect the present glorious weather, which has
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page216" id = "page216">216</a></span>
+now lasted for three weeks, to go on for ever; and when the change
+comes, a&nbsp;tent will no longer be the abode of comfort and luxury
+that we at present find it, so that the offer of the hut is most
+opportune for&nbsp;us.</p>
+
+<p>We parted with great regret from people who have been so kind and
+hospitable, and many were the expressions of good-will and protestations
+of eternal friendship, as we shall not see them again till we pass
+through Christiania on our return home.</p>
+
+<p>That return home has caused the Skipper hours of anxious thought
+already: there is to be a wedding in England about the end of next
+month, at which, although it is not his own, his presence is urgently
+needed. He knows he ought to go, but hates to leave this blissful life
+just when the best stalking is beginning; consequently he devotes much
+time every day to the consideration of the subject, torn by doubts,
+tortured by terrible misgivings, and harassed by indecision.</p>
+
+<p>To-day, after being more than usually disagreeable under the malign
+influence of his conscience, and seeking for inspiration, first in the
+room at Gjendesheim, walking up and down like Weston; then on the lake
+paddling like a penny boat; and finally roosting on a rock at the top of
+the fjeld with his arms folded like Napoleon, and a gruesome scowl on
+his face, or at least on those portions of it which were visible through
+the mask of Gjende flies, he at last concluded
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page217" id = "page217">217</a></span>
+to commit his fate to the decision of an unbiassed coin, if such could
+be obtained from any confiding friend.</p>
+
+<p>With great difficulty he persuaded Esau to lend him one öre, value
+1/100 of a shilling, which seems on reckoning to be about half a
+farthing; Esau observing as he gave it, ‘It isn’t that I’m stingy, old
+fellow, though of course I don’t expect to see it again, but it
+<i>will</i> throw my accounts out so.’ N.B.&mdash;Esau’s notion of
+keeping accounts is to put his receipts into one pocket, <i>and his
+disbursements into another</i>; if he has a vague idea to within
+20<i>l.</i> or so of how the money has gone, it will be more than any
+one expects; that everything he possesses will be spent is a foregone
+conclusion.</p>
+
+<p>But to resume. The öre coin has no distinct head or tail, so the
+Skipper named one side heads, and tossed. The thing fell on its edge,
+and rolled round the table and about the room till it struck the wall,
+whereupon it fell over ‘heads,’ and decided that the Skipper must go to
+the wedding.</p>
+
+<p>So he sat down and wrote a letter saying that they must not expect
+him, and that he should stay out here the whole time that was originally
+intended; for as soon as he had dated the letter it occurred to him that
+it would be childish to allow such a weighty matter to be decided by the
+whim of a half-farthing coin, which might very likely be interested in
+the affair in some way, and which, as he truly said, would
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page218" id = "page218">218</a></span>
+possibly have turned up ‘tails’ if it had not happened to fall on its
+edge and been interfered with by an unauthorized wall.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus acted according to his inclinations, and given his
+missive to Andreas to post when he leaves Gjendesheim next week, the
+Skipper became quite pleasant again, and went forth to his fishing ‘ever
+and all so gaily&nbsp;O.’</p>
+
+<p>The ponies of Norway are wonderfully docile and clever; these
+qualities were well shown to-day in a black one belonging to Jens which
+came to take F&mdash;&mdash;’s baggage over the mountain to Rus Vand.
+This pony was brought down near the door of the rest-house, and left
+standing there without any fastening or any one to look after him. The
+things were not ready, so he waited about two hours, occasionally wiping
+off the Gjende flies with his tail when their weight became
+insupportable, but otherwise never moving. The busy world (consisting of
+Andreas and Ragnild) pursued their usual avocations around him, goats
+ran against him, and insects climbed over him, but there he stood placid
+and motionless as a wooden rocking-horse. At last the baggage was ready,
+and they brought it out and piled it on his back until we feared he
+would break, and then Jens turned his head in the direction of Rus Vand,
+and gave him a gentle push to start him; and he went slowly off up the
+mountain, choosing the best way for himself, for no one went with him;
+in fact, Jens did not follow him for about half
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page219" id = "page219">219</a></span>
+an hour, but no doubt he was found at the right place in the end. The
+whole performance reminded one of a clockwork toy, and John remarked as
+we stood and watched him out of sight over the pass, ‘Now, that’s what I
+call a well-trained pony.’</p>
+
+<p>During our stay here we had the pleasure of forming the acquaintance
+of an elk-dog. This animal is taken out in a kind of harness to which a
+rope is fastened, the other end of the rope being attached to the
+hunter’s belt; and his legitimate occupation is finding elk in a forest
+by scent, and denoting their presence by his behaviour before the hunter
+gets within range of the elk’s eyes, ears, or nose. Mr. Thomas brought
+him up here hoping to find reindeer with him in the same manner, as he
+had been unable to get a Finmarker<a class = "star" name = "tag6" id =
+"tag6" href = "#note6">*</a> broken to reindeer; but the experiment has
+not been successful, for the dog has been so carefully trained to elk,
+that he exhibits a large and lofty contempt for so pusillanimous a
+creature as a reindeer, and will not confess that he has discovered the
+existence of such a thing at all.</p>
+
+<p class = "footnote">
+<a class = "star" name = "note6" id = "note6" href = "#tag6">*</a>
+Finmarker is the kind of dog usually employed for finding reindeer: the
+name being derived from the district of which it is a native.</p>
+
+<p>But in addition to the fact that he finds no deer, he is a good deal
+of trouble from the fastidiousness of his appetite. It appears that he
+is accustomed to feed on dogs, and when he cannot get dogs he can rough
+it very well for a short time on boys or any
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page220" id = "page220">220</a></span>
+other plain fare; but up here, where dogs are few and boys are extinct,
+he is having a very poor time of it. The last place where he had a
+really square meal was at Skjæggestad, on the journey up, where he was
+lucky enough to get a whole dog and some portions of boy; since then he
+has only had limbs snatched off adventurous observers, and altogether
+seems to be pining for want of proper nourishment. He is about the
+height of a colley, but with an enormous chest and limbs, a&nbsp;head
+something like an Esquimaux, a&nbsp;wiry reddish yellow coat, and a most
+unkindly expression of countenance. In the absence of sufficient flesh
+food he appears to be developing a liking for man-diet, so we did not
+remain long in his society, for which indeed we only craved after we had
+perceived through a chink in the door of his dwelling that he was moored
+to a beam by a kind of anchor chain. We have often heard that there is a
+certain amount of danger in the pursuit of the elk; if the hunter is
+always accompanied by a dog of this kind we can easily understand it.
+However, he was a very interesting animal, and if we had a National
+School at Memurudalen we should certainly have tried to buy him, as
+there is any amount of room for <i>débris</i> there. What a boon he
+would be in some of the thickly populated districts of England!</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon we paddled leisurely back to our camp and found it
+looking prettier than ever, but, alas! our little stream had ceased to
+run. However,
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page221" id = "page221">221</a></span>
+there is another one not more than forty yards away, so we shall not be
+much troubled by its loss.</p>
+
+<h5>August 30.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>The sun still shines upon us from a cloudless sky, and early in the
+morning, before any breeze springs up, the lake makes a most beautiful
+picture, with its steep mountain sides and foaming torrents so perfectly
+reflected in the green unruffled water. But, lovely as it is, its beauty
+is rather wasted on us now, for it has been just the same for the last
+three weeks, with the outlines all hard and clearly defined, and none of
+the graduated effects of distance which we get from the hazy climate at
+home: in this clear atmosphere the peaks twenty miles away are as bright
+as those a mile or so beyond the lake. Probably this is the reason why
+we so seldom see pictures of Norwegian mountain scenery, and that the
+few which do appear are often condemned as hard, cold, and
+unsatisfactory.</p>
+
+<p>The most prominent object in looking towards the lake from our camp
+is a curious pyramidal mound, about thirty feet high, close to the
+water’s edge. It is so regular in shape that we have devoted many hours
+of cogitation and argument to the discovery of its history.</p>
+
+<p>John (who is a man of considerable archæological fame) maintains that
+it is a funeral barrow in which some ancient Viking was buried, and he
+wants us to give up our cartridges for the purpose of constructing a
+mine and blasting him out: we have vainly represented to him that it
+cannot be a Viking’s tomb,
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page222" id = "page222">222</a></span>
+because there is absolutely nothing to Vike up here.</p>
+
+<p>The Skipper says it is a glacial moraine, ‘any donkey can see that at
+a glance;’ and Esau holds to the opinion that it is an artificial mound
+put up for ancient regiments of Gjendin yeomen and Memurudalen militia
+to practise archery at. Possibly none of these theories give the correct
+solution; but, whatever its origin, it makes a capital rifle butt for
+our occasional shooting. Esau was heard to irreverently remark, as he
+aimed at it with the Skipper’s rifle, ‘he guessed an express bullet
+would rouse old Jarl Hakon out of that,’ but nothing particular
+followed.</p>
+
+<p>To-day the Skipper composed an Irish stew as a <i>pièce de
+résistance</i>, which, when it came to table, was unanimously voted the
+best of all the excellent dishes on which we have feasted here. After
+dinner we made an enormous fire for the sole purpose of warmth, as the
+nights are now very cold, and during this fine weather after sunset a
+strong draught sets down our valley towards the lake. We have
+ascertained that a like draught blows down each of the other valleys
+running into Gjendin, making the lake a centre. That in ours begins
+gently directly the sun has set, and increases in strength until it
+amounts to a stiff breeze; and as it comes direct from the vast snow
+fjelds, it is a disagreeably chilly blast, which freezes that side of
+our bodies remote from the fire, and leads us to envy the happy
+condition of a leg of mutton
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page223" id = "page223">223</a></span>
+attached to a roasting-jack. That, ‘o&nbsp;nimium fortunatum!’ enjoys
+equally in every part the genial warmth, while man has no mechanical
+arrangement by which his immortal soul can be rendered blissful through
+the medium of a temperate body.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning a breeze begins to blow out of the lake into all the
+valleys; illustrating on a small scale the cause of land and sea breezes
+all over the world. The Skipper and John (who is a man of profound
+science) have elaborated a theory explaining the exact reason of this
+interesting phenomenon; but as their explanation is entirely opposed to
+the teachings of Dr. Brewer and the opinions of Professor Tyndall, and
+involves a rearrangement of existing notions concerning radiation and
+the movements of the heavenly bodies, we think it best to exclude it
+from these pages, as this is not a simply scientific work, and we have
+no desire to hurt the feelings of even the above-named misguided
+philosophers.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page224" id = "page224">224</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapXXVI" id = "chapXXVI">CHAPTER XXVI.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">DISASTER.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>August 31.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">We</span> have got quite tired of writing
+‘Another beautiful day,’ and in future shall bring notebooks to Norway
+with these words ready printed at the top of each page.</p>
+
+<p>The Skipper paddled away to Gjendebod, to bring home the deerskin
+which he had left there to dry. He returned with a splendid bag of the
+best trout that ever came out of Gjendin, and that means the best in the
+world; but he was in a state of great indignation because he had been
+charged 5<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> for beds, dinners, and breakfasts for
+himself and Öla when they stayed there a few nights ago. This is the
+result of living in a cheap country for two months: to the ordinary
+Englishman it would not appear an exorbitant hotel bill, especially when
+the hotel (!) is fifty miles from a town, and only open for two months
+in the year.</p>
+
+<p>Just at bedtime Esau crawled into the tent saying that he had
+strained his back in lifting a stone: he was in such pain that he could
+hardly stand, and was
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page225" id = "page225">225</a></span>
+white and shivering. We undressed him and put him to bed, and then
+produced the liniment from the ‘medicine chest,’ by which name we
+dignify the cigar-box which contains our little stock of drugs. Then
+John spent an hour viciously rubbing remedies into his victim’s back, as
+one rubs oil into a bat, so that Esau presently groaned out, ‘Thanks,
+John, I&nbsp;think that will do, I&nbsp;feel a great deal better now;’
+and certainly he did seem to experience a kind of relief as soon as the
+rubbing stopped. After this we turned&nbsp;in.</p>
+
+<h5>September 1.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>Esau spent a sleepless night, and this morning could not move.
+Thereupon John nobly closed with him for another half-hour’s rubbing,
+which had a decided effect, and after giving him some breakfast, we
+carried him out and made a comfortable bed for him under the Sycamine
+tree, and there left him with the library and all his belongings in easy
+reach.</p>
+
+<p>At midday John returned from fishing to lunch with the invalid, and
+we wondered how all our friends in England were getting on with the
+partridges, and almost wished we were there for a few minutes, as we
+pictured to ourselves Eddie and Jack both talking sixteen to the dozen
+at lunch over beefsteak pie and beer (fancy beer, John!); old Blank,
+with two young dogs tied to him, perspiring over the downs; and the
+Major sitting with his cigar aboard the yacht at Cowes, and thinking how
+snug his birds were lying down
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page226" id = "page226">226</a></span>
+Gorseham way, not to be disturbed till his return next month to shoot at
+them, while all the time the Furzely boys were walking them up, and
+making them as wild as hawks.</p>
+
+<p>After lunch, John accomplished what has long been his great desire,
+the ascent of the sugar-loaf mountain across the Memurua; and after
+boiling a thermometer at the topmost peak, burying a pocket handkerchief
+(thoughtfully borrowed from Esau, who was too unwell to refuse him
+anything), and ‘carving his name on the Newgate Stone with his Tollekniv
+fine tra la,’ he returned in raptures about the view, and overcome with
+sublime and poetical emotions, which did not subside until he had poured
+forth his soul to his two friends at dinner.</p>
+
+<p>The Skipper stalked without success, though he found the tracks of a
+good herd that had only just passed over the ground. Though the day was
+so pleasant, he had not exactly enjoyed his walk, for he could not help
+being filled with gloomy forebodings about Esau; picturing to himself
+the difficulties that would arise in getting men to carry the invalid
+down to Christiania in a litter, with him yelling at every step. But
+behold, how untrustworthy a thing is imagination! when the Skipper
+arrived in camp, he was agreeably surprised to find the object of his
+solicitude sitting up and actually stirring the rice for the curry, so
+marvellous had been the effect of John’s lubrication; assisted by the
+support to his back of a
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page227" id = "page227">227</a></span>
+kind of splint composed of birch bark, a&nbsp;towel, and two straps.</p>
+
+<h5>September 2.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>John ate new bread again for dinner yesterday, and the Skipper was
+aroused in the middle of the night by a claw reaching out from the
+adjoining bed, which clutched his pillow and rug and tried to drag them
+away; the whole of this being accompanied by blood-curdling groans and
+hideous yells. He became more peaceful after a short time, but the
+Skipper is now in mortal fear lest John should again suffer from
+indigestion, and again stretch out that gruesome claw, and grabbing him
+by the hair, drag him forth from the tent, and with demoniac shrieks
+stamp the life out of his frail body, while he makes the quiet valley
+re-echo to his triumphant mocking laughter. This, the Skipper asserts,
+would be only one step beyond his conduct of last night.</p>
+
+<p>The latest scientific observations have caused us to re-classify the
+different altitudes thus:&mdash;First, the country of high cultivation
+and wild strawberries; above that the zone of uncleared pine forests and
+most of the berries; then the belt of stunted birches and black game;
+higher still, that of cows and goats; and above that, the country where
+reindeer flourish and snow lies all the year round. This takes us to the
+summit of all things earthly, and in this zone there is hardly any
+vegetation. Beyond it is the region of eagles, but in the present
+incomplete state of human knowledge we have been content to explore this
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page228" id = "page228">228</a></span>
+highest zone by letting our spirits soar aloft without our bodies.</p>
+
+<p>Gjendin is just at the highest point of the stunted-birch belt, and
+when the wind gets into the N.W. the thermometer, without waiting to
+reflect, falls a great distance very hurriedly. John, having no
+sheepskin, suffers a good deal from the cold at night; and the
+haughtiness of his spirit is so far broken that he now sleeps in two
+pairs of trousers, three shirts, and a coat, besides all his rugs.
+A&nbsp;few short weeks ago he turned from us with an air of aristocratic
+nausea when we were getting into bed clothed in a single shirt and pair
+of trousers, donning for his part a linen nightshirt, an effeminacy
+previously unheard of in camp life.</p>
+
+<p>These things are changed now, and it is difficult to persuade him not
+to go to bed with his boots on; but it has to be prevented on account of
+the new bread.</p>
+
+<p>The monotony of an uneventful day was only broken by the occasional
+rubbing of Esau’s back, amidst the victim’s agonised appeals for mercy,
+as he thinks it is rubbed away to the bone. However, the effect is
+magnificent, and he can now hobble about camp and be useful to a certain
+extent.</p>
+
+<table class = "menu" summary = "menu written out">
+<tr>
+<td colspan = "3">MENU.&mdash;September 2.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Vins.</i><br>
+Onion Sauce.</td>
+<td>Truite à l’Irlandais.<br>
+Salmi of Ryper.<br>
+Woodcock à l’Oven.<br>
+Compote of Rice and Wimberries.</td>
+<td><i>Légumes.</i><br>
+Crumpets.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page229" id = "page229">229</a></span>
+<p>After dinner we dug a small hole in the floor of the outer tent, in
+which we placed a spadeful of red-hot embers from the fire. This is a
+capital device for obtaining warmth in a tent, as there is no smoke, and
+the embers keep glowing for a very long time; possibly it might be
+dangerous in a very close-fitting tent, but ours is airy, not to say
+hurricany.</p>
+
+<p>Round this fire we sat and talked and smoked until bedtime, hoping
+against hope for a few more days of sunshine; but when we turned in, the
+wind was howling and moaning along the hill-side in a very ominous and
+unpleasant manner.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page230" id = "page230">230</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapXXVII" id = "chapXXVII">CHAPTER XXVII.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">A CHANGE.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>September 3.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>‘<span class = "firstword">Forty</span> below Nero’ was the probable
+position of the thermometer during the night. Esau declares that his
+back is quite well, but it is suspected that he only does this in order
+to avoid the administration of further remedies by John.</p>
+
+<p>However, we consider this such a successful cure that we here give
+our recipe for strained backs to an expectant world, not as a sordid
+advertisement, but from pure philanthropic motives.</p>
+
+<p>‘Take the patient and place him on a grassy spot in the sun, and
+lubricate with oil; rub this in for three hours with the hand; seize his
+wrist and feel the pulse (if you can find it), displaying at the same
+time a large gold watch; look profound; mutter inwardly. Now shift him
+gently to a shaded position; and having lighted a fire to the windward,
+prepare and cook thereon fourteen or fifteen pancakes, and administer
+while hot (as a mixture, not a lotion). Take care that the aroma of each
+cooking pancake is wafted in the direction of the patient. Carry this
+principle
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page231" id = "page231">231</a></span>
+throughout all his nourishment. Explain to him that deer abound in the
+neighbouring mountains; show him quantities of fresh-caught fish and
+newly killed ryper; ensure a week of fine weather, and if this do not
+cure him he must be a <i>malade imaginaire</i>.’</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the improvement, of course Esau was not fit to go
+stalking, and this and other reasons suddenly induced us to leave
+Memurudalen to-day for good, and go to Gjendesheim on our way to Rus
+Vand. So we made a last gigantic pie, packed up, lunched, and then
+pulled down the tent, which had been standing so long now on the same
+spot, and embarked everything on board our two canoes and the
+Gjendesheim boat, which had been lent to us. Then the whole fleet sailed
+from these hospitable shores ’neath a stormy sky, with cold wind and
+rain, and the towering heights of Memurutungen all wrapped in angry
+clouds, frowning blackly above&nbsp;us.</p>
+
+<p>It was quite sad to leave the snug little corner where we have spent
+such a happy, careless time, with all the comforts which we have added
+gradually to our temporary home; and the valley looked very desolate
+without the tent, the cheerful fire, and ‘the meteor flag.’</p>
+
+<p>Esau’s last act was to fill two brass cartridge cases with water and
+hammer them firmly into each other; the air-tight boiler so formed he
+put into the fire under the oven, and after waiting a short time for the
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page232" id = "page232">232</a></span>
+explosion, forgot all about it and went away without telling any one.
+Just then John arrived at the spot to see if there were any loose
+belongings lying about, and was horrified to observe the oven suddenly
+elevate itself into the air and disappear among the clouds with a loud
+report. His mind at once reverted to the happy life of a landlord in co.
+Limerick, but he soon realised the true state of affairs, and came down
+to the lake muttering something about ‘tomdamfoolery,’ a&nbsp;Norwegian
+word which expresses censure of the silly custom of practical
+joking.</p>
+
+<p>This morning we found a merlin sitting just outside the tent door; it
+had evidently been stuffing itself with scraps of offal from the camp
+until it was perfectly stupid and could scarcely fly. Esau wanted to
+knock it on the head at first, but more humane feelings came over him,
+so he fetched his rifle and shot it for an hour or so, till at length
+the bird, wearied by the constant noise, retired into the birch woods,
+and we saw it no more.</p>
+
+<p>There are usually several ravens near the camp, which come down to
+‘carry off carrion,’ but otherwise there are not many birds here: the
+most common are buzzards and kestrels, which abound; two eagles, which
+are generally soaring above Memurutungen; a&nbsp;pair of ospreys
+occasionally flying about the lake; a&nbsp;rough-legged buzzard seen
+once, a&nbsp;few merlins, and a small short-tailed red hawk, with whom
+we are not acquainted; sometimes black-throated divers and
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page233" id = "page233">233</a></span>
+scaups on the lake, and a few fieldfares and redwings in the birch
+woods. We have found many nests of the latter in the trees, and one of a
+fieldfare in a bank.</p>
+
+<p>What rare times all the birds and beasts of prey will have for the
+next few days in Memurudalen! only to be equalled by the early days of
+the Australian gold fever. Nuggets of inestimable value in the shape of
+heads, tails, and other portions of reindeer, ryper, duck, and
+trout&mdash;intermingled with other delicacies, such as potato skins,
+jam and marmalade pots, and whisky bottles&mdash;will from time to time
+be unearthed amidst shrieks of triumph. ‘Claims’ will be run up to a
+fabulous price, and many a battle royal will be fought in that happy
+valley where we have spent a month of peace. As we depart in mournful
+silence, brooding over the days that are no more, we see in fancy the
+numerous bright eyes which from lairs and eyries are watching our every
+move, their owners all ready to swoop down on our <i>débris</i> as soon
+as we have passed out of sight.</p>
+
+<p>The lake was very rough, and we were quite afraid of being swamped
+and losing our baggage from the magnitude of the big little waves; but
+luckily the boat took our heaviest things, or we should not have been
+able to venture; and so the canoes, lightly loaded and with all sail
+set, rode gallantly o’er the foaming billows, and we all got safe to
+Gjendesheim. The cheery fire in the room, with its bare wooden walls and
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page234" id = "page234">234</a></span>
+benches, made a picture which seemed the perfection of comfort after the
+chilly tent and the freezing N.W. wind.</p>
+
+<div class = "verse">
+<p>‘It is the black north-wester</p>
+<p class = "indent">That makes brave Englishmen</p>
+<p>Use very naughty words, and wish</p>
+<p class = "indent">Themselves at home again.’</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>One of the party is always telling us that he intends to inflict on
+the British public a narration of our experiences on this expedition,
+and although he has not yet begun to collect materials for the work, we
+have begun to invent titles for the book that is to be. One is ‘England,
+Canada, and Norway,’ being a description of Englishmen travelling in
+Norway with Canadian canoes; and we think this title might induce
+schoolmasters to buy it, under the impression that it is a geographical
+treatise on those countries.</p>
+
+<div class = "para">
+The Skipper proposed ‘The Fool with the Fowling-piece, or Fishing and
+Flyblows.’ John’s title was ‘Mems. from Memurudalen, or Jottings from
+the Jotunfjeld;’ and Esau suggested ‘Glopit, top it, and mop it,’
+alluding, he said, to the state of John’s forehead whenever he arrived
+at the summit of that mountain; but the explanation was received with
+such a chorus of
+<table class = "inline" summary = "formatted text">
+<tr>
+<td class = "middle">‘Oh!</td>
+<td class = "middle largest">{</td>
+<td>drop<br>stop</td>
+<td class = "middle largest">}</td>
+<td class = "middle">it!’ from the others that he gave up the idea.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p>One notion is to make the book a collection of cooking recipes for
+camp life, and call it ‘Grunts from a Gourmand in Gulbrandsdalen, or
+Paragraphs
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page235" id = "page235">235</a></span>
+from the Pen of a Pig;’ but we think we should promote a more active
+sale among respectable people if it were called ‘Self-Improvement, or
+Lights thrown on Good Living.’</p>
+
+<p>Another idea is that it might get a sale by appearing surreptitiously
+among the Christmas books for the young, and for that purpose we should
+use the names of our two henchmen Anglicised. ‘Oola and Eva: a&nbsp;Tale
+for Girls,’ could not fail to attract the favourable attention of
+parents and guardians.</p>
+
+<p>Possibly it might create a greater sensation if it were introduced to
+the world as ‘Julia and Pausanias: an Idyll.’ It is very difficult to
+decide on a good name, but we are all agreed that the name once found,
+it will be perfectly easy to write the book afterwards.</p>
+
+<h5>September 4.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>How soothing and pleasant it is, when we hear the storm and rain
+shrieking and beating outside, to reflect that there is a good solid
+roof over our heads, and that we shall not be roused in the night by the
+cry of ‘All hands turn out to slack off guy-ropes!’</p>
+
+<p>This morning the lake was so rough that we perceived that we had been
+very lucky to make our voyage yesterday; we certainly could not have
+attempted it to-day. The man from Gjendebod was here, and started for
+the other end of the lake with Andreas in the big boat about nine
+o’clock, but at two they came back dead beat and wet through,
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page236" id = "page236">236</a></span>
+having been obliged to desist from their attempt before they had gone
+two miles, and they considered themselves lucky to have got back.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic236" id = "pic236">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic236.png" width = "532" height = "414"
+alt = "Canoeing after Duck in a Storm"></p>
+
+<p>The appearance of the lake is wonderfully fine as the white-capped
+breakers come rolling in, flinging the spray high up the face of the
+opposing cliffs, and dashing with an angry roar against the black rocks
+where they jut out into the deep part of the lake. The Skipper,
+affirming that he could smell the salt in the air, began to look out
+pollack-flies, while John put on a beautiful brand-new shooting coat,
+and went down to the shore to pick up seaweed and dig on the sands: he
+came back saying that the tide was coming
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page237" id = "page237">237</a></span>
+in, and he thought he had seen the smoke of a steamer in the offing.</p>
+
+<p>Close to this end of the lake a little promontory runs out, which
+forms a breakwater, so that the sea just opposite the house is
+comparatively calm. In this bay, directly after breakfast, we saw two
+scaups, and the Skipper and Esau manned a canoe to try for them, the
+former to paddle, the latter to shoot. Only one was shot at, and it
+managed to fly beyond the headland before falling dead, and we dare not
+go after it in our frail craft.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic237" id = "pic237">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic237.png" width = "248" height = "280"
+alt = "Andreas: our Retriever"></p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon we took all the male inhabitants of this district,
+viz. Öla, Ivar, and Andreas, to act as spaniels and retrievers, and went
+into the fjeld above Gjendesheim for ryper. We had quite a sporting
+afternoon, as we managed to find a good many broods: the strong wind had
+made them so much wilder that they got up with reasonable haste and
+energy, instead
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page238" id = "page238">238</a></span>
+of waiting to be kicked and then only running away.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic238" id = "pic238">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic238.png" width = "535" height = "414"
+alt = "Ola and Andreas capturing a wounded Grouse"></p>
+
+<p>We had great fun also in watching the behaviour of our men,
+especially their method of capturing a wounded bird. One which was hit
+in the head had dropped among some rocks, and Öla and Andreas went in
+pursuit; they crawled suspiciously about, peering over the stones as if
+they were stalking reindeer; then suddenly catching sight of the bird,
+which was crouching down as birds hit in the head sometimes do, they
+advanced cautiously upon it, each with an uplifted stick in his hand,
+and crept like assassins nearer and nearer to their victim. At last they
+stood within reach. Öla gave the word to strike, and strike
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page239" id = "page239">239</a></span>
+they did, as if they were breaking stones, and the poor old ryper lay at
+the feet of its murderers a mangled, bleeding corpse.</p>
+
+<p>We shot all the afternoon with almost unvarying luck, hardly ever
+losing a bird; now getting four barrels into a large brood, now picking
+up a solitary old cock that had selfishly separated himself from his
+family, and selected a particularly advantageous feeding-ground for his
+own exclusive benefit, and at intervals having a little recreation
+afforded by our men, especially the professional buffoon, Ivar.</p>
+
+<p>In one marshy bit of ground a pair of short-eared owls were
+incautious enough to fly up in front of Esau, and were promptly added to
+the bag; they were in beautiful plumage, which was luckily not injured
+by the shot, so we were much pleased at getting them. Then we went
+towards the river into the ground frequented by ducks, and got a little
+shooting there, and finished the day by walking round the shoulder of
+the lower fjeld about the time that the ryper were coming there to feed,
+and so back to Gjendesheim. Altogether the walk was most enjoyable, and
+as we returned and gazed over Gjendin, the contrasts of storm and
+sunshine, tumbled clouds and rough waters, and occasional glimpses of
+the highest mountains gleaming through rifts in the surrounding
+blackness as the bright sunbeams lighted up their peaks of snow, formed
+the most striking
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page240" id = "page240">240</a></span>
+picture of wild and desolate grandeur that can be imagined.</p>
+
+<p>Esau’s shooting is remarkably unerring, and we feel so annoyed with
+him sometimes when he <i>won’t</i> miss even a palpably difficult
+chance, that we were quite glad a few days ago when he took such a long
+shot that it strained his gun, and the Skipper exclaimed, ‘Ah,
+I&nbsp;told you you would, I’ve been expecting it all along.’</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic240" id = "pic240">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic240.png" width = "535" height = "417"
+alt = "John and the Skipper upsetting in the Canoe"></p>
+
+<p>John had an unstrung kind of day. Starting down the river to fish
+soon after breakfast, he became so engrossed in his sport that he forgot
+all about lunch, and did not return till dinner-time, when he walked
+abstractedly into the room where we were
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page241" id = "page241">241</a></span>
+sitting, and pulled out his watch; then after studying it and making
+calculations for a short time he remarked slowly, ‘I&nbsp;left here at
+six minutes past ten, and hanged if it isn’t ten minutes past six now;
+my watch must have stopped.’ Then he wandered off upstairs to his room,
+still ruminating over this extraordinary occurrence to his watch; but in
+his absence Ragnild had changed all his things into another cabin
+without telling him anything about it, so that he found his old
+habitation swept and garnished, and began to think, like Clever Alice,
+‘This is none of I.’ However, he got over this difficulty and came down
+to dinner, still looking a trifle abstracted, but with his usual
+appetite. Afterwards the Skipper paddled him across the river to fish,
+and when coming back, John upset the canoe and nearly drowned them both
+in the presence of Esau and every native in the district, who joined in
+mocking them in the Norwegian tongue from the bank.</p>
+
+<p>Finally he informed us that during his wanderings he had composed a
+short poem, ‘which,’ said he, ‘as you have not heard it, I&nbsp;will now
+proceed to recite.’</p>
+
+<p>So we went to bed.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page242" id = "page242">242</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapXXVIII" id = "chapXXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">RAPID-RUNNING.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>Sunday, September 5.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">To</span>-day the Skipper and Esau
+determined to try to run the canoes down the river to Sjödals Lake,
+where we intend to leave them during our stay at Rus Vand.</p>
+
+<p>All things being ready, the Skipper started about eleven o’clock on
+his perilous voyage, closely followed by Esau. The river is full of
+impracticable falls, some of them twenty or thirty feet high, but
+between these places there are splendid rapids, and the excitement of
+running them is delightfully fascinating. When we came to a bad fall we
+carried the canoes round, and enlisted the services of our two men to
+help us in this part of the performance. Öla did not like this at all,
+for carrying a canoe of 80 lbs. weight over very rough ground is hard
+work, and Öla loveth the fireside and the odour of roasting coffee
+better than hard work on the Sabbath.</p>
+
+<p>Presently we came to a place which the Skipper wanted to run, but
+which Esau declared to be too dangerous; it was a very swift and rocky
+rapid, with
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page243" id = "page243">243</a></span>
+two extremely sudden turns, the lower of which was only a few yards
+above a high fall. Esau only ran past the first turn, which was quite
+nervous work enough, and then got to shore and waited on the bank for
+the result of the Skipper’s exploit.</p>
+
+<p>Down he came at about fifteen miles an hour, took the first turn most
+successfully, and then, by some extraordinary strokes of his paddle,
+which no man living but himself could have performed, and aided by a
+species of miracle, he got round the second; but then an eddy caught the
+canoe, and she became unmanageable, so that instead of stopping in a
+little creek of quiet water as he intended, he came straight on at a
+terrific speed, and ran high and dry on a ledge of rock just above the
+fall, losing his paddle at the shock. Wonderful to relate, the canoe was
+not a bit injured, but the paddle whirled over the abyss and disappeared
+for ever; and the Skipper was pleased because he had not done the
+same.</p>
+
+<p>We spent five hours in this kind of amusement, and enjoyed it almost
+more than anything else we have done. The constant danger of a smash or
+an upset, the sensation of speed, the delight of the sudden rush to the
+gliding dip over a fall, with the water roaring past a rock on each
+side; the big waves below the fall, which catch the canoe and toss it
+from one to another till you feel as if you must be thrown out; and the
+curious appearance that the hurrying foam-flecked waters all round
+present, combine
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page244" id = "page244">244</a></span>
+to make Sunday rapid-running a very popular pursuit.</p>
+
+<p>While we were doing the last bit above Sjödals Lake, our men,
+instigated no doubt by Öla the Lazy, seized the opportunity given by a
+long rapid to go home, and as we were pretty well tired out with our
+exertions, we left the canoes above the lowest fall and walked back to
+Gjendesheim. But we cannot recommend this river to future voyageurs;
+there are too many places that cannot be run; and we hear that we are
+regarded as decidedly mad for having attempted&nbsp;it.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic244" id = "pic244">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic244.png" width = "440" height = "289"
+alt = "Making a Portage by the Sjoa River"></p>
+
+<p>Öla, our stalker, is a man whom we do not much admire. He is a big,
+handsome fellow, with a light beard and moustache, and rather a weak
+face; and his good qualities are extreme cleverness at almost any kind
+of work&mdash;carpentry, smith’s work, needlework, and saddlery, all
+seem to come alike to him&mdash;and as
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page245" id = "page245">245</a></span>
+a deer-stalker he is first-rate, and never makes a mistake. But we fear
+that his profession at home is to be an independent gentleman, and he is
+very lazy, and nearly always sulky. This sulkiness annoys us more than
+anything else, but we also get very angry with him for being afraid of
+everything. He is afraid to go in the canoes, and nothing has ever
+induced him to enter either of them. He is afraid of rowing against a
+wind, or going out stalking on two successive days, lest he should tire
+himself; and he is afraid of washing up plates and pans lest he should
+lose dignity, but it does not bore him to sit by and watch other people
+perform the operation.</p>
+
+<p>The Gjende fly was a marvellous sight to-day; we thought him numerous
+before, but we little knew the accumulated villany of which this noxious
+creature is capable. Every fly that we saw here a week ago has now got a
+large and healthy family of some hundreds, and a darkness which may be
+felt broods over the river and its shores. And now that the cold weather
+has set in, he begins to perceive that his short but effectual career of
+annoyance draws near to its close, and the whole face of nature is
+covered with torpid crawling things, that make one turn in disgust from
+everything one touches. May his end come soon, for we love him not.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic246" id = "pic246">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic246.png" width = "394" height = "481"
+alt = "A Norwegian Fire-place"></p>
+
+<p>We are very comfortable here at night sitting round the noble
+fireplace in the corner of the room. These corner fireplaces are found
+in every sæter and
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page246" id = "page246">246</a></span>
+homestead in this part of the country, and are very picturesque and
+cheery, vastly superior to the modern stove, that may be seen standing
+up gaunt and inhospitable in every house in more civilised regions. Most
+of them have the chimney supported by a crooked piece of birch wood
+coming down from the roof and hooked underneath the projecting angle of
+stonework, but in some there is instead an upright iron bar from the
+hearth. Generally speaking, they are placed quite against the wall in
+the corner, but we have seen several
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page247" id = "page247">247</a></span>
+with a space behind large enough to walk through, and one which even had
+a bed behind&nbsp;it.</p>
+
+<h5>September 6.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>The sea on Gjendin has organised something remarkably like a ground
+swell under the influence of the continuous storm, and its fury is more
+magnificent than ever; no boat here would have a chance of living
+in&nbsp;it.</p>
+
+<p>Esau spent the morning packing his bird-skins in a wooden box for
+their journey home, as we hardly expect to get much more in the way of
+specimens. Then we had another afternoon at ryper, not quite so lucky as
+yesterday, but still satisfactory. When we returned we found that
+Andreas had brought from Besse Sæter a vast pile of literature which had
+been accumulating at the Vaage post office for the last month. After
+dinner, when we were all buried in our respective letters and papers,
+occasionally reading out particularly interesting scraps of news,
+Ragnild came in and informed us that a certain Norwegian, whom we may
+call Mr. Fox, had come there to fish. This was a man who had done some
+business for us here two years ago, and we had had a little
+correspondence with him before coming out this year. Thinking we might
+have given him some trouble, and not having any great liking for his
+character, we naturally wished to be especially civil to him; so we
+asked Ragnild to bring him in and stay to interpret for&nbsp;us.</p>
+
+<p>Presently he entered the room, and after greeting us sat down and
+refused to have anything to drink:
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page248" id = "page248">248</a></span>
+this astonished us so much that it completely drove our small stock of
+smaller talk out of our heads. The commonplaces of polite conversation
+sound perfectly ridiculous when gravely uttered to an interpreter for
+transmission to the proper recipient, and so Ragnild seemed to think,
+for her translation always sounded much shorter than our flowery
+sentences. We tried a variety of feeble questions to which we already
+knew the answers, somewhat in the following style:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>‘We presume, Mr. Fox, that you like Norwegian cheese?’</p>
+
+<p>‘Does your brother also like Norwegian cheese?’</p>
+
+<p>‘Do you speak German?’</p>
+
+<p>‘No? but your brother, we believe, plays the Norwegian
+german-flute?’</p>
+
+<p>‘The friends of your sister’s children are also our friends. They
+live in England, but we believe they still like Norwegian cheese.’</p>
+
+<p>‘We like much the cheese of the country, and have never suffered
+asphyxia from&nbsp;it.’</p>
+
+<p>‘We shall take a small quantity with us to England for the
+destruction of rats;’ and so forth.</p>
+
+<p>Presently Esau, getting impatient, suggested in a loud voice that we
+should ‘ask him some questions out of Bennett’s Phrase-book.’ Then he
+was covered with shame, as he feared that Ragnild would immediately
+translate this to Mr. Fox; but fortunately she did not.</p>
+
+<p>On reference later to the said Phrase-book we
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page249" id = "page249">249</a></span>
+find that some very appropriate and useful sentences may be gleaned from
+its fertile pages. For instance, ‘Who are you? What sort of weather is
+it to-day?’ (these two remarks are introductory, as it were, and to
+inspire confidence in the person addressed). Then we come to the point:
+‘Will you lend me a dollar? Be quick! Thank you, you are very kind.’
+Here the speaker would turn to Ragnild and proceed thus: ‘Put this in my
+carpet bag. Make haste and bring me a light, open, four-wheeled phaeton
+carriage, drawn by one horse.’ Then to Mr. Fox, ‘Good morning;
+I&nbsp;must go, but I shall return in a month.’ Then the speaker might
+wink at John and depart.</p>
+
+<p>Now came the most awful pause that the history of the world in its
+darkest moments can yet point to. We coughed and glared at each other,
+and felt in our pockets as if we might find something to say there; and
+then the Skipper had a brilliant idea, and said, ‘Ask Mr. Fox how long
+he intends to stay here.’ But Ragnild at once replied, ‘Only two days,’
+without referring the question to him at all; so that remark was wasted,
+and our embarrassment became worse than ever; for now not only had we to
+invent subjects of conversation, but also to put them in such a form
+that Ragnild should not be able to answer them without taking Mr. Fox
+into her confidence. He all the time was most annoying, as he would do
+literally nothing to keep up his end of the conversation, and replied to
+our lengthiest and most brilliant efforts of
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page250" id = "page250">250</a></span>
+exuberant verbosity by monosyllables and inarticulate grunts.</p>
+
+<p>At last, in desperation we presented him with a very nice new English
+knife, for which he did not seem to care at all; and so we parted, both
+sides feeling that the interview had been a failure.</p>
+
+<p>The following note is extracted from one of the journals:&mdash;‘The
+common cheese of Great Britain is unknown in Norway, but in the roadside
+inn, the smallest sæter or farmhouse, and the humble cottage dwelling,
+the traveller can always obtain that excellent substitute, the
+goat’s-milk cheese of the country.’ The colour of this excellent
+substitute is that of Windsor soap; its consistency, leather; and its
+scent, decomposed glue, which causes the natives to keep it under a
+glass shade. If you eat it, your own dog will shun you; if you avoid it,
+you starve.</p>
+
+<h5>September 7.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>Esau always wakes up in the most boisterous spirits, and as the
+partitions between the cabins are only made of thin boards full of
+knot-holes, he can be heard all over the house the first thing in the
+morning jeering at John, who sleeps next door, whistling, and crowing
+like a baby in his cot: he continues these little games long after
+breakfast-time, and though he is wide awake, will <i>not</i> get up. All
+this sounds very pleasant and cheery to talk about, but the Skipper, who
+usually wakes in a temper the reverse of angelic, being influenced by an
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page251" id = "page251">251</a></span>
+unequal liver, wishes that these walls were twice as thick, and that
+Esau was at Hong Kong.</p>
+
+<p>Generally he tries little stratagems to induce Esau to get up,
+dressing operations having a tendency to quiet him. Sometimes he enters
+the room sniffing, and remarks, ‘How deuced good the coffee smells
+roasting!’ or ‘We’re going to have a tip-top fish for breakfast, but
+there’s very little of that pie left; enough for two of us p’raps’ (this
+would mean about eight pounds). Or he looks out of the window, and
+assuming an attitude of intense surprise, hanging on to the frame like
+Irving in ‘the Bells,’ says, ‘By George, Esau! there’s a fellow just
+below looking through a binocular that can give yours six lengths for
+mechanism.’ If all these expedients fail, he gives in, and dresses
+quickly with his ears full of tow, leaving Esau aloft, and gets into the
+eating-room, where the floor and ceiling between put a soft pedal on
+operatic selections.</p>
+
+<p>Esau says all this ill-feeling arises because the Skipper cannot
+whistle Berlioz’s ‘Faust,’ and is jealous.</p>
+
+<p>Andreas and Ragnild are making preparations for their departure,
+which takes place to-morrow; then Gjendesheim will be closed, the door
+fastened, the windows shuttered, and the place will be left to itself
+until next June. Very soon now Gjendin will be covered with ice and
+snow: most of the good folks in the sæters have already gone to the
+valleys for the winter.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page252" id = "page252">252</a></span>
+<p>We thought it would be more convenient for them if we took our
+departure to-day, so packed our goods on the pony and said ‘Farvel’ to
+Gjendesheim. Our last view of Gjendin, as we turned to look from the top
+of the pass, was just as it appeared when we first saw it&mdash;black,
+gloomy, and forbidding, with the cold north wind sweeping in a hurricane
+over its waters, and heavy rain-clouds hanging over its mountain
+shoulders, making a scene as awfully lonely and desolate as it is
+possible to depict.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic252" id = "pic252">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic252.png" width = "480" height = "376"
+alt = "Jens and his Pony on their way over Bes Fjeld"></p>
+
+<p>After the pony had gone with the last load we suddenly discovered
+that the tent had been forgotten: it and its appurtenances make a
+package weighing about 70 lbs. Now we <i>all</i> hate carrying 70
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page253" id = "page253">253</a></span>
+lbs., but fortunately at this crisis a <i>deus ex machinâ</i> appeared
+in the person of a stranger. At first we thought it must be one of our
+own men returning for something after changing his coat, but on his
+nearer approach we found that he was the rest of the population of the
+district, whom we had not seen before, coming down in a body. This was
+Hans Kleven, who has the reputation of being the best hunter in the
+country. He is a small sturdy man, with amazing shoulders and a
+pleasant, good-humoured face, and a most gorgeous check shooting-coat,
+of a pattern so enormous that there are only three squares on the whole
+of his back, which is a pretty broad one. This coat was given to him
+years ago, apparently about 1840, by an English sportsman, and he is as
+proud of it as ever Joseph was of his celebrated garment. To him we
+committed our tent, which he carried over to Besse Sæter, three miles
+away, without turning a hair. We rewarded him with a shilling, and from
+his profuse gratitude we conjecture that he only expected fourpence for
+the job.</p>
+
+<p>Our first step at Besse Sæter was, as usual, to demand food; and John
+asked for a dish called ‘Tuk melk,’ which had been recommended to him as
+very Norwegian and very good. A&nbsp;woman at once went to fetch it from
+the other sæter, a&nbsp;quarter of a mile away, and presently brought it
+in a large wooden milk-tub about the size and shape of a sitz bath. How
+that poor woman carried it we know not; it occupied
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page254" id = "page254">254</a></span>
+half the table, and was so scrupulously clean that we feared to touch it
+with our sordid hands.</p>
+
+<p>John and Esau at last attacked it in the orthodox manner, which is to
+sit on opposite sides of the table, and to draw a line across the
+surface of the milk with a spoon before beginning, and then to ‘eat
+fair’ up to that line. It would have amused some of our friends at home
+if they could have seen these two young men of fashion at the moment
+when both of them were engaged with abnormally large wooden spoons,
+silently ladling down ‘Tuk melk’ out of a tub as big as a drawing-room
+table.</p>
+
+<p>They reported that it was on the whole good; something like curds,
+but with a sourer taste, and it was much improved by sugar; but though
+they ate a large quantity of it, being men of great courage and
+determination, they could not persuade the Skipper to risk his life in
+experiments with untried articles of food. He, however, gave utterance
+to the following refined expression of his sentiments:&mdash;‘I wouldn’t
+touch that beastliness if you gave me fourteen pence a spoonful to
+swallow it.’ No one offered the reward.</p>
+
+<p>Out shooting on the other side of the lake, we put up a snipe just at
+evening, which went down again close to us. This species of game is not
+common up here, although we find his cousin the woodcock fairly often;
+consequently we were much excited, and advanced upon the foe with
+insidious step, and bloodthirsty weapons almost at our shoulders in
+order
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page255" id = "page255">255</a></span>
+to slay him as soon as he should rise. All went well, and at the right
+moment up he got, and promptly did the Skipper fire and miss him; while
+Esau’s gun for the first time on record missed fire, and left him using
+language that ought to have ignited any cartridge. So the happy bird
+zigzagged off into the dim shades of sheltering night, and we went on
+our way full of thought and sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>Arriving again at the sæter after narrowly escaping shipwreck in the
+passage, we found that Jens had come to meet us, and as he will enter
+our service from this date, we shall no longer need Ivar, and paid him
+off, arranging, however, that he is to come to help us home when we
+leave Rus Vand.</p>
+
+<p>We like Ivar very much now, though we did not by any means dote upon
+him at first. Ivar is a good fellow, but an idiot, perfectly willing to
+do anything in the world, but not understanding <i>how</i> to do
+anything. His budding reputation was blasted in our eyes the first time
+that we left camp and entrusted everything to his care: we were away for
+three days, and in that time he consumed nearly four pounds of our best
+butter; on our return we decided that he was a knave, but we have since
+learnt that it was only his natural impulsiveness that led him to commit
+such an outrage; and now that we have found how eager he is to oblige us
+in everything, we like his strange nature better than Öla’s awful
+laziness of character. He came into the room this morning to
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page256" id = "page256">256</a></span>
+stand for his portrait, and the easy, graceful attitude that he assumed
+for the occasion was inimitable. His waistcoat and boots were perhaps
+his greatest charm, but his open countenance and genial smile (six
+inches in diameter) played no small part in causing him to become
+beloved by us as he was.</p>
+
+<p>Ivar always laughed like a nigger on a racecourse, and whenever we
+took him out ryper-shooting he was exactly like an unbroken retriever:
+if a bird was killed, he <i>would</i> rush in to gather it, and we had
+to shout, ‘Back, Ivar, back! Lie down! Down charge!’ to prevent him
+disturbing any birds that might have chanced to remain during the yells
+and convulsions of Christy Minstrel mirth into which the death of a
+ryper always sent him. His behaviour usually made us laugh so much that
+we attributed any missing to the unsteadiness caused by constant
+hilarity. We gave him our spade as a parting present, and dismissed him
+with our blessing.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page257" id = "page257">257</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapXXIX" id = "chapXXIX">CHAPTER XXIX.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">RUS VAND.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>September 8.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">This</span> morning we crossed the fjeld to
+Rus Vand in a gale of wind. Waving a ‘Farvel’ to the kindly folk at
+Besse Sæter, we have a stiff climb up by the side of the torrent which
+comes gadareneing<a class = "star" name = "tag7" id = "tag7" href =
+"#note7">*</a> down from Bes Lake, high above our heads, and presently
+we stand on the open fjeld above the sæter. Below lie the green waters
+and birch-clad banks of Sjödals Lake; far away to the east the great
+fall and larger trees that mark the outlet of the lake; and still
+further, glimpses of lower Sjödals Lake, with its forests of pine, haunt
+of the black game and capercailzie. But we cannot stand long to look,
+for the side of a Norwegian mountain, though eminently suited to
+hurricanes, is extremely <i>un</i>suitable for human beings while the
+stormy winds do blow. En avant, Messieurs, en avant! and we fight our
+way across the flat top to the opposite brow. Here we must pause, though
+Æolus himself say nay. ‘What a glorious sight!’ Straight in front, the
+cloud-girt peak of Nautgardstind,
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page258" id = "page258">258</a></span>
+all glistening white with newly fallen snow, but of him only the top can
+be seen; his middle is hidden by a never-ending rush of scudding clouds.
+Higher still and westward the jagged summits of Tyknings Hö and
+Memurutind, also pure white where the snow can lie, but with huge black
+lines and chasms where the steep rocky face stands up gaunt and
+repellent, so sheer that snow can never lodge; nearer the tremendous
+mass of Bes Hö frowns above us; and far below in front the Russen River
+winds its way through barren rocks and patches of willow, to warmer and
+more hospitable regions, leaving with a leap of joy the cold
+storm-rocked Rus Lake, which has been its cradle since its birth in the
+mighty glaciers around.</p>
+
+<p class = "footnote">
+<a class = "star" name = "note7" id = "note7" href = "#tag7">*</a>
+Gadareneing, <i>i.e.</i> rushing violently down a steep place.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the scene lying before us on the north side of the mountain,
+grand beyond description, perhaps the finest in Norway, but not exactly
+inviting to shivering hungry mortals, so not much time was spent on it.
+Down we went, with the wind worse than on the other side, howling past
+our ears and screeching in the gun-barrels, and at last arrived at the
+lake to find Jens hauling for his life at the boat which, though filled
+with water by the breakers, had fortunately not been battered to pieces
+on the rocky strand. He had left it dragged up on the beach out of the
+water, but the sea had increased so much in his absence, that if we had
+been a little later it would without doubt have been smashed.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page259" id = "page259">259</a></span>
+<p>However, we soon baled her out, and with Öla as Charon commenced the
+passage. Rusvasoset, as the outlet is called, is not more than 60 yards
+across, but the waves had had seven miles of very open water to get up
+in, and they came rolling down to this end in a very alarming manner.
+With great difficulty we shoved off, and then with Öla sculling his
+hardest, and the Skipper keeping our head to wind, we at last got safe
+across with no mishap but the loss of Öla’s hat and a thorough ducking
+for all of&nbsp;us.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic259" id = "pic259">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic259.png" width = "501" height = "314"
+alt = "A Stormy Crossing at Rusvasoset"></p>
+
+<p>Öla was very sorrowful about his hat, which was of pure Leghorn
+straw, double seamed, extra quality lining; and being further
+embellished with a black braid ribbon, it was a great source of pride to
+him; but we mocked when it flew away, and are inclined to bear its
+departure with equanimity, and hope it will
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page260" id = "page260">260</a></span>
+be accepted as a propitiatory offering by the angry Lady of the
+Lake.</p>
+
+<p>All the things were at last safely housed, and we soon made ourselves
+comfortable in our new abode, which is luxury itself in this weather
+when compared with a tent.</p>
+
+<p>There are two huts, one by the edge of the lake, the other about 20
+yards away, and it is the latter which we occupy. We enter by a door
+about five feet high, invariably knocking our heads against the lintel
+and swearing as we do so. The first room is about nine feet square, with
+a narrow dresser under the solitary window on the left, and an iron
+cooking stove in the nearest corner to the right, the more remote one
+being tenanted by a bed. Round the room at various heights are shelves
+and hooks adorned by cooking utensils of all kinds, very kindly left for
+us by their worthy owners; two or three stools complete the furniture;
+and on the floor are to be seen carved the effigies of departed trout of
+fabulous weight, with dates and the initials of their captors. Passing
+on through a still smaller doorway we find ourselves in another room of
+the same size, but with three beds instead of one, and an open Norwegian
+fireplace; the same kind of pegs and shelves, and hooks for guns on the
+wall; more profile fishes, and walls covered with records in pencil of
+game killed by former inhabitants, with occasional amusing notes. This
+is our dining, drawing, and bed room; the other is only used as
+kitchen.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page261" id = "page261">261</a></span>
+<p>The men’s hut near the water is also divided into two rooms: the
+outer and much larger compartment is used as a cellar, larder, and
+general store-room, and presents, to say the least of it,
+a&nbsp;somewhat untidy appearance, as bottles, barrels, and boards,
+a&nbsp;grindstone, reindeer bones, a&nbsp;saw, a&nbsp;side-saddle, and
+old nets are piled together without any attempt at order. The inner room
+is very small, about nine feet by four, and there our two men sleep; and
+there also is a large oven built of stone, and heated by a fire inside
+it. As we had no bread, we proceeded to bake, and our ignorance of the
+manners and customs of this oven caused the bread to have a terribly
+trying time of it; for we did not make it hot enough at the first
+attempt, and the bread was left lying on the top covered by a cloth for
+over an hour while the oven was being heated a second time.</p>
+
+<p>All’s well that ends well, and this batch of rolls turned out the
+very best that frail man ever tasted, and consequently at supper we ate
+enough bread and butter and jam to supply a school feast of the
+hungriest description.</p>
+
+<p>While the Skipper and John attended to the loaves Esau looked after
+the fishes, and very soon got a nice dish of half-pounders in the river.
+As he came back something in the middle of the stream caught his eye.
+‘It is, yet it can’t be&mdash;yes, by George, it is, Öla’s hat!’ wedged
+in between two rocks, and slightly out of shape, but with the
+double-seamed, extra quality lining
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page262" id = "page262">262</a></span>
+uninjured, and the pure Leghorn straw in very fair condition. The
+effusion with which Öla received it was a sight to be seen, but no one
+else exhibited much enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p>An inventory of our remaining stores reveals the fact that we have
+heaps of everything except coffee and bacon, which can only last about a
+week longer. In view of this happy state of things the Skipper proposed
+to spend a week of wild and reckless profusion and sinful
+extravagance.</p>
+
+<p>Esau at once pictured himself seated on a grassy slope giving way to
+Epicurean indulgence, surrounded by three untouched pots of jam, and
+eating from a fourth with a table-spoon; at his side a cup of tea
+blacker than ink, and flavoured with condensed milk thicker than cream,
+while he flipped lumps of sugar into the water instead of pebbles, and
+commanded Öla to sand the floor of the hut with pepper.</p>
+
+<p>John suggested as an amendment that we should make some exception to
+show that we possess the power of self-denial. ‘Let us,’ said he, ‘deny
+ourselves in some one thing. Not in luxuries, which are getting scarce;
+in that there would be no merit. No; rather let us exercise our virtue
+in respect of what we have in the greatest abundance, and thereby show a
+great and shining example to the world. Let us abstain entirely from
+water.’ (He had ascertained that there was plenty of whisky.)</p>
+
+<p>Esau rose to oppose the remarks of the honourable
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page263" id = "page263">263</a></span>
+gentleman. ‘Such self-denial would be a good action, but the constant
+performance of virtuous actions tends to make one haughty. I&nbsp;dare
+say you fellows don’t know this, but I do, because I’ve tried it.
+I&nbsp;prefer to be wicked and humble.’</p>
+
+<p>The motion was not pressed to a division.</p>
+
+<p>We are well provided with all kinds of food, for we found in the
+larder a shoulder of venison, and we have any amount of ryper, which, as
+John says, ‘will save our bacon, though they could not save their own;’
+and so with a comfortable hut to live in, a&nbsp;river full of fish at
+our door, and a blazing fire to sit round, life assumes a rosy hue, and
+we go to sleep in real beds with bright hopes of the future.</p>
+
+<p>The Skipper was heard to murmur as he turned over to sleep,
+‘I&nbsp;say, what bread that is! When I get home I shall publish a
+pamphlet, and teach all the world to bake like that.’</p>
+
+<p>It is rather rough on the Skipper’s pamphlet to publish his recipe
+here, but this is copied from his journal:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>‘Take dough in large quantities and place it on a tin. Heat the oven
+till you are sick to death of piling on wood. Smoke a pipe, and remove
+the ashes. Place the dough in the oven, and leave home for an indefinite
+period. If you ever return, remove the decomposed particles, and let
+them get warm in the sun, or else freeze in the snow, it really don’t
+matter a bit. Now heat the oven and recommit them. Brood
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page264" id = "page264">264</a></span>
+over the oven exhibiting the tenderest solicitude. They will soon be
+done, and perhaps will be good, perhaps not; nobody can tell.’</p>
+
+<h5>September 9.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>Last night was very cold, and this morning there was ice on the lake,
+and the bilge-water in the boat was frozen solid. Esau and Jens went up
+the lake in the boat to stalk, and the Skipper accompanied them to fish,
+while John fished nearer home.</p>
+
+<p>About six o’clock the boat was seen returning loaded with the head
+and skin of a very fine buck, and Esau gave us his history
+thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>‘As soon as we landed halfway up the lake we found the spoor of two
+very large bucks and a smaller one which had swum across the lake in the
+night. They seemed to have gone towards the Tyknings glacier, so we went
+in that direction also. The wind was as bad as it could be in that
+valley, for we were obliged to walk exactly with it at first instead of
+against it, in order to get round a sufficiently large piece of country,
+and then work back against the wind. We walked a couple of miles without
+seeing anything, and at last got close to the Tyknings glacier and the
+iceberg lake at its foot. You know that lake well enough, Skipper, full
+of lumps of ice, some of them as big as this hut, which keep breaking
+off from the projecting glacier as it slides down; and I dare say you
+remember what an awful deathly stillness reigns there and what a dismal
+sight the lake is, cold and black under the shade of the crags which
+close in its sides.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page265" id = "page265">265</a></span>
+<p>‘Well, we sat down there and used the glasses for a long
+time&mdash;&mdash;’</p>
+
+<p>‘What do you mean by “using the glasses?”’ interrupted John;
+‘drinking whisky and water?’</p>
+
+<p>Esau withered him with a look and went on.</p>
+
+<p>‘Well, “spied,” if you like, spied for a long time without seeing
+anything; and we had just walked on again a few yards, when the silence
+was suddenly broken by a cry from Jens of “Reins,” and there, 300 yards
+in front of us, was a noble buck which had evidently been concealed from
+our view by some rocks, and had now smelt us and was departing at a
+stately trot, apparently despising undignified hurry.</p>
+
+<p>‘I fancy his intention was to trot away at that long swinging pace,
+and get into Asiatic Russia in time for tea; so I grabbed the rifle from
+Jens, as of course, now that he was alarmed, a&nbsp;long shot was our
+only chance; sat down on a stone, and with the faintest hopes of hitting
+him, fired twice, and, of course, missed.</p>
+
+<p>‘Now here was where my luck came in. If that buck had not been so
+proud, he could have run straight away from us to the glacier beyond the
+lake, but we were “betwixt the wind and his nobility,” and he wanted to
+get a clean breeze, and run against it instead of down it. Consequently,
+when he was about 350 yards away he turned to the right, apparently
+intending to make a circle round us, and so get the wind in his
+face.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page266" id = "page266">266</a></span>
+<p>‘Directly he turned broadside to us Jens gave a shrill whistle, and
+the buck stopped short for a moment, so that I had just time to make a
+careful shot, and the bullet hit him in the ribs. At the shot he
+stumbled, but recovered himself instantly, and made off a good deal
+faster than before, evidently perceiving that things were getting
+serious, and that “this here warn’t no child’s play.” Before I could
+fire again he got into the ravine which runs down towards Rus Lake, and
+was out of our sight.</p>
+
+<p>‘We thought there was just a chance of cutting him off in that
+extremely rough ground, though, of course, we could not tell whether he
+was much hurt or not; so we ran as hard as we could for about a quarter
+of a mile, loading as we ran. Suddenly I caught sight of him going very
+slowly, but luckily he did not see us, so we dodged into a little gully,
+and after another short run came in sight of him standing still, no
+doubt owing to his wound, and about 250 yards away.</p>
+
+<p>‘This time he saw us, and darted off as fleetly as ever, no longer
+with his side to us, but straight away. I&nbsp;was dead beat, and Jens
+had thrown himself down, and was panting
+like&mdash;like&mdash;&mdash;’</p>
+
+<p>‘A concertina?’ suggested the Skipper.</p>
+
+<!-- png 295 -->
+<!-- png 296 -->
+<p class = "plate">
+<a name = "plate267" id = "plate267"
+href = "images/plate267_large.png" target = "_blank">
+<img src = "images/plate267.png" width = "467" height = "272"
+alt = "see caption"></a></p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+DEATH OF THE ‘STOR BOCK’ AT THE ICEBERG LAKE, TYKNINGS HÖ.</p>
+
+<p>‘Yes, just so. Anyhow, we could not run another yard; you know what
+it is on those stones, so I sat down again, and with the rifle going
+like a pump-handle, fired, and, by the greatest luck, hit him close
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page267" id = "page267">267</a></span>
+to the tail, and the bullet went clean through his body and smashed his
+shoulder. Down he went, and we raised a yell of triumph, whereupon he
+jumped up again and went off at a slapping pace in a most extraordinary
+manner. I&nbsp;believe if he could have reached the snow he would have
+done us even now, but we were between him and the glacier, and he had
+nothing but rocks to go on, bad enough for a deer with the proper
+complement of legs and ribs, and very trying indeed to one crippled like
+this, I’m sure.</p>
+
+<p>‘However, he kept going at a great pace for a few hundred yards, and
+we lay in a state of exhaustion and watched him through the glass. Soon
+he began to move more slowly, and then to go round and round in a small
+circle, and at last he lay down. By that time I had partially recovered
+my wind, so I stalked him with great care and got within a hundred yards
+of him, took a steady aim for his heart, and pulled. To my horror he
+bounced up again, and ran like a hare for a dozen yards, and then rolled
+over and over as dead as Julius Cæsar.</p>
+
+<p>‘How Jens and I whooped and shook hands and laughed can be imagined
+by any one who has seen a grand deer almost escape him, and then, by a
+bit of luck and a breakneck run, just nailed him when the chance seemed
+hopeless. After that we lay on our backs and panted for some time, but
+after finishing the whisky and a large portion of the iceberg lake
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page268" id = "page268">268</a></span>
+we recovered sufficiently to skin our prize and cut him up. He is a most
+splendidly fat “stor bock,” Jens says by far the best that has been
+killed in these parts this year; a&nbsp;beautiful skin, and, best luck
+of all, his horns have got rid of the velvet, and are fit to take home:
+and they have fourteen points. I&nbsp;measured the fat on his loins, and
+it was two and a half inches thick. Jens tried to bring home a hind
+quarter as well as the head and skin, but before he had gone twenty
+yards he found that it was too much for him, so turned back and buried
+it with the rest.’</p>
+
+<p>At this time of year the biggest bucks of a herd seem to separate
+themselves from the rest and roam about, either alone or perhaps a
+couple together. We think they act wisely in this respect, as the calves
+are now old enough to run as fast as their mothers in case of danger,
+and do not need any paternal protection; and the bucks would no doubt
+become horribly bored if they remained with their wives and children all
+the year round; whereas by this system they are quite independent for a
+time, and roam all over the country, seeing a lot of life and living
+uncommonly well. Very much like a married man, when he gets away on
+board a friend’s yacht for a couple of months, and comes back quite
+brightened up at the end of his trip, and positively agreeable and
+good-tempered to his wife and family, insomuch that they are right glad
+to see him home again.</p>
+
+<p>Of course the stalker’s great object in life is to
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page269" id = "page269">269</a></span>
+shoot one of these big bucks; but it is a desire seldom realised, as
+they are very restless, and only haunt the most secluded and difficult
+country. We have only met with two others in this expedition, and those
+the Skipper saw retiring at a good swinging trot over the heights of
+Memurutungen.</p>
+
+<p>We have obtained some interesting information from Jens about the
+horns of the reindeer. As every one knows, both the bucks and does have
+horns, but they shed them at different times: those of the does and
+smaller bucks are now in velvet, and will not get properly hard until
+October; they will then remain on all through the winter, and be shed in
+the spring. But the large bucks have their horns hard now, and will shed
+them in the winter, and so be defenceless during the time when the snow
+lies thickest.</p>
+
+<p>All this is undoubtedly true, for Jens is thoroughly trustworthy in
+his facts, but what is the reason?</p>
+
+<p>Jens does not know, but he gives us another fact. In the winter, when
+the ‘stor bocks’ have no horns, the snow is often so deep that only the
+strongest deer can scrape it away to lay bare the moss which at that
+season forms their food. Then come the does and smaller bucks, and with
+their horns push away the unfortunate big ones, and so are saved from
+starvation, while the ill-treated ‘stor bocks’ have to work double tides
+in order to get anything to eat.</p>
+
+<p>We present this fact in all humility to Mr. Darwin as a solution of
+the problem, ‘Why has the female
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page270" id = "page270">270</a></span>
+reindeer horns?’ Evidently, they originally had none, but by constant
+pushing at their lords and masters they developed them by degrees; then,
+by the survival of the fittest, those does with the longest and sharpest
+horns prospered most, and soon there were none of the hornless does
+left, and all calves began to have horns as a matter of course.</p>
+
+<p>Esau is inclined to the belief that, by the same line of reasoning,
+the big bucks, constantly being shot at through untold ages, have
+developed cast-iron ribs, and that that is the reason why they take such
+a lot of killing.</p>
+
+<p>Possibly we have worked the theory in the wrong direction. It may be
+that originally all deer of every kind had horns, and the reindeer doe
+is the only female which now keeps them, because she alone has to fight
+for her living; but the snow and the horns together are cause and
+effect, of that we are convinced.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>pièce de résistance</i> at dinner was a ryper curry, executed
+in the Skipper’s best manner, and worthy of a place amongst the old
+masters, though providentially none of them were here to help us with
+it. John also contributed his share to the menu, a&nbsp;roley-poley
+pudding, which, when it came to table, looked a trifle doughy at the
+ends, as even the best of such puddings generally&nbsp;do.</p>
+
+<p>John turned to Esau, and in his sweetest manner said, ‘Do you like
+end, old fellow?’</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page271" id = "page271">271</a></span>
+<p>He, a little astonished at this unwonted politeness, replied with
+equal courtesy, ‘No, thank you, I&nbsp;don’t think I care about
+end.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Ah,’ said John, ‘well, the Skipper and I <i>do</i>;’ and thereupon
+cut the pudding into two portions, and was giving one to the Skipper and
+the other to himself, when the proceedings were interrupted by a brief
+but energetic scene of riot and bloodshed, which was terminated by a
+treaty of peace on the basis of the <i>status quo</i> as regards the
+pudding, and subsequent re-division of the same into three parts by a
+mixed commission.</p>
+
+<p>Among the fish brought in to-day was one enormously long brute which
+ought to have weighed five pounds, but was only three pounds. The
+Skipper captured this prize at the outlet of the lake, which seems to be
+a favourite place for sick and dying fish like this.</p>
+
+<p>Matters of food are generally referred to Esau, because he cares more
+about eating than the other two, as <i>they</i> say, or because he has
+got more sense than they have, as <i>he</i> says. The two explanations
+are probably identical.</p>
+
+<p>When this fish was brought to him for judgment, he promptly said,
+‘Give it to the men.’ The Skipper replied, ‘My dear chap, whenever we
+collect any kind of food that isn’t quite nice, you always “give it to
+the men.”’</p>
+
+<p>Esau became grave at once, and answered ‘You
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page272" id = "page272">272</a></span>
+forget we are not in England. At home, truly, we give the best of
+everything to our servants, and are thankful for the worst ourselves;
+but Norway is a country where the canker of civilisation has not yet
+crept in to taint everything it passes over, and where the noisome worm
+of increasing independence does not blossom in the heart of every tree.
+Our men would be proud and happy to chew this aged fish, and we have had
+instances to convince us that they would be prouder and happier if the
+aged fish were nearly putrid.’</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page273" id = "page273">273</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapXXX" id = "chapXXX">CHAPTER XXX.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">LUCK.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>September 10.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">The</span> Skipper caused great sorrow this
+morning at breakfast by announcing his intention of leaving Rus Lake on
+the day after to-morrow, which ought to be a Sunday, according to our
+reckoning. It seems that his conscience upbraids him for leaving a
+brother to be married without his assistance, and the House has sadly
+approved his decision.</p>
+
+<p>While Esau was having a great day with the trout in the river, the
+Skipper went after deer, and came back cursing Fortune and all her
+emissaries and signs, which means ravens, horseshoes, spiders, and so
+forth. A&nbsp;few days ago, when he was starting on a stalk, he heard a
+raven croaking overhead, so refrained from looking up lest he should
+catch its eye, and have bad luck; but that raven was not to be balked of
+his victim, and obtruded himself so that the Skipper <i>had</i> to see
+him, and of course no deer came that day. The next day <i>two</i> ravens
+crossed his path, both cawing in the loudest and most jubilant manner;
+so he was greatly delighted, thinking that
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page274" id = "page274">274</a></span>
+this was a sure precursor of good sport; but something was wrong, and
+again no deer resulted. But to-day two ravens came and cawed in a
+gentle, soothing, confident manner just outside the window before we got
+up: this gave the Skipper great belief in the turn of luck, and he
+started with a rope in his pocket to tie up the deerskins withal, his
+knife sharpened like a razor, and his bag full of cartridges. Once again
+he saw nothing, and was nearly withered away by the cold wind and rain.
+Coming home he picked up a horseshoe, probably the only one in the
+Jotunfjeld; but the times are out of joint, and these barometers of
+fortune have become depressed by the prevailing bad seasons and the
+state of the weather, so that they cannot be depended&nbsp;on.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of the absence of sport he came back raving about the
+glorious views of the mountains, which quite repay any one for a long
+walk now that they are newly covered with snow. From Nautgardstind
+looking northwards, away from the glaciers, a&nbsp;splendid panorama is
+spread out&mdash;hill, forest, and lake, lighted up by the bright gleams
+of the September sun, still shining out bravely at intervals although
+winter has begun. Down to the right is the hilly woodland country
+through which we journeyed on our way hither, and on the left a vast
+plain of rolling ground. Far beyond this rises a towering cluster of
+high-peaked mountains, over whose heads float bands of fleecy clouds,
+while up their weather-worn sides
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page275" id = "page275">275</a></span>
+the cloud-shadows drift and seem to nestle in sleep. They say these
+peaks are called Ronderne, but surely when seen on such a day,
+‘a&nbsp;dream of heaven’ is a better name; for where else on earth can
+man be so near heaven as in a lofty solitude like this, where he can
+gaze his fill on nature’s most beautiful loneliness untouched and
+undisturbed by human hand? Öla’s ignorance of English enables one to
+gloat in silence over such a scene, without any danger of being rudely
+recalled to earth by a jarring exclamation of ‘Ain’t it lovely?’ or
+‘That’s about as good as they make ’em,&nbsp;eh?’</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic275" id = "pic275">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic275.png" width = "518" height = "404"
+alt = "Gloptind Rock, at the Western End of Rus Lake"></p>
+
+<h5>September 11.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>The Skipper made a last stalk, with his usual luck, not seeing even a
+track, though he went into ground that we always considered a sure find,
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page276" id = "page276">276</a></span>
+near the west end of the lake. Near there, and under the shelter of the
+curious sugar-loaf rock called Gloptind, there is a little ruined hut,
+which was built by a former occupier of Rus Vand for greater convenience
+in shooting near that part of the ground. When we were here before, Esau
+was obliged to go home prematurely, and the Skipper and Jens went to
+stay in this den after his departure, and got several deer while there.
+This evening we persuaded the Skipper to tell us all about it, and after
+he had put himself in what he considered a comfortable attitude on the
+bed, and lighted his pipe, he began.</p>
+
+<p>‘Well, when Esau went home, Jens and I were left up here, and got on
+very comfortably considering the disadvantages under which the human
+race has laboured ever since that unlucky business of the Tower of
+Babel.’</p>
+
+<p>‘What <i>does</i> he mean?’ whispered John anxiously to Esau.</p>
+
+<p>‘How should <i>I</i> know?’ replied the latter. ‘Just listen a bit
+longer, and I dare say we shall find out.’</p>
+
+<p>The Skipper went on: ‘We went out several days, and walked enormous
+distances without seeing any deer, so one day we decided to put a frying
+pan, some firewood, and a change of clothes into the boat, and row up to
+that little tumbledown stone hut at the other end for a night or two, as
+it is in the heart of the most unfrequented country, and there is
+nothing near to scare the most timid deer.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page277" id = "page277">277</a></span>
+<p><ins class = "correction" title = "open quote invisible">‘We</ins>
+packed everything into the boat and rowed off one fine morning, the
+clouds, however, beginning to hang ominously over the distant mountains.
+Jens rowed slowly, so that I could fish on the way, and our progress was
+further delayed by a head-wind.</p>
+
+<p>‘Very soon the clouds closed in all round, and the sky got very dark.
+Jens kept rowing on steadily, from time to time looking up at the high
+mountain ridges that wall in the west end of the lake, while I devoted
+my attention to whipping the water from the stern, hoping to entice some
+unwary fish before the approaching rain should stop our chance of
+getting some fresh food. Suddenly he stopped rowing, and uttering the
+magic word “Reins,” pointed up to an apparently deserted mountain slope
+on the Bes Hö side, and handed me the glass, by the aid of which I soon
+discovered two reindeer bucks feeding about a mile away, and almost
+straight above&nbsp;us.</p>
+
+<p>‘I had on a blue serge suit, so the first thing to be done was to
+change to my stalking suit then and there in the boat; meanwhile the
+threatened rain began to descend in torrents, and the wind swept by in
+such squalls that Jens had to work hard to keep the boat in her place.
+At last the change was completed, the serge suit stowed away under a
+mackintosh, and we got to shore and began our stalk.</p>
+
+<p>‘It was a difficult task to keep out of sight while advancing, and we
+could only move at intervals when the deer shifted for a few moments
+behind a rock
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page278" id = "page278">278</a></span>
+or into a hollow in their search for food, so that we had first to run,
+when opportunity offered, for a quarter of a mile over very bad ground,
+then crawl another quarter over more broken ground; and at length, after
+an hour of this, being pretty close to the deer, they happened to come
+more into view, and we had to lie prone on our bellies for nearly twenty
+minutes (while they fed their way into the next hollow); and the heavy
+rain pelted down on us till we were soaked, sodden, and nearly perished
+with cold.</p>
+
+<p>‘I thought that time of cramped penance would never end, but at last
+the hindermost buck got his head safe behind a welcome ridge, and then
+we were soon up and after them.’</p>
+
+<p>Here the Skipper stopped to strike a match on his trousers and
+relight his pipe, and then resumed: ‘Now we knew we must be close to
+them, and with rifles cocked, and hearts beating uncomfortably, advanced
+expectant. I&nbsp;forgot to tell you that after Esau went home I allowed
+Jens to take his rifle out, he was so desperately keen
+about&nbsp;it.</p>
+
+<p>‘Suddenly we came on the bucks only forty yards away, conscious of
+danger, but not knowing what they feared; too unsettled to feed, too
+uncertain to move.</p>
+
+<!-- png 309 -->
+<!-- png 310 -->
+<p class = "plate">
+<a name = "plate279" id = "plate279"
+href = "images/plate279_large.png" target = "_blank">
+<img src = "images/plate279.png" width = "468" height = "278"
+alt = "see caption"></a></p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+GOOD SPORT, BAD WEATHER. THE SKIPPER’S TWO ‘STOR BOCKS.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I fired first, and immediately afterwards, as pre-arranged, Jens
+fired, and both deer bounded into the air and disappeared like lightning
+over a ridge beyond them. We followed at our best pace, I&nbsp;cramming
+in a couple of cartridges as we ran, and
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page279" id = "page279">279</a></span>
+saw them again directly, still running, and a good deal further away.
+I&nbsp;fired two more shots, and one buck fell dead at once, while the
+other galloped on about twenty yards further, and then suddenly stumbled
+and fell head over heels.</p>
+
+<p>‘I fancy that our first shots killed them, and that one was really
+killed by Jens, but may I never know for certain! The yell that we gave
+when we saw them both lying dead woke the echoes of that dreary
+solitude, and must have been worth hearing by any student of human
+nature: in a wild shout of triumph there is only one language for all
+nations, and Jens and I joined our voices in the same glorious tongue
+for once.</p>
+
+<p>‘Both these deer were “stor bocks,” six years old and fat. We skinned
+them there, and leaving the bodies as usual safe under stones, returned
+to the boat with the heads and skins. By the way, John, you must have
+seen the horns of these two deer on the wall of Besse Sæter, for I had
+no means of getting them home, and Jens put them up there.</p>
+
+<p>‘The day was drawing to a close when we reached the little stone hut
+which was to be our lodging: its roof was full of holes, and let the
+rain through like a sieve; but we stretched the two deerskins over it,
+and so made it habitable for a time. Inside there is, as you know, only
+just room for two men to lie side by side touching each other; and here,
+after a liberal
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page280" id = "page280">280</a></span>
+meal and a contemplative pipe, we turned in and slept like honest
+men.</p>
+
+<p>‘Next morning after breakfast, while I was making up a fresh cast for
+my rod, I&nbsp;saw a man approaching the hut. As this was the only
+intrusion from human beings that we had suffered for more than a month,
+I&nbsp;was not a little surprised. Where the deuce could a man come
+from? and what the dickens could he want? It soon proved to be old
+Tronhūus with a note for Jens.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic280" id = "pic280">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic280.png" width = "510" height = "389"
+alt = "The old stone Hut near Gloptind"></p>
+
+<p>‘I must explain that Besse Sæter where Jens lives belongs to a man
+who comes from Christiania, and Jens is only his tenant there. This man
+had arrived at his sæter two days before this with a young English
+nobleman, whom he was proud to have as his guest,
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page281" id = "page281">281</a></span>
+and to whom he naturally wished to show some sport; but he had been
+unable to do so for want of a good stalker. This was of course very
+unfortunate for him and his guest, but it by no means justified his
+present conduct. He had addressed a letter to Jens, but written it in
+English, so that I should read it, sending merely a verbal message to
+Jens by his father, to ensure our both knowing the purport of the
+letter, which was to the following effect:&mdash;“Jens. If you do not
+return with the bearer of this letter to Besse Sæter to show myself and
+Lord &mdash;&mdash; some deer, you will at once lose your tenancy of
+Besse Sæter.” I&nbsp;could not keep Jens and thus cause him to be
+unfairly ejected from his home, so having no paper with me, I&nbsp;wrote
+in pencil on the back of the note that Peter had brought: “As you must
+be aware that Jens is acting as my servant this summer, and that by
+calling him away you leave me absolutely alone at the stone hut on Rus
+Vand, I&nbsp;hope that you will not detain him after receiving this
+note.”</p>
+
+<p>‘With this missive Jens departed, and soon old Peter followed him,
+and left me, like Robinson Crusoe, alone on my desert highland.
+I&nbsp;am bound to say that I felt inclined to inquire with Selkirk,
+“O&nbsp;solitude, where are the charms?” as I turned to perform the
+duties of the day, absolutely deserted in that desolate spot, with no
+companions but the lake and solemn mountain heights around me; so after
+a short time I put the Lares and Penates&mdash;&mdash;’</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page282" id = "page282">282</a></span>
+<p>‘Hollo, what’s that?’ broke in Esau; ‘you never said anything about
+bringing that with you before.’</p>
+
+<p>‘You duffer!’ said the Skipper; ‘it’s Norwegian for the frying-pan
+and tea-kettle: do you mean to say you’ve been all this time in the
+country without learning that?’</p>
+
+<p>‘Oh, all right,’ grunted Esau, ‘go on.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Well, I put them into the boat and sculled the seven miles back to
+this hut, as I did not feel inclined to remain alone in that little
+stone hutch for the night.</p>
+
+<p>‘Three days passed before they let Jens return to me; and during that
+time I was certainly rather dull, and at night felt a trifle creepy, but
+the days did not pass as slowly as you might have imagined; for being
+without assistance my time was fully occupied in catching my daily
+supply of fish, chopping firewood, cooking, washing, and so on. At night
+the wind howled dismally round the cabin walls, but after the hard work
+of the day I soon fell asleep, and at last began almost to like the
+solitary life. Still I longed for Jens to come back, as I could not go
+out stalking alone; the season was far advanced, and the weather very
+cold.</p>
+
+<p>‘How I cursed that Englishman’ (gentle murmurs of ‘Bet you did’ from
+the other two) ‘as I cleaned out the tea-pot and scoured the frying-pan!
+and how I pictured him to myself wandering with my faithful Jens over
+the best reindeer-fjeld, and scaring away
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page283" id = "page283">283</a></span>
+all the deer with his loud-sounding Bond Street express!’</p>
+
+<p>‘I say, Skipper,’ put in Esau, ‘did <i>his</i> Bond Street express
+make any more row than <i>yours</i>? because&nbsp;if&mdash;&mdash;’</p>
+
+<p>‘My dear fellow,’ said the Skipper, ‘you always put that kind of
+expression into narrative; it’s Homeric; an educated man would be
+pleased with&nbsp;it.</p>
+
+<p>‘I was always expecting Jens; every sound, real or imaginary, caused
+me to look up over the deserted lake, and hold my breath while I
+listened to make out his voice in the distance; and when I went down the
+river I heard his cheery shout in the rush of every rapid and the roar
+of every fall.</p>
+
+<p>‘After all it was only three days, and then one afternoon I found him
+waiting for me at the hut. I&nbsp;was glad to see him&mdash;gladder than
+I am to hear the dinner-bell at home, as glad as a bee is to get into
+the open air after bunting its head against a window-pane for three
+days’ (‘Beautiful simile!’ from John), ‘and especially glad to see how
+pleased old Jens was to return to me again. I&nbsp;was also not
+particularly sorry to hear that he had found a herd of deer and taken
+Lord &mdash;&mdash; within shot; and the only result was a calf, which
+Jens himself shot after the Englishman had missed.</p>
+
+<p>‘After this I had a good time with grand fishing and more deer, but
+we did not stay much longer at Rus Vand; as you know, I&nbsp;was back in
+England by the end of September.’</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page284" id = "page284">284</a></span>
+<p>The story ended, we called the men in and had a great settlement of
+wages and milk bills, and arranged how the Skipper’s baggage should be
+transported tomorrow, and the rest next week.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic284" id = "pic284">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic284.png" width = "524" height = "409"
+alt = "A Night at Rusvasoset, after a Day at Haircutting"></p>
+
+<p>Then we filled up glasses round with whisky and drank a solemn Skaal
+(pronounced Skole) to every one, and then to Gammle Norgé, and finished
+the evening with ‘Auld Lang Syne.’ It must have been a ludicrous sight
+as we stood tightly packed in that tiny room, with heads all bent
+towards the centre to avoid the rafters, our hands crossed in orthodox
+fashion, and roaring at our highest respective pitches as much of the
+words as we knew, while we swayed our arms up and down in the manner
+essential to the proper rendering of the good old song.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page285" id = "page285">285</a></span>
+<p>When the men cleared out, Esau produced a gorgeous counterpane which
+he had commissioned Peter to buy in Vaage six weeks ago, and which the
+old man brought over from Besse Sæter to-day. Its manufacture is
+peculiar to this district; it is woven in most tasteful colours, red,
+magenta, blue, and green being the most prominent, with a kind of
+diamond pattern in white running diagonally across it; but, from the
+‘What’s the next article?’ air with which Esau exhibited it, we began to
+suspect that he was rather disappointed with it, and wanted to induce
+some one to buy it. Suffice it to say that its introduction was received
+with coldness.</p>
+
+<p>This was a bad day for sport; we caught very little, and shot less.
+We did spy a reindeer directly after breakfast, but as he was about six
+miles away, close to the top of one of the highest mountains, and
+running as if Loki were after him, no one cared about pursuing him.</p>
+
+<p>John fishing in the lake managed to lose a ‘twa and saxpenny’ minnow,
+trace, and twenty yards of reel line, and was quite discontented.</p>
+
+<p>At night the wind had increased to a storm, and the clouds were right
+down on the water, and hurrying past in endless wreathing drifts like
+witches trooping to their nocturnal Sabbath.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page286" id = "page286">286</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapXXXI" id = "chapXXXI">CHAPTER XXXI.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">NOT LOST, BUT GONE BEFORE.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>September 12.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">Early</span> this morning we sorrowfully
+packed the Skipper’s things on the pony, and then we three and Öla
+marched off down the river towards civilisation. The Skipper hoped to
+get over about twenty-five miles before night; Esau wanted to try the
+river a long way down; and John said he ‘always liked a stroll on
+Sunday,’ and with that object accompanied the Skipper for the first
+eleven miles of his journey, returning to Rusvasoset in time for
+dinner.</p>
+
+<p>About four miles below Rus Lake, the river, which is there about
+thirty yards wide, suddenly disappears into a narrow cleft in the rocky
+bed, and runs in this curious rift for several hundred yards, and then
+again emerges into daylight. The sides of this rocky prison are just
+over a yard apart at the narrowest place, though the gap only appears to
+be a few inches wide; but the force with which the immense body of water
+is squeezed through the tortuous passage far down below, whirling huge
+boulders along with irresistible force, and covering the surrounding
+rocks with
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page287" id = "page287">287</a></span>
+moisture from the ever-rising misty spray, makes it a severe trial to
+the nerves to step across the cleft; the ceaseless din of the rushing
+water is of itself sufficiently appalling.</p>
+
+<p>This channel has evidently been gradually worn down through the solid
+rock, which here appears to be a reef of softer nature than the usual
+formation of this country. On the top and in niches all the way down are
+still to be seen the turn holes caused by stones working round and round
+in an eddy; but the curious fact is that while at the top the cleft is
+only a yard across, it widens regularly out as it gets deeper, and at
+the bottom is fully ten yards in width. Now it seems unlikely that the
+Russen River could ever have been content to run in a bed so much
+narrower than its present one, and from the appearance of the strata we
+imagine that as it worked down and undermined the cliffs at each side,
+they have gradually toppled forward to meet each other. Probably soon
+they will actually touch, after which a very short time will see the
+natural arch so formed covered with vegetation, and the river will run
+in a subterranean passage.</p>
+
+<p>Through this channel no fish could pass alive, so there Esau bade
+‘farvel’ to the Skipper, and, encumbered with rod and fishing bag,
+leaped like a goat across the intervening Devil’s Dyke, and was soon
+lost to view as he fished his way up stream.</p>
+
+<p>The other two pursued their journey steadily, and found it pleasant
+to gradually walk down from the
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page288" id = "page288">288</a></span>
+Scotch mist which overhung everything up at Rus Vand, into, firstly,
+dull dry weather just below the clouds, and then a little further into
+real sunshine and warmth. About one o’clock they reached Hind Sæter, the
+tenants of which were still there, but just in the act of removing to
+the valley. Here they feasted together on fladbrod, and then the things
+were packed on a cart, and the Skipper, following them as they jolted
+away under Öla’s guidance through the pine forest, was seen no more by
+his disconsolate comrade.</p>
+
+<p>When John returned to Rusvasoset a little before dinner-time, we
+found it necessary to bake bread and a pie, our invariable rule ‘when in
+doubt.’ This was not a case that admitted of any hesitation, for the
+Skipper had taken all the food that he could annex for his sustenance on
+the journey, as he did not expect to find any people in the sæters on
+his path.</p>
+
+<p>The evening was spent in general tidying, and mending various
+articles which had gone wrong; holes in landing-nets, rents in trousers
+and coats, and inserting new screws in Esau’s boots for the stalk he
+hoped, but hardly expected, to make on the morrow. At night the outlook
+was anything but encouraging, dense clouds folding all nature in their
+cold embrace, and the pitiless rain beating down on our poor little hut
+as if it took a pleasure in the occupation.</p>
+
+<h5>September 13.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>Rain, and nothing but rain.</p>
+
+<!-- png 321 -->
+<!-- png 322 -->
+<p class = "plate">
+<a name = "plate289" id = "plate289"
+href = "images/plate289_large.png" target = "_blank">
+<img src = "images/plate289.png" width = "465" height = "270"
+alt = "see caption"></a></p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+CHEERFUL! THE HUTS AT RUS LAKE.</p>
+
+<h5>September 14.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>We never knew when sunrise and
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page289" id = "page289">289</a></span>
+daybreak took place to-day, or whether they happened at all, for the
+prospect was more hopeless than ever, and the rain still fell with
+unabated vigour.</p>
+
+<p>We were at the end of our indoor resources, but fortunately Öla
+returned with some English papers which he had found waiting for us at
+Ransværk, the sæter at which he and the Skipper passed the night, and at
+which this bundle of literature had been deposited about a fortnight ago
+by the latest traveller from Vaage. But for this, there would certainly
+have been bloodshed in this remote spot, our tempers not being equal to
+the strain of two days in succession without being able to see ten yards
+in front of us, or to stir out without becoming water-logged.</p>
+
+<p>Even the fish were apparently at last disgusted at not being able to
+get into a dry corner by jumping out of the water, and our efforts to
+persuade them to try the interior of a waterproof bag only met with
+indifferent success.</p>
+
+<p>The stubborn resistance of our well-tried roof has at last been
+overcome, and soon after turning in last night we had to turn out again
+to rig up various hydrostatic appliances with a view to diverting the
+course of some of the superfluous rainfall, and irrigating the floor
+therewith instead of letting the beds get it all. The latter really
+needed it much less than the boards, which were somewhat dusty; but
+probably the mistake arose from John sitting on one of them
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page290" id = "page290">290</a></span>
+while he mixed the dough, so that it might have been taken for a
+flour-bed.</p>
+
+<h5>September 15.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>At last we were relieved by a change in the wind, soon followed by a
+cessation of rain, and then the mist began to lift, and by noon the sun
+was actually beginning to glimmer feebly, and the mountains to be
+visible for half their height.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic290" id = "pic290">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic290.png" width = "520" height = "397"
+alt = "Rus Lake from the Western End: Nautgardstind in the Distance"></p>
+
+<p>John went on a general tour of mountaineering and prospecting in
+search of scenery, and came back delighted with himself, having made a
+higher climb than usual, and seen Nautgardstind in all the perfect
+beauty with which the newly fallen snow had endowed him.</p>
+
+<p>It has already been mentioned that John does <i>not</i> like walking
+uphill, and when he makes a self-sacrificing
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page291" id = "page291">291</a></span>
+and voluntary ascent as he did to-day, he comes home brimming over with
+an excess of conscious virtue which does not pass away until the genial
+influence of a good meal and a pipe has reduced him to the level of all
+humanity.</p>
+
+<p>On his way home he heard a feeble squeak in a bush, and peering in
+discovered a small animal which he at first took for a guinea-pig; but
+soon, perceiving that it must be a lemming, his natural impulse was to
+poke it with a stick. This was his first interview with one, though they
+are common enough up here; and he is disposed to think them morose in
+disposition; but really he ought to have recognised the fact that the
+thin end of a walking-stick is not a means of intercourse at all likely
+to arouse the sympathy of any animal, least of all that of a juvenile
+lemming, who is obviously overcome with drowsiness, and wants to be let
+alone.</p>
+
+<p>The winter is now coming on apace, and already every fall of rain
+down here is a snowstorm in the mountains, and every clear night means a
+biting frost up there. Esau, scaling the heights of Bes Hö with Jens in
+search of deer, found none on account of the mist, and in addition to
+the danger of getting lost, a&nbsp;new peril was added by the snow. It
+appeared that during the night a severe frost had immediately followed
+the rain and coated everything with ice, then snow had fallen to the
+depth of three inches, and on the top of that rain and sharp frost
+again. The
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page292" id = "page292">292</a></span>
+result was that at every step they broke through the crust of ice on the
+top, and sank through the three inches of soft snow on to the lower
+stratum of ice. This was all very well as long as they were on rough
+ground; but the snow making every place look the same, in one instance
+they got on to one of the steep little glaciers which are common on Bes
+Hö, without knowing that they had done so: and suddenly Jens lost his
+footing and began to slide downwards at a terrific speed. It seemed to
+Esau that he would shoot straight down into Rus Vand, looking very blue
+and cold three thousand feet below; but a friendly boulder intervened,
+and by its assistance, and by spreading himself out like a gigantic
+spider, he managed to arrest his wild career, and they got safe across
+the treacherous glacier.</p>
+
+<p>They had to cross another on their return, which was done with fear
+and trembling; but although the difficulties of this kind of stalking
+when unaccompanied by deer may seem to outnumber the pleasures, still
+occasionally they were on fairly safe ground, and could get their hearts
+out of their mouths for a few brief moments. At such times the splendid
+view of all our old Gjendin mountains rising tier after tier behind each
+other, a&nbsp;boundless sea of peaks and domes and jagged crags, all
+robed in purest white, with the sun lighting up the virgin snow almost
+too brightly for the eye to rest on; the keen frosty air; and the solemn
+stillness, only broken now and again
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page293" id = "page293">293</a></span>
+by the twittering of a flock of snow buntings, amply repaid them for the
+arduous climb.</p>
+
+<p>Then a few minutes of glorious excitement as, by the aid of
+glissades, they shot down the steeps that it had needed hours of hard
+labour to surmount, and they were back on the shores of Rus Vand, where
+at present the snow had hardly begun to lie.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic293" id = "pic293">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic293.png" width = "530" height = "412"
+alt = "Glissading home after a blank day"></p>
+
+<p>In spite of the cold we had some first-rate fishing, and Esau caught
+a trout which he asserted to be the very best fish for shape, condition,
+and colour, that ever came out of Rus Lake, or anywhere else. Though not
+as large as many we have caught, being only 2½ lbs., it certainly was a
+beauty, and resembled the perfect fish that are occasionally seen in an
+oil
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page294" id = "page294">294</a></span>
+painting, but very seldom encountered in tangible, edible form.</p>
+
+<p>The Rus trout, like those of Gjendin, are quite silvery, almost as
+bright as a salmon, but with a few pink spots instead of black ones, and
+uncommonly pretty they look when fresh out of the water.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic294" id = "pic294">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic294.png" width = "531" height = "239"
+alt = "Rus Lake from the Eastern End: Tyknings Hö and Memurutind in the distance"></p>
+
+<p>Too soon evening put an end to our sport, and when the last rays of
+the setting sun had tinted the distant snow with a delicate pink hue
+which lingered, paled, and faded as the cold silvery light of the moon
+began to assert its sway, the keen air drove us home, and made us
+content to enjoy from the hut door the lovely clear night which
+succeeded so bright a day.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page295" id = "page295">295</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapXXXII" id = "chapXXXII">CHAPTER XXXII.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">A LAST STALK.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>September 16.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">The</span> morning did not belie its fair
+promise, but opened as brightly as the most exacting hunter could
+require.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic295" id = "pic295">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic295.png" width = "278" height = "315"
+alt = "Off! A Reindeer recollecting an engagement"></p>
+
+<p>Esau and Jens made a last laborious and fruitless stalk, trying not
+only the whole Rus Valley, but crossing the mountains northwards into
+Veodalen and traversing all the slopes of Glitretind, a&nbsp;most
+splendid sight just now with his towering pyramid, 8,140 feet high. Such
+a walk would have been
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page296" id = "page296">296</a></span>
+impossible but for the snow, which had been reduced by the wind to the
+consistence of hard sand, and made the going as good as it
+could&nbsp;be.</p>
+
+<p>Esau, who saw nothing all day, was a little annoyed on his return to
+hear that John had wandered but a short distance up Nautgardstind to
+gloat over the view, and there walked almost into a reindeer buck;
+which, as John was armed with no more deadly weapon than a
+double-barrelled field glass, had escaped uninjured. ’Twas ever
+thus.</p>
+
+<p>However, the mention of this buck opened on John’s devoted head the
+floodgates of Esau’s memory, and he insisted on telling about his last
+stalk here two years ago, as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>‘By George! I shall never forget how Jens and I turned out that
+morning across the same precipice that you passed to get up
+Nautgardstind: we started pretty early because it was my last day, and I
+had sworn to catch something or perish.</p>
+
+<p>‘About ten o’clock we saw four deer, a fine buck and three does, on a
+long narrow snow-drift on the east side of the mountain: they were about
+a mile off and moving away, with the wind blowing straight from them to
+us; so we went after them as fast as we could, without much attempt at
+concealment at first.</p>
+
+<p>‘Presently they left the snow and turned to the left, as if to skirt
+round the mountain, we still following and getting rather nearer to
+them. They seemed
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page297" id = "page297">297</a></span>
+very restless and kept moving, and at last began to trot, and soon got
+out of our sight.</p>
+
+<p>‘We were half an hour without seeing them again, and at last Jens
+discovered them far down below us in the large valley where you saw that
+one to-day. The place where they were was quite unapproachable, but Jens
+pointed out a sort of pass by which he thought it was likely they might
+leave the valley, and so we went and hid ourselves in a convenient nook
+fifty yards to the leeward of that place.</p>
+
+<p>‘There we lay in a bitterly cold wind for an hour, and then the deer
+began to come in our direction. Now was the critical moment: there were
+two practicable routes in the pass; would they choose the nearer one,
+which would give me a shot, or the other? They stopped a little time to
+look for food, and provokingly grazed their way very slowly towards the
+wrong one, and then all of a sudden seemed to make up their minds and
+turned to the right one. The cold and cramp were forgotten as the deer
+came within three hundred yards and were nearing us quickly, and, with
+rifle cocked, I&nbsp;was already wondering whether the buck’s horns were
+in velvet or not, and thinking what a splendid coat he had; when without
+any warning a storm of sleet swept down upon us, and a dense mist
+drifted over the mountain and shut out from our gaze the rocky pass and
+deer alike wrapped in impenetrable gloom.</p>
+
+<p>‘For fully half an hour this lasted, and then the
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page298" id = "page298">298</a></span>
+mist cleared as quickly as it had come, the sleet stopped, and the sun
+shone out, making the ground fairly smoke: but, alas! the deer were
+gone. We looked for their tracks, and found that they had actually
+passed within forty yards of us during the storm; but our chance was
+missed, and there was nothing for it but to renew the search.</p>
+
+<p>‘Another hour of walking, and Jens’ quick eye caught sight of them,
+this time high above our heads on some snow near the top of
+Nautgardstind, and at last, thank goodness, lying down. There seemed to
+be a possibility of getting to them, and we spent another hour crawling
+like serpents in the attempt, only to find our way barred when we were
+within four hundred yards by a ridge over which we could not pass
+unseen.</p>
+
+<p>‘However, from there we saw plainly that we could approach them by
+going up the mountain, and then coming quite straight down above them,
+with hardly any difficult ground to traverse. So we performed that weary
+crawl back again, until we were safely out of sight, and then went up
+Nautgardstind at a speed that has never been equalled.</p>
+
+<p>‘Half an hour took us to the top, and then Jens made the only mistake
+in a stalk that I ever saw: he got his bearings wrong somehow, and
+thought that the deer were on one bit of snow, the top end of which we
+could see, while I thought they were on another. Of course I had much
+more confidence in
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page299" id = "page299">299</a></span>
+Jens’ opinion than in my own, but it turned out that he was wrong, and
+in crawling to the place where he expected them to be, we unluckily came
+into full view of the snow where they really were&mdash;a fact which was
+made unpleasantly apparent to us by our suddenly catching sight of four
+deer galloping down the drift two hundred yards away.</p>
+
+<p>‘I took a careful aim at the buck, but fired too low, and the bullet
+broke his fore-leg, which did not prevent him from following the does,
+though at a reduced pace. Now I think our best chance would have been to
+remain perfectly still, and trust to his stopping in time in some place
+where I could get to him; but Jens was terribly excited, begging me to
+shoot, and my own head was by no means as cool as it should have been,
+so I sat on a rock and fired away all my remaining cartridges except
+two, at the gradually receding form of the reindeer: I&nbsp;suppose at
+the last shot he was five hundred yards away, and I don’t think I ever
+hit him again.</p>
+
+<p>‘Presently he got round the corner to the right, and into the next
+valley, where a few days before I had killed two deer; and as I ran to
+the right above him an astonishing sight met my gaze. The valley was
+full of deer, about fifty altogether, in three distinct herds, and they
+were all running about frightened by the firing, and not sure in which
+direction it would be safe to&nbsp;go.</p>
+
+<p>‘While we watched them from our peak a mile
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page300" id = "page300">300</a></span>
+above, a&nbsp;buck and two does with a calf left the herd, and began to
+come towards the very snowdrift on which the four deer were lying when
+we made the fatal mistake. What became of the rest we never knew, nor
+whither our wounded buck went; for when we saw this fresh four making
+for the drift, it occurred to us to run towards the top and try to
+intercept them if they should attempt to ascend the mountain on the
+snow, as we expected they would.</p>
+
+<p>‘Off we ran at top speed over terribly rough ground, and before we
+got nearly in shot of the top of the long drift we saw the deer get on
+to it at the bottom, and begin to gallop up with their untiring stride.
+It was simply a race, with long odds on the Running Rein; and soon we
+saw them standing at the top, while we were still over two hundred yards
+from it. Then for the first time they saw us (for the drift was in a
+ravine, and out of our sight as we ran), and they turned to flee, but
+Jens somehow managed to find breath enough to whistle, and the deer
+stopped for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>‘I fired my last two cartridges, but in the condition to which I was
+reduced by the run I could not have hit a haystack, and no damage was
+done. So we turned homewards with deep and abiding sorrow in our hearts,
+too despondent to look again for our wounded buck, or to see what became
+of the other herds.</p>
+
+<p>‘In those days I always took out seven cartridges,
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page301" id = "page301">301</a></span>
+which I fondly imagined to be a lucky number; but after this I solemnly
+registered two vows: firstly, never to go out with so few again; and
+secondly, never to shoot them all away at absurd distances in the
+forlorn hope of killing a wounded deer.’ Esau here paused for a moment
+or two, and then resumed: ‘By Jove, I&nbsp;did make myself agreeable to
+the Skipper when I got home that night. I&nbsp;remember he
+said&mdash;&mdash;’</p>
+
+<p>But John thought it was <i>his</i> turn to have a few weeks’
+conversation, and rudely interrupted Esau’s reminiscences by calling his
+attention to some writing which, like Belshazzar, he had detected on the
+wall above his bed. It was in pencil, and seemed to have been written in
+prehistoric times, for it was all illegible except the first two lines,
+and even those required a great deal of deciphering by the aid of a
+dripping candle, while Esau knelt on his bunk and flattened his nose
+against the log wall, before he could read them. Then after licking the
+tip of a pencil for a long time in meditative silence, he scrawled the
+remainder of the poem underneath, so that the whole composition read as
+follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class = "verse">
+<p>A reindeer three miles off you spy,</p>
+<p>And to shoot that reindeer you will try.</p>
+<p>First a mile at the top of your speed you go,</p>
+<p>Then you climb a mile up loose rocks and snow,</p>
+<p>Then a mile on your hands and knees you crawl,</p>
+<p>And&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>(when you have executed these little manœuvres and arrived at the
+place with your garments all in tatters
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page302" id = "page302">302</a></span>
+and your whole body a mass of bruises in all probability you will either
+find that the insidious animal has removed himself to the uttermost ends
+of the earth five minutes before your appearance on the scene, or else
+you <i>do</i> get a shot at him and)</p>
+
+<div class = "verse">
+<p class = "indent2">&mdash;&mdash;you miss that reindeer after all.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page303" id = "page303">303</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapXXXIII" id = "chapXXXIII">CHAPTER XXXIII.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">HOMEWARD BOUND.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>September 17.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">Our</span> ears were gladdened by the sound
+of Ivar’s hoarse cachinnation some time during the night or early
+morning, and on turning out he informed us that he should have been here
+yesterday, but his cart had been smashed on the road beyond Hind Sæter:
+however, he had patched it up and got it to the sæter; so we distributed
+our goods on the two ponies, after seizing our last chance of a ‘square
+meal,’ by eating an enormous breakfast of venison pie, cutlets, and
+trout.</p>
+
+<p>All our stores came to an end yesterday, except candles and soap. The
+latter article has for some time been lying in great bars on a shelf as
+a reproach to us, and we were glad to get it out of our sight to-day,
+and ‘give it to the men,’ as we would anything else that is repulsive to
+our feelings. There were a few scraps of other delicacies which we
+divided among the retainers, and then taking with us a fore-quarter of
+‘stor bock’ for our own consumption on the journey, and a hind-quarter
+carefully sewn up in the sail of
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page304" id = "page304">304</a></span>
+Esau’s canoe, and intended as a present for Mr. Thomas, we regretfully
+took leave of the little hut, and started for Besse Sæter.</p>
+
+<p>Öla and Jens were sent down the Russen River, which is the nearest
+way to Hind Sæter; and Ivar was to meet us at the eastern end of Sjödals
+Lake as soon as he could get there.</p>
+
+<p>We paused at the brow of the hill to have a last look at the
+beautiful lake and quaint little huts, and to take off our hats to grand
+old Nautgardstind, to whom we hoped we were not bidding an eternal
+‘farvel;’ and then we turned across the fjeld, and, losing sight of the
+Rus valley, were soon looking forward again to the change and
+uncertainty of the homeward journey.</p>
+
+<p>From Besse Sæter, which was reached at noon, we launched our craft
+into the lake with a nasty side-wind blowing, which delayed our progress
+considerably, so that we took an hour to reach the lower end of the
+lake, a&nbsp;distance of not quite four miles.</p>
+
+<p>There we found Ivar with his pony and sleigh, on which the canoe was
+conveyed to the junction of the Sjoa and Russen Rivers, where Esau
+launched her again and ran the rapids down to Ruslien Sæter, a&nbsp;very
+fine bit of stream, in which the canoe could only just manage to
+live.</p>
+
+<p>Finding that the sæter girls were still here, we went in and asked
+for milk. They suggested cream: amendment carried without a division.
+A&nbsp;huge bowl
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page305" id = "page305">305</a></span>
+of the thickest and most delicious cream was set before us, which we,
+armed with two enormous spoons, attacked and soon consumed utterly, with
+an indefinite amount of fladbrod and cheese. Charge for the whole,
+sixpence! We have no hesitation in saying that the cream alone would
+have been worth its weight in gold in Piccadilly.</p>
+
+<p>We then regained our craft, and had a delightful cruise down to Hind
+Sæter, the stream going at mill-race speed all the way, so that we did
+the two and a half miles in fifteen minutes, arriving long before our
+cavalcade of men and ponies, who started twenty minutes before us, while
+we were discussing the cream.</p>
+
+<p>The sæter was deserted for the winter, but Ivar produced his cart
+from the bed of a stream where he had left it to improve the wheels, and
+at half-past five we, with Jens and one cart, resumed our journey,
+leaving the other two men with the canoe to follow&nbsp;us.</p>
+
+<p>We had originally intended to make the journey to Lillehammer from
+here entirely by canoe down the Sjoa until it joined the Laagen, but the
+premature departure of the Skipper knocked that little scheme on the
+head.</p>
+
+<p>It would have been a tremendous enterprise, for the Sjoa is such a
+turbulent river that there would have been a great deal of portage to be
+done; but we had agreed to allow a fortnight for it, and were looking
+forward to it with great delight. The Laagen is a fairly navigable river
+all the way, with the exception
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page306" id = "page306">306</a></span>
+of a few very large falls; but there is a good road by its side, so that
+we should have had no difficulty if we had been lucky enough ever to
+reach it. However,</p>
+
+<div class = "verse">
+<p>The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men</p>
+<p class = "indent2">Gang aft a-gley;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>and we were reduced to the prosaic necessity of walking, and helping
+to hold our luggage onto a jolting cart.</p>
+
+<p>As we gradually descended into the birch-woods we were much struck by
+the beautiful effects of the variegated autumn tints, and soon the
+brilliant reds and yellows of the birches began to contrast with the
+dark green of the fir trees, the light greyish green of the lichen, and
+rich brown and purple of the ground and undergrowth. It was so long
+since we had seen any trees, that their beauty seemed to come to us
+quite as a new sensation.</p>
+
+<p>Below Hind Sæter the road lay through dense forests of pines for mile
+after mile, with hardly any change except where we got occasional
+glimpses of the Sjoa tearing madly along far beneath us&mdash;so far
+that only a faint murmur came up from the leaping, hurrying waters. Hour
+after hour we walked, and still the same dark forest gloomed above us,
+so remote from the busy haunts of men that it seems not to be worth any
+one’s while to cut the trees except for use in the immediate
+neighbourhood, and hundreds of them lie naked and dead as they have
+fallen before
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page307" id = "page307">307</a></span>
+the fury of the gale, and slowly rot or are devoured by insects until
+their place is ready for a successor.</p>
+
+<p>As the shades of evening began to close, we were several times
+startled as the huge body of a capercailzie darted across the road at a
+pace which seemed impossible to such an enormous bird, and with an
+absence of noise that appeared equally unnatural.</p>
+
+<p>About half-past eight we came to a more open part of the forest, and
+soon we saw a glimmering light ahead: Jens cheerily said, ‘Ransværk;’
+and in a few more minutes we pulled up at the door of a large sæter.</p>
+
+<p>Without knocking Jens opened the door, and we walked in and struck a
+light. There was the usual fireplace and table, and in the further
+corner a bed, which, as we presently perceived, was occupied by two
+girls. This discovery embarrassed us a little; but no one else, least of
+all the girls themselves, appeared to be at all disconcerted.</p>
+
+<p>In our favoured land a woman would probably be slightly concerned if
+she were aroused from sleep by the unceremonious entrance into her room
+of three men, two of them ruffianly-looking strangers of foreign
+exterior; but not so these artless beings. The elder one at once got out
+of bed and proceeded to dress, while her sister remained where she was
+and soon fell asleep.</p>
+
+<p>When the dressing commenced, we, being innocent
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page308" id = "page308">308</a></span>
+young bachelors, retired and remained outside till it was finished, but
+we do not believe she appreciated our delicacy at all.</p>
+
+<p>Then this poor girl, no doubt very tired after a hard day’s work at
+cheese-making, proceeded to relight the fire, prepare coffee, and broil
+some venison for us. And just as we finished a hearty meal, Öla and Ivar
+arrived, so that she had to begin all over again for them. Finally, in
+spite of our remonstrances, she dragged her sister out of the bed, and
+insisted on our having it, while they went and slept in another building
+a few yards away. So John took the bed they had vacated, while Esau made
+a couch for himself in the cheese-room, and we slept the sleep of the
+hard-worked, virtuous, penniless wanderer.</p>
+
+<p>Verily they have a better idea in Norway of true hospitality than in
+any other country under the sun.</p>
+
+<h5>September 18.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>How strange that our return to the haunts of men should be chiefly
+marked by the sparseness of the fare provided for breakfast! A&nbsp;tin
+of sardines took the place of the usual trout; and although Ransværk
+consists of a group of several sæters, and almost attains to the dignity
+of a village, and our quarters were in the largest and most imposing
+mansion, there were no forks or spoons to be obtained, and we had to
+fish our sardines out of their native oil with a Tollekniv, assisted by
+a finger, and convey them to our mouths with the same implements.</p>
+
+<p>After breakfast Esau and Jens turned out in
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page309" id = "page309">309</a></span>
+pursuit of capercailzie, which abound in the forest here; but though
+they persevered until three o’clock, and got several shots, the annoying
+birds all ‘went on,’ as an English keeper generally says when you ask,
+‘Did you see if I killed that rabbit?’</p>
+
+<p>Esau had used up all his large shot at ducks up at Gjendin, and his
+cartridges were perfectly ineffectual at such a strong bird as the
+capercailzie. Besides this, they are extremely wary, and always rise
+about thirty yards from the shooter; they fly quite straight, and so are
+very easy to hit; but though Esau knocked clouds of feathers out of them
+at every shot, and did bring one to the ground which, from the closeness
+of the underwood, could not be gathered, he was obliged to submit to
+disappointment for once.</p>
+
+<p>In one part of the forest they heard a raven shrieking angrily
+(‘skriking,’ Jens called it, which has the same meaning in North country
+dialect), and going to the place were in time to see a goshawk gliding
+swiftly away with some victim in its grasp. In another place there were
+a lot of squirrels, which Jens induced Esau to shoot for some purpose of
+his own. What that purpose was we could only guess by seeing him gather
+a bunch of beautiful wild currants and some flowers just before reaching
+the sæter, and then brush his hair and march out with his bouquet,
+berries, and squirrel-skins to some place unknown.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after three o’clock we resumed our march,
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page310" id = "page310">310</a></span>
+and almost directly quitted the good Vaage road along which we travelled
+last night, and took to a cow track on the right. The cart with the
+canoe had a very rough time of it for the first five or six miles,
+jolting and bumping in and out of holes, bogs, and ruts, and over
+boulders and logs in a most appalling manner; then we had a piece of
+decent road again, and at the finish another mile of rough track.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after starting we passed the sæter where Jens lives when he is
+not hunting in the mountains, and Esau wishing to see what kind of
+snow-shoes they use in this part of the country, Jens ran up to the
+house and fetched his ‘skier.’ To give an idea of the absurd honesty
+which prevails here, we noticed that though Jens had been absent from
+home for the last two months, and the windows were shuttered up, yet the
+door was only latched; and after the inspection of the snow-shoes, Jens
+would not trouble to take them back, but simply left them by the side of
+the road, to wait his return three or four days hence.</p>
+
+<p>Another instance illustrating the same simplicity occurred to us once
+when travelling in quite a different part of Norway. When changing
+carioles at a station our baggage was all heaped together on the
+road-side, and as we wanted to stay there an hour or so for dinner, and
+this was a main road with a fair amount of traffic, we suggested to the
+landlord that our goods had better be brought inside the station.
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page311" id = "page311">311</a></span>
+He merely looked up at the sky with a weather-wise eye, and replied, ‘Oh
+no, I’m sure it won’t rain.’</p>
+
+<p>Our route to-day through the forest was most beautiful, at one time
+descending to the level of the Sjoa, and even struggling along its bed
+where the going on the bank seemed to be inferior, at another climbing
+up and up and ever higher, until we stood on the summit of the range of
+hills which confine this valley on the northern side. It is called
+Hedalen, and is one of those strikingly beautiful half-cultivated
+Norwegian dales which occupy the space between civilisation and the
+untouched realms of nature.</p>
+
+<p>This evening, the setting sun throwing a rich golden glow over the
+scene, and lighting up the brilliant autumnal colours of the trees, gave
+us an opportunity of seeing it quite at its best.</p>
+
+<p>Gradually the forest began to get more open, and the road to improve.
+Several peasants in picturesque garb were seen on the wayside: rough
+buildings became more frequent, and fields and fences quite common; at
+first only pasture land, but soon corn-fields and patches of
+potatoes.</p>
+
+<p>Then at last in the twilight we make a swift descent from the ridge
+along which the road runs; a&nbsp;short plunge through a thicket, down a
+grassy track; a&nbsp;bridge over a little stream; and as we breast the
+opposite bank, a&nbsp;pile of buildings looming in front and looking
+perfectly gigantic to our eyes, so long accustomed to the tiniest of
+huts; and Jens points
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page312" id = "page312">312</a></span>
+up, cracks his whip, and says, ‘Bjölstad.’ The pony boils up something
+like ‘a&nbsp;trot for the avenue,’ and rattles the cart into a large
+square courtyard, tenanted only by two huge dogs; and as a cheery old
+Norseman rushes out in great excitement to welcome us and lead us into a
+bright, clean, curtained room, we feel that we have said farewell to the
+delights of savage life, and will probably have to put on a necktie
+to-morrow.</p>
+
+<p>Here we parted with our faithful Jens, and very sorry we were to do
+so, as we think him a first-rate fellow: a&nbsp;man with a bright eye
+and stolid demeanour; naturally silent, but game for anything;
+a&nbsp;keen sportsman and wonderful stalker, and without a particle of
+the laziness and sulkiness which characterised Öla.</p>
+
+<p>Here, for the first time since leaving Lillehammer in July, we slept
+between sheets.</p>
+
+<p>Our own and only Ivar has volunteered to what he calls ‘transportare’
+all our baggage in his cart down to Lillehammer, distant about eighty
+miles hence, for the sum of twenty-two shillings. This sounds
+unreasonable, but it was his own suggestion, so we did not argue the
+point, only stipulating that he should be there by noon on Tuesday,
+to-day being Saturday, and leaving the details to him.</p>
+
+<p>Our thoughts were here recalled to the Skipper and his adventures by
+finding the following note from him:&mdash;</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page313" id = "page313">313</a></span>
+
+<p>‘<span class = "smallcaps">Dear Esau</span>,&mdash;I have left behind
+me here certain of what the Romans so appropriately called
+“impedimenta,” and hope that you will be able to bring them home for me.
+I&nbsp;got an old, old man with a small cart to bring my luggage down
+from Ransværk. It was a wet day. I&nbsp;walked the first nine miles
+while the old man and the rain were both driving. This ancient driveller
+seemed to imagine it was a fine day, and had hung on his best coat and
+hat, further aggravating his appearance with a spotted kerchief and a
+light heart. He seemed remarkably cheerful, as carolling he drove his
+<ins class = "correction" title =
+"anomalous spelling unchanged: may be intentional">carjole</ins> and cajoled his horse through the dripping
+pine forests. I&nbsp;arrived here at midday, and the owner, Ivar Tofte,
+came out to meet me. He took a great fancy to me, and we finished
+together a bottle of the most delicious aquavit, which he produced from
+a cellar where it had been laid down in the time of the Vikings. It is a
+pity neither of you can speak the language!</p>
+
+<p class = "center">‘Yours haughtily,</p>
+
+<p class = "right smallcaps">‘The Skipper.’</p>
+
+<p>We found that the ‘impedimenta’ of which the Skipper had spoken were
+147 loaded cartridges wrapped up in a flannel shirt, the whole being
+enveloped in a partially cured reindeer-skin.</p>
+
+<p>We were further reminded of our lost one by looking in the Day-book
+(or traveller’s name-book), where his was the last English name. This
+was not
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page314" id = "page314">314</a></span>
+surprising, for though Bjölstad is a posting station, it is a very
+out-of-the-way place; but we looked back for two years without finding
+that any other Englishman had been here, and then the Skipper’s name
+occurred again. Between these dates the names were all Norwegian, and
+there were not very many even of them.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page315" id = "page315">315</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapXXXIV" id = "chapXXXIV">CHAPTER XXXIV.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">BJÖLSTAD.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>Sunday, September 19.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">Bjölstad</span> is an ancient Norwegian
+homestead, and consists of several separate buildings surrounding a
+central rectangular court. The house that we slept in bears the date of
+1818, and is the most modern as well as the largest of the group; it is
+really a suite of state apartments for the use of the king on the rare
+occasions when he visits this part of his dominions.</p>
+
+<p>On the left-hand side of the courtyard as we stand at the door of our
+state apartments, is a very quaint and picturesque old house with a
+handsome porch, built in the Byzantine style, date 1743, and in this the
+owner lives whenever he comes to this farm.</p>
+
+<p>Opposite to us is another building even more curious in its
+architecture, and considerably older than the other; and the remaining
+side of the yard is occupied by another more modern edifice, used
+chiefly as a storehouse. Besides these there are several other detached
+outbuildings, in which sleighs, ploughs, spare cooking utensils, rugs,
+and various other useful
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page316" id = "page316">316</a></span>
+and useless articles are kept, including all the fittings and even the
+weathercock of an ancient church which used to stand close to the farm,
+but which is now demolished and partly reduced to firewood.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic316" id = "pic316">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic316.png" width = "539" height = "420"
+alt = "Old Buildings in the Courtyard at Bjölstad"></p>
+
+<p>The owner of all this grandeur is one Ivar Tofte, a wealthy yeoman
+who has several other farms in other parts of the country, one of which
+is much larger and more important even than Bjölstad; and we were lucky
+enough to find this Northern Crœsus at home, for it turned out that he
+was the cheery old man in the shocking bad hat who had run out to
+welcome us last night.</p>
+
+<p>This morning he came into our room after breakfast, with a bottle of
+aquavit in his hand wherewith to drink our health. Now to refuse this
+ceremony is
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page317" id = "page317">317</a></span>
+an unpardonable insult, but we had tasted aquavit before, and had a
+wholesome dread of the nauseous compound, reeking of carraway seeds and
+aniseed, which we were accustomed to expect out of an aquavit bottle. So
+we poured out very small glasses, clinked them in approved manner, and
+raised them to our lips as we uttered the magic word Skaal, more with a
+feeling of disgust than any other sensation. And then it was beautiful
+to see a heavenly smile steal over Esau’s ingenuous countenance; while
+John, softly murmuring, ‘Chartreuse, by George!’ reached for the bottle,
+and with a shout of ‘Skaal Ivar Tofte,’ proceeded to fill himself a
+bumper. It was a perfect liqueur, soft, delicate, and mellow, as
+probably age alone could have made it; and we drank Skaal to ‘Gammle
+Norgé,’ and England, and Kong Oscar, and Queen Vict<i>oo</i>ria, and
+Ivar Tofte again, and then ourselves again; whereupon the old man
+perceived that we appreciated his ‘cuvée de réserve,’ and went for
+another full bottle, which he left in our room, so that we could ‘put it
+to our lips when we felt so dispoged.’</p>
+
+<p>After this, John, feeling at once genial and liberal, announced his
+intention of buying a <ins class = "norway" title =
+"skinnfeld, now written -fell">sheenfelt</ins> (sheepskin rug) for importation into
+England; and Tofte with an aged retainer volunteered to show us his
+stores of sheepskins.</p>
+
+<p>First our guide procured a bunch of enormous keys, such as Bluebeard
+would have hanging from his
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page318" id = "page318">318</a></span>
+waist in a pantomime, labelled ‘Key of the Wine-cellar. Umbrella stand.
+Fowl-house. Potted shrimps. Cupboard where the jam’s kept,’ &amp;c.,
+&amp;c. Then he marched off to one of the buildings, followed by us and
+the other old man, whose profession was apparently to exalt Bjölstad
+sheenfelts, and to debase&mdash;as far as extreme volubility and strict
+inattention to the elements of truth would enable him to accomplish that
+object&mdash;an ancient one which John wished to give in part
+payment.</p>
+
+<p>Bluebeard led us up some stairs to the Blue Chamber, where we saw
+hanging in a row the skins, not of his deceased wives, but of many
+‘timid-glancing, herbage-cropping, fleecy flocks,’ to use the beautiful
+and touching language of the Greek poet. Then the two accomplices
+selected the sheenfelt which they intended us to buy, and began to
+expatiate on its beauties in terms of undisguised admiration; and after
+half an hour’s huckstering and haggling, of course they persuaded John
+to take that and no other. However, it was a beautiful specimen of this
+kind of rug, of a dark grey colour, and very thick, warm, and heavy; so
+both sides were highly satisfied, and proceeded to the drinking of more
+aquavit in celebration of the bargain.</p>
+
+<p>The weather was so unpleasant, and Bluebeard and his aquavit were so
+engaging, that we decided not to leave here till to-morrow. Our host was
+delighted to hear this, and at once went for more aquavit, which
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page319" id = "page319">319</a></span>
+he appears to consider the first necessity of life; and then he
+proceeded to show us round his ancestral halls, as though he were a
+sober old verger of Westminster Abbey.</p>
+
+<p>There was a sort of old-world Rip van Winkle sleepiness about
+Bjölstad very soothing to men who like us have lived in the nineteenth
+century for some few years. All the varlets and handmaidens were dressed
+in the old native costume, so appropriate to the ancient wooden
+buildings with quaintly carved eaves and doorways, about which they
+hovered. In the courtyard were two enormous dogs, that barked loudly
+whenever we appeared, but at the same time wagged their tails and looked
+imbecile and good natured. There were also four geese, who meant to be
+sitting basking in the rain, but as soon as anybody came to one of the
+numerous doors, or crossed the yard, they all stood up and quacked
+solemnly fourteen times each, then hissed once, and sat down again; and
+as some one was always moving about the court, the quiet rest of those
+birds was more anticipatory than real; but they alone of all the living
+creatures at Bjölstad appeared to have any fixed employment which
+demanded constant attention.</p>
+
+<p>Bluebeard first took us through the state apartments, which contained
+many curious and interesting things of all ages, from an axe nearly a
+thousand years old, to a Birmingham plated teapot won at the Christiania
+horse show in 1860.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page320" id = "page320">320</a></span>
+<p>The Toftes boast themselves descended from Harald Haarfager, and are
+so proud of their ancestry, that from time immemorial they have never
+married out of their own family. If dear old Bluebeard may be accepted
+as an ordinary result of this system, it must be confessed that it has
+its advantages.</p>
+
+<p>The things that he chiefly delighted to show us were those which had
+been used by the king during his occasional visits, the most curious
+being a large stone table made of one enormous slab not more than
+three-quarters of an inch thick, but very hard and elastic, more like a
+steel plate than stone; gorgeously embroidered counterpanes and chairs;
+some very old ploughs and sleighs; and a brass-bound box with a
+marvellous representation of Adam and Eve, very evidently before the
+Fall, and the most remarkable thing in serpents which the wildest flight
+of human imagination has yet conceived. There were some very nice silver
+utensils and ornaments, but not many, as most of his plate is kept at
+his largest farm. All that he had here was in a cupboard with a rubbishy
+unlocked deal door, standing in John’s bedroom; a&nbsp;fact which speaks
+volumes for the trusting simplicity and total inability to read a man’s
+character from his appearance, caused by a millennium of marrying your
+cousin once removed. Poor Bluebeard! he little thought what a viper he
+was nurturing in his bosom, or rather in his chest (his plate
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page321" id = "page321">321</a></span>
+chest), and that in that room lay one who could perhaps, if he would,
+answer the questions&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Who took the Gainsborough?</p>
+
+<p>Who has the Dudley diamonds?</p>
+
+<p>Who stole the donkey? and</p>
+
+<p>Where’s the cat?</p>
+
+<p>N.B.&mdash;John has now a large collection of ancient Norwegian
+silver, counterpanes, belts, tankards, knives, and ornaments to dispose
+of at very low prices if no questions are asked. &mdash;<span class =
+"smallcaps">Advt.</span></p>
+
+<h5>September 20.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>We left Bjölstad in carioles on a real road about nine o’clock,
+Bluebeard himself assisting in the operation of harnessing the ponies
+and packing the baggage. Just as we were driving off, a&nbsp;brilliantly
+original idea occurred to him, and he said, ‘Come in and taste my
+aquavit.’ We did not like to refuse an old grey-haired man’s simple
+request, so descended and drank another Skaal to all the usual loyal,
+patriotic, and festive toasts, and then we drove off murmuring somewhat
+indistinctly, ‘Shkaal Iva’ Tofte Shhkaal Iv Toffie Shko Toffy. Jolly
+good fler-ole-shole-Toffy.’</p>
+
+<p>All day we drove, and ever as we descended the Hedalen valley with
+the noisy Sjoa on our right hand, the farming kept improving, and the
+country becoming more populous; and we saw many families digging
+potatoes, many pigs roaming free and unmolested as they do in Ireland,
+and a few men bringing up stores from the town for the long season
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page322" id = "page322">322</a></span>
+of snowed-up dreariness now so near at hand. Jens told us that in
+winter, even so far to the south as Vaage, the sun only rises about
+eleven, and sets at one o’clock, giving barely three hours of daylight
+in midwinter; though he said that in the mountains where he spends his
+time hunting, there is rather more light than in the valleys.</p>
+
+<p>It may be well to explain in what manner so much information was
+obtained from men whose language was unknown to us, and to whom ours was
+equally incomprehensible.</p>
+
+<p>The glorious principle of co-operation did it all. The Skipper spoke
+Norse with great elegance and fluency, but did not understand it at all.
+Esau could understand it perfectly, but was unable to express himself in
+that tongue to even a limited extent; and John could neither speak nor
+understand a word. Consequently our united accomplishments were equal to
+meeting any emergency that might arise, even to the disentanglement of
+such a coil&nbsp;as&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Brandforsikringsselskabet</i>, or&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Sommermaandernepassagerbekvemmeligheder</i>,</p>
+
+<p>or any other of the little complex words that an educated Norwegian
+can construct. It is wonderful to hear the natives launch out into one
+of these cataracts: they do it fearlessly, and steer through the whole
+with unflagging fortitude, and very seldom with any fatal results.</p>
+
+<p>The hay harvest seemed to be quite finished
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page323" id = "page323">323</a></span>
+except on the roofs of the houses, where some people were still cutting
+and carrying their crops. The barley had just been reaped, and was now
+being dried by the process of impalement, a&nbsp;dozen sheaves, one
+above the other, being transfixed by a pole stuck into the ground, just
+as a naughty boy sticks a row of moths on a long pin, or as the
+unfortunate Bulgarians were supposed to be exhibited during the
+‘atrocity’ scare. Can it be possible that those stories arose from the
+distant contemplation of a barley-field?</p>
+
+<p class = "figfloat">
+<a name = "pic323" id = "pic323">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic323.png" width = "250" height = "494"
+alt = "Barley Sheaves: A Norwegian ‘Atrocity’"></p>
+
+<p>The Norwegians also dry their hay in a different manner from that
+usually practised in England.
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page324" id = "page324">324</a></span>
+They erect high hurdles made of larch poles in lines at intervals all
+over the field, and on these they hang the hay to dry as we hang towels
+on a horse, and it is by this means so well exposed to both air and sun
+that it dries very quickly. No doubt the hurdles are also very useful in
+spring as a shelter for the young lambs.</p>
+
+<p>The weather kept improving so much that we grew quite jubilant, and
+the ever-changing scenes that opened before us seemed full of life and
+brightness, and we looked with a certain amount of pleasure on even the
+magpies, which sat on the fences in scores, pluming their black-green
+feathers, and talking things over quietly to themselves. So different
+from the wary magpie of England, who, knowing that he is an Ishmael,
+glories in the fact, and shrieks defiance to mankind at the top of his
+voice and a tree.</p>
+
+<p>For three hours we followed the brawling Sjoa through scenery that
+would bear comparison with Switzerland, and then we reached the spot
+where it joins the mighty Laagen, and crossing the latter by a
+picturesque but discouraging bridge, soon struck the main road, and
+pulled up for our first change of ponies at Storklevstad, nineteen miles
+from Bjölstad.</p>
+
+<p>At another place further on we found a shop kept by a Norwegian
+Yankee, and entered it to buy some sugar-candy, wherewith to appease our
+cariole-boy. This storekeeper informed us that the emigration from
+Norway to the States was enormous just now,
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page325" id = "page325">325</a></span>
+especially to Minnesota and Wisconsin, and that no less than sixteen men
+had gone this year from the little village of Vaage&mdash;a place which
+does not strike one as being likely to contain that number of
+able-bodied men at one time. Öla had told us that five of his brethren
+were in Minnesota, but that he himself had no intention of leaving his
+native country; and this we thought to be well, for if he were to join
+them we are convinced that any enterprise in which they might be engaged
+would inevitably fail with his invaluable co-operation and
+assistance&mdash;unless perhaps the Skipper could be induced to go out
+there and occasionally exhort him.</p>
+
+<p>At Listad we lunched off a real white tablecloth; that is to say, we
+ate not the cloth, but everything eatable that was placed
+on&nbsp;it.</p>
+
+<p>We also found a note from the Skipper asking us to bring along one or
+two little things that he had been obliged to leave behind in his
+hurried flight, just as the allied armies kept finding Napoleon’s
+belongings at different places after Waterloo. The present loot
+consisted of a coat, sleeping rug, and a towel.</p>
+
+<p>At Kirkestuen we quitted the track for the night, having made fifty
+miles in about ten hours. This, according to our experience, is a fair
+rate of progression in Norway; in fact, the traveller is more likely to
+find the average below this than above, unless he drives the good little
+ponies faster than they like to go, which is wrong.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page326" id = "page326">326</a></span>
+<p>Here the three women who kept the station were immensely amused
+because we asked for coffee with our food, and one of them took upon
+herself the task of rebuking us for such dissipated habits, and
+explained at great length that no respectable people ever did such a
+thing. ‘Coffee,’ she said, ‘should only be drunk during the day, gruel
+after sunset.’ But we persisted in our reckless demand, and they finally
+gave in, and produced the delicious compound that may be expected at any
+wretched little dwelling throughout the country.</p>
+
+<p>This was the first place where the papered rooms and iron stoves of
+modern Norway obtruded themselves on our notice; but in spite of these
+we were very comfortable, and think that Kirkestuen deserves all the
+praise which we cannot find lavished upon it in any of the guide-books:
+it is cheap, comfortable, and clean, and the food is excellent. If the
+three young ladies who preside over its arrangements wish to send us any
+little remuneration for this advertisement, we are agents for several
+Central African Missions, to which we could hand it over; or, as ‘best
+aquavit’ is a good deal appreciated by the missionaries themselves when
+they are suffering from certain diseases peculiar to the Central African
+climate, we would receive that liqueur in cases of not less than three
+dozen in lieu of money.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page327" id = "page327">327</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapXXXV" id = "chapXXXV">CHAPTER XXXV.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">DOWN TO CHRISTIANIA.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>September 21.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">The</span> steadily improving weather of
+our homeward journey is very pleasant, and already we are beginning to
+almost forget those ‘Miseries in Cold and Grey’ which were so
+conspicuous during our last few days at Rus Vand.</p>
+
+<p>To-day we noticed that the whole population of the country appeared
+to be engaged in the seductive pastime of potato-digging. One family
+that we passed consisted of papa, mamma, and eight children of different
+ages, all absorbed in this pursuit. The parents had gardening tools, the
+elder children were using pickaxes and trowels, the younger ones
+fire-shovels and wooden baking spades, and the mere babies were hard at
+work with spoons and toasting-forks.</p>
+
+<p>Here and there we detected a few people still making hay, presumably
+because they had no potatoes. In Norway the hill-sides are so steep and
+rocky that there is not overmuch room for the cultivation of grass, so
+they have to collect it from every available
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page328" id = "page328">328</a></span>
+corner where a few sprays of anything green can contrive to exist. As we
+have mentioned, they are now curing grass on the house-tops, and to-day
+we saw a man with a scythe about eighteen inches long, mowing in amongst
+the stones on the river bank, and in some of the places where he went
+the scythe blade was the only blade visible to the naked eye. One thing
+seems certain, that a Norwegian <i>will</i> make hay while the sun
+shines, even if he can only find rocks out of which to make&nbsp;it.</p>
+
+<p>On this part of our journey we passed a great many spotted black and
+white pigs: these pigs move with a greater dignity of bearing than the
+ordinary white pig of Scandinavia, and altogether seem to consider
+themselves superior to him, although they have not a curly tail.
+Personally we think there is a certain subtle charm about the curly tail
+of the white pig, a&nbsp;something that sets him off and renders him
+more pleasing to the eye of the beholder than is a spotted pig with a
+straight tail. However, our humble opinion does not seem at all to
+affect the swagger of the spotted pig.</p>
+
+<p>Near Formö we overtook a rosy-cheeked girl of about eighteen, astride
+a bare-backed pony: the pony was seized with a spirit of emulation, and
+insisted on accompanying the carioles for some distance in spite of her
+efforts to stop&nbsp;it.</p>
+
+<p>The weather was now delightful; the roads were dry and dusty, and the
+sun was so hot that the long
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page329" id = "page329">329</a></span>
+cool shadows of the pine woods which at frequent intervals hedge in the
+road were quite a welcome relief both to us and our shaggy steeds.</p>
+
+<p>Ever as we followed the almost imperceptible descent of the road, the
+great river Laagen became wider, deeper, and bluer, as it gathered
+increased volume from the numberless tributaries which flow into it from
+every hill, till at length at Fossegaarden it plunged over a series of
+ledges in a splendid succession of falls, and after winding awhile amid
+fir-clad islands and shaded grassy banks, it flowed into the Mjösen Lake
+and was lost, while we on the road above, rounding the last corner and
+turning to the east, soon found ourselves in Lillehammer, which really
+looked quite a towny little town.</p>
+
+<p>Esau stopped at Fossegaarden a couple of hours to throw a fly in the
+tempting-looking water below the falls, and was rewarded at the first
+cast by a rise from a fish whose peculiar wriggling and rolling soon
+showed him to be a grayling; and before leaving, the bag was filled with
+some very fine specimens of this beautiful and delicate fish.</p>
+
+<p>We were greeted as old friends at the Victoria Hotel, where Ivar had
+already arrived with our things. Then we ordered our own dinner, and
+told the host to supply Ivar with whatever he wanted regardless of
+expense (the result of this reckless munificence was a bill for nearly
+two shillings); and in the happy frame of mind produced on both sides by
+this course we
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page330" id = "page330">330</a></span>
+settled our accounts with him, and giving him all our worn-out garments
+and some candles and matches, we parted with the last of our
+henchmen.</p>
+
+<p>By the way, we here found a note from the Skipper asking us to bring
+home a pair of shooting boots, three socks, and the remains of what had
+apparently been a pocket handkerchief; but the obvious course that
+suggested itself was ‘give ’em to the men,’ and we insisted on Ivar
+taking these valuables.</p>
+
+<h5>September 22.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>With the utmost difficulty, by threats and coercion Esau was induced
+to leave his bed, and dragged to the steamer in time for her departure,
+as, if left to his own inclinations, he would have remained in his
+insidious couch until this globe had performed its diurnal
+revolution.</p>
+
+<p>As it was, the ‘Skiblädner’ was indulging in a final premonitory
+shriek before leaving the pier when we came hurrying and stumbling down
+the hill at all paces, and we only stepped aboard just as she threw off
+the last detaining rope.</p>
+
+<p>The steamer was at first very empty, but more people joined us at
+every stopping-place, of which there are about a dozen on the lake. Some
+of these are little villages, with only the bright roofs and church
+spire peeping out from among the fir trees; others no more than a
+landing-stage projecting into the blue waters, and no other indications
+of life save perhaps a couple of idle fishing boats and a flagstaff.</p>
+
+<p>The morning was so calm and fine, that the grayling
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page331" id = "page331">331</a></span>
+playing under the shore made the only break in the otherwise unruffled
+surface of the lake, and it seemed strange to find ourselves back in
+summer again, having left winter with its snow and frosts far above us
+up at Rus Vand only a few days ago.</p>
+
+<p>At Hamar some English people came aboard, so that we had some one to
+talk to. At every place where the steamer stopped and fresh passengers
+came off in boats to meet us, it seemed to be customary that they should
+take off their hats to the captain on the bridge as they pulled up
+alongside: even when we passed the smallest places without stopping,
+merely throwing the mail bag into a boat as we darted by, the
+fresh-water sailors on the steamer all took off their hats to the
+fresh-water sailors ashore, the latter always returning the salutation;
+and considering the fact that two steamers pass every day, this
+indicates no small degree of politeness.</p>
+
+<p>There is a great amount of character to be noticed among the natives
+during a voyage on the lake, and although they are badly and even
+grotesquely dressed (for the pretty old costume has quite disappeared in
+this part of the country, and its modern substitute is hideous), still
+their old-fashioned manners and simple courtesy are very striking; and
+in spite of their love of a little mild ostentation they are so quiet
+and well behaved, that they would appear to great advantage if
+contrasted with the crowd that may be found say on a Greenwich
+steamer.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page332" id = "page332">332</a></span>
+<p>At Eidsvold we left the steamer for the train which was waiting to
+receive us, and about nightfall were once more in Christiania, and after
+a sumptuous supper went to rest in sumptuous beds, thinking ere we fell
+asleep of how to-morrow we should again have to submit ourselves to the
+yoke of civilisation, to discard our flannel shirts for linen ones and
+stick-up collars, to throw aside our shooting boots, and again bite off
+our nails, which have grown to their natural length under the soothing
+influence of a long spell of unworried conscience.</p>
+
+<h5>September 23.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>We found Christiania this morning almost as hot as we left it, the
+streets all dry and dusty, and the trees parched for want of rain; and
+the sunshine was very pleasant as we wandered about the town into the
+various shops, purchasing articles by the assistance of which we hoped
+to attain popularity among our relatives on our arrival in England.</p>
+
+<p>The shopkeepers were almost all very slow; in fact, the transaction
+of any business is not the hardy Norseman’s strong point. We copy this
+extract from the Skipper’s journal:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>‘I went to the bank this morning to get some circular notes changed,
+and they kept me there fussing over them for fifty minutes before I got
+the money. During this time of expectation I read two letters from home
+through, and had a chase after a torpid fly on the floor with my stick:
+considering his languid condition this fly showed great spirit, but
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page333" id = "page333">333</a></span>
+after following him about three feet along the floor and nine inches up
+the wall, I&nbsp;made a fortunate dash at him, and concluded his
+existence. Then I thought for a while and stared all round the room, and
+cut my nails with my knife. Then I counted how many boards there were in
+the floor, and how many nails there were on an average in each board,
+and made a little calculation on these figures to discover how many
+nails there were in the whole room, and what they weighed, how much they
+cost, how many miles they would reach if laid end to end, and how many
+men at how much an hour for how long it had taken to drive them all in.
+Then again I thought for a while, but still the money did not come, and
+my moral reflections on men and things had just led me to the conclusion
+that all mortals were but desolate creatures, and that I of all men was
+most desolate and abandoned, when at the end of forty minutes an
+official arrived with a sort of cheque. And after that it took ten
+minutes more to change the cheque into money in a lower room, where the
+clerks had their hair so beautifully brushed and were so haughty, that
+instead of being angry I could only thank them profusely for giving me
+the money at all.’</p>
+
+<p>After finishing our hunt for curios, it occurred to us that we ought
+to see the vikings’ ship recently unearthed somewhere on the fjord, so
+we walked down to the University, where we were told by a student that
+it was not yet open to the public, but
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page334" id = "page334">334</a></span>
+that if we would ask the Professor of Archæology, whom John profanely
+designated ‘the boss that runs the antiquity show,’ he had no doubt
+that, being strangers, we should be allowed to see the ship.</p>
+
+<p>Would the fact of a man being a foreigner obtain his admission to a
+private view of an English curiosity, save perhaps the plans and
+mechanism of an iron-clad or torpedo? Probably not.</p>
+
+<p>Revolving these thoughts within our minds we sought the professor,
+and he at once left the work upon which he was engaged and took us to
+the ship, which was locked up inside a wooden building that has been
+erected for&nbsp;it.</p>
+
+<p>Very interesting it was, the preservation of the wood and also the
+ironwork being wonderful. Unfortunately, some archæologists of earlier
+date than the present had also made some excavations in search of
+memorials of the past. They had cut a large hole in the side amidships,
+for the purpose of carrying off the ornaments and other valuables by
+which the dead viking was surrounded, in the chamber constructed for his
+body right in the centre of the boat. The modern archæologists call
+their predecessors ‘sacrilegious robbers,’ but we are averse to the use
+of strong language among men of science.</p>
+
+<p>However, the rest of the ship was perfect, even to the shields which
+used to adorn the gunwale, which are now seen to have been made of thin
+wood, and were probably only ornamental. She was a good big
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page335" id = "page335">335</a></span>
+boat, rather flat-bottomed and low in the water, but with great breadth
+of beam, and built on lines that left no room for doubt as to her
+seagoing qualities.</p>
+
+<p>The whole day was occupied by this shopping and sight-seeing, and we
+went to bed more exhausted than by a hard day’s stalking at Gjendin, and
+not half so much satisfied with our achievements.</p>
+
+<p>It is almost unnecessary to mention that we found at the hotel a note
+from the Skipper, begging us to bring home a waterproof sheet and a few
+clothes that he had been obliged to leave there. We think that this
+young man must have shed nearly all his raiment before leaving Norway,
+and gone home clad in a yellow ulster which we know he had left at the
+hotel in July; for, judging from the fragments that we have picked up
+from time to time on our homeward route, he cannot have much other
+property with him except his gun, rifle, and fishing-gear.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page336" id = "page336">336</a></span>
+<h3><a name = "chapXXXVI" id = "chapXXXVI">CHAPTER XXXVI.</a><br>
+<span class = "subhead">HOME AGAIN.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h5>September 24.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">To</span>-day our Norwegian friends who
+lent us the hut at Rus Vand came to dine with us, and then saw us safely
+aboard the ‘Angelo,’ and at five o’clock, in the presence of an immense
+crowd which covered the whole quay, some of the people cheering, but
+many more weeping, we steamed out of the harbour.</p>
+
+<p>As the sound of the last bell died away, and the last gangway fell
+with a crash on to the landing-stage, a&nbsp;hatless, breathless man
+rushed up the companion and darted at the spot where he supposed the
+gangway to be: seeing that he was too late, he yelled to the people on
+shore, and made as though he would have cast himself into the water, but
+was restrained by the passengers. Meanwhile a fleet of little boats
+endeavoured to catch a rope and be towed until he could be lowered into
+one of them; but all failed, and the unfortunate man was carried off to
+Christiansand, so that on his involuntary voyage he would have leisure
+to meditate on the folly of a too prolonged farewell.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page337" id = "page337">337</a></span>
+<p>With a gentle breeze we steamed down the fjord, which never looked
+more lovely than on this evening; and so beautiful was the night, so
+warm, so radiant, and with such a depth of glorious colouring from the
+departed sun, that people crept away into the shade out of the
+<i>moonlight</i>, from pure force of habit, after the heat of the
+summer.</p>
+
+<p>The influence of such a night, together with a certain sense of
+something completed; the calm ocean all round us, and the soothing,
+monotonous throbbing of the untiring screw, produced a longing for
+confidence in John’s bosom, so that he gave utterance to his sentiments
+as he leant with Esau over the rail of the hurricane deck, and watched
+the ever-sparkling phosphorescent lights caused by the passage of the
+vessel through the quiet water.</p>
+
+<p>‘Yes, I’m sorry to be leaving Norway, for, you know, there’s
+something delightful to me about the simplicity of the people’ (Esau’s
+mind reverted to Ivar Tofte and his plate cupboard); ‘they seem to place
+a childlike confidence in a stranger, which is quite incomprehensible to
+me. Then there is an unwordable calm, an indescribable tranquillity,
+which seems to cling both to the country and its inhabitants; even the
+houses seem to possess an imperturbable serenity of demeanour which you
+will not find on any other island in Europe. In fact, y’know, Esau, it’s
+a country where one might live quietly and die in peace, where “moths do
+not corrupt, neither do worms
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page338" id = "page338">338</a></span>
+break through and steal,” don’t you know, Esau? And I’m deuced sorry to
+have to count among past memories the time we have spent here, where the
+unbroken harmony of existence is that repose for which my soul has
+longed these many years; but never until now, no, by George! never, has
+it been able to discover the most uncertain tracings of its ideal.’</p>
+
+<p>Here Esau, who had his deck shoes on, seeing what sort of a mood John
+was in, stole away quietly towards the cabin, and left him prosing on to
+the German Ocean. He paused, however, a&nbsp;moment before descending
+the companion stairs, and caught a few more words which, as the moon had
+now <ins class = "correction" title = "comma invisible">set,</ins> John
+was confiding to the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>‘A couple more days, and we shall be back in England, where, y’know,
+I&nbsp;think civilisation is overdone. My existence there is a perpetual
+state of toadying and being toadied: you see, it’s a place where the
+serpent of social emulation creeps into our very beds, and hangs
+suspended over our heads by a mere thread when we least expect him; and,
+y’know, Esau&mdash;&mdash;’ But Esau had slunk down the stairs, and the
+rest of this impassioned outburst is, we fear, lost to humanity.</p>
+
+<h5>September 25.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>We woke up to find ourselves just leaving Christiansand, and soon
+reached the lighthouse at what the Skipper calls ‘the bottom
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page339" id = "page339">339</a></span>
+left-hand corner of Norway,’ but remained in bed while we glared at it
+through the port.</p>
+
+<p>We were taking out a great number of emigrants for America, fine,
+sturdy-looking young fellows, probably as hard as nails, and quite equal
+to coping with the difficulties of a new country. They all looked so
+cheery and full of hope and expectation, that we could not help thinking
+rather sadly of the day when they will wake up to some of the unpleasant
+realities of Yankee life, and wish themselves back again in their native
+hills among their own simple-minded friends.</p>
+
+<p>The day passed in the manner usual at sea when the water is smooth
+and the ship goes merrily homeward bound. Hardly any one missed a
+meal&mdash;rather a difference from the ordinary state of affairs in the
+wild North Sea; and at evening the sun went down in a blaze of scarlet
+and gold, which was reflected from the perfectly calm surface; and we
+turned in with tranquil minds, even Esau being now reasonably hopeful of
+seeing the Humber without suffering the pangs of starvation.</p>
+
+<p>Esau is not a good sailor. On the last occasion of our return from
+Norway he crossed by the ‘Angelo’ a&nbsp;fortnight before the Skipper;
+and the latter, on arriving on board prepared for the voyage, saw the
+steward, and asked him, ‘What sort of a passage did you have last trip,
+George?’</p>
+
+<p>‘Beautiful, sir. I never see a smoother sea.’</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page340" id = "page340">340</a></span>
+<p>Then the Skipper went on, ‘Did you see anything of Mr. Esau on the
+voyage?’</p>
+
+<p>To which George replied, ‘I seen him come aboard.’</p>
+
+<p>And this brief remark of George’s conveyed a world of untold
+fact.</p>
+
+<h5>September 26.&mdash;</h5>
+
+<p>We dropped anchor outside Hull at half-past five this evening, in the
+remainder of the very same drizzling rain that was going on when we left
+England in July.</p>
+
+<p>Hull on Sunday in a soaking rain is not a place to grow romantic
+about, so we omit all reference to our first sensations and maledictions
+on our return to our native climate, and proceed to a more agreeable
+subject&mdash;dinner.</p>
+
+<p>It was a merry meal in company with four of our fellow-passengers,
+who were likewise returning from sport in Norway&mdash;two from salmon
+fishing, two from red-deer stalking, and with whom there was
+consequently a bond of sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>With these kindred spirits, after British beef had been washed down
+with British beer, a&nbsp;Skaal drunk in British champagne, and tongues
+were loosened by the confidential pipe and British cigar, we chatted
+long and pleasantly; wandering again with rod and gun among the rugged
+mountains of that wild north land, recalling exploits performed, and
+perhaps indulging in those mild and harmless exaggerations of doughty
+deeds which no traveller or sportsman can
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page341" id = "page341">341</a></span>
+resist. Already we found ourselves forgetting the few disagreeable
+incidents that occurred during our trip, and viewing everything through
+that rosy mist which happily arises before all past hours of pleasure
+and discomfort alike. Too soon bedtime put an end to our retrospect, and
+we slept the sleep of the wearied traveller, with dreams of trout,
+ryper, and reindeer&mdash;steamboat, cariole, and sleigh&mdash;mountain,
+lake, and river&mdash;tent and sæter&mdash;paddle and
+pony&mdash;hurrying through our brains in wild confusion.</p>
+
+<p>To-morrow, alas! we commence again a life of gilded misery and gloomy
+magnificence. Give to us the untrammelled freedom of ‘Gammle Norgé,’ and
+the humble crust of fladbrod&mdash;&mdash;<i>with</i> JAM.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "pic341" id = "pic341">&nbsp;</a><br>
+<img src = "images/pic341.png" width = "416" height = "275"
+alt = "Three at Home Again"></p>
+
+<p class = "caption">‘FARVEL.’</p>
+
+
+<p class = "center">
+<i>Spottiswoode &amp; Co., Printers, New-street Square, London.</i></p>
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">
+<a name = "page342" id = "page342">342</a></span>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<!-- png 377 -->
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "map" id = "map" href = "images/map_large.jpg"
+target = "_blank">
+<img src = "images/map.png" width = "601" height = "438"
+alt = "see caption"></a></p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+THE JOTUNFJELD<br>
+Showing various Routes to it.<br>
+E. Weller <i>Lith.</i></p>
+
+
+<div class = "endnote">
+<h4><a name = "endnotes" id = "endnotes">Transcriber’s Notes</a></h4>
+
+<p>Some names are written differently in the List of Illustrations than
+elsewhere in the text.</p>
+
+<h5>Phonetic spellings:</h5>
+
+<div class = "hanging">
+<p><span class = "serif">“Pandecāges”</span> with macron on second
+<b>a</b>:<br>
+the vowel is broad, as in “father”.</p>
+<p><span class = "serif">“căno”</span> with breve over <b>a</b>:<br>
+the speaker pronounced the word as “can” + “oh” (that is, neither the
+Norwegian nor the correct English pronunciation).</p>
+<p><span class = "serif">“Gammle Norgé” ... “Queen
+Vict<i>oo</i>ria”</span><br>
+both represent Norwegian pronunciation: final <b>e</b> is not silent,
+and <b>o</b> is pronounced like “continental” <b>u</b>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<h4>Norwegian:</h4>
+
+<p>Written Norwegian has three extra vowels: <b>æ</b>, <b>ø</b>,
+<b>å</b>. At the time <i>Three in Norway</i> was published, the language
+generally used Danish spelling. Many words written with <b>æ</b> would
+now use simple <b>e</b>, and the letter <b>å</b> (pronounced like
+“continental” <b>o</b>) was written <b>aa</b>.</p>
+
+<p>The letter <b>ø</b> is equivalent to <b>ö</b> (“o umlaut”); the
+correct letterform may have been unavailable to the printer.</p>
+
+<p>The spelling “Ragnild” (expected form “Ragnhild”) is used
+consistently. The forms “Bred Sjö”&nbsp;: “Bredsjö”, “skin tukt”&nbsp;:
+“skintukt” (see Berries), and Jotun Fjeld&nbsp;: Jotunfjeld each
+occur.</p>
+
+<p>Double vowels representing a single long sound are rare except in a
+few names; the macron on the first “u” in “Tronhūus” is redundant.</p>
+
+<p>The inconsistent capitalization of “Ryper” : “ryper” is unchanged.
+The plural form “ryper” is used throughout for both singular and
+plural.</p>
+
+<h5>Consistent o/ö (ø) errors:</h5>
+
+<p>Öla (the name) <i>for</i> Ola</p>
+
+<p>brod, fladbrod <i>for</i> brød, fladbrød</p>
+
+<p>Formö, kröne, mölte bær, spör, Strömkarl <i>for</i> Formo, krone,
+moltebær, spor, Stromkarl</p>
+
+<p>Other uses of ö (ø) are correct: öl, öre, hö, sjö and any place
+names.</p>
+
+
+<h5>Words:</h5>
+
+<p class = "serif">
+Skoggaggany ... is merely the Norwegian for a scaup duck</p>
+
+<p class = "inset">
+one Norwegian translation says, in paraphrase, “we called it Skoggaggany
+because we thought it sounded so Norwegian”. If the word is real, it
+should end in <i>-and</i>, “duck”.</p>
+
+<p class = "serif">
+‘Ingen dyr, ingen fresk spör, ingen gammle spör,’ as the Norsk jäger
+would remark</p>
+
+<p class = "inset">
+The spelling with ä for æ is anomalous. Modern Norwegian would have
+“jeger”, though “jæger” is correct for the time. The spelling “spör” is
+here an error for “spor” (tracks).</p>
+
+<p>Other corrected forms are shown with <ins class = "norway" title =
+"like this">popups</ins> in the body text.</p>
+
+<h5>Berries (pgs. <a name = "berry_notes" id = "berry_notes" href =
+"#berry_text">178-179</a>)</h5>
+
+<p class = "serif">
+Most of the berries of the country are now just at their best, and
+Memurudalen is a grand valley for all of them, except of course the
+strawberry and raspberry, which will not grow at this altitude. But we
+have ‘<ins class = "norway" title = "krekling">klarkling</ins>’ (the
+English crowberry) in great abundance; <ins class = "correction" title =
+"(see below)">blau bær</ins> (wimberry), the finest and best ever seen,
+in quantities; also ‘<ins class = "correction" title =
+"(see below)">skin tukt</ins>,’ another blue berry rather larger than a
+wimberry, and with a thicker skin and wonderful bloom on it; this we
+think does not grow in England. Then less numerous are a berry <ins
+class = "norway" title = "rips">something between</ins> a raspberry and
+a red currant, but of better flavour than either of them; and the great
+and glorious ‘<ins class = "norway" title =
+"moltebær, also written ‘multebær’">mölte bær</ins>’ (cloudberry); to say nothing of ‘<ins class
+= "correction" title = "(see below)">heste bær</ins>,’ and ‘<ins class =
+"norway" title = "tyttebær">tutti bær</ins>,’ and several others of
+unknown names. The last one grows in England, but we have forgotten <ins
+class = "correction" title = "(see below)">its name</ins>; they make
+jelly from it here, and prize it highly for its acid taste.</p>
+
+<hr class = "mid">
+
+<div class = "hanging">
+<p><span class = "serif">blau bær</span><br>
+<i>blåbær</i> (etymologically “blueberry”, but not the same as the
+American blueberry)</p>
+
+<p><span class = "serif">skin tukt</span><br>
+probably <i>blokkebær</i>, also called <i>skinntryte</i></p>
+
+<p><span class = "serif">heste bær</span><br>
+possibly <i>heggebær</i></p>
+
+<p><span class = "serif">“we have forgotten its name”</span><br>
+English “lingonberry”, from its Swedish name <i>lingon</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<h5>Footnotes to Song (pgs. <a name = "song_notes" id = "song_notes"
+href = "#song_text">196-97</a>)</h5>
+
+<p class = "serif">4) ‘Brod,’ bread. The word does not rhyme to god,
+being pronounced something like Broat, but it looks as if it rhymed.</p>
+
+<p class = "inset">
+The Norwegian word is “brød”. Here the writers almost seem to be talking
+about the German equivalent “Brot”.</p>
+
+<p class = "serif">8) ‘Stor,’ big, pronounced Stora before a
+consonant.</p>
+
+<p class = "inset">
+The writers have misunderstood a rule. The word does vary between “stor”
+and “store”, but the difference is grammatical, not phonetic.</p>
+
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Three in Norway, by
+James Arthur Lees and Walter J. Clutterbuck
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+</pre>
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+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Three in Norway, by
+James Arthur Lees and Walter J. Clutterbuck
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Three in Norway
+       by Two of Them
+
+Author: James Arthur Lees
+        Walter J. Clutterbuck
+
+Release Date: July 7, 2011 [EBook #36597]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THREE IN NORWAY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Louise Hope, Chris Curnow, thanks to Tor Martin
+Kristiansen for the illustration images, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+book was produced from scanned images of public domain
+material from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note:
+
+This e-text comes in two forms: Unicode (UTF-8) and Latin-1. Use the
+one that works best on your text reader.
+
+  --If "oe" (only in English words) displays as a single character,
+  and apostrophes and quotation marks are "curly" or angled, you have
+  the UTF-8 version (best). If any part of this paragraph displays
+  as garbage, try changing your text reader's "character set" or
+  "file encoding". If that doesn't work, proceed to:
+  --In the Latin-1 version, "oe" is two letters, but Norwegian words
+  like "oel" have accents and "ae" is a single letter. Apostrophes and
+  quotation marks will be straight ("typewriter" form).
+
+A handful of words were printed with unusual diacritics (macron, breve).
+These are individually explained at the end of the e-text.
+
+To reduce visual clutter, italic markings have been omitted from
+currency notations such as "1s. 2d." Illustration captions have been
+supplied from the List of Illustrations; they were not used in the
+printed book except for the full-page plates. The title-page
+illustration is "The Colony at Breakfast in Memurudalen", repeated
+later in the book.
+
+Unless otherwise noted, all Norwegian names and words--including those
+that are obviously wrong--were printed as shown. For details, see the
+end of the e-text after the list of typographical errors.]
+
+
+
+
+  NORWAY
+
+
+
+
+  '_A man is at all times entitled, or even called upon by occasion,
+  to speak, and write, and in all fit ways utter, what he has himself
+  gone through, and known, and got the mastery of; and in truth, at
+  bottom, there is nothing else that any man has a right to write of.
+  For the rest, one principle, I think, in whatever farther you write,
+  may be enough to guide you: that of standing rigorously by the fact,
+  however naked it look. Fact is eternal; all fiction is very
+  transitory in comparison. All men are interested in any man if he
+  will speak the facts of his life for them; his authentic experience,
+  which corresponds, as face with face, to that of all other sons of
+  Adam._'
+
+    THOMAS CARLYLE
+
+
+
+
+  [Plate: RUNNING THE RAPIDS BELOW GJENDESHEIM.]
+
+
+
+
+                 THREE IN NORWAY
+
+                      _by_
+
+                 _TWO OF THEM_
+
+  With Map and Fifty-Nine Illustrations on Wood
+          from Sketches by the Authors
+
+
+                 [Illustration]
+
+
+                     London
+            LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
+                      1882
+
+             _All rights reserved_
+
+
+
+
+  London: Printed By
+  Spottiswoode And Co., New-Street Square
+  And Parliament Street
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+                                                PAGE
+
+          INTRODUCTION                            xi
+
+ CHAPTER
+       I. The Voyage                               1
+      II. Christiania                              6
+     III. By Rail and Lake                        14
+      IV. By Road                                 21
+       V. The First Camp                          28
+      VI. Misery                                  39
+     VII. Happiness                               45
+    VIII. Fly Saeter                               56
+      IX. Sikkildal                               62
+       X. Besse Saeter                             72
+      XI. Gjendin                                 82
+     XII. The Camp                                89
+    XIII. Gjendesheim                             98
+     XIV. John                                   105
+      XV. Back to Camp                           115
+     XVI. Trout                                  120
+    XVII. Reindeer                               127
+   XVIII. Success at last                        137
+     XIX. Gjendeboden                            146
+      XX. A Formal Call                          153
+     XXI. Fishing                                167
+    XXII. Memurudalen                            180
+   XXIII. A Picnic                               191
+    XXIV. The Skipper's Return                   200
+     XXV. The Gjende Fly                         210
+    XXVI. Disaster                               224
+   XXVII. A Change                               230
+  XXVIII. Rapid Running                          242
+    XXIX. Rus Vand                               257
+     XXX. Luck                                   273
+    XXXI. Not lost, but gone before              286
+   XXXII. A Last Stalk                           295
+  XXXIII. Homeward Bound                         303
+   XXXIV. Bjoelstad                               315
+    XXXV. Down to Christiania                    327
+   XXXVI. Home again                             336
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+  _PLATES_
+                                                             PAGE
+
+  Running the Rapids below Gjendesheim              _Frontispiece_
+  On the Track near Sikkildals Lake                 _to face_   59
+  On the Top of Glopit. Returning from Rus Lake         "      172
+  Baking by Night in Memurudalen                        "      178
+  The Camp in Memurudalen                               "      182
+  Death of the 'Stor Bock' at the Iceberg Lake,
+      Tyknings Hoe                                       "      267
+  Good Sport, Bad Weather. The Skipper's two
+      'Stor Bocks'                                      "      279
+  Cheerful! The Huts at Rus Lake                        "      289
+
+
+  _WOODCUTS IN TEXT._
+
+  Norwegian Arrangement of Dishes at Table                      10
+  Midnight Study of Stockings at Dalbakken                      26
+  The Start on Espedals Lake                                    29
+  The Skipper's first Cast                                      30
+  Our Camp on Espedals                                          31
+  Black-throated Diver                                          36
+  View of Bredsjoe by Night                                      40
+  Sunset at Fly Saeter                                           54
+  Desperate Conflict between Esau and the Mosquito              58
+  Saeter Girls in a Boat on Sikkildals Lake                      65
+  Old Siva carrying a Canoe up the Sikkildals Pass              73
+  Greenshank                                                    77
+  Ring Dotterel                                                 78
+  Scaup                                                         80
+  Our first View of Gjendin Lake                                83
+  Two of our Retainers: Ivar and his Pony                       87
+  The Skipper returns to Camp disgusted with life               93
+  Throwing for a Rise                                           99
+  The Skipper takes Miss Louise for a Cruise
+      at Gjendesheim                                           102
+  The Huts at Rusvasoset                                       109
+  John returns from fishing in Summer Costume                  121
+  John and Esau: 'How's that for high?'                        122
+  The two 'Meget Stor Bocks' (very big Bucks)
+      on Memurutungen                                          128
+  Hot Soup and Northern Lights                                 134
+  Esau and Ola return in Triumph                               141
+  A careful Finishing Shot                                     143
+  The Colony at Breakfast in Memurudalen                       159
+  An Exciting Moment in Rus Lake Shallows                      168
+  Esau's Best Day among the Trout                              170
+  Esau stalking near Hinaakjaernhullet                          188
+  John diving for his knife in Rus Lake                        198
+  The Skipper about to astonish the Reindeer                   203
+  Oela performing the Funeral Rites                             205
+  Canoeing after Duck in a Storm                               236
+  Andreas: our Retriever                                       237
+  Ola and Andreas capturing a wounded Grouse                   238
+  John and the Skipper upsetting in the Canoe                  240
+  Making a Portage by the Sjoa River                           244
+  A Norwegian Fire-place                                       246
+  Jens and his Pony on their way over Bes Fjeld                252
+  A Stormy Crossing at Rusvasoset                              259
+  Gloptind Rock, at the Western End of Rus Lake                275
+  The old stone Hut near Gloptind                              280
+  A Night at Rusvasoset, after a Day at Haircutting            284
+  Rus Lake from the Western End:
+      Nautgardstind in the Distance                            290
+  Glissading home after a blank day                            293
+  Rus Lake from the Eastern End:
+      Tyknings Hoe and Memurutind in the distance               294
+  Off! A Reindeer recollecting an engagement                   295
+  Old Buildings in the Courtyard at Bjoelstad                   316
+  Barley Sheaves: A Norwegian 'Atrocity'                       323
+  Three at Home Again                                          341
+
+
+  _MAP._
+
+  The Jotun Fjeld                              _at end of volume._
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+HISTORY.
+
+'Canadian canoes are the only boats that will do' was our conclusion
+after a thorough inspection of every existing species of boat, and long
+consultation with 'Sambo' of Eton about a totally new variety, invented
+but fortunately _not_ patented by one of our number.
+
+Our party consisted of three men, who shall be briefly described here.
+First, 'the Skipper,' so called from his varied experience by land and
+sea in all parts of the world, but especially in Norway, whither we were
+now intending to go in search of trout, reindeer, and the picturesque.
+The Skipper is lank and thin, looking as though he had outgrown his
+strength in boyhood, and never summoned up pluck enough to recover it
+again. His high cheek-bones and troubled expression give one the idea of
+a man who cannot convince himself that life is a success, which is
+perhaps pretty nearly the view he actually takes of existence.
+
+Secondly, 'Esau,' who received this name in consequence of the many
+points in which his character and history resemble that of the patriarch
+who first rejoiced in it: for our Esau, like his prototype, is
+'a cunning hunter and man of the fjeld;' and we are sure that if he ever
+had such a thing as a birthright, he would willingly have sold it for a
+mess of pottage. Esau is short and joyous, and is one of those people
+who never indigest anything, but always look and always are in perfect
+health and spirits. It is annoying to see a man eat things that his
+fellow-creatures can not without suffering for it afterwards, but Esau
+invariably does this at dinner, and comes down to breakfast next morning
+with a provoking colour on his cheek and a hearty appetite. His office
+in this expedition was that of Paymaster; not because he possessed any
+qualifications for the post, but because the Skipper had conclusively
+proved that such employment was too gross and mundane for _his_ ethereal
+soul, by constantly leaving the purse which contained our united worldly
+wealth on any spot where he chanced to rest himself, when he and Esau
+went to spy out the land two years before this.
+
+Lastly, 'John,' so called for no better reason than the fact that he had
+been christened Charles: he had never yet visited the wilds of
+Scandinavia. John is an Irishman, whose motto in life is 'dum vivimus
+vivamus:' he is tall and straight, with a colossal light moustache. He
+generally wears his hat slightly tilted forward over his forehead when
+engaged in conversation; and the set of his clothes and whole deportment
+convey an idea that he is longing to tell you the most amusing story in
+the world in confidence. He is no gossip, and the anecdotes of his
+countrymen, of which he has an inexhaustible supply always ready, are
+merely imparted to his listeners from philanthropic motives, and because
+he longs for others to share in the enjoyment which he gleans from their
+mental dissection.
+
+The general idea of the campaign was that the Skipper and Esau should
+leave England in the early part of July; fish their way up a string of
+lakes into the Jotunfjeld, getting there in time for the commencement of
+the reindeer season; establish a camp somewhere; and then that John,
+starting a month later, should join, and the three of us sojourn in that
+land until we were tired thereof. How we accomplished this meritorious
+design we have tried to relate in the following pages.
+
+
+GEOGRAPHY.
+
+The map of Norway, apart from Sweden, presents an outline something like
+a tadpole with a crooked irregular tail. The Jotunfjeld is an extensive
+range of the highest mountains which are to be found in Northern Europe:
+before 1820 A.D. they were totally unexplored, and at the present time
+they are still perfectly wild and desolate, their summits covered with
+eternal ice and snow, and even their valleys uninhabited. That part of
+the Jotunfjeld which we intended to make our goal and headquarters is
+situated about the middle of the tadpole's body, and nearly equidistant
+from Throndhjem and Christiania.
+
+
+LANGUAGES.
+
+It is customary when writing a book on any foreign country to scatter
+broadcast in your descriptions words and phrases in the language of that
+country, in order to show that you really have been there. We propose to
+depart from this usage in the course of this work; but if at any time
+the exigencies of narrative seem to demand the use of the foreign
+tongue, we have little doubt that the English language will provide an
+equivalent, which shall be inserted for the benefit of the uninitiated.
+
+
+MATHEMATICS.
+
+Foreigners have a curious prejudice which leads them to adopt different
+systems of coinage and measurement from those in favour in England.
+But shall a Briton pander to this prejudice by making any use of their
+ridiculous figures? Decidedly not. What matters it to us that a
+Norwegian land-mile contains seven of our miles, and a sea-mile four? we
+speak only of the British mile. What care we that the Norwegian kroene is
+worth about 131/2d.? Shall that prevent us from always calling it a
+shilling? Never! And shall the fact that it is divided into ten 10-oere
+pieces (which are little nickel coins worth about five farthings each)
+restrain us from alluding to them as the 'threepenny bits' which they so
+much resemble? Not while life remains.
+
+
+EXTRA SUBJECTS.
+
+Some of the statements that will be found in these pages may strike the
+reader as being, to say the least of it, improbable. We therefore wish
+to explain that all the incidents of sport and travel are simple facts,
+but that here and there is introduced some slight fiction which is too
+obviously exaggerated to require any comment.
+
+
+
+
+THREE IN NORWAY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE VOYAGE.
+
+
+_July 8._--At ten P.M. on the platform of the Hull station might have
+been seen the disconsolate form of Esau, who had arrived there a few
+minutes before. To him entered suddenly an express train, with that
+haste which seems to be inseparable from the movements of express
+trains, adorned as to the roof of one of its carriages by a Canadian
+canoe. From that carriage emerged the lanky body of the Skipper, and
+general joy ensued.
+
+Then in the hotel the Skipper related his perilous adventures; how he
+had crossed London in a four-wheeler with the canoe on the quarter-deck,
+and himself surrounded by rods, guns, rugs, tents, and ground-sheets in
+the hold, amid the shouts of 'boat ahoy!' from the volatile populace,
+and jeers from all the cabs that they met (there are many cabs in
+London); how the station-master at King's Cross--may his shadow never be
+less!--had personally superintended the packing of the canoe on a low
+carriage which he put on to the train specially; and how the G.W.
+charged four times as much as the G.N. He had seen John the day before,
+and on being asked to 'wander about, and get some things with him,' the
+Skipper had replied that it was quite impossible, as his time was
+occupied for the whole day: but when John said, 'I wanted your advice
+chiefly about flies, and a new rod that I am thinking of buying,' he
+replied, 'Sir, I have nothing of the slightest importance to do; my time
+is yours; name the moment, and place of meeting, and I will be there.'
+Then they twain had spent a happy day; for decidedly the next best thing
+to using your own rod is buying one for another man--at his expense.
+
+Poor Esau had no charming experiences to relate: he was a little
+depressed because an intelligent tyke at Doncaster had looked into the
+horse-box in which his canoe was travelling, hoping no doubt to see some
+high-mettled racer, and had asked if 'yon thing were some new mak o'
+a coffin.'
+
+
+_July 9._--We walked about Hull and made a few last purchases. In the
+course of our wanderings we chanced to come to a shop, in the window of
+which many strawberries, large and luscious, were exposed for sale. We
+immediately entered that shop without exchanging a word, and the Skipper
+said to the proprietress, 'This gentleman wants to buy a quantity of
+strawberries for a school feast;' while Esau remarked, as he fastened on
+to the nearest and largest basket, 'My friend has been ordered to eat
+strawberries by his doctor.' After this a scene ensued over which it
+were best to draw a veil.
+
+At six o'clock we were safely aboard the good ship 'Angelo,' and saw our
+baggage stowed. It consisted of three huge boxes of provisions, weighing
+more than 100 lbs. each, two portmanteaus, two smaller bags, a tent,
+a large waggon-sheet intended to form another tent, a bundle of rugs and
+blankets, a large can containing all cooking utensils, four gun-cases,
+seven rods, a bundle of axes, a spade and other necessary tools, and the
+canoes with small wheels for road transport. Those wheels were the only
+things in the whole outfit that turned out to be not absolutely
+necessary. We did use them, but only once, and might have managed
+without them.
+
+When the aforesaid was all on board, there did not appear to be much
+room for anything else in the steamship 'Angelo;' registering 1,300
+tons; yet this vast pile was destined to travel many miles over a
+desperately rough country in the two little canoes.
+
+We were warped out of dock about eight o'clock, and steamed down the
+Humber with a west wind and a smooth sea. It was showery up to the
+moment of our departure, but as Hull faded from our sight it became
+fine, and with the shores of England we seemed to leave the cloud and
+rain behind.
+
+
+_July 10._--The day passed as days at sea do when the weather is all
+that can be wished, and the treacherous ocean calmly sleeps. The
+passengers were as sociable as any collection of English people ever
+are, and we spent the time very pleasantly chatting, smoking, eating
+enormously, and playing the ordinary sea games of quoits and
+horse-billiards.
+
+The Skipper was much exercised in spirit because Esau had told him that
+he believed a certain passenger to be an acquaintance of a former
+voyage, named, let us say, Jones, and that he was a capital fellow. So
+the Skipper went and fraternised with Jones, and presently, trusting to
+the 'information received,' remarked, 'I believe your name is Jones?'
+and was a little annoyed when Jones replied, 'No, it's not Jones; it's
+Blueit, and I never heard the name of Jones as a surname before.' Then
+the Skipper arose and remonstrated with his perfidious friend, who with
+great good temper said, to make it all right, 'You see that man by the
+funnel? That is a Yankee going to see the midnight sun; go and talk to
+him.' Now the Skipper has been in America a good deal, and likes to talk
+to the natives of those regions, so he sailed over to the funnel and
+tackled the Yankee. Presently, with that admirable tact which is his
+most enviable characteristic, he observed, 'I understand that you have
+come all the way from America to see the midnight sun: it is a very
+extraordinary phenomenon. Imagine a glorious wealth of colour glowing
+over an eternal sunlit sea, and endowing with a fairy glamour a scene
+which Sappho might have burned to sing; where night is not, nor sleep,
+but Odin's eye looks calmly down, nor ever sinks in rest.' As he paused
+for breath the Yankee saw his opportunity, and said, 'No, I was never in
+America in my life. I am a Lincolnshire man, and am going over to
+Arendahl to buy timber. I have seen the midnight sun some dozen times,
+and I call it an infernal nuisance.' Here the Skipper hastily left, and
+came over and abused Esau until he made an enemy of him for life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+CHRISTIANIA.
+
+
+_Sunday, July 11._--We reached Christiansand about six, and set sail
+again at eight. There was what the mariners called a nice breeze with
+us. Esau declared it to be a storm, and was prostrate at lunch, owing as
+he said to attending church service, which was conducted under
+considerable difficulties, members of the congregation occasionally
+shooting out of the saloon like Zazel out of her cannon, or assuming
+recumbent postures when the rubric said, 'Here all standing up.'
+However, we came along at a great pace, and arrived at Christiania about
+nine at night, after a first-rate passage.
+
+The Fjord was not looking as beautiful as usual, as there had been a
+great deal of rain, and the storm clouds and mist were still hovering
+about the low hills, so that no glories of the northern sunset were
+visible.
+
+We arranged that the Skipper should go straight to the Victoria Hotel
+for rooms, as we heard that the town was very full, and Esau was to
+follow with the luggage. Now there was a young Englishman on board, very
+talkative, extremely sociable, remarkably kind-hearted, and overflowing
+with the best advice. He had gone round the whole ship entreating every
+one to go to the 'Grand,' as he intended to do, because it was by far
+the best hotel.
+
+Just as the Skipper had engaged our rooms at the 'Victoria,' in rushed
+this guileless child of nature, panting from the speed at which he had
+come from the quay, and the Skipper had the gratification of witnessing
+his discomfiture and listening to his apologies for having lied unto us,
+which of course he had done in order to get rooms for his own party at
+the 'Victoria.'
+
+We say nothing against the 'Grand' because we know it not, but any one
+who has once tried the 'Victoria' will go there again: the man who is
+not at home and happy there must be a very young traveller.
+
+This hotel possesses a spacious courtyard, surrounded by galleries from
+which bedrooms and passages open, very much like that historical
+hostelry in the Borough at which Mr. Pickwick first encountered Sam
+Weller.
+
+These galleries, and indeed most portions of the hotel, are made of
+wood, and the building is not of recent date, for now no houses in
+Christiania are allowed to be constructed of timber only.
+
+In the centre of the court is a fountain which keeps up a gentle
+plashing, very pleasant to listen to on a day when the thermometer is at
+90 in the shade, as it generally is about this time of year in
+Christiania. All round the fountain are small tables and chairs, ready
+for the little groups who will assemble at them after dinner for the cup
+of coffee and glass of cognac which form an indispensable part of a
+Norwegian dinner. The dinner itself is, during the summer months, always
+served in a large oblong tent in the same courtyard at 2.30, and a very
+pleasant meal it is, if you are not too much wedded to English habits to
+be able to secure an appetite at that hour. At short intervals down the
+table large blocks of ice are placed, which perform excellent service in
+helping to keep the tent cool.
+
+Then there is another delightful resort, the smoking-room, which is
+upstairs on an extension of the gallery overlooking the courtyard. It
+also is covered by a sort of tent, in the roof of which divers strange
+and gruesome birds and beasts disport themselves, or seem to do so: we
+have reason to believe that they are stuffed, as we notice that the
+flying capercailzie never seems to 'get any forrader;' the fox stealing
+with cautious tread upon the timid hare, unaccountably delays his final
+spring, but perhaps he is right not to hurry, for the hare does not
+appear to be taking any measures for her safety, but sits calmly
+nibbling the deeply dyed moss which it were vain to inform her is not
+good to eat. But there are other birds which we _know_ are stuffed, for
+we helped to stuff them, and these are the sparrows, which come gaily
+flying in at the open side of the smoking balcony; hopping on the chairs
+and tables, pecking at the crumbs on your plate, and behaving generally
+in that peculiarly insolent manner which can only be acquired, even by a
+sparrow, after years of study, and the most complete familiarity with
+the subject. These birds are a source of endless delight to Esau, who
+certainly gives them more than can be good for them; they eat twice as
+much as the capercailzies, though the latter are considerably larger.
+And if the sparrows are not enough entertainment, there are tanks of
+gold-fish and trees of unknown species in pots; but neither of these
+perform very interesting feats.
+
+In this room it is the custom of the ordinary traveller to have his
+breakfast and supper. Breakfast is very much like a good English one,
+except the coffee, which is not at all like English coffee, being
+perfectly delicious; but the supper is a meal peculiar to Norway, and is
+generally constructed more or less on the following principles:
+
+Caviare, with a fresh lemon cut up on it.
+
+Norwegian sardines, garnished with parsley and bay leaves.
+
+Cray-fish boiled in salt water.
+
+Prawns of appalling magnitude.
+
+Bologna sausage in slices.
+
+Chickens.
+
+Slices of beef, tongue, and corned beef.
+
+Reindeer tongue.
+
+Brod Lax (spelling not guaranteed), meaning raw salmon smoked and cut in
+thin slices.
+
+Baked potatoes.
+
+Good butter, and rolls which no man can resist, so fresh are they, and
+light, and crisp.
+
+Drink: 'salon oel,' which is the best Norwegian beer.
+
+  [Illustration: Norwegian Arrangement of Dishes at Table]
+
+This supper does not come in in courses, but the whole of it is placed
+on the table at once; not spread out all over the surface of the board
+as at home, but arranged in small oval dishes all round the consumer,
+and radiating within easy reach from his plate, making his watch-chain
+the centre of a semicircle, and thus entirely dispensing with that
+creaking-booted fidget, the waiter. Such an arrangement cannot fail to
+coax the most delicate appetite. There is no coarse _piece de
+resistance_; no vast joint to disgust you; but like the bee, you flit
+from dish to dish, toying, now with a prawn, now with a merry-thought,
+till you suddenly discover that you are unconsciously replete, and you
+rise from the table feeling that it was a good supper, and that
+existence is not such a struggle after all.
+
+Altogether the 'Victoria' is a most charming inn, either to the
+wave-worn mariner wearied by the cruel buffetings of the North Sea,
+or to the weather-beaten sportsman returning straight from the bleak
+snow-fields of the interior of Norway. We never stayed there for more
+than two days, but for that time it is an uninterrupted dream of
+delight.
+
+
+_July 12._--We had a very hard day, buying all sorts of things to make
+our stores complete: jam, butter, whisky, soap, and matches, Tauchnitz
+books, and several other necessaries. The butter is most important, as
+the best variety that can be got up country is extremely nasty; the
+worst is unutterably vile, though it is quite possible to acquire almost
+a liking for the peculiarities of the better kind after starvation has
+stared you in the face. We were much put out at not being able to get a
+small keg of whisky, as we fear that the bottles will fare badly in the
+rough travelling we shall have.
+
+Accounts of Christiania may be found in many excellent guide-books, with
+which this simple story cannot hope to compete, so we will not attempt
+to describe the town, since, though our knowledge of all the grocers'
+shops is voluminous and exhaustive, we are totally ignorant of the
+interior arrangements of either the churches or police stations.
+
+The Skipper was very anxious to get some violet ink, because he is
+firmly convinced that it is the only sort fit for a gentleman to use.
+'A man,' he said, 'is known by his ink;' so we went into many shops and
+asked for that concoction, always in the English tongue. Then we arrived
+at a shop where they did not speak our language; and here suddenly,
+to the intense surprise of Esau, the Skipper broke forth into a long
+harangue in Norse, concluding with an extremely neat peroration. The
+shopkeeper listened with respectful admiration, and then said, 'No,
+this is a stationer's shop, we do not keep it.' Then Esau gave way
+to irreverent laughter, and the shopkeeper concluded that we were
+attempting a practical joke, and we had to fly. The Skipper was not
+angry, but very much hurt. It afterwards transpired that he had got
+up the whole of that magnificent burst of eloquence out of 'Bennett's
+Phrase Book,' and then it had failed for want of two or three right
+words; truly very hard.
+
+We took our canoes to the railway station, and despatched them to
+Lillehammer this afternoon; they had been a source of great interest to
+all beholders since our arrival, especially to the Norwegians, who have
+all a sort of natural affinity with any kind of boat, and seem very much
+pleased with the combined lightness and strength of their build. As far
+as we can learn they are the first of the kind that have yet been
+brought to this country.
+
+At the station they were surrounded by a crowd of inquiring Norsemen,
+all of them wondering much what the name of 'Nettie' on the bows of the
+Skipper's craft could mean, and spelling it over very slowly and
+carefully aloud. When we came away, one of them, evidently a linguist,
+had just translated it into his own language, and was proceeding to
+conjugate it as an irregular verb.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+BY RAIL AND LAKE.
+
+
+_July 13._--We were engaged till late at night putting the finishing
+touches to our packing. The last thing we did was to put our most
+gorgeous apparel, and any articles not likely to be needed during our
+camp life, into two portmanteaus, with strict orders to the Boots to
+keep the same until our return. This morning, after an early breakfast,
+on descending to the courtyard we found these portmanteaus roped down on
+the roof of the omnibus which was to take all the luggage to the station
+_en route_ for Lillehammer. This we rectified, and then set off to walk
+to the station ourselves.
+
+Now Esau is possessed by an insensate craving for anchovy paste, which
+he considers a necessity for camping; he said, 'It imparts a certain
+tone to the stomach, and aids digestion;' and added that 'no
+well-appointed dinner-table should ever be without it,' which sounds a
+little like an advertisement, but which he asserted was a quotation from
+the rules laid down for his diet by Dr. Andrew Clark. In Christiania
+these rules are not strictly adhered to either by Esau or the
+inhabitants of the place, for anchovy paste is not to be obtained there:
+this we know, because we went into every shop in the town, and asked for
+it without success. And in this supreme moment, when we were walking to
+the station with only a few minutes before the train should start, he
+insisted on diving into a wretched pokey little shop, which had escaped
+our notice yesterday, and demanding 'anchovy paste' in a loud English
+voice. The Skipper devoutly thanked Providence it could not be bought,
+as he declared the smell of it alone was enough to put a man off his
+breakfast, and that he had such a morbid longing for hair grease, that
+he could not have prevented himself from putting it on his head.
+
+We got our baggage safely booked, and ourselves also, after a scene of
+riot that was nothing like a football match, but something like
+Donnybrook fair, and at last found ourselves in a compartment with five
+other passengers, all of whom had a most inconsiderate amount of luggage
+with them in the carriage, while we contented ourselves with four guns,
+seven fishing-rods, two axes, one spade, four hundred and fifty
+cartridges, two fishing-bags, and a pair of glasses. We calculated that
+we saved at least one and fourpence by taking these things with us; and
+although our fellow-passengers were rather profane at first they soon
+settled down, and we had time to digest the fact that we were one and
+fourpence to the good. It was very warm in there; outside the
+thermometer was 92 deg. in the shade; but we survived it, and after that no
+mere heat has any terrors for us.
+
+Two of our fellow-passengers were an Englishman and his wife, who had a
+maid travelling with them through to Throndhjem; and when getting the
+tickets the booking clerk informed them that there were no second-class
+through tickets issued, 'but,' he added, 'this will do as well,' and
+handed them one first and one third through ticket, which we thought an
+extremely ingenious way out of the difficulty.
+
+A railway journey is not interesting anywhere, and less so in Norway
+than other countries, as there is not even the sensation of speed to
+divert your mind, and keep you excited in momentary expectation of a
+smash. Uphill the pace is slow because it cannot be fast; downhill it is
+slow for fear of the train running away.
+
+There are only two trains a day, one very early, one rather late,
+but timed to arrive at its destination before dark, for there is no
+travelling by night. Directly darkness comes on the train is stopped,
+and the passengers turned out into an hotel, where they remain to rest
+till dawn. From Christiania to Eidsvold is about a three-hour journey,
+and during that time the guard came to look at our tickets 425 times.
+He wanted to incite us to commit a breach of the peace, or to catch us
+offending against some of his by-laws, and was always appearing at a new
+place; first at one door, then the other, anon peeping at us through the
+hole for the lamp, and again blinking from the next carriage, through
+the ice-water vessel. But we were aware of his intention, and did
+nothing to annoy him, and always showed the same tickets till they were
+worn out, and then we produced strawberry jam labels, which seemed to be
+quite satisfactory.
+
+We reached Eidsvold at twelve, and went aboard the steamer 'Skiblaedner,'
+where we found the canoes already nicely placed, lashed on the
+paddle-boxes.
+
+We had a delightful voyage up the Mjoesen, on the most beautiful of
+Norwegian summer days, in the best of Norwegian steamers. The Mjoesen is
+the largest Norwegian lake, about fifty-five miles long, and the
+guide-books say it is 1,440 feet deep, but we had not time to measure
+it, as we were busy admiring the scenery on the saloon table most of the
+way. This steaming up the Mjoesen is a very pleasant way of spending a
+fine day: the shores are nowhere strikingly beautiful, but always pretty
+and charming; the steamer goes fast, so that there is a sensation of
+getting on and not losing time. There are intervals of mild excitement
+whenever we come to a village, and take up or disembark passengers;
+generally speaking they come out in boats, but occasionally we come to a
+larger and more important place where there is a pier, or even a
+railway, and at these the excitement is greater and the crowd quite
+worthy of the name. The folks all take off their hats directly we get
+within sight, and continue to do so till they fade away or sink below
+the horizon; and we in the steamer all do the same. But the great
+attraction is undoubtedly dinner, which is uncommonly well served in the
+saloon, every luxury that can be obtained being placed before us,
+concluding with wild strawberries and cream of the frothiest and most
+captivating appearance.
+
+Both on this boat and her sister the 'Kong Oscar' they take great pride
+in doing things well, very much as the old mail-coaches which occupied a
+parallel position in England used to do. The 'Kong Oscar' is rather the
+faster boat, but we consider the captain of the 'Skiblaedner' to be
+lengths ahead of his rival, being a first-rate old fellow; on the other
+hand, the 'Skiblaedner' handmaidens are not comely, whereas they of the
+'Kong Oscar' are renowned for their beauty, not only in Norway, but in
+certain stately homes of England that we wot of. Esau lost his heart to
+one of them two years ago, and still raves about her, though the only
+way in which he endeavoured to win her affection was by sitting on a
+paddle-box with his slouch hat tilted over his eyes, gazing at her with
+mute admiration from a respectful distance, while she, alas! was totally
+unconscious of his passion. He never told his love, because he could not
+speak Norse.
+
+We arrived at Lillehammer about eight o'clock, and went to the Victoria
+Hotel, from the flat roof of which, after an excellent dinner, we
+enjoyed a pipe and one of the prettiest views, in a quiet homely style
+of prettiness, that any one could wish to see: just at our feet the
+wooden village, with its many-coloured houses and their red roofs; then
+some green slopes, and 100 feet below the vast extent of the Mjoesen
+lying calm and still and looking very green and deep, with the
+landing-stage and deserted steamers apparently quite close below us. On
+the opposite side of the lake highish hills covered with fir trees, and
+to the right the river Laagen with its green waters hurrying down from
+the mountains in a broad and rapid stream as far as the eye could reach.
+Just across the road in front of the hotel there is a nice little stream
+which turns a saw, and rejoices in a cool splashing waterfall, the
+soothing sound of which refreshes us by day and night. The same torrent
+can be seen higher up the mountain in a place where it makes some rather
+fine falls, which only look like a long white rag fluttering amongst the
+trees at this distance. This was the view we had at midnight, when it
+was, apparently, no darker than immediately after sunset, and a good
+deal lighter than it generally is in London at midday; the while the sky
+was covered with the rich glow of colouring which can only be seen in
+the Northern summer.
+
+There were two Englishmen with us on the roof, with whom, aided by
+coffee, we roamed over the greater part of the civilised and uncivilised
+world--Australia, Canada, Japan, Turkey, and Ceylon, and we all agreed
+that none of them can 'go one better' than a summer night in Norway.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+BY ROAD.
+
+
+_July 14._--We arose pretty early, wishing to get over thirty-eight
+miles of ground before evening, which with the canoes would be a long
+day's work; as we had the natives to contend with, who by reason of
+their dreadfully lazy habits are most difficult to 'bring to the
+scratch.'
+
+We have decided, after long experience, that nothing that you can do has
+any effect in hurrying them; but that it is quite possible to make them
+slower by losing your temper, or taking any vigorous measures of
+acceleration. They seem to get more deliberate and aggravatingly slow as
+they grow older.
+
+Norwegian boys are distractingly restless and full of energy, and look
+as if they have had nothing to eat, which is generally the actual fact,
+judging by an English standard of what constitutes food. At the age of
+fifteen they become better fed, and their energy departs altogether,
+and after entirely disappearing it keeps getting less every year.
+A full-grown man does not seem to need much food, certainly not as much
+as an Englishman, and prefers that of the worst kind, conveyed to the
+mouth at the end of a knife-blade. We have never noticed any description
+of food which he does not make sour, rather than eat it when sweet.
+Bread, milk, cream, and cheese, jam and cabbages, for instance, are
+articles which he prefers fermented or sour. He reminds one of the
+cockney who complained that the country eggs had no flavour, or of the
+Scotchman who, replying to the apologies of a friend in whose house he
+happened to get a bad egg, said, 'Ma dear freend, ah _prefair_ 'em
+rotten.'
+
+But his laziness and love of nasty food are almost the only bad
+qualities that we have discovered in him. He is ridiculously honest,[*]
+and his kindness and hospitality are beyond praise. This morning,
+however, the laziness was the quality chiefly conspicuous, and though we
+ordered our conveyances last night and got up early (for us), we did not
+succeed in starting till twelve o'clock.
+
+    [Footnote: Save, perhaps, on three points--fishing tackle,
+    strong drinks, and straps or pieces of cord, which may be
+    committed to memory as 'a fly, a flask, and a fastener.']
+
+We first despatched the canoes and baggage packed on a kind of low
+waggon, and then got into a double cariole (which is something like a
+gig) ourselves, and drove gaily off along the Throndhjem road. We did
+not, however, follow it far, but turning to the left down a steep hill,
+we crossed the Laagen by a long and rather handsome bridge, and then up
+a winding road on the further side, all looking very pretty on such a
+glorious day. The road became more picturesque the further we got from
+Lillehammer, every turn bringing us to some fresh combination of
+mountain, pine-trees, rock, and waterfall--especially rock. There are so
+many tracts of country in Norway entirely composed of rock, that, as
+Esau remarked, 'probably no one will ever find a use for it all.'
+
+We lunched at a nice little station called 'Neisteen;' a delicious meal
+off trout, strawberries and cream, and fladbrod, for which they charged
+us a shilling each.
+
+'Fladbrod' is the staple food of the country folk in Norway; they make
+it of barley-meal, rye-meal, or pea-meal, but the best and commonest is
+that composed of barley-meal. It is simply meal and water baked on a
+large, flat, circular iron, and is about the thickness of cardboard, of
+a brownish colour, and very crisp. The taste for it is easily acquired
+in the absence of other food, and with butter it becomes quite
+delicious--to a _very_ hungry man.
+
+At Neisteen there was a little shop where the Skipper at last obtained
+his violet ink, but Esau was foiled in his dastardly attempt at
+retaliation with anchovy paste.
+
+After this our road lay along a lovely river for fishing, and we were
+much tempted to stop and try a cast in it, especially as we saw natives
+luring fish from their rocky haunts by the time-honoured Norwegian
+method. They first settle how far they want to cast--say thirty feet.
+Then cut down a thirty-foot pine tree; take the bark off it; tie a
+string to the thin end and a hook to the string; stick a worm on the
+hook, and go forth to the strife. When the fish bites, they strike with
+great rapidity and violence, and _something_ is bound to go; generally
+it is the fish, which leaves its native element at a speed which must
+astonish it; describes half of a sixty-foot circle at the same rate,
+and lands either in a tree or on a rock with sufficient force to break
+itself.
+
+But we had no time to spare, especially as for this stage we had a bad,
+shying, jibbing horse, and a perfect fool of a driver.
+
+Near the last station we passed three English people on the road, who
+our driver informed us lived near there. He told us their name was
+Wunkle, but the man at the next station said it was Punkum, and we could
+not decide which of these two common English names it was most likely
+to be.
+
+Kvisberg, the last station on this road, was reached at 9 P.M., but
+before this the road, which had gradually got worse all the way from
+Lillehammer, had faded away and disappeared: and as the road got worse,
+so did the hired conveyances; so that we were gradually reduced from the
+gorgeous double cariole with red cushions with which we started, and a
+horse that could hardly be held in, to a springless, jolting stolkjaer
+(country cart), and a pony that required much persuasion to induce him
+to boil up a trot.
+
+Kvisberg is situated, with peculiar disregard for appropriateness of
+position, on the side of an almost unclimbable hill, about a quarter of
+a mile from the place where the road departs into the Hereafter. No
+English horse would take a cart up such a hill, but Norwegian ponies are
+like the Duke's army, and 'will go anywhere and do anything,' only you
+must give them plenty of time. We mounted to the station, a wretched
+little place, and being hungry ordered coffee and eggs, for which repast
+we paid twopence-halfpenny each, and then at ten o'clock got a man to
+carry our few small things the last six miles to Dalbakken, where we
+intended to sleep the night. The walk was delightful, through a
+precipitous thickly wooded gorge, at the bottom of which the river which
+we had followed all day went leaping and foaming along, though it was
+now reduced to a mere mountain torrent.
+
+About a mile from our journey's end we were overtaken by a Norwegian
+student on a walking tour, who spoke a little English and walked with us
+the rest of the way, as he too was bound for Dalbakken.
+
+  [Illustration: Midnight Study of Stockings at Dalbakken]
+
+We reached it at midnight, and were not much gratified to find that it
+was a very small poor building, and that our luggage had not arrived. We
+had been hoping against hope that it might have done so, as we had not
+seen it anywhere on the road. The next pleasant discovery was that four
+other travellers had arrived before us and taken all the rooms. This
+fact was first conveyed to our minds by seeing four pairs of socks
+hanging out of the upstair windows to dry; at which sight we began to
+suspect that things were going to turn out unpleasant for us; but at
+last we got a room with one very small bed between us. We tossed for
+this bed, and the Skipper won; so Esau passed the night on the floor, on
+a sheepskin, and was very comfortable--at least he said so next morning.
+The natives here were much impressed by all our habits and belongings,
+but especially by our sleeping with the window open; wherefore the old
+woman of the Saeter[*] below kept bouncing into the room at intervals
+during the night to see us perform that heroic feat; and though it was
+flattering to be made so much of, still fame has its drawbacks.
+
+    [Footnote: A Saeter is a mountain farm, to which all the cattle
+    are driven during the summer, so that the lowland pastures can
+    be mown for hay.]
+
+The general appearance of the place caused us to expect nightly
+visitations from other foes, not human, but to our surprise there were
+none.
+
+Dalbakken is only three quarters of a mile from a lake called Espedals
+Vand, where we propose to commence our cruise. It is beautifully
+situated on a small flat bit of ground halfway up the north side of the
+gorge: the hills on the south side not far away are so steep that they
+could not be climbed by all the branded alpenstocks that Switzerland
+ever produced. Looking to the east the gorge is very wild and grand,
+covered with pine trees and steep crags, and no dwelling in sight; while
+to the west, in which direction Espedals Vand lies, it is more level and
+open, and slopes gradually downwards again, Dalbakken itself being the
+highest point in the track.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE FIRST CAMP.
+
+
+_July 15._--We slept well, and at eight o'clock the Skipper, always
+first to wake, got up, and looking out of the window saw thence the four
+bad men who had taken the rooms before us and hung their socks out of
+the window, just starting on their journey, and looking as if they did
+so with an easy conscience.
+
+Some men can carry with a light heart and gay demeanour a weight of
+crime that would wreck the happiness of less hardened ruffians.
+
+Then he turned his gaze in the opposite direction, and oh, joy! our
+luggage and boats were in sight, and arrived directly afterwards.
+The man in charge said he had travelled all night with them without
+sleeping, and to judge from his appearance we imagined that his
+statement was correct. He had been sitting on the Skipper's bag for
+thirty-eight miles, and from the state of its interior we calculated his
+weight to be about twenty-two stone. He was very ill-tempered after his
+mere trifle of a journey and vigil, and asked for more money on hearing
+that he had three quarters of a mile further to go. This was very sad,
+and we thought showed an unchristian spirit; but we sternly urged him
+forward, and all ended happily on our arrival at Espedals, when we paid
+him his money and a shilling extra.
+
+  [Illustration: The Start on Espedals Lake]
+
+It only took us a quarter of an hour to get to the lake, and after
+unpacking there and dismissing the men we put the canoes into the water,
+and then put water into the canoes until they sank; while we sat on the
+shore watching the trout rising all over the rippled surface of the
+lake, occasionally eyeing our sunken canoes in an impatient, longing
+sort of way, but never attempting to start on our great voyage.
+
+  [Illustration: The Skipper's first Cast]
+
+These tactics to an inexperienced 'voyageur' might look like the acts of
+an ordinary lunatic; but it should be explained that the long exposure
+to the sun which the canoes had undergone had caused them to leak badly,
+and they required soaking to swell up the joints, before they could be
+intrusted with our valuable property and persons. Besides this we were
+hungry, and thought it a good opportunity for lunch, and had to make
+some previously arranged alterations in the baggage with a view to
+lightening it. As long as the land journey lasted, strength was the
+chief object to aim at, but now lightness was of more importance. About
+one o'clock, when we had got all our things aboard and were just
+starting, a strong head-wind arose. This was always our luck. We decided
+to make only a short voyage. The waves were fairly big, but the canoes
+weathered them bravely, though they were very low in the water, and we
+had to keep the pumps going (_i.e._ mop them out with our sponges)
+during the whole voyage.
+
+  [Illustration: Our Camp on Espedals]
+
+We landed not more than a mile and a half from the end of the lake, and
+found a very nice camping-ground about ten yards from the shore on the
+south bank, with what the poets call 'a babbling brook' close to it;
+pitched the tent, and had a simple dinner of bacon, eggs, and jam, the
+last dinner during our trip at which trout did not find a place. Then we
+sallied forth in the canoes to fish. Esau was the last to leave the
+shore, and as he paddled off he noticed the Skipper's rod in the
+familiar Norwegian shape of a bow, and found him struggling with two on
+at the same time, both of which he landed, and found to be over 1 lb.
+each. 'First blood claimed and allowed,' to quote the terse language of
+the prize ring. Not a bad beginning, but we only got a few more about
+the same weight. They came very short, but were remarkably game fish
+when hooked, and in first-rate condition. We turned in about eleven,
+when it began to rain a little, and slept with our heads under the
+blankets, the mosquitoes being in countless multitudes.
+
+
+_July 16._--It was a lovely morning, and the lake looked its best, but
+it is not strikingly beautiful compared with many that we have seen. It
+has high rugged hills on both sides, and pine woods down to the water's
+edge, and some small islands dotted about the upper end of it; but the
+lake is rather shallow, the pine trees rather stunted, and there are a
+good many wooden huts and saeters on the hill-sides, which, although they
+appear to be mostly uninhabited, detract from the wildness of the
+scenery.
+
+The natives have one or two boats on the lake, and do some fishing on
+their own account. To-day we saw a man engaged in the atrocious
+employment of fishing with an 'otter.'
+
+Any natives who see our camp when rowing past come to shore to inspect
+us and our belongings. They all adopt the same course of procedure. They
+land, and stare, and say nothing; then they pull up their boat and make
+it safe, and advancing close to the tent stare, and say nothing either
+to each other or us. Then Esau says confidentially, as if it was a new
+and brilliant idea (he has done exactly the same thing some scores of
+times), 'We'd better be civil to these fellows; perhaps they could bring
+us some eggs, and they look pretty friendly.' The natives are all the
+time staring and saying nothing. Then Esau remarks in Norwegian, 'It is
+fine weather to-day; have you any eggs?' To this the chief native
+replies at great length in his own barbarous jargon, and Esau not having
+understood a single syllable answers, 'Ja! ja! (yes), but have you any
+eggs?' Then aside to the Skipper, 'Wonder what the deuce the fool was
+talking about?' Soon the natives perceive that their words are wasted,
+and relapse into the silent staring condition again, and after a time
+and a half, or two times, they depart as they came. Sometimes they
+return again with eggs in a basket, when we pay them well and give them
+some fish; at other times they look upon us as dangerous lunatics, and
+avoid us like the plague.
+
+Esau learnt this habit of asking for eggs when we were on a fishing
+expedition near the south coast of Norway. On one occasion there we
+arrived at a small village, with an enormous quantity of trout that we
+had caught in the adjoining fjord; and found a small crowd of about
+fourteen or fifteen seafaring men, idly lounging round an open space
+between the cottages. He first went round and presented each of those
+men with two trout solemnly, without a word, as though it were a
+religious ceremony. Then he began at the first man again and said, 'Have
+you eggs?' and receiving a reply in the negative, he went on to the
+next, and to each one of the group asking the same weird question.
+
+The men, who had been chatting busily amongst themselves up to the
+moment of our arrival, became silent; they did not laugh, but only
+looked at one another; and one of them shyly felt in his pocket to see
+if there were any eggs there whose existence he might have chanced to
+forget.
+
+Presently, as we could get no eggs, we moved off sorrowfully but not
+discouraged; and the men remained looking after us silent and uncertain.
+Thus the interview ended, and we regained our boat.
+
+The beach here was capital for bathing, and we enjoyed a delightful tub
+this morning, the more pleasant indeed because at Dalbakken we slept in
+our clothes, and only had a soap-dish to wash in next morning.
+Immediately after bathing we lit a fire, and the cook commenced
+operations; the office of cook being held alternately by each of us for
+one day. The man from Dalbakken brought us some milk, so we indulged in
+coffee. When we have only 'tin milk' we drink tea; for though tin milk
+will do fairly with tea, we think it wretched with coffee. After
+breakfast we each took our canoe, and went fishing wherever the spirit
+moved us, taking lunch with us. On a day of this sort, if the fish are
+rising we have a great time, and if they won't rise, we lie on the bank
+in the sun and smoke, or sketch, or kill mosquitoes, and have a great
+time in that case also, so that the hours pass in a blissful round of
+enjoyment, and all is peace. Having each one his own ship we are quite
+independent, only taking care to return to camp about six o'clock to get
+dinner ready. After that there is nearly always a rise, and we fish till
+about eleven, when we generally turn in, though it is by no means dark
+by that time; and on a few occasions when the fish were rising very
+well, we have fished on all through the night and into the next day,
+losing count of the almanack, and conducting life on the principles of
+going to bed when tired, and eating when hungry, so that, like the
+Snark, we might be said to--
+
+  Frequently breakfast at five o'clock tea,
+    And dine on the following day.
+
+There was very little wind to-day, and these fish being very shy, and
+apt to come short, it was almost impossible to get them without a ripple
+until evening, when large white moths began to show on the water, and
+the trout became bolder; consequently we did not make great bags, though
+the fish caught were very good ones.
+
+At night there was one of the most lovely sunsets ever seen. The sun
+went down right at the other end of the lake, so that we had an
+uninterrupted view, with all the glorious colours of the sky reflected
+in the water; and we agreed that the effects about half-past ten this
+evening formed as good a symphony in purple and orange as a man could
+expect to find out of the Grosvenor Gallery.
+
+
+_July 17._--The morning began with a dead calm, but this soon gave place
+to such a wind down the lake that we were induced to strike the camp,
+pack the canoes, and proceed on our voyage into the unknown.
+
+  [Illustration: Black-throated Diver]
+
+We started soon after eleven, lunched near Megrunden,[*] and saw there
+two black-throated divers on the lake, which Esau pursued for some time,
+but of course never got near them. Some of the dives they made to avoid
+his advancing canoe seemed to be about half a mile in length. Just below
+Boele we caught several fish, but kept paddling on with our favourable
+wind, casting every now and then in likely places, and soon came to a
+rapid with a rough bridge thrown across its upper end. The rapid was
+very shallow, so that we did not dare to attempt to run it with loaded
+boats, and had to make a portage. Even then we got a few bumps in
+running it, but arrived at the bottom all right. Now the scene changed;
+we were in a smaller and narrower part of the valley; buildings had
+entirely disappeared; there was nothing to be seen but gloomy pine
+forests and black-looking mountains: the weather also was quickly
+changing, and evidently intending to be wet and stormy; so we pushed on
+rapidly, one coasting on each side of the lake till we reached its
+further extremity, where Esau was nearly swamped crossing the waves, as
+the wind began to blow harder every minute. Soon the rain was upon us,
+while we looked for a camping-ground but found none, as the shores were
+everywhere very swampy for a quarter of a mile inland. At length we came
+to a second rapid, where the natives have thrown a clumsy weir across
+for some unknown purpose, and here we found a fairly dry spot, made our
+portage in heavy rain and wind, with a great deal of groaning, misery,
+and brandy and water; pitched the tent, and after struggling for about
+half an hour, got a dyspeptic fire to fizzle, and so cooked some fish
+and eggs, and then had tea in the tent. After this we were a little more
+comfortable, as it was very nice and dry inside; but it was midnight
+before we had finished all our portage, got the canoes down into the
+next lake, and made everything snug for the night, so that we were quite
+exhausted, as our day had commenced at seven A.M. The mosquitoes were
+more numerous here than at any place we have yet seen.
+
+    [Footnote: The various places mentioned on the voyage are not
+    villages, as one might imagine from the dot that marks them on
+    the Ordnance map, but generally only a single one-roomed log hut,
+    and for the most part not inhabited or habitable.]
+
+
+_Sunday, July 18._--It rained all night, but as Tweedledum said of his
+umbrella, 'not under here,' and a ditch we made last night kept our
+floor quite dry. Lighting a fire for breakfast was a toilsome business,
+but at last we found some wood dry enough to burn. It continued raining
+in a nice keep-at-it-all-day-if-you-like kind of manner, so we resided
+in the tent, and read, and indulged in whisky and water for lunch to
+counteract any ill effects of the reading--for some of it was poetry.
+
+Our tent was about three-quarters of a mile from the end of Bred Sjoe,
+and after lunch we both went in one canoe to reconnoitre the next rapid,
+which is a long one down to Olstappen Vand. We found that it is quite
+impracticable for canoes; the river simply running violently down a
+steep place till it perishes in the lake; about a mile of rapid with
+hardly enough decently behaved water in the whole of it to hold a dozen
+trout. But there _were_ a dozen, for we caught them, one wherever there
+was a little turnhole. How we were to get down that river was concealed
+in the unfathomable depths of the mysterious Future.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+MISERY.
+
+
+_July 19._--It rained all night again and all day. This was dreadful,
+and not at all like Norway.
+
+We have always made a rule that we may fish on Sunday, but not shoot.
+Some people draw an even finer distinction, and say it is allowable to
+shoot with a rifle, but not with a gun: this we have always thought too
+subtle. Now yesterday was Sunday, and Esau having observed two divers on
+the lake while the Skipper was out fishing, went and secreted himself
+with a gun where he expected them to come over, hoping that they would
+be alarmed by the other canoe on its return. This soon happened, and
+they flew within forty yards of him. Both barrels were discharged, and
+Esau returned to camp, muttering something about 'birds of that kind
+having immortal bodies if they hadn't immortal souls.' The result of
+Sabbath-breaking was no doubt this miserable weather.
+
+The camp to-day presented a most cheerless prospect. The canoes were
+drawn up on land and turned bottom upwards; the kitchen stowed away
+under a soaked sack; a very third-rate camp fire smouldering before the
+tent, surrounded by old egg-shells, backbones of fish, bacon-rind, and
+some apology for firewood; our two rods standing up against the gloomy
+sky with the wind whistling through their lines, and all the scenery
+blotted out with rain and mist, and scudding, never-ending clouds that
+drifted down the valley, and gave very occasional glimpses of extremely
+wet mountains. The cook, clad in a macintosh with a spade in his hand,
+watching a pot which was trying to boil on the spluttering fire, his
+trousers tucked into his socks, and his boots shining with wet, would
+have given any one a pretty good idea of the meaning of the expression
+'played out.'
+
+  [Illustration: View of Bredsjoe by Night]
+
+The mosquitoes were bad here, and we spent much of our leisure time
+making war against them. Esau's favourite way of 'clearing the road' was
+to bring in a smoking log of pitch pine, close up the ventilation, and
+fill the tent with smoke. It forced us to quit, but not the mosquitoes,
+as they appeared to fall into a deep and tranquil sleep, from which they
+awoke refreshed and ready to renew the attack just a few minutes before
+the tent again became habitable for human beings. Prowling round the
+tent and squashing them with our fingers was perhaps the best plan, but
+we were obliged to sleep with a rug over our heads and covered up at
+every point, to avoid their intrusion at night.
+
+
+_July 20._--Still rain, and nothing but rain; it stopped for an hour or
+two last night, and the lake looked uncommonly pretty among its dark
+surroundings, but the downpour soon began again.
+
+In our desperation yesterday afternoon we arranged with a native, whom
+the Skipper discovered, to bring a horse and sleigh to-day to meet us at
+the next rapid, and help us down with our baggage to Olstappen.
+Therefore we got up early and were down at the rapid about ten o'clock,
+where we found our man waiting. The rain at this period was the worst
+variety we have yet seen, and it has tried all kinds during the last
+four days. We packed everything on the sleigh, covered it with our
+ground sheets, and then put the wheels on our canoes, and followed down
+the track.
+
+There is a saw-mill halfway down the river which is simply perfect.
+It is perched on piles over the middle of the stream, where it dashes
+through a rift in a huge black cliff, and the water goes tearing past
+down a long shoot made of logs, and plunges down at the end churned into
+a mass of white foam, with noise and spray that quite bewilder one.
+
+We got down to Olstappen at last, not without a good deal of hard work,
+and paid our man 4s. 6d. On our way we met a Norwegian tourist, who was
+on a walking tour with his sister, and had left her rained up, so to
+speak, in a Saeter, and was strolling about in the forest to wile away
+the time: he spoke a very little English, and we had a long talk with
+him; as he had a fellow-feeling for us, and was quite ready to curse the
+rain with us or any one else.
+
+The Norwegians, men and women, seem to go a good deal on walking tours,
+and probably know infinitely more of their fatherland than does the
+average Briton of this island, the superiority of which he seldom fails
+to impress on the long-suffering foreigner.
+
+At midday we launched our canoes on Olstappen, which is a fine wide
+lake, and not so rainy as Bredsjoe, being several hundred feet lower.
+We paddled across to the mouth of the Vinstra River, a rather perilous
+undertaking, for where the wind met the river there was a nasty sea on,
+and we shipped some water, but got safe to land. We could not find a
+decent camp till we had walked a quarter of a mile from the lake up the
+river. There we found a nice sheltered place, pretty, and close to the
+river, made our portage, and pitched the tent, and with tea our drooping
+spirits began to revive (who is proof against a hot meal of trout and
+bacon, buttered eggs, and tea?), even though our clothes and equipments
+were all wet through, and we had a damp change of raiment, sleeping
+rugs, and boots. But now the wind had changed, and we looked forward to
+the morrow as the wearied traveller always _does_ look forward to the
+morrow.
+
+There were many sandpipers at the mouth of this river; we caught one
+young one, and had serious thoughts of taking its innocent life for our
+tea, but better feelings prevailed, and we released it as an offering
+for fine weather, and caught four trout instead.
+
+
+_July 21._--Hurrah! the rain stopped during the night, and this morning
+actually the sun shone out now and then. We heaped up a huge fire and
+dried all our belongings, and then had nearly a whole day before us free
+for fishing.
+
+A voyaging day is a big business. We calculate that it takes us two and
+a half hours to pack up from an old camp, breakfast, and get aboard
+ship; but to pitch the camp in a new place takes much longer. First you
+have to find a suitable place, often a matter of great difficulty in a
+country like this, where level spaces a yard square are very rare; dig a
+trench; pitch the tent, and arrange everything in it; collect firewood,
+and make a place for the fire; see that the boats and everything about
+the tent are safe from harm should the stormy winds begin to blow; and
+then cook dinner. All this cannot be done under three hours of hard
+work; so that if in addition you propose getting over a considerable
+amount of ground, it is sure to be a long and toilsome day. But the
+following day you wake up with a glorious feeling of duty performed and
+pleasure to look forward to.
+
+The Skipper, with a hankering after cleanliness, washed a lot of
+clothes, and himself, having left the rain to perform the latter
+operation for the last two or three days; but Esau, not being troubled
+with any such absurd remnants of civilisation, went up the river
+reconnoitring in his natural condition. He came back to dinner in a
+perfectly rapturous state, having caught a remarkably nice bag of fish,
+got a beautiful view of the Jotunfjeld Mountains, and found a waterfall,
+which he said was the best in Norway, and therefore in the world. The
+Skipper had tried the lake in the afternoon without success, so after
+dinner we both went out and soon discovered the reason. Seven boats full
+of natives were out with a huge flue net, which they shot in a circle,
+and then beat the water enclosed till all the wretched fish were in the
+net. We saw them get thirty in one haul, and besides this there was a
+boat 'ottering;' and although we captured a few fish, it was obvious
+that with all this netting it would be impossible for the lake to be
+good.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+HAPPINESS.
+
+
+_July 22._--This was a really fine day, such as we consider proper to
+Norway; no uncertain half-and-halfness, but a day when an untiring sun
+shone down from an immaculate sky; and everything looked lovely. Our
+tent was on a nice bit of turf close to the Vinstra River, which is
+about as broad as the Thames at Eton, but with probably twice the volume
+of water, and certainly three times its rapidity; it rushed past our
+door at such a pace that no boat could stem it; and as far as we could
+see up the reach it came down in an equally swift torrent, so that all
+day and all night there was a swilling, rushing sound very pleasant to
+hear, and creating a sensation of coolness in warm weather. Esau
+considered it just the _beau ideal_ of a trout stream, for any fish
+hooked in it gave a lot of trouble before he was safe in the bag. It
+ran into the lake about a quarter of a mile from our tent, forming a
+good-sized delta at its mouth. At the further side of the delta there
+were some fishermen's huts (from which emanated the seven boat-loads of
+natives whom we saw yesterday netting), and thence a track leads up the
+banks of the river to a lake called Slangen, two miles away.
+
+The inhabitants of these huts came in a boat this morning to see our
+camp while we were at breakfast inside the tent. They poked their heads
+in, grinning and staring, and saying nothing. Then we did the honours,
+showed them our most interesting possessions--American axes, fly-books,
+knives, rods, &c., with all of which they were greatly impressed; then
+one picked up a bar of yellow soap that was lying on a box, and they all
+'wondered much at that;' then we talked to them for a brief space,
+chiefly out of 'Bennett's Phrase Book,' and considered the interview at
+an end, but they _would_ not go, and remained silently staring at all
+our movements. So at last we ignored their presence altogether, which we
+have found the most effectual way of getting rid of a Norwegian peasant,
+and they gradually departed one by one till only one was left. To this
+man we gave a cup of our now cold coffee, which was not at all good,
+especially when compared with the delicious coffee which is always
+forthcoming even in the meanest Norwegian hut. He drank this, for they
+consider it a breach of etiquette to refuse proffered food; and
+immediately left, as if he remembered an engagement, having first
+thanked us in a rather constrained manner.
+
+We were glad when our callers were gone, for we had found them
+'difficult,' as the French say; but we took advantage of their arrival
+to make arrangements with one of them to bring three ponies and sleighs
+to the other side of the delta to-morrow morning, when we hope to renew
+our journey.
+
+After this we both went up the river on opposite sides; for the Skipper
+had become inflamed by a wish to see the waterfall which Esau discovered
+yesterday.
+
+One of the great advantages of Norway consists in being able to leave
+your tent and all other belongings quite to themselves, even when you
+know that there are several people about, and shrewdly suspect that the
+place where you have made your camp is a hay meadow belonging to one of
+them. We had a dim idea that such was the case here, not because there
+was any grass, but because there were very few stones, and a Norwegian
+mows down everything for hay except the stones. The Skipper came back
+with a very pretty bag of fish; he had been up to the fall, and thought
+it quite deserved all Esau's commendation; and his opinion is worth more
+because he has seen many of the great American falls and other stock
+sights of the world. It is not marked on the Ordnance map; there is no
+path to it, or near it, but you come on it suddenly by following the
+river up through the pine forest, and on turning a corner see the whole
+body of the Vinstra shooting over a cliff in one mad leap of perhaps a
+little more than a hundred feet. Of course the height and volume of
+water are insignificant compared with many falls, but the beauty of its
+situation can scarcely be excelled; and to us its greatest charm is its
+solitude and freedom from paths, tourists, and all the other unpleasant
+attributes of show places.
+
+Esau following up the north bank of the river was not so successful
+fishing, and after crossing the Slangen River (which joins the Vinstra
+about a mile above our camp) he struck across the forest to see his
+beloved fall again, and try to sketch it. He came back in a bad temper,
+saying that he thought Ruysdael and Turner could make something of
+it--the former to do the water, and the latter the spray, mist,
+rainbows, and roar--and he wanted to write home and get them to come out
+on purpose; and when the Skipper suggested that they had given up
+painting, he said it was a great pity, for he had not time now to do it
+himself.
+
+There is a corduroy bridge over the Slangen River, close to its junction
+with the Vinstra, and over this bridge we shall go to-morrow: we had
+intended to cruise up the Slangen and fish Slangen Lake, but we found
+that it would be impossible to continue our journey from the further end
+of it if we did so, and therefore decided to omit that part of the
+programme, though we are sorry to leave out Slangen, as it is a
+beautiful lake.
+
+We have probably been repaid for the miseries of the last week by the
+beauty of our waterfall, the volume of which has doubtless been much
+increased by the exceptional rain of the last few days.
+
+Early to bed--
+
+
+_July 23._--And early to rise. We breakfasted soon after seven, and then
+packed everything, and crossed the mouth of the Vinstra in two Norse
+boats, assisted by two or three men who had come to help our horses and
+sleighs on the journey. We had terrible difficulty in getting the canoes
+placed in what we considered a safe position on the sleighs, but it was
+done at last, and the motley caravan started about 10.30.
+
+First the noble owners; then a man who had got nothing on earth to do
+with the affair, then two women laughing and yelling like lunatics, then
+a sleigh drawn by a large pony, and carrying two boxes, cans, guns, and
+canoe; next some boys urging the large pony to herculean exertions; then
+the organiser of the transport department, who was apparently a
+professional fool, by the inordinate laughter which his every action
+caused; then some more women, and a smaller pony and sleigh, with the
+other canoe and all the rest of the luggage excepting one bag; lastly,
+another man leading an extremely small pony and sleigh with absolutely
+nothing on it, the man carrying the remaining bag for fear of tiring the
+pony. This mob of loafers had arrived in boats from Svatsum, which is a
+small village five miles distant at the north end of Olstappen. But they
+only accompanied us for a quarter of a mile, when they all departed
+except the three men, who remained to manage the ponies.
+
+The pace was not very great, about a mile an hour, for these little
+ponies insisted on stopping to rest every hundred yards when the path
+was good, and every twenty when it was bad.
+
+We followed the river till we crossed the Slangen bridge; after that the
+path began to rise and get rapidly worse. We strolled along very
+leisurely, sitting down from time to time to rest and admire the view.
+The scenery was occasionally very beautiful, with the Jotun Mountains
+gleaming white in the background; and the forest itself was an endless
+delight, with its hoary moss-covered pine trees, and many-coloured
+carpet of berry-bearing plants, and the delicious odours with which a
+Norwegian forest in summer always abounds. In a fir tree here Esau came
+upon a family of cole titmice, and another of creepers, all very busy
+swinging themselves about, and creeping up and down the tree in search
+of dinner. They appeared to take a certain amount of interest in his
+proceedings, but showed no fear, and after watching them a long time he
+put the point of his rod up to one of the titmice, which actually pecked
+it rather angrily, but seeing that it made no impression took no further
+notice, but returned to its occupation of collecting food. In the next
+tree was a little spotted woodpecker which they call a 'Gertrude bird.'
+The story is so prettily told in 'Forest Life in Norway and Sweden,'
+that it shall be inserted here.
+
+'This woodpecker--or an ancestor of hers--was once a woman, and one day
+she was kneading bread in her trough, under the eaves of her house, when
+our Lord passed by leaning on St. Peter. She did not know it was our
+Lord and His apostle, for they looked like two poor men who were
+travelling past her cottage door. "Give us of your dough for the love of
+God," said the Lord. "We have come far across the fjeld, and have fasted
+long."
+
+'Gertrude pinched off a small piece for them, but on rolling it in the
+trough to get it into shape, it grew, and grew, and filled up the trough
+completely. "No," said she, "that is more than you want;" so she pinched
+off a smaller piece and rolled it out as before, but the smaller piece
+filled up the trough just as the other had done, and Gertrude put it
+aside too, and pinched a smaller bit still. But the miracle was just the
+same, the smaller bit filled up the trough as full as the largest sized
+kneading that she had ever put into it.
+
+'Gertrude's heart was hardened still more; she put that aside too,
+resolving as soon as the stranger left her to divide all her dough into
+little bits, and to roll it out into great loaves. "I cannot give you
+any to-day," said she. "Go on your journey; the Lord prosper you, but
+you must not stop at my house."
+
+'Then the Lord Christ was angry, and her eyes were opened, and she saw
+whom she had forbidden to come into the house, and she fell down on her
+knees. But the Lord said, "I gave you plenty, but that hardened your
+heart, so plenty was not a blessing to you. I will try you now with the
+blessing of poverty; you shall from henceforth seek your food day by
+day, and always between the wood and the bark" (alluding to the custom
+of mixing the inner rind of the birch with their rye-meal in times of
+scarcity). "But forasmuch as I see your penitence is sincere, this shall
+not be for ever; as soon as your back is entirely clothed with mourning
+this shall cease, for by that time you will have learnt to use your
+gifts rightly."
+
+'Gertrude flew from the presence of the Lord, for she was already a
+bird, but her feathers were even now blackened from her mourning, and
+from that time forward she and her descendants have all the year round
+sought their food between the wood and the bark; but the feathers of
+their back and wings get more mottled with black as they grow older, and
+when the white is quite covered the Lord takes them for His own again.
+
+'No Norwegian will ever hurt a Gertrude bird, for she is always under
+the Lord's protection, though He is punishing her for the time.'
+
+Whether this is the true reason or not, the fact remains that the bird
+is never harmed by any one, and is as tame as possible.
+
+We continued climbing slowly up the hill till about one o'clock, when we
+came out above the forest on an open plateau covered with rocks, grass,
+and low scrub: this was the Fjeld. At Finboele Saeter we stopped to
+refresh on milk. The road--which had gradually dwindled from a decent
+path to a sleigh track, then a footpath, a cow-path, and a goat-path,
+just sufficient to swear by, or at--now lost itself altogether. The men
+had been complaining that it was a 'dole vei' (bad road) soon after the
+start, now they said it was 'schlamm'--a very expressive word; and Esau
+agreed with them, and said it was 'damm schlamm,' which does not sound
+like proper Norsk; but it was such heart-rending work to see our beloved
+canoes bumping and jolting along, every moment in imminent danger of
+getting staved in, that to indulge in a few such Norwegian idioms was
+only human; and we decided to walk on and spare ourselves the agony of
+the sight: so, taking the bearings of 'Fly Saeter'--which was our
+destination for the evening--we rambled on across the fjeld--a splendid
+walk, with some of the most beautiful mountains in Norway all round us.
+
+We got on very well with the assistance of an Ordnance map and compass,
+till we came to the river Hinoegle, after passing Hinoegelid Saeter. The
+bridge here was not in the place marked on the map, so that after
+crossing it we had some trouble in finding Fly Saeter, and might perhaps
+have perished miserably like the Babes in the wood, had we not
+opportunely met a mediaeval fisherman in a red night-cap, looking like
+one of the demons in 'Rip van Winkle,' who was going thither and
+conducted us. We arrived at seven o'clock, and appeased our hunger with
+the usual meal of trout and coffee, and _such_ cream!
+
+  [Illustration: Sunset at Fly Saeter]
+
+The saeter was a long low house, with three little rooms and only two
+windows. Its legitimate tenants were a very nice man and his equally
+nice wife and three children; but there were some occasional visitors
+here to-night in the shape of ourselves, our three men, the mediaeval
+angler, and another traveller, twelve altogether to be apportioned among
+four beds; and to make matters worse, the rooms were continually invaded
+by sheep, pigs, and goats, of which there were a large stock.
+
+The Norwegians are so uniformly kind to all their animals, that their
+tameness is really troublesome; they insist on going where they like,
+and following one about begging for food like dogs, causing the Skipper
+to exclaim,--
+
+'Ite domum saturae, venit Hesperus, ite capellae;' which he translated--
+
+Out of the house in the evening! Get out, ye goats of the saeter!
+
+We slept in the cheese-room very comfortably, one on the floor, the
+other on a good hay bed, and were warm for the first time for several
+nights, as we have not had sufficient blankets in the tent. Where the
+other ten people slept we did not inquire, but hoped they were happy.
+Our men and sleighs did not arrive till 10 P.M., at which time a most
+glorious sunset was going on, so that we could not attend to them at
+once. The sky, at first blue and yellow, gradually deepened into purple
+and orange, and finally the most brilliant red and almost black clouds,
+the hills all the time glowing with exquisite tints. After it was
+concluded we turned to the men, and were much delighted to find that
+nothing was smashed so far: the men had been very careful, and took
+eleven hours to perform a journey of ten miles.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+FLY SAETER.
+
+
+_July 24._--The morning was again beautifully fine, and the coffee at
+the saeter was passing delicious, even for this country, where coffee is
+always good. No doubt the chief reason of this is that it is never
+roasted and ground till just when it is wanted, not only at the hotels,
+but at the smallest saeters. The grinding of coffee and the frying of
+trout are grateful sounds to the wearied traveller, and if the walk
+across the fjeld has failed to give him an appetite, he has still the
+chance of obtaining one from the fragrant aroma of the roasting berry.
+
+This saeter is in a most beautiful situation, perched on a little flat
+bit of ground on the mountain side, and looking down on a
+wide-stretching sea of grey undulating hills, with lakes lying among
+them dotted about near and far, and all the lower ground covered with
+the everlasting pine forest. To the south can be seen the river Hinoegle,
+which runs out of the Heimdal Lakes, threading its way with gleams of
+white through the dark green and grey of the forest and fjeld. To the
+north far below in the valley is Aakre Vand, a beautiful irregularly
+shaped lake dotted with fir-clad islands; while beyond, high up, there
+can be just distinguished Aakre Saeter, and frowning over it the dark
+mass of Aakre Kampen, a mountain of considerable height. Aakre Vand is a
+lake that we had intended to fish after Slangen Vand, but as there
+seemed to be no possibility of getting our property from one to the
+other we gave up the notion. According to all accounts it is a good lake
+for fish, and its shores are untainted by the habitations of man.
+
+We started about 9.30, having paid 5s. 6d. for the board and lodging of
+ourselves and our numerous retinue, including the price of a sack-full
+of hay for our beds, as this was the last place at which we expected we
+could get any.
+
+After watching for a short time our valuables jolting, plunging, and
+splashing over the uneven ground, covered with rocks, junipers, and
+occasional logs and brooks, the wear and tear on our heart-strings
+became too severe, and we decided to walk on to Sikkildals Saeter, about
+four miles, and leave the baggage to its fate under the guidance of our
+three charioteers. It took us till eleven o'clock to get within half a
+mile of the saeter, and there we sat down and watched the track intently
+for two hours: then two hours more--and we began to lose patience; then
+another hour--and we began to lose hope also. Something must have
+happened; either a canoe was smashed, or washed away crossing a stream,
+or one of the sleighs was upset and broken, or they were bogged, or the
+man carrying the bag had fainted, or his pony become unmanageable and
+dashed through a shop window; or, most dreadful thought, the men had got
+at our whisky and become hopelessly drunk.
+
+  [Illustration: Desperate Conflict between Esau and the Mosquito]
+
+Another hour passed, and our small remaining stock of good temper went:
+we were very hungry, and all our food was on the sleighs, and the
+mosquitoes seemed to be even more hungry than we were. Hope deferred,
+with nothing but mosquitoes to distract one's thoughts, maketh the heart
+very sick indeed: and these were most annoyingly large mosquitoes; the
+finest brand that we have yet inspected, and with more strength of
+character than the ordinary kind. We were so much annoyed with the world
+in general, and each other, that we were obliged to separate, and Esau
+retired for a short time to attempt a sketch. He came back very angry,
+because just at the critical moment a mosquito had knocked his hat off,
+and he had had a desperate and perspiring conflict with it under a
+tropical sun; but eventually the brute was vanquished and its head cut
+off, which he said he would have stuffed, to hang up in his ancestral
+halls. He certainly bore on his face the marks of the struggle, so that
+there seemed to be no reason to doubt the story.
+
+  [Plate: ON THE TRACK NEAR SIKKILDALS LAKE.]
+
+Our state of despondency waxed worse and worse; we had not the slightest
+confidence in our head driver; he was undoubtedly the Svatsum village
+fool, for he talked all day, and the other men went into roars of
+laughter at whatever he said, though the Skipper said _he_ couldn't see
+anything funny in most of his remarks; but possibly the Skipper was
+jealous because this man made better Norsk jokes than his own. Besides
+this, the fact that neither of us understood the language, detracted
+from the merits of the jests.
+
+Years rolled away, and at six o'clock something came slowly into sight.
+'Out with the glass!' (the spy-glass). 'Yes, by George! it is the men
+and sleighs at last. Out with the other glass!' and we finish the 'wee
+drappie' that we were saving to the last extremity. They soon arrived at
+Sikkildal Saeter with us, and we found that nothing had gone wrong, but
+the men had been _very_ careful, and so had taken nine hours to make a
+journey of four miles. The track certainly would be a disgrace to a
+Metropolitan Vestry, and they managed well to arrive with everything
+uninjured. We consider the village fool to be a most painstaking and
+praiseworthy idiot.
+
+At Sikkildal Saeter we got some food and called at a small house close to
+it, where a Mr. B., a Norwegian barrister, was staying for the summer.
+He is the owner of the Sikkildal Lakes, and we wanted permission to camp
+on his land and fish in his lakes. He understood English as well as all
+the upper classes in Norway do; and was very civil, giving us the
+permission most willingly.
+
+We have heard from a good many people that the wealthier Norwegians do
+not like the English, and will not do anything to oblige them; but in
+all our wanderings we have met with nothing but the greatest kindness
+and hospitality from all classes. Several people have gone out of their
+way to voluntarily offer fishing and shooting, and in no instance has
+the slightest incivility been shown. Certainly Norway will compare with
+England very much to advantage in this respect, though of course we do
+not mean to say that similar conduct would be possible in England.
+
+At about seven in the evening we got all our cargo shipped again and
+started up the lower Sikkildals lake--having first paid our charioteers
+3_l._ for the trip from Olstappen, three men, horses and sleighs,
+sixteen miles over the rockiest, brookiest, and juniperiest country in
+this world; and offered them whisky and water all round, including two
+men from the saeter who came to our assistance when the smallest pony,
+not being accustomed to the deceitfulness and treacherous wiles of this
+life, got up to its neck in a bog close to the lake, and the man with
+the bag followed it. However, they were extricated with no damage done,
+as our provisions were all securely soldered up in tins. Curious to
+relate, our three men did not like whisky, but just sipped for
+'manners,' and only the two old men from the saeter would drink it; but
+these two old men liked it very much, and drank all they could get--that
+is to say, their own glasses full, and the other fellows' glasses full,
+and just a drop after that, and then just a taste to top up with. Then
+we shook hands all round, and feeling in charity with all men, sailed
+joyously away up the lake.
+
+It was a real Norwegian night, with the warmth and light of the departed
+sun still lingering on the mountain tops, and a midnight twilight
+glowing in the valleys. We had a beautiful full moon to help us on our
+way, so we went right to the upper end of the first lake, and found a
+camping-ground halfway between the two lakes, which are about a hundred
+yards apart. The portage took us some time, but we were full of energy
+from the cool night air, so refreshing after the long hot summer day. We
+dug out a nice level place for the tent, and got everything settled and
+ourselves in bed about midnight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+SIKKILDAL.
+
+
+_Sunday, July 25._--We arose soon after seven; not because it is our
+nature to get up at that time, still less because we think it our duty
+to do so; but because the sun made the tent so intolerably hot that
+there was no pleasure to be derived from staying in bed any longer.
+Naturally after this we were very cross, which the Skipper says all
+really pious people are on Sunday morning; and he abused Esau
+shamefully, because the latter wanted the eggs buttered and the Skipper
+wanted them fried. Esau laid down the axiom that 'no gentleman ever eats
+fried eggs,' in a peculiarly offensive manner, and proceeded further to
+make ill-natured remarks with reference to violet ink; and the Skipper
+retorted with the observation, 'Wish you'd brought that anchovy paste.'
+Esau: 'Why?' Skipper: 'Because it's just the stuff to grease your boots
+with in a place like this; smells strongish, and keeps the mosquitoes at
+a distance.' Altogether we made ourselves as disagreeable as possible to
+each other--just as we do in our happy homes on the Sabbath morn in
+England. Fortunately Sunday only comes once a week.
+
+Breakfast over, the Skipper devoted himself to the occupation of
+greasing his boots and shaving, which he seems to do at the same time,
+so that one brush may be used for both the soap and the grease; while
+Esau did some washing.
+
+We had some trouble in getting good firewood, for Sikkildals Vand is
+more than three thousand feet above sea level, and consequently we were
+above the region of pine forests, and had only the stunted birch and
+juniper from which to obtain our supply. We divide the altitudes rather
+differently from the system adopted by other great explorers. The lowest
+belt is that of pine forests and strawberries, then comes the zone of
+stunted birches, above that only juniper and bitter willow are found;
+and the highest belt of vegetation contains only rocks,
+reindeer-flowers, and moss, and then eternal snow.
+
+Now birch trees do not make good firewood, for when they die they appear
+to get water-logged, and never burn well. The juniper is the most
+invaluable of all trees, for it will burn quite green; but at Sikkildals
+Vand it is very scarce, and so it took us quite a long time to collect
+enough dry wood to last our stay out, but it was done at last. We
+carried one canoe across the spit of land between the two lakes, and in
+it the Skipper went forth to get fish for the larder, while Esau took
+the other canoe down the lower lake to get some milk from Sikkildals
+Saeter.
+
+The scenery here is very fine. The lakes are narrow, and highish
+mountains rise on each side: those on the south side had snow upon them,
+though this would disappear before the end of the summer, as we are not
+yet in the regions of perpetual snow; on the north side there is a very
+remarkable mountain called Sikkildals Horn, with a perfectly
+impracticable front of overhanging rock, very high and rugged. There was
+a constant rumbling and booming proceeding from it, as rocks from time
+to time broke off and came crashing down; but our tent--though seemingly
+under this cliff--was well out of their reach. At the further end of the
+upper lake we could see an apparently impassable mountain ridge. Beyond
+this, about four miles further according to the maps, was Besse Saeter,
+a farm, or ranch, only one day's journey from our final resting-place.
+How we were to cross that mountain with our canoes and baggage, was a
+matter only to be determined by prophets and other beings of a higher
+order of intelligence than ours. Our friend Mr. B. thought it was almost
+impossible; the Skipper boldly asserted that it _was_ impossible, and
+requested to be allowed to die here; while Esau, with the sanguine
+joyousness begotten of total ignorance, said of course it could be
+managed. We determined to move to the end of the lake the next day, and
+try the pass on the one following--barring earthquakes.
+
+Esau had a most interesting voyage. His fishing was not very successful
+at first, and he paddled steadily on towards the Saeter, overtaking a
+boat quite full of girls, dressed in the very picturesque native costume
+which the people in these primitive regions still adhere to, especially
+on Sundays. The girls about here are rather pretty than otherwise, and
+these were a particularly good selection, and of course all in their
+cleanest and smartest clothes for Sunday. They _would_ stop to watch him
+fishing, till he got quite shy, and gave up throwing till they rowed on.
+
+  [Illustration: Saeter Girls in a Boat on Sikkildals Lake]
+
+Soon he came to a brood of pochards under the leadership of the old
+duck, and spent half an hour trying to capture one by rapid paddling, in
+which endeavour he was nearly but not quite successful. There were a
+good many teal and pochards on the lower lake, and plenty of sandpipers
+on the shores of the upper one.
+
+At last he reached the Saeter, and found there all the girls of the boat,
+and at least another boat-load and five or six strangers--quite a crowd:
+possibly they had been having a church service, but probably not, as
+they all seemed in the best of tempers, and were most amiable.
+
+He got the milk, and coming back tried a few casts, and found that the
+fish were rising properly; the result was nineteen good trout in about
+an hour and a half. We had not been catching many fish lately; so after
+his return to camp we concluded that this was the hour and we were the
+men to revel in a fiendish glut of capture. So there was a regular
+stampede in that camp, and after dinner we _all_ went out armed to the
+teeth with rods and fly-books, and clothed in landing nets and Freke
+bags, with our teeth firmly set and a bloodthirsty look in our eyes,
+intending to struggle with the great trout in his native element or
+perish in the attempt. . . .
+
+About ten o'clock that night there might have been seen toiling wearily
+back to camp under a cloudy sky and with a chilly blast a-blowing, two
+forlorn youths, 'sans' fish, 'sans' hope, but still armed to the teeth
+with the weapons of the chase.
+
+However, we had now tried both lakes, and got some knowledge of their
+capabilities. The upper one is, we think, the better of the two, but
+more difficult to catch fish in. The Skipper got some in it to-day, and
+they were larger fish than those of the lower lake, and a different
+sort, more like the silvery trout of the Jotunfjeld, whereas the others
+are the ordinary brown or yellow trout.
+
+This afternoon Mr. B. and his wife with a friend came up in a boat to
+see our camp, at which they seemed much pleased. We took them short
+cruises in the canoes, showed them our various arrangements, and
+endeavoured to be agreeable.
+
+The friend was the manager of the government stud for this district, and
+spoke English fairly. He told us that the government provides a certain
+number of good stallions, which are turned out on the fjeld and run with
+the peasants' mares, and that they take great trouble to provide the
+best that can be got, so as to improve the breed. He considered that
+there are very decidedly good results.
+
+
+_July 26._--A beautiful fishing morning, just beginning to blow up for
+rain. The Skipper fished his way down to the Saeter for more provisions,
+and had first-rate sport, catching twenty-two beautiful fish, mostly
+over a pound. He had such an exciting time of it that lunch was
+forgotten till three o'clock, a fact which spoke volumes for the
+excellence of the sport, for we generally acquire a very keen appetite
+every three or four hours so long as the sun is performing his daily
+duty (of standing still while we circulate feebly round ourselves). He
+came back to the tent, presenting rather a distended appearance, having
+stuffed most of his pockets full of potatoes, and a packet of salt in
+his hat; and while with his right hand he folded to his bosom a bottle
+of cream, and another of milk, in his left he grasped a rod, a landing
+net and paddle, and the rest of him was hung with fish. The Skipper
+objects to making two journeys where only one is necessary.
+
+Esau thinks that 'flesh-meat' is a necessary of life, so he took his gun
+up the upper lake, and returned with the noble spoil of five sandpipers
+which he had shot out of the canoe by creeping along the edge of the
+lake, a most entertaining pastime.
+
+There is an old ruined fisherman's hut at our end of the lake, and this
+had apparently been taken as a habitation by a family of stoats, which
+Esau espied at their gambols on his return. Cartridges are precious
+here, but the instinct of destruction of a stoat was too much for him,
+and having chirped till two of them stood close together and a third
+just behind, he fired into the crowd and mortally injured the lot. Poor
+little things! It is rather a shame to kill them, for there is so little
+game that they cannot do much harm, probably feeding chiefly on mice and
+lemmings, which are very numerous; and they always look uncommonly
+pretty playing about the rocks. No more graceful animal exists than a
+stoat.
+
+After dinner had been cooked and despatched we went forth to fish again,
+and had some good sport; but presently lowering clouds settled down over
+the surface of the deep, mosquitoes gathered round us in swarms, and a
+few spots of rain drove us home to the snug retreat of the tent, where
+hidden away under the warmth of our bedding we smoked in thoughtful
+silence, and gloated over the day's doings and our larder stocked with
+fishes.
+
+
+_July 27._--The day commenced with showers, and as there are no
+inhabitants here to whom we can give the surplus fish, we did not like
+to catch any more--for it is against our principles to waste food
+wilfully, woeful want being too near and probable a state to be trifled
+with--consequently we determined to move on, but first to bake some
+bread.
+
+This, in a temporary camp, is done by putting the kneaded dough into a
+tin pot made on purpose without solder; this pot is then placed in a
+hole in the ground in which we have previously kept a good fire for
+about half an hour; before putting the pot in, all the embers and ashes
+are cleared out, and then raked back on to the top of the tin and all
+round it, and a small fire is kept going on the top. If well managed
+this bakes excellent bread in about twenty minutes, but of course it
+requires considerable experience and care to turn out really
+satisfactory bread. When we get to our permanent camp we shall make a
+proper oven.
+
+To-day, when we had baked successfully, packed up our things, and were
+taking advantage of a break between the showers to start, we were hailed
+from the bank, and saw there old Peter Tronhuus, the tenant of Besse
+Saeter (whither we are going) and father of Jens Tronhuus, our former
+hunter, who is now getting what we require in the shape of food, ponies,
+and men, and whom we expect to meet at Besse Saeter. Peter had a great
+deal to tell us about all our affairs, which seem to be prospering under
+Jens' auspices. He talks English very badly, so the interview lasted
+some time, and then we pushed off and paddled straight away to the
+extreme end of the lake, where we found an inferior place to pitch the
+tent, very damp and unwholesome in appearance, sadly in need of sanitary
+inspection, but no doubt good enough for one night. We fished with fly
+and minnow all the way, but took nothing, there being a good deal of
+thunder round about; but Esau shot some more sandpipers.
+
+Our tent is pitched at the commencement of an extremely vague track,
+which we believe to go over our mountain pass to Sjoedals Vand
+(pronounced Shoodals), and to-morrow we hope to follow its wanderings,
+if two men and horses--with whom we have made an arrangement to
+transport us--turn up. These two men and horses are the sole inhabitants
+of this very thinly populated district, so that we are at their mercy,
+and if they do not come we must inevitably die of starvation after we
+have eaten all our provisions and candles.
+
+Late in the evening Herr B---- and a scientific friend who had just come
+to stay with him, came down the mountain to our tent. They had been for
+a short walking tour to Lake Gjendin--our future goal--where it seems
+that a tourist's hut of a superior sort has lately been built, and at
+this hut several kinds of food are kept, such as tinned meats and beer.
+B---- and his friend have therefore been there shopping. The news of
+this hut is rather unpleasant to us, for Gjendin was chosen chiefly for
+its wildness and remoteness from civilisation, and now we are haunted
+with the idea that there may be tourists, and consequently no fish or
+reindeer. On the other hand, it has been erected so short a time that it
+can hardly have affected the country round about yet, and it will
+certainly be convenient for us from a commissariat point of view.
+
+We were just beginning supper when they arrived, but they would not
+stop, for which we were secretly glad, as there was only enough soup for
+two; so we had a whisky 'skaal' (health-drinking) instead, and they went
+on their way full of beans and benevolence, as Mr. Jorrocks hath it.
+
+We 'whisky' every one who turns up at camp, and as a rule they like it.
+We are not much of drunkards ourselves, so we can afford to give it to
+other people.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+BESSE SAETER.
+
+
+_July 28._--Our two men arrived while we were at breakfast this morning,
+and brought two sleighs in the boat with them; these they deposited on
+the shore, and then one of them departed into some secret haunt of his
+own in search of a horse. The last we saw of him was a wee dot
+struggling up over the mountain crest; and we began to feel what a
+hopeless sort of task was before us.
+
+When we had finished our breakfast there were certain remnants of food,
+and these we offered to the other man, because he seemed to want
+something to do. We left him in the tent with a frying-pan containing
+two trout fried in butter, and a tin pot nearly full of soup. Some time
+afterwards we looked in, and saw him eating greedily off his
+knife-blade, and after a further interval we noticed that he had
+finished; then we examined the culinary utensils out of which he had
+been feeding, and found he had left the trout untouched, but the butter
+they were fried in he had utterly consumed off the blade of his knife,
+and also all the soup through the same medium. But there was not more
+than a gallon and a half of the latter, so we did not grudge it.
+
+  [Illustration: Old Siva carrying a Canoe up the Sikkildals Pass]
+
+Apparently he was like a giant refreshed after his meal, and seizing one
+canoe he carried it up to the top of the mountain, and then came back
+for the other and did the same with it; after this he returned again and
+borrowed our axe, saying he wanted to make the path better for the
+sleigh. He disappeared among the stunted birches, and we heard him
+chopping and slowly getting further up the track for about an hour. We
+naturally supposed that he was clearing away trees that obstructed the
+path, but when we came to traverse that path ourselves, soon afterwards,
+we discovered that he had only been filling up holes in the road by
+felling trees across it. Now a road that can be improved by this process
+is in a very bad state and this one was decidedly improved.
+
+Just before we started an English tourist came down the mountain and
+arranged with Siva (one of our men) to go down the lake in his boat.
+He was the first of our fellow-countrymen whom we have seen since
+Lillehammer, and proved to be the only one we met all through our trip
+in the mountains.
+
+After some time we perceived three dots wending their way down the path
+again, and presently they arrived, proving to be our other man and two
+extremely shaggy ponies; and after the complicated Norwegian harness had
+been put on we began the ascent. The path was as bad as bad could be for
+a short distance, but when the level was reached it became much better
+than we had had hitherto; it was only the first climb up from the lake
+that presented any difficulty. The canoes could only have been
+transported as they were, on a man's back.
+
+It continued showery, but we had a very pleasant walk, and launched our
+canoes on Sjoedals Vand at about three o'clock. A short paddle across the
+lake, not more than three quarters of a mile, and we were at Besse
+Saeter.
+
+Sjoedals Vand is a long straggling lake, very much exposed to the wind,
+and not in any way beautiful except for its wildness, as its shores are
+almost treeless and rather flat. Its most remarkable characteristic is
+the colour of its water, which is a light greenish blue, like a
+starling's egg, and stands out in striking contrast against the yellow
+shore and dark mountain heights which surround it.
+
+Besse Saeter is only three miles from Gjendin Vand--the haven where we
+would be; and the snow-capped mountains, which have been gradually
+getting nearer all the way from Olstappen, are now magnificently
+towering above us on three sides.
+
+The Saeter is a hut, built as they all are, entirely of wood, and only
+inhabited during the summer months. The hut in which we are living is
+not strictly speaking a saeter at all, but has been built for the
+convenience of travellers, and the Tronhuus family are entrusted with
+the duty of taking care of those who come hither while wandering about
+this, the wildest and grandest part of Norway. The real saeter is a
+larger building about a quarter of a mile from this hut, and higher up
+the mountain. And further away still there is yet another building, or
+collection of buildings, also called Besse Saeter.
+
+Our hut has three rooms, two of which--a bedroom and eating-room--are
+occupied at present solely by us: in the other room dwell two girls,
+apparently guests of the Tronhuus. Peter Tronhuus himself and his
+numerous family live in a one-roomed hut just opposite this. At present
+the family appears to consist of two men, five women, and two children,
+relationship to each other unknown.
+
+Peter and his son Jens--who was with us on a former expedition--are both
+away at present; the latter engaged in procuring various articles for
+us, such as potatoes, men, ponies, and dogs, about which we wrote to him
+from England; and he is expected back to-morrow.
+
+In spite of the crowd of people living here, everything is beautifully
+clean and tidy, and our eating-room looks very nice, with its floor
+always covered with fresh juniper sprays, and a cheerful fire burning in
+that most charming of fireplaces, the primitive Norwegian corner-hearth,
+which is being rapidly superseded everywhere by horrid tall, black, iron
+stoves, that look like coffins set up on end, and smell like flat-irons
+and rosin when they are lighted.
+
+We shall have to make this place our home until Jens turns up; and we
+are not at all sorry to do so, for they take the greatest trouble to
+make us comfortable, and the trout, fladbrod, and coffee are simply
+perfection. Besides, we are only a short day's journey from Memurudalen,
+where we intend to camp, and there is nothing to be gained by getting
+there before August 1, the opening day of the reindeer season.
+
+After supper we sallied out, the Skipper with rod, Esau with gun, to see
+what we could catch. Esau landed on the marsh at the head of the lake,
+to try and circumvent some duck he had descried; in this he failed, but
+shot a greenshank, of which there were several flying about.
+
+The Skipper fished the river without success. Sjoedals Vand is a fine
+lake, but not much good for fishing, because of the great amount of
+netting that is carried on in the summer by the dwellers in the Saeter;
+nevertheless there are good fish in it, as we have seen many of two and
+three pounds weight, that they have caught in the nets.
+
+  [Illustration: Greenshank]
+
+
+_July 29._--A friend of ours began the opening chapter of his virgin
+novel with the words 'It was a thoroughly cussed morning towards the
+latter end of July.' The same applied exactly to this morning: but the
+arrival of Jens encouraged us; and Esau walked outside to look at the
+sky; where, thrusting his hands in his pockets and lodging an eye-glass
+in his eye, he focussed the heavens generally, with a cruel, inquisitive
+stare; and shaking his head knowingly, indulged in a prophecy concerning
+the weather--'that the wind now being in the west, there would be
+continuous sunshine for three weeks at least.' Then he walked in again,
+and we all shivered over the fire.
+
+Jens arrived at breakfast-time, and after greetings had been exchanged,
+reported all his achievements on our behalf. He had secured for us a
+stalker, one Oela, a hewer of wood and drawer of water, by name Ivar (his
+last office seems likely to be a sinecure, but we can work him double at
+the first-mentioned employment), a horse, and a sack of potatoes; all of
+which will arrive at Memurudalen in time for August 1. We hoped for a
+dog for Ryper, but he had not been able to get one.
+
+  [Illustration: Ring Dotterel]
+
+Esau is always bemoaning the law which prohibits him bringing dogs from
+England; it is suspected that he has a large collection of useless
+animals there, that he wishes to import into Norway and sell to the
+guileless and unreflecting native. Unassisted by any of the canine
+tribe, however, we have now accumulated what we call 'a good larder of
+bird-meat;' for certain wild fowl were observed to-day to secrete
+themselves in the marsh at the head of the lake, whither we followed
+them with all our dread artillery, and we now have a lot of teal,
+greenshanks, sandpipers, and a ring dotterel stowed away and engaged in
+preparing themselves by decomposition for our consumption. Some of these
+birds are almost unknown to the table of the ordinary Briton; but if he
+will consider that our daily food depends entirely on what we shoot or
+catch, we hope, as the writers of books say, 'the kind reader will
+excuse' the sandpipers and dotterel.
+
+We were wet through on the marsh, and not at all sorry to return to a
+comfortable fire in a warm room, instead of the streaming sides of a
+cold and cheerless tent. Shooting as we did above our knees in water,
+the rain did not make any appreciable difference in our great wetness.
+After the point of saturation is past, we have discovered that the human
+frame is as impervious to moisture (external) as a macintosh.
+
+This summer so far has been remarkably wet and cold for Norway, but we
+have now the inexpressible consolation of knowing that they are in worse
+case at home; for we have received our first batch of letters and papers
+from England, which have been a fortnight _en route_.
+
+
+_July 30._--Prophets are without honour in these parts; they are also
+without truth, honesty, or any good quality or proper feeling. This day
+is worse than usual, and the good people here have been going about with
+blanched cheeks, whispering with bated breath of a great flood which
+occurred in the time of one Noah. We spent all the morning trying to
+teach the cows, goats, and poultry to walk two and two in case of any
+emergency arising, and the Skipper--who was engaged in building what he
+called a Nark--was repeatedly coming into the Saeter to ask how many
+yards there were in a cubit. However, at lunch-time the land was still
+visible, so we sallied forth into the marsh again, and secured some more
+teal; and then Esau went off in his canoe after some scaup ducks on the
+lake; and brought home two, after following them--according to his
+after-dinner account of the struggle--for about six hours, while they
+swam, and flew, and dived; and he paddled, and swore, and shot. They
+appear to have roamed over the whole extent of this vast lake, seeking
+safety from his unerring barrels. And he now points to a little hill,
+far below the distant horizon, beneath which he affirms that he brought
+the last victim to bay and slew him. He was absent on the expedition an
+hour and a quarter; a canoe will go about five miles an hour; and the
+lake is seven miles long. But we did not come out here to do arithmetic.
+
+  [Illustration: Scaup]
+
+We settled not to go to Gjendin ourselves to-day, as the weather was so
+very unfavourable, but we packed and despatched some of our luggage this
+evening, and purpose following it to-morrow.
+
+Before doing this we had a long interview with Jens Tronhuus, with the
+main object of settling all accounts. Now a long interview between three
+men who cannot speak two words of each other's languages is a somewhat
+intricate business, and would be decidedly amusing to beholders. How we
+got through it is beyond the wit of man, but nevertheless the fact
+remains that everything is beautifully arranged; we thoroughly
+understand each other; both sides are satisfied; and we concluded
+everything without the aid of that potent mediator, Whisky, the Great
+and Good.
+
+Besse Saeter grows upon one: the people are all so simple and kind, and
+cook our food so well, that we shall be quite sorry to leave, even
+though trout and reindeer are in prospect.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+GJENDIN.
+
+
+_July 31._--The morning appeared rather fine, so we packed the rest of
+our baggage, and climbed the track which leads over the shoulder of the
+mountain between Sjoedals Vand and Gjendin (pronounced 'yendin'). It is
+rather steep, but nothing approaching the villany of the tracks near
+Sikkildals Saeter, so the transit did not take long, and we got to
+Gjendesheim about twelve o'clock.
+
+Gjendesheim is a very good two-storied wooden building, with a large
+dining-room, and about eight tiny cupboards of bedrooms; it has been
+erected just where the Sjoa River runs out at the eastern extremity of
+the lake, for the benefit of travellers, who can get food and lodging of
+a sort there, and generally boats to take them up the lake. Ragnild--the
+woman who presides over it--is very nice, kind, and attentive, and talks
+English well. Her latter qualification hardly gets fair play, as not
+many English people come here; and indeed the Norwegians who visit the
+lake are not very numerous. From the book we can only see two English
+names before us this year; and yet Gjendin is perhaps the most
+beautiful, certainly the wildest and grandest lake in Norway, and is
+well worth a visit from any tourist who has time at his disposal.
+
+  [Illustration: Our first View of Gjendin Lake]
+
+It is eleven miles long; very deep; very blue, and on all sides rising
+sheer out of the water for from 1,000 to 4,000 feet are vast black
+mountains with snow-clad summits; for it lies in the very heart of the
+highest mountains in Norway. It may not unfairly be likened to an
+unfrequented and awfully desolate Lake of Lucerne.
+
+At 3,200 feet altitude it is of course above the fir trees, and only in
+a few sunny nooks along its sides can even stunted birches, juniper, and
+willow earn a precarious living. It is at these places alone that there
+is any exit from the lake; for along the greater part of its length
+there is no level place large enough to pitch a tent; no vegetation
+except berries and moss; and no possibility of scaling the frowning
+cliffs by which it is surrounded. But there is a great fascination in
+such a scene; and although its first appearance is almost repellent,
+every moment of gazing seems to increase its beauty and awe-inspiring
+grandeur.
+
+At lunch here a great event happened; we had Salon oel (bottled beer),
+and immediately bought the whole remaining stock, consisting of six
+bottles. These we degraded by packing with the inferior baggage in the
+canoes, and commenced the final stage of our journey, or
+voyage--whichever is the right term.
+
+About two miles from Gjendesheim, on the south shore, we came to a
+waterfall which runs out of a small lake lying a short distance away up
+in the valley. At the mouth of this fall was a small neat hut in which a
+Christiania professor had just taken up his abode for a few days'
+stalking; we stopped a few minutes to talk to him, and then paddled on,
+trying a few casts now and then until we came to Memurudalen--our
+intended camp.
+
+It is about halfway up the lake on the north shore, and is a very pretty
+little valley, profusely supplied with edible berries, surrounded by
+thick birch covert, and with more grass than we ever expected to find at
+this altitude; but it is by far the most favourably situated bit of the
+Gjendin shores, as it is sheltered from the cold winds and gets the sun
+all day.
+
+We found a remarkably nice level bit of grass, screened by a rocky bank,
+and with what the Skipper called 'a brattling brooklet' in front, about
+two hundred yards from the lake. There we pitched the tent and made
+everything comfortable, but of course we shall not decide whether to
+stay here or not until we have tested its capabilities as reindeer
+ground.
+
+Beyond the purling streamlet, and about thirty yards from our front
+door, the Memurua River goes tearing down, the colour of dirty soap-suds
+from the mud which is ground into it by the mighty Memuru Glacier,
+whence it springs. This glacier is about three miles from us up the
+valley, but not in sight from our tent; in fact, the hills are so steep
+that we are quite shut in, and can see very little except the
+snow-fjelds and peaks just opposite to us across the lake. These peaks
+spring from the highest plateau in Norway, which has an altitude of
+about 6,000 feet, and both the plateau and peaks are almost inaccessible
+to the hunter, as it is a day's work to climb them, and any one doing so
+would probably have to pass the night on the top. This is annoying, for
+it is a capital place for deer.
+
+An ancient hunter, some years ago, spent a long time in conveying with
+incredible exertions to the top of the central peak, materials out of
+which he constructed a windmill; then he descended and never went near
+the place again, and his windmill scared all the deer away from that
+table-land, so that they frequented places where a man could get to
+them; and the cunning hunter was rewarded by many 'stor bocks' (big
+bucks). But now the windmill has been destroyed by time and weather, and
+we fear that the deer again roam there unmolested and unscared.
+
+_Sunday, August 1._--It is our custom to rise on this day singing,
+'Come, rouse ye, then, my merry, merry men, for it is our opening day,'
+but on this occasion it would not have been appropriate. We were not at
+all merry, because it was Sunday, and raining; we were frozen in the
+night, our men and potatoes have not come, and altogether we could see
+nothing to be merry about, especially as the opening day having fallen
+on a Sunday, we did not feel justified in going out to pursue.
+
+So we devoted ourselves to the pleasures of the table. Last night we had
+dotterel and sandpipers for dinner, this morning greenshanks, which are
+very good birds indeed. There was also a large brew of a meritorious
+composition known as Skoggaggany soup; the name is a little difficult to
+pronounce, but the soup does not taste anything like it; it is merely
+the Norwegian for a scaup duck. In England people have been known to
+call scaups unfit for food, but here, under the perfectly awful
+appetites that we have developed, the Skoggaggany soup has very little
+chance.
+
+After trying unsuccessfully to catch fish, we walked up the valley after
+lunch to look for a hut which is marked on the Ordnance map, and to see
+if there were any better camping-ground than the place we chose
+yesterday. We saw some beautiful reindeer ground, but could not find the
+hut or a camp.
+
+  [Illustration: Two of our Retainers: Ivar and his Pony]
+
+On our return we perceived two men loafing about the tent, who we
+naturally concluded were thieves and murderers, and the Skipper hurried
+on to do battle with them to the death for the possession of our
+greatest treasure, the Salon oel. But on his arrival the robbers did not
+fly, but stood and stared with their hands in their pockets; so he
+lifted his hat and said, 'Oela?' (for of course he might have been a Dook
+in disguise); and one of them replied, 'Ja;' and cordiality being thus
+established, produced the sack of potatoes and the cook, like a
+conjuring trick, from somewhere behind him, out of his hat or coat
+tails.
+
+Then we went into all kinds of details with him about his and Ivar's
+wages, which he did not understand, and he replied at great length in
+Norsk, which we did not understand, and so the interview concluded to
+the gratification of all concerned. Oela is a big good-looking man,
+rather too much of a gentleman, we fear: but Ivar is without doubt a
+perfect ass, and will never be able to do anything in the way of
+cookery, except perhaps boil a potato, and even in that enterprise we
+consider it would be six to four on the potato.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE CAMP.
+
+
+_August 2._--The Skipper won the toss (he always does, chiefly because
+the device on Norwegian coins is 'sorter indifferent like,' and when
+Esau has called heads or tails, he looks at it carefully, and gravely
+declares it to be the opposite), and was away eight hours wandering
+about the mountains without seeing a living creature except two
+buzzards, and hardly any 'spoor.' He returned to camp very tired and
+rather cross, to find a delicious meal nearly ready cooked by Esau, for
+the man whom we ironically call the cook has gone to fetch his horse,
+for which we are to pay 1s. 2d. a day as long as we have it. The cook's
+wages are to be 2s. 4d. a day, and those of the stalker 3s. 6d. We
+consider the latter cheap at that rate. He is a very tall man; very big,
+very heavy, and very bearded, and we hire the whole of him for the
+trifling sum above stated.
+
+Besides cooking the dinner, Esau had been employed in rigging up the
+waggon-sheet as a continuation of the sleeping tent by planting an
+upright pole securely in the ground in front of the door, and connecting
+its top with the old tent by a birch tree ridge pole: it thus makes a
+very convenient place for all our large stores, and gives us much more
+room in the tent. We had expected the men to sleep in it, but they
+prefer living in a wretched little stone dog-kennel, which looks as if
+fleas would swarm in it, and has been built by drovers, or some other
+dirty people, for their lodging when they chance to come here: it is
+about 200 yards from our tent, and, as the men prefer it, it is very
+convenient for us.
+
+The ground that the Skipper tried to-day seemed a first-rate reindeer
+fjeld; this means an uneven tract of mountain country, too high for
+vegetation, except occasional reindeer flowers and patches of gentian,
+but not high enough to be entirely covered with perpetual snow: this
+fjeld--where it is not snow--is made of rocks large and small, from the
+size of a haystack to that of road metal, some of them firm, but mostly
+loose, jagged, and sharp; the winter snow and frost leave them in this
+condition by continually splitting and re-splitting them: they are dark
+grey in colour, and at a distance look almost black.
+
+What the reindeer can find attractive in such a place, possibly some one
+can tell; we cannot. There is apparently nothing for any beasts of the
+field to eat up there; but if you do happen to find deer before they see
+you, they are certain to be feeding, and Esau thinks they are eating the
+rocks; but the Skipper says it cannot be so, and inclines more to the
+theory that they feed on their 'young,' like tame rabbits, or possibly
+on their own blood, like the pelican of the wilderness. As for the
+reindeer flower, which is supposed to be their staff of life, it
+averages about half a stalk to the square acre, but possibly it is
+possessed of many highly nutritious qualities, and a little of it goes a
+long way. Anyhow, they thrive on their food, whatever it may be; they
+are always very fat, and uncommonly good to eat when you chance to slay
+one.
+
+After dinner we tried all this portion of the lake for fish without
+success, and coming back received the awful intelligence from Oela that
+there are no fish in any parts of Gjendin except the extreme ends, and
+the waterfall where Professor N---- is living. This is a dreadful blow
+to us, for we always count upon fishing as our main employment, and fish
+as our staple food; and if we cannot get any here we shall have to
+leave. At present we have some which we brought with us from Sjoedals,
+but when they are exhausted there will be a mutiny in this camp unless
+sport of some kind presents itself.
+
+
+_August 3._--A curious accident happened to-day; there was no rain. We
+have in vain tried to account for this phenomenon, and can only fall
+back on the somewhat unsatisfactory theory that it is all used up. Esau
+went after deer on the Rus Vand side, and came back very tired to dinner
+without having seen any, but reported fresh tracks; he was full of the
+glorious view that the fine day had given him. He had been close above
+the Memuru Glacier, which is a very large one, and stretching beyond it
+as far as the eye can reach is a sea of snow mountains, most of them
+peak-shaped, but some domes or irregular precipices with immense
+glaciers lying between them, and here and there the greenish-blue waters
+of a lake distantly gleaming in the sunlight.
+
+It is curious to note how the north and east sides of every peak are
+torn and ragged, with huge masses of rock riven from them by the action
+of the weather, while on the south and west they are comparatively
+regular.
+
+The Skipper spent the day in camp, completing the erection of the
+outside tent. Our abode is now sumptuous in the extreme, as the new wing
+holds all the lumber which formerly blocked up our bedroom. There was
+some discussion as to whether we should call it the 'Criterion Annexe,'
+until we remembered that there are always policemen about that
+celebrated building, and this decided us not to do so.
+
+
+_August 4._--The Skipper went on to Bes Hoe stalking. This is a high
+mountain 7,400 feet above sea level. It is close to us, between Gjendin
+and Rus Vand, and is one of the dome-shaped species.
+
+The Norwegians call their mountains either 'Tind,' which means a cone,
+or 'Hoe,' a round top; 'Piggen,' a peak rather more jagged than a Tind;
+'Horn,' apparently one steep side and one more gradual; and 'Kampen,'
+apparently a rough hill with nothing striking about its shape. Most of
+the mountains round here are Tinden, the finest being Memurutind,
+Skagastolstind, and Glitretind, the last over 8,000 feet, only surpassed
+in height by Galdopiggen, which, though in sight of us, is beyond our
+reach.
+
+  [Illustration: The Skipper returns to Camp disgusted with life]
+
+From Bes Hoe the Skipper got a good view between the storms of Gjendin
+lying encircled by its enormous steep black banks of snow-capped
+mountains, the whole of its eleven miles of length being visible at
+once. Its colour is a creamy greenish blue, caused by the snow-water
+which comes straight into the lake by scores of torrents, which collect
+it from the various glaciers. The Skipper, who is always bubbling over
+with poetic similes, said it looked like a cupful of very blue milk in a
+crease of brown paper; but, beautiful as this idea is, who can take any
+pleasure in scenery without a little, ever so little, sport to flavour
+it withal? Certainly not the Skipper; so he came back from his long
+tramp disgusted with life, and longing to find that Esau had played the
+fool in his absence, so that he might be able to pick a quarrel with
+him. Unfortunately Esau was provokingly amiable, and had been performing
+acts of virtue, such as making soup, improving the tent, and swearing at
+the cook the whole day, so that the seething volcano of the Skipper's
+temper had to content itself without an eruption. We did manage to get
+up an approach to a row about the Memuru Glacier, which the Skipper had
+visited to-day: he described its beauty and the extraordinary blue of
+the ice, where the large crevasses near its lower end gave glimpses of
+its real formation--for of course it is covered thickly with snow except
+just where it begins to break up. Then he went on to say how curious it
+was to think that this huge mass, covering square miles of ground, is
+always moving onwards, and that no more powerful agent exists for
+altering the arrangement of the earth's crust than that cold, placid
+field of ice. Esau said it did _not_ move. He watched it for half an
+hour yesterday and it never stirred, and he even pushed it with his
+stick without the smallest effect.
+
+It is impossible to argue with a man of that kind.
+
+Tyndall and Geikie being disposed of, we had a discussion in the tent
+over the map, with the result that we determined to leave the camp for
+four days in charge of Ivar; and we and Oela would go to Gjendesheim, and
+live there, and drink beer, and catch fish until the 8th, when we
+calculated that John ought to arrive; and we hope by that time some
+reindeer will have sought safety from other guns by flying to the
+sheltering embrace of our fjeld.
+
+We always do our baking just before bedtime, when the men have gone to
+their hutch, and in a permanent camp it soon gets reduced to a
+certainty. We prefer milk to water for mixing with the flour, as it
+makes the bread crisper and shorter, and it does not matter how sour the
+milk is. This is most providential, as we have generally plenty of sour
+milk. We send twice a week to Besse Saeter, distant about eight miles,
+and the long journey does not agree with the milk, so that it is
+generally turned before it arrives here.
+
+Another important article of food is soup, of which we have several
+varieties. When made of scaup duck, it is--as already mentioned--called
+Skoggaggany soup; but our present brew is 'gipsy soup,' which is made
+from potatoes, fishes chopped into small lumps, a square of 'Kopf's
+compressed vegetables'--a most invaluable article--and all the bones
+from the birds that we happen to be using. We never empty the pot, but
+keep adding water and bones as fast as we consume it, and it simmers by
+the fire all day. But when times are very bad, and we have no meat, and
+are living on fish, our soup is then called 'prairie soup,' and is
+composed of every scrap that we can collect--fish-bones; bacon;
+potatoes; milk; dandelion, and sorrel; bread, and biscuits: and whenever
+it develops any unusual flavour, we look suspiciously round to see if
+that boot-lace or candle-end is missing, or if any of the tent-pegs have
+been newly whittled. It is always very good, and we call it 'prairie'
+because of the dandelion, which is a prairie flower.
+
+There is yet one more kind, known as 'Argonaut soup,' the recipe of
+which was introduced from America by the Skipper; but our resources have
+never yet been so low that we could not make something better than this.
+
+_Recipe for Argonaut Soup._
+
+Take a pail of water and wash it clean. Then boil it till it is brown on
+both sides. Pour in one bean. When the bean begins to worry, prepare it
+to simmer. If the soup will not simmer it is too rich, and you must pour
+in more water. Dry the water with a towel before you put it in. The
+drier the water, the sooner it will brown. Serve hot.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+GJENDESHEIM.
+
+
+_August 5._--Such a lovely morning at last that we were quite tempted to
+stay, but nobly stuck to our resolve, heaped everything we possessed
+except rods, guns, and a change of raiment, into the inner tent, and
+covered them with a ground-sheet; then packed the selected weapons into
+the canoes, and sailed from these inhospitable shores.
+
+Not far from camp we saw some fish rising under a cliff, and though it
+was a dead calm, and the sun as bright as sun could be, we stopped to
+try for them.
+
+Esau soon tired of casting, and mentioning that 'if _he_ could not catch
+those fish no one could,' paddled off to make a formal call on the
+Professor, and ask if he had got any deer.
+
+The Skipper persevered, and was rewarded with two fish weighing about
+three pounds, and the most perfect fish for shape and condition that we
+have ever seen. This was an important event for us, for it entirely
+demolished Oela's theory of the non-existence of fish here, and gave us
+new hope for the future, especially as the weather has been so bad all
+the time until now, that we should hardly have caught any even if they
+swarmed.
+
+  [Illustration: Throwing for a Rise]
+
+The Skipper is devoted to the sport of 'throwing for a rise,' which he
+thinks the perfection of fishing. It can hardly be pursued with success
+anywhere but in Norway, for only there do fish seem to rise greedily
+after a constant succession of fine, hot, sunny days, with never a drop
+of rain or cat's-paw of wind.
+
+The great charm to him is the extreme delicacy required. You _must_ put
+on your thinnest cast, your smallest fly, and throw your lightest; and
+unless you throw a very long line you have not a chance for the beggar.
+Then, if he comes at you, you can see him through the calm clear water,
+and watch the whole performance. You get a rather better chance where
+two fish are rising close together, as there is some jealousy and
+competition between them, and each of them is likely to rush at your fly
+without sufficient meditation, lest the other one may get it first.
+
+The Skipper has studied fish from a moral point of view, and says that
+they are very much like men: and he invariably turns his knowledge of
+their habits to good account. Throwing for a rise--in a lake like this,
+where the fish run large--on a calm bright day is decidedly his forte;
+his motto in fishing being 'far and fine.' Whereas Esau shines more in a
+rapid stream than elsewhere.
+
+The latter had a great time with the Professor, who he said was a
+capital fellow, and gave him whisky which they drank 'to better sport;'
+and they both agreed that there were no reindeer to be found in the
+district at present, and the Professor said he was going further north
+if matters did not mend speedily.
+
+After the fishing and visiting were concluded, we hoisted sails of
+primitive construction, formed of a rug and a landing net, which, with a
+fair wind, soon brought us to Gjendesheim.
+
+We think this wind is the chief cause of our misfortune. When we were in
+these parts before, the wind was always against us whenever we
+journeyed; and in that year we had first-rate sport, both in shooting
+and fishing. But this time the wind has always been with us, and we pay
+for the luxury by getting no shooting and not much fishing. 'No
+mahtterr--a time will come.'
+
+After food the Skipper with Oela went over to Leirungen--a small lake
+about three quarters of a mile distant. Oela carried his canoe, and did
+not like the job. It gives us considerable satisfaction to make Oela do
+any work, he is so abominably lazy.
+
+It seemed that the tide of luck was already changing, as both he and
+Esau--who was throwing a fly on the river nearer home--brought in a few
+nice fish.
+
+Just before bedtime there arrived at the rest-house three Norwegian
+tourists of the sterner sex, and a young lady the daughter of one of
+them. The father was a barrister, and the other two were the Lord Chief
+Justice of what they imagine to be Common Pleas, and a very thin,
+dried-up student of theology. They all talked English, and the young
+lady seemed anxious to practise the language.
+
+
+_August 6._--After a gay breakfast Esau went his way to fish, while the
+Skipper--ever devoted to the fair sex--offered Miss Louise a cruise in
+his canoe.
+
+The sun shone brightly as they moved over the quiet waters, and the fish
+were too lazy to rise, but lay idly thoughtful at the bottom of the
+lake. The Skipper was very polite to his charming companion, as she sat
+in a state of blissful comfort amongst the rugs which he had placed for
+her in the bows of the boat; and no sound was heard but the gentle plash
+of the paddle in the water, and in the distance the Saeter girl calling
+home the grazing cows.
+
+  [Illustration: The Skipper takes Miss Louise for a Cruise at
+  Gjendesheim]
+
+But presently a cloud gathered over the mountain tops, and thunder was
+heard rolling among the distant hills; a gentle breeze stirred the
+surface of the water, and every lazy fish woke up to seek his food. The
+Skipper longed to go and fetch his rod. He hinted at this, and at last
+became impatient; but, by Jove! Miss Louise would not go. There she sat
+and prattled on, charming, pleased with herself, and utterly unmindful
+of the rising fish and the fretting Skipper. Time kept passing on, till
+at length her father brought relief by appearing on the shore to call
+her in to dinner; but then the Skipper had to get his food too, and when
+he had bolted the humble but indigestible crust and cheese, and rushed
+out again to seize his rod, he found it too late, as the lake was now
+dark with clouds, and the fish had left off rising.
+
+Soon after lunch it began to rain like a waterfall, and Esau arrived
+with a lot of fish--spoils from the Leirungen Ocean, and the result of
+Spartan indifference to the attractions of woman. There is a shining
+moral in this tale.
+
+He also brought a romance about a rainbow, which had been so close to
+him that the two ends met at his feet. The rain hereabouts is very
+thick.
+
+The evening proved too wet to fish, and this indefatigable young lady
+captured Esau, and after exhausting all the ordinary topics of
+conversation, began to show him every kind of puzzle that the mind of
+man ever conceived, puzzles with coins and puzzles with string; and she
+puzzled him with matches, and paper, and corks, till the poor young man
+became perfectly dazzled, and only longed for bedtime to put an end to
+his misery. Then she asked him riddles, first English and then French.
+The Skipper, apparently deeply interested in a book at the further end
+of the room, overheard Esau's answer to the first French riddle; it was
+'Je le donne en haut.'
+
+Presently, when they went up to bed, the Skipper said, 'I didn't quite
+follow your answer to that first riddle of hers. You said, "Je le donne
+en haut."' 'Oh! ah!' answered Esau. 'That's idiomatic French, and means
+a good deal that you don't understand; I always use it to gals,
+especially when they're pretty.' The Skipper coughed, and turned into
+his bedroom without saying 'good night.'
+
+We have always been told that the Norwegian aristocracy particularly
+dislike the English sportsman in Norway. We think, therefore, that our
+fair friend cannot have been of very noble lineage. But she was very
+nice and rather pretty.
+
+She left early next morning, and Esau said he was glad she was gone, as
+the Skipper was getting entangled with her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+JOHN.
+
+
+_August 7._--We began another day by catching a beautiful bag of fish,
+and about midday were just starting to shoot our way over to Besse
+Saeter, when a man came in sight stumbling down the mountain track
+towards the rest-house. He was red and sunburnt, with a beard of about
+three days' growth. He was coatless, collarless, and apparently
+exhausted. On his nearer approach we saw he was an Englishman, and
+presently when a few yards from us we recognised--John! Not the smart
+young beau we have always seen him in London; no longer the devotee to
+society and his club, but an almost unrecognizable John, so sunburnt and
+hot and hungry. Formal greetings were exchanged: 'Dr. Livingstone,
+I presume?' 'Mr. Stanley, I believe?' and we rushed into each other's
+embrace.
+
+Then we besought him to refresh himself on fladbrod, milk, and coffee;
+which he did, largely. After this he became calm enough to give us a
+brief summary of his adventures since he left England.
+
+He had done the journey from Christiania in very quick time, and had
+left all his luggage twenty miles behind at Hind Saeter, which is the
+nearest place to us to which wheeled vehicles can get. From thence he
+had started at five o'clock this morning. How he found the way is a
+marvel, but by great good fortune he met a man when he was about three
+miles out of the track, who put him right; otherwise he would probably
+never have arrived anywhere.
+
+He has brought additional stores for the camp, as arranged before we
+left England, and we had left a note in Christiania asking him to call
+at the shop in Vaage, and try to get a small stove for the tent, or at
+any rate find out the price of one. Vaage is our nearest village, about
+fifty miles distant.
+
+When John arrived there, seeing the shop as he drove past, he descended
+from his cariole and entered. The shop was full of people buying all the
+necessaries of life; for in these villages there is only one shop, which
+is a general store for everything. John was a little confused at his
+first experience of a Norwegian shop, but at last pulled himself
+together, and seeing a stove standing in the middle of the room,
+intended for heating the place, he walked up to it, and stroking it
+gently with his hand, looked round at the people generally and remarked,
+'Hvor meget' (How much)? Dead silence not unmingled with awe followed
+this observation; for those simple rustics thought there was a maniac
+among them. This perplexed John, and as everybody was staring at him,
+and he began to find himself in a remarkably tight place, he concluded
+to make another remark, so asked in Norsk, 'Have you any whisky?' The
+storekeeper having no licence looked horrified, and said, 'Nei.' So John
+pursued his advantage by inquiring, 'Have you any aquavit?' 'Nei' was
+again the answer, and an ominous whisper of 'landsmand' (the policeman)
+was plainly audible. John thought he had asked enough about stoves to
+quiet his conscience, and guessed it was time to quit that shop. So
+rapidly regaining his cariole, he vanished before any of the crowd had
+made up their minds what to do.
+
+We kept to our plan of going to Besse Saeter, starting as soon as John
+had finished his lunch, and got several teal and a greenshank on the
+way. On one little bit of water we spied three teal near the bank, and
+having both together made a most skilful stalk, got them all.
+
+Arriving at Besse Saeter we found one of the two rooms occupied by two
+Swedish ladies, who were travelling about by themselves for the sake of
+their health. One of them spoke English well, and told us they had been
+up several of the high mountains round, and intended to wander about all
+the summer.
+
+We three had to be content with the other room, and two beds; odd man
+out for the whole one. Those who only had half a bed reported it rather
+a crowd in the morning.
+
+_Sunday, August 8._--Our object in coming to Besse Saeter was to break
+the journey to a place called Rus Vand, where a Norwegian owns a lake
+and hut: it is distant about two hours' walk from Besse Saeter, and we
+had a letter of introduction to Mr. Thomas, the owner, which we were
+anxious to deliver, so as to obtain leave to fish in the lake, the
+western end of which comes to within walking distance of our camp in
+Memurudalen; and the fishing is remarkably good.
+
+Therefore this morning we started to clamber up the steep mountain side
+that has to be crossed between Besse Saeter and Rus Vand, and skirting
+the shores of Bes Vand--which lies on a small plateau at the summit--we
+soon found ourselves scrambling down over the loose stones, and through
+the willow scrub that covers the uneven slopes approaching the east end
+of the lake.
+
+From our side of the river--when we reached its banks, while a boat was
+crossing to fetch us--we saw several men, and a couple of
+English-looking setters, a pointer, and a target fixed up about 200
+yards from the huts, so that the place presented a very sporting
+appearance.
+
+Mr. Thomas received us very kindly, and at once gave us permission to
+fish in his lake. Both he and his wife spoke English perfectly, as did
+another lady staying with them, and as most emphatically did _not_
+another sportsman also living there.
+
+These two ladies and two gentlemen were all living in a little
+two-roomed hut, each room being about nine feet square, and the doorway
+about five feet high and two wide; the gentlemen's bedroom being also
+the kitchen. How the ladies managed to turn themselves out in such
+faultless apparel was a mystery, but it was done, for we saw it.
+
+  [Illustration: The Huts at Rusvasoset]
+
+It is a very plucky thing for ladies to come up here and live for a
+month, even now when there is a wheel-road (of a sort) to within fifteen
+miles, but the same thing was done by English ladies ten years ago, when
+there was no road nearer than forty miles. Are their names not written
+in the chronicles which adorn the walls of the hut, and carved on the
+profile fishes which decorate the floor?
+
+In the other hut--which is little more than a boat--there are living
+Jens Tronhuus, our old stalker; 'Siva,' the man who carried our canoes
+up the mountain at Sikkildal, and another native, also the dogs; besides
+bottles and churns, grindstones, pack-saddles, saws, axes, and all the
+other heterogeneous articles which accumulate in a place of this kind.
+It looked full.
+
+We found the party just sitting down to breakfast after a rather
+unsettled night, as they had been roused about half-past two in the
+morning by some one hammering at the door, and found it was a young
+Norwegian, named, let us say, Coutts, who was making a walking tour, and
+was more or less lost. They succoured him with coffee and other
+refreshments and sent him on his way with Jens to guide him. Coutts's
+intention was to struggle on to Besse Saeter, but we had seen nothing of
+him there.
+
+We stayed some time at the huts, talking and looking at all the
+memorable objects that were there under our _regime_ (as we had occupied
+these huts and had the fishing to ourselves two years previously). There
+was Esau's celebrated 'biggest trout whatever was seen,' carved on the
+floor; the Skipper's favourite cast, and the ice safe that we cunningly
+devised and constructed in the lower hut. The Thomas's are in even worse
+case than we, for like us they have seen no deer, and they have so many
+more mouths to feed. However, they have any quantity of fish, for
+Rusvasoset is as good a place as the Sjoa at Gjendesheim, which is
+saying a great deal.
+
+About one we commenced the homeward journey. Two of Jens' sisters had
+come with us, nominally to see their brother, but really--John
+asserted--for the purpose of flirting with _him_. He was extremely
+polite to one of them--though of course he could not speak to her--and
+would insist on carrying her shawl and other impediments; and he
+confided to us afterwards that 'women were generally a good deal taken
+by that sort of mute homage.' She was a dear little girl, and we called
+her the 'Saeter darlen;' which we believe to be the only Norwegian pun we
+ever attempted.[*]
+
+    [Footnote: John said this pun might be elucidated with advantage
+    to the British public, as he did not believe any one could
+    possibly see it. Who cares? Down it goes, and we can assure any
+    one who likes to wrestle with it that it is something very good
+    indeed.]
+
+The walk home to Gjendesheim is a long one, and although it was Sunday
+Esau insisted on making a detour over the marsh with his gun, as he said
+he had lost his knife there yesterday and wanted to look for it. He
+arrived late at Gjendesheim with a satisfied air on his face; without
+his trusty steel, but with his pockets thrust full of too trustful teal,
+that had adventured themselves within his reach.
+
+At Gjendesheim we found the young Norwegian who had roused up the
+Thomas's at Rus Vand, and perceived that he was not without some
+peculiarities of character. Although the weather was as wet and cold as
+weather could be, he was attired in a suit of white duck clothes like an
+English mechanic; even his hat was of white duck, and Esau declared
+afterwards that his boots were made of the same material; that he had a
+cigar-case and cigars of it, and ordered white ducks for his dinner. The
+appearance of his head caused us to be very anxious about any little
+articles of value that we had about us, for it looked as if it had been
+shaved all over about two days previously to our making his
+acquaintance. He looked very strong, tough, and active, and no doubt was
+so, for he had just performed a most extraordinary walking feat. He is
+going over all the Jotun Mountains by himself, and yesterday morning he
+started from a place an unknown number of miles away at 6 A.M. He walked
+all day and all night, till it got dark, at which time he was somewhere
+near Glitretind, in a country he had never seen, with only a vague
+notion of where he wanted to get to and a pocket compass to do it with.
+The country about there is perfectly awful to walk over even by day; but
+he kept at it through the dark, following a torrent up till he crossed
+the watershed, and following another torrent down till he got to Rus
+Vand, and staggered into the hut there at 2.30 A.M. almost fainting, for
+he had had nothing to eat all day: true, he might have got fladbrod at
+the saeters during the day, but he said he did not care for fladbrod:
+certainly, he had plenty of chocolate in his knapsack, but he was tired
+of chocolate. At Rus Vand he got some coffee, as Thomas told us; and
+then he walked over the mountain with Jens to Besse Saeter, intending to
+sleep there: but we were snoring at our ease in all the beds of Besse
+Saeter, and he hated sleeping on floors, so he walked on again to
+Gjendesheim, arriving there at half-past five this morning.
+
+Then he produced his knapsack, which he said weighed twenty-five lbs.:
+it seemed to be chiefly filled with packets of most delicious chocolate,
+some of which he gave us.
+
+We thought him a first-rate fellow, but certainly a little peculiar.
+He has been all over the world, and is great at natural history, having
+stuffed many birds in foreign countries for the museum at Christiania.
+
+The Skipper had the next room to his, and told us that at bedtime he
+washed himself all over, cleaned his teeth, and brushed his hair: he
+then stayed in bed till eleven o'clock next morning, when he rose and
+went through the whole performance again. Now we did not mind him
+washing, or brushing his teeth; we even respect him for doing it; but
+brushing his hair was a simple insult to common sense, and a wicked
+waste of time; for not a bristle on his head--whether hair, moustache,
+or beard--was more than an eighth of an inch long, and all of it was
+much stiffer than any hair-brush yet made. It was suggested that perhaps
+he was only combing his hair-brush with his head; and with this
+explanation we had to rest content.
+
+We luxuriated on meat to-night, for they have actually caught and killed
+a sheep.
+
+We fish with considerable success now at every odd moment of the day, as
+the canoes are moored to the shore, not six yards from the house; and it
+takes no time to get into them and push out into the deep lake, or hover
+about the brink of the long rapids where the lake begins to be a river.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+BACK TO CAMP.
+
+
+_August 9._--The morning was again very wet, but we are men of great
+decision and firmness; what our friends call 'obstinate' if they are
+civil, and 'pig-headed' when they want to be disagreeable, as friends
+usually do.
+
+Therefore we started for the camp after lunch: that is to say, the
+Skipper and Esau started, as John remained to await the arrival of his
+baggage, for which Ivar had been despatched. At present his wardrobe is
+not very extensive, and he will perhaps be more comfortably fixed after
+the arrival of his valise. He has one coat, one flannel shirt without
+collar, one pair of trousers, socks, and boots, one pipe, one cap; one
+fishing rod, line, and fly-book; one watch-chain, and a newspaper of
+July 23.
+
+About two miles from Gjendesheim on the north side of the lake there is
+an apparently perpendicular cliff, half a mile long and over 1,000 feet
+high: this is called the Beseggen, and at the top of it lies Bes Vand,
+so close to the edge of the cliff that it seems impossible to believe
+that the lake is 1,000 feet above Gjendin, with nothing but a narrow
+strip of rock to hold it within its bounds, and yet the books say it is
+so, and we always believe anything we find in a book. The cliff looks
+perfectly unscaleable, but we believe it has been descended twice by an
+Englishman who used to live here, and once by a Norwegian youth.
+
+Bes Vand is so high that fish will not live in it; the professional
+liars of these parts say it freezes solid every winter, and kills any
+that have been put into it. It is a little difficult to believe this
+statement, as it is a large and deep lake; but John says that a man who
+will believe a guide-book can believe anything; so we all do our best to
+swallow it (the statement, not the lake; we have hardly enough whisky to
+make the latter palatable).
+
+Gjendin is liable like all mountain lakes to be suddenly visited by
+squalls, so that we generally like to paddle pretty near the side, but
+on this voyage it was not safe to do so; for under the influence of the
+rain, which was coming down as if it had never done so before, stones
+and boulders were rattling and crashing down the sides of the lake, and
+plunging into it, in a most alarming manner; and as far as we could see,
+the steep black rocks were thickly streaked with white lines, denoting
+torrents rushing down in places where ordinarily none were to be seen.
+
+Just as we were passing the Beseggen, a dull boom like that of a distant
+cannon was heard, and looking up we could see far above our heads a huge
+spout of muddy water shoot out from the cliff, carrying with it masses
+of stone and _debris_ of all sorts; evidently some bank had given way
+under the increased pressure of this enormous rainfall. We thought for
+one brief moment that it might be Bes Vand let loose on us, for even in
+fine weather it can always be seen leaking through fissures in the rock,
+so narrow is the division between the two lakes; but we did not stop to
+ascertain where it came from.
+
+It soon became necessary to land and empty the canoes, by reason of the
+heavy rain, the bottom boards being completely under water, though we
+had only been afloat for half an hour.
+
+Just before we got to Memurudalen the sun came out; Esau had a chase
+after a black-throated diver that came up from a dive quite close to his
+canoe, and then we both fell to fishing and got several good fish. This
+is just our luck: we had left camp for the last few days on purpose to
+get fish for food; we had caught many and salted them, and brought back
+40 lbs. weight with us in a large tin can, and then, behold! we caught
+fresh fish in a place where we were assured by Oela that there were none,
+not even salted ones.
+
+We found the camp looking uncommonly pretty and comfortable, and all our
+things perfectly dry and nice. The sun shone, and blue sky appeared, so
+that hope, contentment, and joy reigned supreme, for we knew that it
+could not rain any more now for at least a month, from the way it
+stopped quite with a jerk as the supply ceased.
+
+John spent his day at Gjendesheim in eating, drinking, and fishing,
+especially the two former amusements. Truly that is a glorious country
+where a man can over-eat himself three times a day, and never have
+indigestion!!
+
+
+_August 10._--Esau stalked with the usual result, 'Ingen dyr, ingen
+fresk spoer, ingen gammle spoer,' as the Norsk jaeger would remark; which
+means 'no deer, no fresh tracks, no old tracks;' and he returned to camp
+to find the Skipper had erected a flagstaff on the little mound beside
+our tent, and from this staff now floats proudly 'the flag that braved
+a thousand years &c.,' which we brought with us for this purpose:
+a smaller one always adorns the ridge of the tent. We do not know
+exactly the use of this flag; we say it is hoisted to annoy the
+Norwegians, but this reason will not bear criticism, for that is the
+last thing we should think of doing, and it certainly never seems to
+have that effect on any one who has yet seen it. But we think that no
+gentleman's residence is complete without a red ensign, therefore on
+high days and holidays that rag will flaunt itself in the breeze; and
+every day will now be a holiday, for the fine weather has begun at last.
+
+The Skipper had made all sorts of improvements in our domestic
+arrangements, and after tea we completed the alterations in the bedroom
+which were necessary before John arrived. This he did in a boat with
+Ivar about nine o'clock, pretty well tired with his row against a head
+wind. He was received with much kindness by the barbarous islanders, but
+it took us until late at night to get everything comfortably and
+conveniently placed under canvas; for John made no slight addition to
+our already ponderous stores, in the shape of two more boxes containing
+tea, coffee, candles, sugar, jam, and at last Esau's long-desired
+anchovy paste.
+
+We placed the three beds side by side in the inner tent, John being in
+the middle for the sake of greater warmth, for the nights are very cold.
+Among the things that we obtained through Jens were two sheepskin rugs,
+invaluable for protection against cold. Till we got them we were more or
+less wretched every night, but since they came our sleep has been
+perfectly luxurious. John has only two ordinary Scotch rugs, and feels
+the cold a good deal, so we, from our impervious sheepskins, give him
+any coats, shirts, or trousers that we do not want.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+TROUT.
+
+
+_August 11._--Last night at sunset we 'could not see a cloud, because no
+cloud was in the sky;' the distant mountains looked as black as coal,
+and the heavens were yellow-ochre colour; whereupon Oela committed
+himself to the statement that the fine weather would now be a permanent
+institution. Consequently our life has once more resumed its proper
+phase of perpetual picnic, and we roam about without coats or
+waistcoats, or any other garments that seem superfluous unto us; and to
+John all garments except a landing-net and boots appear to be
+unnecessary incumbrances. Reversing the natural order of things, we put
+on all our available clothes when we go to bed, and peel for the day
+when we get up.
+
+It is difficult to believe that only two days ago we were shivering with
+cold, wrapped in gloom and india-rubber clothing, and wet through all
+day, when now the horizon is dancing with heat, the lake is perfectly
+calm, with the high snow mountains mirrored in its blue depths, and we
+are delighting in every little bit of shade, having pawned our
+macintoshes and thrown the tickets into the glacier torrent.
+
+  [Illustration: John returns from fishing in Summer Costume]
+
+That same stream has been a source of great annoyance to John during the
+night. He wants to have it turned off, because its roaring kept him
+awake, and he was going first thing after breakfast to see the turncock
+about it; but, of course, it is hopeless. The municipal arrangements
+here are much the same as in London, and that official cannot be found
+when wanted; so he will have to content himself with damming it.
+
+The hot sun has brought out flies in great profusion; the fish are
+rising freely, and man goeth forth to his labour rejoicing, and cometh
+home with a heavy bag and a light fly-book, for the fish here seem to be
+all good-sized; and as we have to use the finest tackle and smallest
+flies, the odds are rather in favour of the finny prey.
+
+  [Illustration: John and Esau: 'How's that for high?']
+
+We all went fishing, and made a very pretty catch among us, the Skipper
+securing the greatest weight, and Esau the largest fish, weight 31/2 lbs.
+The Skipper also made some interesting notes on the moral and physical
+characteristics of these Gjendin trout. He said there seemed to be three
+methods of feeding in vogue among them. Some were moving in a large
+circle about two hundred yards in diameter, and rising at very short
+intervals as they went--these never came within ten yards of the shore.
+Then there were some that were travelling along about a yard from the
+shore, and these seemed to be rising even more frequently than the
+others, as there were more flies close to the rocks than out in
+mid-ocean; and there were a few cunning old beggars that had got a
+comfortable hole under a rock which they did not like to leave, and only
+rose at longer intervals, as especially tasty morsels floated by.
+
+All the fish, to whichever class of risers they might belong, often took
+the moving artificial fly in preference to real dead ones that were
+lying on the surface of the water close by: from which we opine that
+they resemble us to the extent of liking fresh food better than stale;
+for our flies had no attractive tinsel to commend them to the notice of
+an epicurean trout, being the best imitations we can manage of the
+predominant fly, which is a small dark-coloured winged ant, with a
+little reddish orange about the long black body.
+
+These flies have but a brief and disastrous existence. They only flew
+for the first time this morning, most of them had died by noon--for the
+lake was strewn with their corpses--and the survivors were all worried
+and consumed by fish before nightfall. Luckily there are plenty more
+where they came from, and the process can be repeated on new flies
+tomorrow.
+
+It is very interesting to catch a fish off these rocks on a perfectly
+calm day like this; for in the clear water you can see the whole of the
+struggle, from the moment the fish rises till he is lying panting and
+exhausted in the net. How beautiful a big fish looks when he first comes
+ashore! How brightly he shines in the sunlight, and how sleek is his
+portly person!
+
+Even if you cannot see your fish rise and take the fly, you can soon
+tell by his behaviour whereabouts the needle will come if you succeed in
+getting him on to the weighing hook. A large fish very seldom rises with
+any dash or swagger, but just a smothered ripple; perhaps a glimpse of
+his nose as he sucks in the fly; and he moves as if he were a nobody:
+then when he feels the hook, there is none of that dash and wriggle that
+you find in a small fish, but generally a rush like a rocket towards the
+middle of the lake, making you tremble for the safety of your reel line,
+and after that a stately diving and calm, dignified resistance for five
+or ten minutes till he has to give in. Sometimes, though not so often,
+the rocket business will be repeated more than once, and a fish that
+does this deserves to escape, and often gets his deserts. There is
+something very fine about the proud bearing of a big trout in
+difficulties; for here in the lake he has not the same chance as his
+relations in the running water at Gjendesheim.
+
+The largest fish seemed to be those feeding in a circle, and it was one
+of these that Esau caught, which he said was the father of all fish. He
+lost another much larger--no doubt the grandfather of all fish. He said
+it weighed five pounds. It is an extraordinary piscatorial fact that the
+largest fish always do get away.
+
+In the afternoon Esau commenced excavating the long-promised oven from
+the face of the little hill against which our tent is pitched. It stands
+about a hundred yards from our hall door, and is constructed chiefly of
+large stones and mud--clay not being obtainable--with a flue cut in the
+hill-side: a single stone acts as the floor of the oven, under which the
+wood furnace is kindled, and a sod of turf, from time to time renewed,
+does duty as a door.
+
+Dinner at seven.
+
+John wishes that the _menu_ should be occasionally inserted for the
+benefit of gastronomic readers:--
+
+  _Vins._       _Potage._       _Legumes._
+  Tea.          Prairie.        Potatoes,
+  Beer.                         Fried and Boiled.
+                _Poisson._
+                Fried Trout.
+
+                _Entrees._
+                Sardines.
+
+                _Gibier._
+            Teal.  Greenshank.
+
+               _Entremets._
+      Compote of Rice and Wimberries.
+             Jam.  Marmalade.
+                  Whisky.
+
+After this Esau finished the oven, and accomplished a bake of bread
+therein, which proved so successful that on returning from fishing at
+about ten at night, we all turned our attention to the production of the
+staff of life, nor desisted from our labours till eleven o'clock, by
+which time there was a goodly show of rolls and loaves spread out, and
+we went to bed feeling that we had spent a glorious day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+REINDEER.
+
+
+_August 12._--We wonder whether our friends in Scotland and Yorkshire
+have such a day as this: if they have, it is rough on the grouse.
+
+There is not a breath the bottle-green wave to curl, and the sun shines
+as if Odin had redeemed his other eye.
+
+The Skipper and Oela went forth to pursue, and walked over an enormous
+distance into the previously unknown region of Memurutungen. Up on the
+mountains life on a day of this kind is bliss; there is more air there
+than in the valley, and it is delightful to be far away from the busy
+world--consisting of your two pals and Ivar--below; surrounded by the
+snowy peaks and sky, with not a living thing save perhaps an eagle in
+sight.
+
+  [Illustration: The two 'Meget Stor Bocks' (very big Bucks) on
+  Memurutungen]
+
+In the middle of the day they came on fresh deer tracks, at which of
+course their flagging interest revived; and presently they descried on a
+snow fjeld about a mile away, two deer 'scooting' over the opposite
+mountain side. These they followed, and made a long detour to get the
+right side of the breath of wind that occasionally made itself felt up
+there, for the reindeer has probably the most acute scent of all the
+deer tribe. In the midst of this detour they suddenly came in sight of
+two other bucks, about 300 yards away, much finer animals than the first
+two; in fact, they had the best heads the Skipper ever saw. But luck was
+against him; they were wrong for the wind, and a puff came just at the
+moment, which carried the unwelcome intelligence to those deer that
+their hated enemy was upon them, and they departed round a corner at a
+rapid trot, and were no more seen. Then Oela looked at the Skipper with a
+sorrowful shake of the head, and said, 'Meget store bocks!' (very big
+bucks), and the Skipper replied with a still more portentous shake,
+'Meget, meget.' So they were left with their mouths wide open,
+muttering, 'Meget, meget store bocks.' And after following the tracks
+some time without seeing anything more of the deer, they gave up the
+chase and returned to camp, getting home in a very exhausted state about
+6.30.
+
+During dinner old Peter Tronhuus arrived in camp with a packet of
+letters and papers, and a fore-quarter of venison from Rus Vand. Mr.
+Thomas had been like ourselves reindeer-less until yesterday, when he
+found a large herd, and was lucky enough to get two out of them.
+
+Peter also told us that two friends of Thomas's who had been staying
+with him were walking over the mountain to see our camp, and would then
+go to Gjendesheim with him in the boat in which he had come.
+
+Presently these two men arrived extremely hot, and looking as if they
+would like beer; so we appeased them with one of our few remaining
+bottles, and after showing them all the sights of the camp took them out
+on the lake in the canoes. One of them spoke a little English, the other
+only French and Norwegian. The latter asked the Skipper, in the Gallic
+tongue, 'if we had entrapped many fish?' and 'if we had not fear to
+venture on the lake in such small boats?' and informed him that 'there
+were many savage ducks about this year.' The other one, regardless of
+his own life and safety, and also of Esau's--in whose canoe he was
+sitting--_would_ keep throwing up his arms and exclaiming, 'It gives us
+moch playsure to make a travel in the Canadian cano.' But we think they
+were proud and thankful when the experiment was over, and they were safe
+in Peter's boat. These strangers displayed unwonted courage, for the
+ordinary native has a wholesome dread of our frail craft. The hardy
+Norseman's house of yore was doubtless on the foaming wave, but that was
+before the days of Canadian canoes.
+
+At dinner John informed the company that his bath in the lake yesterday
+was the third of a series the first of which took place in Montenegro,
+the second in Algiers, and now this in Norway. He calls this a humble
+tribute to the geniality of the English summer, and thinks that he may
+be termed 'a polyglot ablutionist.' Some of the sojourners in this camp
+say it may be so, but it does not speak highly for John's love of water
+when undiluted with whisky.
+
+Subsequently we found that the bath which he swaggered about only
+occurred because he fell off a rock into the lake, and so dabbled about
+afterwards while his clothes were drying, which does not take long in
+this weather. This also accounts for the condition in which he returned
+to camp, 'sans bags, sans shirt, sans everything,'--barring his boots.
+
+Late at night Esau, who was up last, put his head into the tent to
+remark that there was a first-rate comet on view, but he was received
+with such execrations from the other two lazy people in bed that he
+thought it prudent to say no more about it, and not to look at it any
+more himself.
+
+
+_August 13._--We spent the morning making a meat safe. This meat safe
+consists of a hole in the ground, neatly flagged with flat stones, and
+walled with the same, and furnished at the top with a wooden frame, into
+which fits a lid with hooks underneath it for birds. The whole is
+covered with a piece of muslin to keep off the villanous bluebottles.
+The muslin was brought to make into mosquito nets inside the tent, but
+in this happy spot the 'skeeter' is unknown, the sand-fly very rare, and
+the great green-eyed Moege--which bites a lump out of your leg and then
+flies to the nearest tree to eat it--is conspicuous by its absence.
+
+We have always been very careful not to prepare in any way for game
+before it is killed, but this usually successful plan has been a failure
+this year, so now we are desperate, and have made a safe which will hold
+a reindeer, and probably with a little more bad luck shall even go out
+stalking with ropes in our pockets ready to tie up the animal when
+killed. We caught Oela a week ago carving a piece of stick into the
+double-ended thing that butchers put between the legs of sheep to keep
+them apart (name unknown), but we promptly seized it, and made it into
+the handle of a frying-pan. But who can escape his destiny? We hoped
+that we had averted misfortune, but the deed was done, and no doubt it
+was owing to this that the Skipper failed to get a shot at the 'store
+bocks.'
+
+When John and Esau had finished the safe and succeeded in catching
+enough nice fish for the requirements of the camp, they were seized with
+the desire of making a good bath. We have no first-rate bathing-place
+near the camp, as the glacier-river has made the lake too shallow round
+its mouth, and it is some distance to where the shore becomes bold and
+rocky.
+
+They selected a nice little stream on the hill just above the tent, and
+toiled like navvies there for about four hours under a blazing sun,
+excavating and paving with flat stones, making a most palatial bath in
+the bed of the stream; when behold! just as it was completed, to use the
+graphic language of one of the constructors, 'May I be dodderned, and
+doggoned, and dingblamed by Pike, if the blooming stream didn't cease to
+run!' It did just supply about a pint of water before it quite stopped,
+into which Esau's watch flew as he flung on his coat with some slight,
+and perhaps excusable, show of temper. A pint of water is not enough for
+a man to bathe in, but it is quite sufficient to saturate a watch,
+especially if a stone obligingly smashes the glass and makes a hole in
+its face obliterating the vii. viii. and ix. at the time of its
+immersion. However, he dug the mud out of the works, filled them with
+Rangoon oil, and is under the impression that that watch can be made to
+go again, and that a new face and glass and silver case will make it
+look all right. He is of a sanguine disposition.
+
+They returned to camp saying that it would be all right as soon as the
+first rain came, but they reckoned without their host; the stream came
+from a little snowdrift on the mountain, and next time that Esau went up
+there he found that the heat of the last few days had melted it all
+away; hence its sudden stop. It never ran again. Perchance some future
+traveller will find the bath ages hence, and rejoice in its luxurious
+arrangements. In anticipation of this John wrote the following beautiful
+lines on the most prominent rock:--
+
+  'Stranger, pause and shed a tear:
+  There used to be a streamlet here;
+  But seeing Esau strip to lave
+  His sordid body 'neath its wave,
+  All filled with shame and blushing red,
+  The streamlet left its gravel bed;
+  Its only wish from him to flee,
+  It ran away and went to sea.'
+
+The Skipper returned rather late with some very good fish from our old
+lake Rus Vand, and dinner was consequently at the extremely fashionable
+hour of 8.30.
+
+                  MENU.
+
+                _Poisson._
+           Truite a la Norvege.
+
+                _Gibier._
+        Teal en matelote de Bacon.
+  Pommes de terre sauted in a frying-pan.
+
+                _Potage._
+               Skoggaggany.
+
+Potage is frequently eaten last, for it keeps hot longer than the other
+dishes, and as we always feed in the open air in fine weather, they cool
+more quickly than in civilisation.
+
+  [Illustration: Hot Soup and Northern Lights]
+
+About nine o'clock a splendid display of northern lights was produced
+for our benefit, and we stayed up till twelve o'clock baking bread and
+gazing at the ever-changing beauties of this glorious sight. In the
+course of conversation it transpired that the same thing happened last
+night in a milder form, and it was this that Esau had announced as a
+comet. To-night he was immensely delighted with the show, because he
+says it will bring good luck; quoting 'Aurora bright, dear harbinger of
+dawn.' He said this was Shakespeare, and if Shakespeare called Aurora a
+'deer harbinger,' that ought to be enough for us. The other two agreed,
+but did not believe Shakespeare ever wrote that, or anything like it.
+'What play was it in?' 'Play!' said Esau, with the utmost contempt, 'you
+awful duffers, it's in the sonnets; I dare say you never read all of
+them.' This was unanswerable, for of course no one ever did read all the
+sonnets. But in revenge John composed some poetry about Esau, after the
+manner of Walt Whitman, he said.
+
+If Walt Whitman ever wrote anything like this, he ought to be made to
+read it. We give a few lines:--
+
+  ''Twas he who culled the bluest berry sweet,
+  And with his jodelling made the heights reply
+  To airs that oft have graced the music hall:
+  Anon when work or sport was put aside,
+  The fragrant omelette he would deftly roll;
+  No better man to fry the curling trout,
+  None with more appetite to make it scarce.
+  When tired nature seeks repose in bed,
+  To lie when others rise and calmly rest,
+  He most surpassed the seven Sleepers' selves.
+  This is the sort of rubbish men can write
+  Who to inanity devote their minds;
+  But nought save great experience will suffice
+  To do the trick; no amateur can hope
+  To vie with those who've studied it from youth.'
+
+And so on for pages.
+
+On examining the diaries which we all keep, the following remarks on the
+aurora were found:--
+
+NO. 1.--BY THE SKIPPER.
+
+'The heavens were illuminated by most brilliant northern lights, which
+flickered in a great arch over the starry sky.'
+
+NO. 2.--BY ESAU.
+
+'A most glorious display of northern lights, huge bands of light across
+the sky; waving, flickering, and disappearing, then suddenly shining out
+again more brilliantly than before, while all the time straight
+streamers of light were shooting upwards from the horizon.'
+
+NO. 3.--BY JOHN.
+
+'The glow of a remarkably fine aurora borealis, whose silvery shimmering
+shafts flickered incessantly all over the heavens in the most fantastic
+shapes.'
+
+It will be observed that we all agree in the flickering, consequently
+you may bet it _did_ flicker. But for this fortunate fact it would be
+hard to recognise the three descriptions as identical, and yet this is
+the way history is written.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+SUCCESS AT LAST.
+
+
+_August 14._--This was a most eventful day in our quiet life, and one
+fraught with episode. For the first time there was a breeze, so the
+Skipper went out fishing, and John to practise canoeing in a wind, which
+is an art requiring considerable dexterity in these Canadian canoes.
+They are beautiful sea boats, and beat the 'Rob Roy' hollow for any
+purposes where room for baggage is required. In our two, which are only
+small, we have transported between 800 and 900 lbs.; but their worst
+feature is decidedly exhibited in a wind, for the broad flat bottom and
+absence of keel cause them to drift very fast, and make it difficult to
+keep them straight. It can only be done by paddling from amidships
+instead of from the stern.
+
+Esau went out stalking, full of hope from the aurora and the favourable
+wind.
+
+The Skipper was lucky and caught some very good fish, and then returning
+to camp constructed a most lovely wimberry tart. He had just finished
+the enclosure of the same in the oven, and was proceeding to remove the
+flour and ashes and other debris from his hands, while John reclined at
+his ease under an awning with our latest 'Field'--three weeks old--when
+they heard a hail overhead, and behold a swarm of visitors from Rus
+Vand! Mr. and Mrs. Thomas, Miss A----, and their friend F----, who is
+the most celebrated deerstalker in the country. He is reported to never
+miss a shot, and occasionally shoots flying ryper with a rifle.
+
+They tumultuously demanded lunch, and the Skipper with John had a pretty
+busy time of it for about twenty minutes, and the wimberry tart had to
+be left to its fate in the sultry climate of the oven. Our larder just
+now is not well supplied with anything except fish; so that the utmost
+exertions could only produce a meal which to people who have had
+reindeer for several days must have seemed poor indeed. Fried trout,
+Skoggaggany soup, tea, beer, bread, biscuits, and marmalade, was the
+bill of fare, for there was no time to do anything in the 'gibier' line,
+birds taking some time to pluck and clean. However, to our guests there
+were some points of this meal decidedly worthy of attention, viz. the
+beer, marmalade, and bread: they have none of these at Rus Vand, as
+their attempts at bread have hitherto been failures, while ours has been
+very first-rate ever since the oven was built, and was much appreciated.
+
+We have been informed that the proper thing in these days, when writing
+a book, is to recommend some condiment or patent medicine to the notice
+of the confiding public. As there is no chance of our meeting any Arab
+sheiks in Memurudalen, we have to fall back on this episode of the
+bread, and seize the opportunity to sing to the world the praises of
+'Yeatman's Yeast Powder,' by far the best that we have tried, and
+invaluable on an expedition of this kind for bread, pastry, and
+pancakes. Now let old Yeatman send his hundred guineas, care of Esau,
+and we will see that they are devoted to a proper use.
+
+To return to our guests. We made an awning on what we call the
+lawn--size six feet by fourteen feet--out of two rugs and some birch
+poles, and lunched under that, as the sun was cruelly hot. There was a
+good deal of the ordinary picnic about the meal, as we have only four
+plates, cups, knives, &c., and had to eat fish out of the frying-pan,
+and drink beer out of a jam pot, and a condensed-milk tin with the top
+cut off and the sharp edge turned down. But all these drawbacks were met
+in the true picnic spirit, which 'de minimis non curat' so long as there
+is something to eat. Our two last bottles of beer were sacrificed, and
+it went to our hearts to have to pour away our beloved Skoggaggany soup
+when the cups were wanted for tea, for our visitors did not 'go for' the
+soup with the same alacrity that distinguishes us. Possibly it occurred
+to them that the middle of a blazing hot August day was not the most
+suitable time for highly seasoned, substantial, nearly boiling liquid to
+be poured down their throats.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Thomas and Miss A---- all spoke English well, but their
+friend young F---- could neither speak it nor understand it: however, he
+wished to be genial and polite, and replied 'Oh yase, tank you,'
+whenever any remark was made to him. In consequence of this amiable
+trait, John, who thought he could talk our language as well as the
+others, supplied him with beer, whisky and water, tea, soup, and
+marmalade all at the same time, to each of which articles when offered
+he had replied 'Oh yase, tank you.' This made a sad run on our limited
+supply of crockery.
+
+Lunch ended, the Skipper volunteered as usual to take the party one by
+one for a cruise in his canoe. This with the ordinary English lady would
+be a matter of considerable risk, but all Norwegians--ladies as well as
+men--are accustomed to boats, and very nearly all of them can swim. But
+the trip was quite dangerous enough, for both the ladies insisted on
+kneeling in the right position and paddling themselves, and there was a
+good sea on, with a distant threatening storm. While Mrs. Thomas was
+pursuing her adventurous career, her husband danced on the bank after
+the manner of a hen with ducklings crying, 'Come back! come back! you go
+too far out!' but we grieve to record that she did not care a little
+bit, and was so delighted with the canoe that the Skipper had some
+difficulty in persuading her to return. May she live long to paddle that
+canoe, for it now belongs to her.
+
+About four o'clock the call came to an end, and our friends departed
+over the mountain to Rus Vand, at the west end of which they expected to
+meet their boat. Before going they made us promise to go and see them
+next Tuesday, and will send a boat to convey us down the lake.
+
+  [Illustration: Esau and Ola return in Triumph]
+
+Soon after six Esau came into camp in an offensively jaunty manner,
+followed by Oela with the heads and skins, and what the lawyers call the
+appurts, to wit, the heart, kidneys, feet, and liver of two reindeer
+bucks. Then was there great rejoicing in that little colony, and dinner
+was served and disposed of with light hearts, even the neglected
+wimberry tart being a complete success, for owing to its gigantic size,
+its long baking in a cooling oven had not been too much for it, and it
+was finished to the last crumb of paste and spoonful of juice.
+
+Our custom is, when a man returns with deer, that he shall lie on the
+sheepskin of indolence if so disposed, while the other fellows prepare
+dinner; and after the meal is finished and men are beginning to lean
+back and fill their pipes, he is expected to relate his adventures
+without interruption; after this he is never to refer to them again
+unless specially requested. Now for Esau's story.
+
+'We went on to Memurutungen and began to find fresh tracks and signs of
+deer almost directly, so were on the tiptoe of expectation all the
+morning. About midday Oela found two deer on a small patch of snow, five
+or six miles from camp, in a very favourable place for approaching them,
+with the wind as right as it could be. We made a lovely stalk; but when
+after an hour's creeping we got to the spot, we were just in time to see
+them disappear, slowly feeding over the hill. We followed as fast as
+possible, and soon came in sight of them again, for as the deer always
+feed against the wind there is no danger of alarming them by following
+on their tracks. A few minutes of breathless crawling like serpents, and
+we were within 100 yards, nearer than I ever got to reindeer before. One
+of them soon gave me a nice side shot, and when I fired he almost fell,
+but recovered himself, and they both ran down the hill towards a little
+glacier. I fired again at him and missed; and then ran as hard as I
+could towards the glacier, cramming in cartridges as I ran. They were
+both out of sight for a moment behind some rocks, and then the unwounded
+one came into view again, and I had a nice shot at him at about 150
+yards, and was lucky enough to send a bullet just above his heart, which
+killed him instantly at the edge of the glacier.
+
+  [Illustration: A careful Finishing Shot]
+
+'I ran straight on, and following round the shoulder of the hill, saw
+the other one standing about 100 yards away, unable to go any further.
+I was in about the same state myself, so sat down, took as careful an
+aim as I could, and fired a shot which finished him. How he had ever got
+so far is a mystery, as the first shot only missed his heart by about an
+inch. The second went in touching the hole made by the first, and killed
+him at once.
+
+'We gralloched them, and built the meat up with stones to preserve it
+from ravens, and the great bugbear of hunters, the "jarraf," as they
+call it; filfras is its English name. I think it is identical with the
+North American wolverine or glutton.'
+
+The lecturer concluded his observations amid great applause.
+
+Let it be understood that the running which is done in pursuit of deer
+is a gymnastic performance of the utmost difficulty, for these mountains
+are almost entirely composed of loose stones with sharp, clean edges.
+These stones vary in size, but otherwise are all similar, and have no
+more tendency to stick together and lie quiet than the lumps in a basin
+of sugar. So that running over them means--for an extremely active
+man--a pace of perhaps four miles an hour; for a deer about six or
+seven. Consequently the deer always when disturbed try to get on to
+snow, for there they can go a great, but unascertained pace--apparently
+somewhere about eighty miles an hour.
+
+We find that after all we were quite right to make the meat-safe before
+killing the deer, for we only made it to hold one, and now we have
+killed two, and so are quite properly behindhand with our arrangements,
+and shall be obliged to make another.
+
+After dinner Esau went down to the lake and tried a few casts from the
+shore. He speedily hooked a fish, which he thought the biggest ever
+made, and never got a sight of it for twenty minutes. He thought this a
+grand top up for a truly successful day, but on landing it, it only
+weighed a pound, but was hooked in the tail, hence the struggle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+GJENDEBODEN.
+
+
+_Sunday, August 15._--Still the same beautiful weather. We spent the
+morning fishing and bathing. Esau distinguished himself by falling into
+the lake off a cliff, just as he had finished dressing after a bath;
+nearly swamping his canoe, full of fish, rugs, and other valuables.
+There was such a sun that he merely hung his things on the rocks and
+went on fishing without them until they were dry, which took a very
+short time. He always had savage tendencies, and would like to live
+without clothes, but we consider this is not dignified, and will not
+tend to promote discipline among our retainers. The Skipper got the best
+bag, as he generally does on a calm day.
+
+After lunch we packed our rods, fowling-pieces, and change of raiment
+into the canoes, and started on a voyage of discovery up the lake,
+intending to spend the night at Gjendebod--a hut at the western end
+somewhat similar to Gjendesheim at the eastern, though not so large or
+so well built, for the upper end of the lake does not get as many
+visitors as the lower.
+
+The expedition commenced with a disaster, owing, no doubt, to its being
+Sunday. As John and Esau in the larger canoe were crossing the glacier
+stream, something caused the boat to almost swamp, but fortunately right
+again with a good deal of water in it. Esau said it was John's
+clumsiness; John said it was Esau's recklessness in crossing at such a
+rapid place, and much recrimination ensued. They went to shore and
+emptied the water out, and then continued the voyage, nothing being wet
+except the rugs used to kneel on. Only the Skipper lingered on the
+voyage to fish; the other two paddling against a heavy head wind
+completed the journey of five miles in about an hour, and had dinner
+cooked and ready by the time the Skipper made his appearance with a
+beautiful basket of trout.
+
+Our dinner was made from the shoulder of venison sent us by Mr. Thomas.
+It was utterly ruined in the cooking, for we are getting fastidious
+after our own luxurious meals, and think as poorly of Gjendebod cookery
+as a certain friend of ours did of English, when he complained that 'in
+all the houses of the rich and great which he had ever known, he had
+never seen a decent hot dinner served except when they had it cold for
+lunch.'
+
+We found here a young Norwegian who spoke English well, and gave us some
+very interesting information, chiefly about the winter life in Norway;
+also a very intelligible account of the land system of the country,
+which we intend to send to Mr. Gladstone for use in his next Irish Land
+Bill. We think it peculiarly adapted for Ireland, because, though we all
+understood it perfectly at the time, we cannot agree about any of its
+main features on comparing notes afterwards.
+
+Presently there arrived here Coutts--our Gjendesheim acquaintance who
+had made the extraordinary walk over the mountains. His hair had either
+not grown since we last saw him, or else he had sand-papered it off
+again. He had just achieved another remarkable feat. This was a climb to
+the top of 'Stor Skagastolstind,' a mountain which has only been
+ascended twice previously; first by an Englishman who spends most of his
+time in doing such things, and afterwards by a Norwegian, the last time
+being two years ago. Many others have tried and failed. The ordinary
+traveller will find the feat of pronouncing its name fluently in the
+course of conversation quite difficult enough; but it can be done by the
+exercise of an iron will, and if not attempted more than once in a day,
+no fatal effects need be apprehended. Once we met a very
+careworn-looking man who told us he had been trying to make a pun on the
+name, but we felt no pity for so foolhardy a wretch.
+
+The authorized procedure for those who accomplish the ascent, is to
+enclose their name and some coins in a bottle, and build a little cairn
+round the bottle, leaving their handkerchief with it, and bringing down
+the corresponding articles left by the last man. Coutts showed us the
+handkerchief and bottle which he found on the top, but the coins he must
+have spent in drinks on his way home, or else did not like to trust us
+with them, as he could not produce them. He had, of course, left his own
+handkerchief, and John, who is short of these useful though not
+indispensable articles, was seized with a great longing to risk his life
+and go to the summit of that mountain for Coutts's. At least, he was
+very keen about it immediately after the description of the ascent and
+hiding of the treasure; but since he became calmer we almost persuaded
+him not to go, as he hates walking, especially uphill walking; it takes
+two days to ascend the peak, one to get down again; and the whole
+performance is slightly more difficult and hazardous than the ascent of
+the Matterhorn.
+
+It will probably be unnecessary to remark that Coutts did not for a
+moment condescend to follow the path chosen by former climbers, but
+having after considerable search found one at least twice as dangerous,
+he chose that, as he had not time to look for a worse one.
+
+
+_August 16._--After breakfast we found a drover, who was living in a hut
+here, and impressed him to come out with us after Ryper--his function
+being that of the dog. There are many of these drovers in the mountains
+during the summer. They get cattle--how, we do not know; whether they
+buy them, or merely drive them on commission for the owners; then they
+feed them on the common lands, and drive them to some town at the end of
+the summer. The huts that they live in are wretched little places. There
+is one about two miles from our camp, built of rough stones against a
+rock which forms two of the sides, without any door or window, and only
+a hole to creep in at. No Englishman would keep his dog in such a place,
+unless it were dead; but we are told that a drover lived there for a
+month this year before we came, and it is considered of sufficient
+importance to be marked on the Ordnance map, otherwise we should never
+have seen it.
+
+Our drover, however, was rather a great man, living in a hut with a real
+door and a window, and a live woman inside to cook for him and iron his
+shirt--at least, we imagined she must be doing this, as he had not got
+one on.
+
+Ryper shooting began by law yesterday, but our Sabbatarian proclivities
+prevented us from going forth to the chase. The true reason is that we
+superstitiously believe it will rain again if we shoot on Sunday, though
+no one will confess that this is the feeling by which we are possessed.
+
+We crossed the lake in the canoes--the Skipper and Esau to shoot, John
+and Herr Drover to beat. There was a narrow belt of birch trees between
+the lake and the willow belt in which we hoped to find the birds, and
+before we got through this, our ears were gladdened by the sound of two
+shots from Esau, who had walked on to two old birds and got them both;
+but, alas! disappointment was in store for us. We walked up hill and
+down dale, dry ground and marshy, willow belt and birch belt, but never
+saw another ryper for five hours, and then we put up one old cock who
+fled away with a derisive crow before we got within sixty yards of him.
+It is hopeless work hunting ryper without dogs. We found plenty of
+places where they had fed or sat, or been running on wet ground; but
+they hate flying unless they are compelled, and on a day of this sort
+lie like stones, though we have seen them after windy weather get up
+almost as wild as Yorkshire grouse. But we feel that we have done our
+duty in trying to shoot ryper, and so now can go back to our fishing and
+stalking with a quiet conscience.
+
+And if we got no more ryper we found such a quantity of 'moeltebaer,' that
+there is every prospect of Esau being seriously ill for some days, which
+would be a distinct gain as far as the consumption of our stores goes.
+The 'moeltebaer' is a berry like a large yellow raspberry, very good
+indeed to eat, with a sort of honey flavour about it. The Norwegians
+think it better than the strawberry, though we hardly indorse this
+opinion. It is a beautiful scarlet before it is ripe, and a dirty pale
+yellow when ready to gather. It grows low down, and is difficult to
+find, as it conceals itself in low, swampy, and rather dark places.
+
+When we returned from the pursuit of the disobliging ryper, there was a
+fair breeze down the lake, so we hoisted sails and were soon back at
+Memurudalen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+A FORMAL CALL.
+
+
+_August 17._--This was the day appointed for our visit to the Thomas's
+at Rus Vand, but though we told Oela as usual to call us at 7.30, he
+never came until about half-past eight. His watch is a curiosity among
+bad watches; he sets it by one of ours every night, and it has always
+gained or lost several hours before morning: on one occasion it actually
+lost nearly a fortnight while we slept. The Skipper says it 'ain't worth
+a smothered oath;' and this morning, as we specially wished to get up
+early--and did get up, owing to Oela's watch, more than usually late--he
+is getting lower in his valuation, and estimates it at a 'whispered
+d----.'
+
+We have begged Oela to pawn it, or refrain from winding it up, but
+without effect, and Esau lent him his--which has never moved since its
+bath, and is fixed at 5.20. This was very successful for two days, as it
+made Oela call us about six o'clock, and we had lots of time to go to
+sleep again afterwards; but after that the discontented fellow came and
+asked for one that would go faster, and of course we have nothing that
+will compare with his own either at trotting or cantering.
+
+First thing this morning the Skipper was seen shaving his meagre chin
+with no little care, and reflecting himself with considerable interest
+in a slip of looking-glass that he keeps under his pillow. We all made
+elaborate toilets, but the Skipper was especially beautiful by reason of
+his necktie, and the least thread-bare of his two coats, which he wore
+with what he considered a careless grace.
+
+We started up the mountain at half-past ten, and arrived on the shores
+of Rus Vand very hot and tired in about two hours. There we saw a dim
+speck on the distant horizon which we imagined to be the boat coming to
+take us down the lake. So we began to fish till it should arrive; and it
+was a considerable time before we realised the fact that the speck we
+had seen was indeed the boat, but it was _going_, not coming, for the
+soulless wretch who had control of it had presumed to think, and his
+thoughts being of course the mere unreasoning impulses of a brutish and
+degraded mind, had caused him to suppose we were not coming. This was a
+terrible blow, but at last we bravely decided to walk on to the
+hut--about eight miles. During the next six pages of this book we walked
+and walked and walked, with hunger and thirst raging inside us,
+a broiling sun over our heads, and the most frightful language
+proceeding from our lips; tramping along cattle tracks, wading through
+mountain torrents, and stumbling over willows and rocks, till about
+half-past three in the afternoon, when turning the last corner we came
+on the two huts, and our olfactory nerves were greeted by the welcome
+scent of adjacent cooking food.
+
+Thomas was most profuse in his maledictions of the idiot who had left
+the west end of the lake without waiting for us, and we had great
+difficulty in persuading him not to shed his blood there and then. Thus
+far the misery.
+
+But now a change came o'er the scene. Behold the wearied travellers
+lying on the sward, in the cool shadow cast by the hut; surrounded by
+iced whisky punch, brandy and water, rum and milk, and claret, and
+drinking them all at once under the entreaties of our hospitable
+entertainers. Anon a sumptuous feast was spread under the canopy of a
+tent pitched just above the roaring waters of the Russen River where it
+leaves the calm of the lake for the turmoil and trouble of a hurried
+descent to busier regions. That trout, reindeer, roast ryper, and the
+various smaller birds will be remembered by all of us as long as we
+live.
+
+The Skipper confessed afterwards that all along that burning shadeless
+cattle track--with its atmosphere perfectly blue with execrations--he
+had thought that life was but a 'wale of tears' at the best of times;
+but when after dinner cigars and black coffee were produced, he began to
+believe we had had rather a pleasant walk after all.
+
+We left the hospitable hut about six, in the boat, Thomas himself and
+Jens coming with us. Jens rowed, and we four fished all the way up the
+lake, so that the water was stiff with minnows and flies. John with a
+minnow caught one three-pound trout and some smaller ones, and the
+Skipper and Esau several good fish with the fly, but we had no time to
+really try to catch fish, but kept rowing steadily on and getting what
+we could on the way. Thomas got out halfway up the lake to fish from the
+bank, and John at once trampled on a spare rod which had been brought in
+the boat, and reduced it to matchwood. Then to witness John's polite
+protestations and apologies from the boat to Mr. Thomas on shore was
+truly gratifying to us as spectators. When they were concluded we rowed
+on to the end of the lake, climbed over the dreadful mountain--which was
+by no means a pleasant task in the dark--and reached camp at half-past
+ten--just twelve hours employed in making a formal call. Think of that,
+ye gentlemen of England who grumble at having to leave a card on the
+people the other side of the square.
+
+
+_August 18._--We all stayed at home to-day, as the weather--although
+still perfectly fine--was not favourable for any sort of sport with
+which we are acquainted except kite-flying; and the tent was constantly
+in such imminent danger of being blown from its moorings, that we feared
+if we went away, we should not be able to find it when we came back. It
+was great fun during breakfast to watch Ivar sailing after our goods and
+chattels whenever a sudden gust of wind sent them scudding over the
+ground till brought to a standstill by a juniper or a rock. Before
+starting in pursuit he always opened his mouth to its utmost
+width--which is enormous--and then extending his arms and legs till he
+looked like a demoniac wind-mill, he swooped down on the quarry, never
+failing to secure the fly-away article, dish-cloth, or towel, or
+whatever it might be.
+
+The Skipper was the only one who attempted fishing, and he had but poor
+sport, and soon returned to camp to assist in the operations there going
+on. The most important of these was the construction of a new game
+cellar in the ground near the old one. Esau was 'bossing' this thing,
+while Oela worked. Esau, being very lazy himself, takes a fiendish
+delight in getting any work out of Oela; and now his portion of the job
+seemed to be standing with an axe in his hand revolving things in his
+great mind while Oela undertook the labour. The Skipper and John devoted
+themselves to baking, and produced an enormous quantity of bread and
+biscuits; and when these were finished the united strength of the
+company engaged itself on a meat pie.
+
+The division of labour in this enterprise is always managed thus. Esau
+is butcher--an employment in which he revels, and at which he is
+decidedly an adept. He cuts up reindeer in convenient slices for placing
+in the pie-dish; adding thereto slices of bacon, and two or three
+hard-boiled eggs, with some liver, heart, and birds if we have any to
+spare. Meanwhile the Skipper concocts the dough for the crust from
+flour, butter, and boiling water; and after rolling the same on the top
+of one of the boxes with an empty beer-bottle, neatly lines the smaller
+of the two low tins with it; fills it with the various ingredients and
+plenty of pepper, salt, and some water, and then covers it with a thin
+disc of paste perforated with holes, and adorned with fantastic images
+of reindeer and birds. Now the pie is ready for the oven--which all this
+time John has been stoking indefatigably with arm loads of wood; and
+when he announces that the oven is fit the pie is borne in solemn
+procession to it, and safely enclosed by the sod which acts as the oven
+door, and conceals it from our gaze for a time, which varies according
+to the size of the pie and heat of the oven.
+
+We have some difficulties to contend with in the top of our oven, for
+the sods which fill in the holes thereof are liable to crumble with the
+intense heat and fall down in fine dust on our food gently stewing in
+its cosy nest. The only way to obviate this is to water the top of the
+oven every morning as if it were a spring garden, and then the clods
+never get dry enough to play their evil little games. The Skipper
+compares the baking of a pie to burial by cremation (if that is not a
+bull). Certainly it always comes out etherealised; a thing of beauty and
+a joy for at least two days. Esau called this pie after its resurrection
+'a harmony in yellow and brown quite too too utter and distinctly
+precious;' and John added, 'Begorra, me jewel, it is that same, bedad.'
+
+  [Illustration: The Colony at Breakfast in Memurudalen]
+
+We shall now be free to do what seems good in our eyes for several days
+without the trouble of baking: altogether our stock of provisions is
+enormous. This is always the way in camp life; first a week of existence
+on the verge of starvation, and then a time of milk and honey and tables
+overflowing with plenty.
+
+
+_August 19._--Some of the bread that John makes is rather heavy.
+Yesterday we were constrained to point this fact out to him. He
+pretended not to be able to see it, and in support of his theory ate at
+supper a quantity of the rolls that we had condemned. The consequence
+was that about two o'clock A.M. we were roused from our peaceful
+slumbers by John jumping spasmodically out of bed and rushing to the
+tent door, uttering at the same time most ghastly yells. At the door he
+appeared to be awake, so we said, sitting up in bed with our hair on
+end,--
+
+'_Now_ then, John. What's the row?' To which he answered very quietly,--
+
+'Why, my line's caught on that rock over there. I wish you would stop
+the boat a minute.'
+
+Then he went gently to bed again and continued his unbroken slumbers.
+
+A sleeping man is selfishly regardless of the disquiet he brings on his
+fellow-creatures, and John, although he must have dreamt all sorts of
+funny things, did not dream that he was disturbing our night's rest.
+
+The other night when we were returning from our visit to Rus Vand, John
+casually seated himself on a rock at the extreme top of the mountain. It
+was quite dark except for a subdued glow of light caused by the setting
+moon behind the mountains on the other side of Gjendin Lake. Now the
+Skipper and Esau take a good deal of interest in moons, because they are
+considerably affected by the pallid luminary when at the full;
+consequently they were aware that she had already passed her highest
+point for that night, and would not show above the peaks until the
+following evening; but John did not know this, and so when we asked his
+reason for sitting down on a very sharp and cold stone 5,000 feet above
+sea level, with the quicksilver right through the bottom of the
+thermometer, at a time when all honest folk were in bed, he replied,--
+
+'You fellows go on; I'm going to wait here and see the moon rise.'
+
+We never disturb a man when he feels poetical, lest it should break out
+in some more dangerous form; so we left him on his 'cold grey stone,'
+and made the best of our way to camp.
+
+When we had about half finished our soup, he came struggling and wading
+in through the shrubs and swamp, and sat down to supper without making
+any remarks about the scenery, neither did he touch upon the subject of
+silver shafts, or shimmering sheen, or a network of frosted filigree
+chaining down the ripples. He was evidently disappointed about
+something, and we possessed too much delicacy of feeling to ask what was
+wrong, and so the matter dropped. But at breakfast this morning the
+Skipper happened to tell a story about a man he knew, who waited on the
+quay for some friends who had arrived in a steamer that day. This man
+had ordered a sumptuous banquet directly the steamer was signalled, then
+waited three hours expecting a boat to come off every minute, but at
+last perceived that a curious flag was flying on the steamer, and on
+inquiry found that she was quarantined for a fortnight. Then Esau could
+not resist the opportunity, and remarked,--
+
+'Just like waiting for the moon to rise when she ain't due over the
+mountains for twenty-four hours,' and the harmony of the meeting at once
+ceased to exist.
+
+The Skipper went after deer, but only had a very long walk without
+seeing any. We have now got the kitchen into a great state of
+perfection, so that within ten minutes of his return a recherche repast
+was on the table. This is rather a difficult thing to manage, as we
+never know to within a couple of hours what time the hunters will
+return; but it can be done by having the chops, steaks, or birds ready
+in one frying-pan, the trout in the other, the potatoes partially
+cooked, and the tea or coffee made: the leaves or grounds of the latter
+we remove always after eight minutes' brewing, so that it does not alter
+by standing. The table of course is ready laid.
+
+Once and only once there was a long delay, owing to a misfortune with
+the water that had been boiled for the tea; but the explosion of wrath
+from the famishing hunter on that occasion was so dreadful, that the
+utmost endeavours have since been successfully used to prevent its
+recurrence.
+
+      MENU.--August 19.
+
+         _Potage._
+      Mulligatawny.
+
+         _Poisson._
+  Truite a la Maitre d'Hotel.
+
+         _Entrees._
+        Venison Pie.
+
+         _Rots._
+       Venison Pie.
+
+         _Gibier._
+        Venison Pie.
+
+        _Entremets._
+         Pancakes.
+
+Our procedure with pancakes is for every man to fry and toss his own;
+the frying of the first side is easy enough, but the tossing requires
+skill, for we do not allow the mean practice of helping the delicacy
+over with a knife, indulged in by some weak-spirited cooks.
+
+John's first became a mangled heap of batter under his repeated efforts,
+and was finally eaten by him in that condition; his second ascended
+towards the heavens most gracefully when he tossed, and was absent for
+some minutes, but unfortunately he failed to hold the pan in the right
+place on its return, and it fell on the ground, where it was immediately
+seized and devoured by Ivar. The third was a complete success, and so
+were the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh; the eighth stuck to the pan,
+and was a failure; and after that he got along all right to the
+thirty-fourth, when he had another partial failure, owing to
+over-confidence. This made him more careful, and all the rest were quite
+perfect. When we had finished we gave the rest of the batter to the men,
+who fried it all in one huge pancake, about two inches thick.
+
+We notice that all the diaries agree for once; the following note occurs
+in all:--
+
+'Pancakes for dinner to-day; the other two fellows over-ate themselves.'
+
+We told John this morning of his adventure with the boat and fishing
+line during the night, so he ate all the new bread at lunch, thereby
+laying its restless spirit long before bedtime; no doubt he and his
+dinner will slumber more peacefully to-night.
+
+It may be remembered that we brought a lot of fish slightly salted with
+us from Gjendesheim. Ever since our return here we have caught plenty of
+fish every day, and as we prefer fresh food to salt, the Gjendesheim
+fish which were placed in a little barrel have been neglected. Five or
+six days ago we noticed an unpleasant odour, and found that it proceeded
+from this barrel, the fish being in an advanced stage of decomposition,
+and the men told us they were making 'raki fiske,' a thing which they
+informed us in Norwegian is 'real jam.' We were very angry, and gave
+orders that the whole thing should at once be thrown into the glacier
+torrent. After this the affair faded from our minds, but yesterday we
+again noticed a suspicion of the same smell, and this morning it was so
+powerful that we began to invent theories to account for it.
+
+John, who is a man of great scientific attainments proved to his own
+complete satisfaction, that it proceeded from the bodies of prehistoric
+reindeer which had been engulfed by an avalanche ages ago and entombed
+in the glacier until now, when at last their decaying corpses were being
+washed down the stream.
+
+He said Huxley had often observed the same thing and told him about it.
+
+Esau's theory was that the glacier itself was decomposing. 'Look what a
+long time it had been standing exposed to the air, and most likely in a
+damp place; everybody knew that snow water was not good to drink,
+witness the goitre of Switzerland; and why was it not good? Simply
+because it was putrid, and now that the hot sun was shining upon it, no
+wonder it smelt a little.'
+
+He concluded his remarks by inquiring who Huxley might be, and was just
+setting off up the valley with a bottle of Condy's fluid to pour over
+the glacier, when the Skipper, who had wandered down to the Memurua
+River instead of arguing, suddenly rushed back with his fingers tightly
+holding his nose, and shaking his fist at Oela, said something that began
+with 'Dab,' and went on with other unknown words.
+
+At last we gathered from his expressions that the barrel of 'raki fiske'
+had not been thrown into the torrent at all, but our villanous retainers
+had secreted it near the stream, intending to have a feast as soon as it
+should have become rotten enough to please their cultivated taste. Truly
+a Norwegian has the nastiest notions of food. Now the 'raki fiske,'
+barrel and all, is buried a yard deep, a long way from here, and life is
+again pleasant, but we have little doubt that Oela and Ivar will come
+back and root about and dig it up after we have left the country say a
+month hence: it ought to be in perfect condition by that time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+FISHING.
+
+
+_August 20._--The first thing this morning we sent Oela to Gjendesheim
+with some venison for the people there, who have been very kind in
+sending milk, eggs, rice, onions, &c. to us. We have more meat than we
+shall be able to eat if the weather continues as fine and hot as it is
+at present.
+
+We three walked over the mountain to spend the day at Rus Vand, taking
+our lunch with us. We got there about half-past ten, and the fish were
+then rising well, so we separated and commenced fishing, the Skipper and
+John taking the north side of the lake, Esau the south. After catching a
+few fish the rise stopped, as it always does on these lakes about
+midday.
+
+  [Illustration: An Exciting Moment in Rus Lake Shallows]
+
+There is no doubt that on a Norwegian lake the fisherman should above
+all things 'make haste while the fish rise.' It is all very well for the
+ancient sportsman to remark, 'Take your time, my young friend, there are
+as good fish in the sea as ever came out of it.' It is no doubt true
+enough; but at this time of year they will not rise to fly for more than
+about a couple of hours twice a day, and if you do not make the best of
+your opportunities then, where are you? Put yourself in the place of the
+fine old veteran three-pounder who has got into the habit of taking his
+meals at regular hours for fear of spoiling his digestion, and has
+selected the hours between 10 and 12 A.M. and 4.30 and 6.30 P.M.,
+because he knows from long experience that these are the most likely
+times to find flies on the water. He has come in from roaming in deep
+waters to the shades of the rocky coast, and has a certain appetite to
+allay after his bath and morning stroll. There he waits, and thinks of
+old times, and of how fat and shiny his tummy became the last hot summer
+there was, when flies were plentiful, and he had not to resort to this
+abominable device of catching small trout and eating mice[*] to keep him
+in daily food, as he nearly always has to do now that the summers are so
+wet, and he is no longer active enough to compete with his younger
+relations in the struggle for existence. 'What times those were, and how
+he wishes he were a year or two younger again, and not crippled with
+useless length; and, by George! now he comes to look at his reflection
+against that stone, he's getting quite yellow and bilious under the
+belly, and----' But he can't stop to moralise, there is a luscious March
+Brown of unusual solidity skating right over his pet rock, and he can't
+let it pass. So up he comes and gulps it down, with a lazy flop of his
+tail that leaves quite a swirl on the lake surface. 'Why, the thing's
+got no flavour, and how I've hurt my jaw with it!' Poor old chap, his
+day is over, and after ten minutes' struggle he has left his favourite
+haunt to be occupied by another tenant, and is safe in the landing net,
+a good three-pound fish, but, like most of those who have reached this
+size, not quite in as good condition as he was at 21/2 lbs., and just a
+shade longer than he ought to be. Don't stop to gaze at him, put him in
+the bag with all speed--it is necessary to hurry up and fish on while
+the rise lasts.
+
+    [Footnote: We have found as many as three mice in the stomach of
+    a Rus Vand trout.]
+
+But all this time the hours have been slipping away, and we have
+lunched, and smoked, and sketched till the rise began again soon after
+four, and though there was a strong cold west wind, the change seemed to
+encourage the fish to feed more greedily than usual, for trout are
+terrible Radicals, and rejoice in any alteration of the existing
+condition of things.
+
+  [Illustration: Esau's Best Day among the Trout]
+
+Our old experience of Rus Vand taught us that one side was
+sporting-looking and interesting, while the other was bleak and ugly;
+but Esau, who took the ugly side, had much the best of it to-day, as the
+place seemed alive with fish, and he kept catching them all the time, so
+that his little ten-foot rod was continually to be seen in the form of a
+hoop, from which position it reassumed the perpendicular in a way that
+reflects no little credit on Mr. Farlow.
+
+When we met again at the end of the lake on our way home, we found that
+we had twenty fish, weighing just 44 lbs., of which Esau had caught
+fifteen weighing 321/2 lbs., the Skipper four of 9 lbs. weight, and John,
+who was very unlucky, only a single two-and-a-half-pounder. The smallest
+of the bag was a little over a pound, the largest three pounds, which
+was reached by more than one; and nearly all were caught in water so
+shallow that the dorsal fin of the fish was often visible in his mad
+rushes hither and thither; this made it extremely difficult to prevent
+the tail-fly being hung up on a rock whenever the fish was hooked on the
+dropper, and not a few were lost in this manner. All were caught on two
+patterns of fly, namely----No, philanthropy has limits, and no man can
+expect to be told patterns of flies. Go to Norway, and the time and
+trouble spent in acquiring that knowledge will be amply repaid by the
+pleasure that no one could fail to derive from a visit.
+
+No doubt, with the usual discontentedness of man we shall regret for
+ever that we did not all go to the ugly side of the lake, of which Esau
+was obliged to leave the best piece untouched as he came back, from
+sheer inability to carry any more fish over the rough ground. But the
+ways of fish are inscrutable; we hardly ever caught any number on that
+side before, and probably shall not do so again. It was just Esau's day.
+Kismet.
+
+After weighing our catch, we cleaned them and cut off their heads to
+lighten them for the journey over Glopit, and even without this extra
+weight we were a good deal troubled and felt overburdened on the uphill
+side, which is terribly steep and rough, only just practicable for a man
+on foot.
+
+When we got back to camp we found that Oela had not returned from
+Gjendesheim, which caused us some sorrow, as Esau wanted to go out
+stalking on the morrow, and could not go alone. At least, he would be
+extremely unlikely to see any deer, for the reindeer being exactly the
+same colour as the mountains among which they live, it is almost
+impossible to see them before they see the enemy and depart hastily.
+
+These native hunters are wonderful at the profession, and seem to know
+by instinct when they are in the vicinity of deer, as if they could feel
+their presence in the air. No doubt they really see indications that we
+should never observe, for they always begin to go cautiously, crouching
+and peering over rocks when deer are about, long before we amateurs are
+aware from the ordinary signs of footprints, nibbled reindeer flowers,
+or newly moved stones, that there is likely to be any sport.
+
+  [Plate: ON THE TOP OF GLOPIT. RETURNING FROM RUS LAKE.]
+
+
+_August 21._--It was cold and windy last night, so we turned into bed
+early and lay in luxurious comfort while John read out choice bits, all
+of which we know by heart, from the works of Mark Twain. We all think
+Mark Twain the best writer for camp life that has yet been discovered,
+and we have three or four of his books here. Besides these our library
+of light literature consists of Shakespeare, Longfellow, Dr. Johnson's
+Table-talk, and novels by Whyte Melville, Walford, and Thackeray. But
+Mark and William get more work than all the rest.
+
+It is quite dark now during the night, and we have made a wooden
+chandelier out of a curiously bent piece of birch wood, which holds two
+candles and hangs down from the ridge pole by a string. In the daytime
+it is hoisted up to the roof, but at night we let it down till it swings
+about two feet above our heads as we lie in bed. This contrivance is
+capital for reading, and also affords considerable diversion to the last
+man into bed. The candles are just too high to be reached with a puff
+easily from a recumbent position, and yet we persistently try to blow
+them out without moving. Just as sleep is creeping over two of the
+wearied sportsmen, the last man begins blowing and cussing at these
+candles every night regularly. The scene is generally this. Skipper and
+John just dropping off to sleep. Esau lies down, makes himself extremely
+comfortable, and then--puff, whoo, whew, puff,--gasp for breath, rest a
+moment. Pouf. Chandelier swings round under the impulse of the strong
+wind thus created. Esau makes a brilliant flying shot at one candle, as
+it circles swiftly past. Skipper: 'Thank goodness.' Pause. Esau: Poof,
+whoo, whoof. John: 'Dash it all, get up and put it out.' Esau: 'Get up
+yourself.' Skipper: 'Let me blow it out.' Pouf, puff, whoosh. Chandelier
+swings madly round, drops grease on John's nose. John: 'Tare an 'ouns.'
+Throws tobacco pouch at it, more grease all over the place, tobacco
+pouch rebounds from tent into Esau's mouth. Recrimination for five
+minutes. Chandelier at last stationary. Everybody at once: 'Puff, boo,
+pouf, whew, ---- it, ---- it, pouf, ---- it, ---- the ---- thing -- --
+-- pouf. Thank goodness;' and we all turn over with a sigh of relief, to
+repeat the performance the following night.
+
+Oela not having turned up, there could be no stalking, so the beautiful
+morning was wasted. The Skipper got so angry about it that he said he
+would go in his canoe to find the absentee, and take at the same time a
+lot of our surplus fish for the people at Gjendesheim.
+
+Leaving the tent on its grassy sunlit lawn he walked down to the edge of
+the great lake, and turning over the smaller of the two canoes, which
+were lying bottom uppermost, launched her and got in with rod and
+fishing bag, and pushed off into the deep. Opposite to the place where
+the canoes were drawn up, and apparently only a hundred yards distant
+though really more than a mile away, were the snow-capped mountain
+steeps that rise almost perpendicularly from two to three thousand feet
+out of the lake; and for these he made, gradually becoming a mere
+twinkling speck till he faded out of sight from the tent. The lake was
+as smooth as glass, only occasionally rippled as some monarch of the
+deep, excited for once in his life by some specially fascinating fly,
+condescended to make a rush for it instead of the gentle suck by which
+he usually took his food, and the Skipper paddled leisurely along within
+twenty yards of the rocks, with his rod bending over the stern, and
+trailing behind a couple of flies in the hope of catching a trout
+without the trouble of angling for him.
+
+It is very pleasant to be alone once in a way in this overcrowded world.
+Not alone as it is possible to be in England, but absolutely alone, with
+no living thing near except the trout, the insects, and one's image in
+the water. Oh, blessed Norway! when we get back to the turmoils,
+troubles, and pleasures of a London season how we shall long for you!
+There is only one word to express this existence, and that is
+Freedom--freedom from care, freedom from resistance, and from the
+struggle for life. What a country! where civilised man can relapse as
+much as seems good to him into his natural state, and retrograde a
+hundred generations into his primeval condition.
+
+But we forget that the Skipper is coasting up towards Gjendesheim in
+search of the miscreant Oela.
+
+He proceeded for a couple of hours, catching a few fish now and then,
+but presently as midday approached, the sun became too hot to be
+pleasant, the fish would not move, and the Skipper began to get
+impatient and annoyed at not meeting Oela. After a while a black speck
+with two flashing arms appeared rounding a promontory; this was Oela in
+the boat. The Skipper was boiling with rage under the influence of
+various incentives as he approached. Oela, like most Norwegians, was
+calm, placid, and utterly unconscious of the flight of time and the
+shortness of life. The Skipper had been primed to exploding point by his
+two friends before starting, and as he had now paddled five miles from
+home without meeting the adversary, he was, to put it mildly,
+'indignant.' So, when he found Oela smoking serenely, and sculling along
+as though his brief span were going to stretch through the unending
+cycles of eternity, he gave way to the most horrible outbreak of temper
+in English, which must have lasted four or five minutes, and then
+telling the caitiff in Norwegian to take the fish to Gjendesheim and
+return to camp by five o'clock whatever the weather might be, he turned
+and left that hardy Norseman open-mouthed and bewildered, looking as
+though he had seen the Stroemkarl, or had had an interview with his
+mother-in-law.
+
+Then a great wind arose, and blew against the Skipper all the way home,
+but he arrived in the most beatific frame of mind in spite of it; the
+relief of the storm of temper and bad language had been so great to him,
+that he was filled with a blessed joy. He said it was the most
+invigorating and refreshing pastime he ever indulged in, for Oela could
+not understand a word of it, and therefore no remorse could follow the
+outburst, not a thoughtless expression or hasty word could go home to
+his heart and there rankle, to recoil on some future occasion, but the
+whole vial of pent-up wrath could be emptied on its object without fear
+of retribution.
+
+The explosion must have been something very fine to enable the Skipper
+to make light of the head-wind, for a wind on Gjendin is not to be
+scoffed at in any boat, and least of all in a cockle-shell of a canoe.
+The mountains are so high and steep that the lake lies as it were in a
+trench, and any wind always draws straight up or down the length, and
+soon gets a big sea up. All the Norwegians we have seen say it is the
+height of madness to go on Gjendin at all in such boats, the sudden
+squalls are so dangerous; and neither of our men can be persuaded to go
+a yard in them.
+
+Esau and John, for want of better employment, after fishing a little,
+began to bake, and had laid out a goodly show of dainty confections, two
+dozen rolls, four wimberry tarts, a lot of biscuits, and a venison pie
+of the ordinary size (9 inches diameter). When the Skipper returned it
+was decided to make another, as we imagine the meat has a better chance
+of keeping when hoarded up in pies than when left in its raw state.
+
+So we each took our usual share in the construction of a PIE, before
+which all other pies should be as nought.
+
+It was made in our largest baking tin, 12 inches across, and contained
+nearly a hind quarter of venison, our last six eggs, a heart, a liver,
+and about 11/2 lb. of bacon. The crust was put on about nine o'clock, and
+after we had all gazed at it and unanimously agreed that it was the
+'boss pie,' we bore it proudly but gingerly to the oven, heated by John
+seven times hotter than before, and now gaping to receive it; a great
+full moon rose up from behind the mountains and seemed to smile on our
+good work; the bright fire shed a red glow over the three figures
+bending o'er the simmering treasure, and a more peaceful, domestic group
+it would be impossible to conceive.
+
+About eleven John and the Skipper turned in, but outside could be seen
+for some time the solitary form of Esau still crouching over the
+expiring embers of the oven, and tending with a mother's care the
+tempting food that he already tasted in imagination.
+
+  [Plate: BAKING BY NIGHT IN MEMURUDALEN.]
+
+Most of the berries of the country are now just at their best, and
+Memurudalen is a grand valley for all of them, except of course the
+strawberry and raspberry, which will not grow at this altitude. But we
+have 'klarkling' (the English crowberry) in great abundance; blau baer
+(wimberry), the finest and best ever seen, in quantities; also 'skin
+tukt,' another blue berry rather larger than a wimberry, and with a
+thicker skin and wonderful bloom on it; this we think does not grow in
+England. Then less numerous are a berry something between a raspberry
+and a red currant, but of better flavour than either of them; and the
+great and glorious 'moelte baer' (cloudberry); to say nothing of 'heste
+baer,' and 'tutti baer,' and several others of unknown names. The last one
+grows in England, but we have forgotten its name; they make jelly from
+it here, and prize it highly for its acid taste.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+MEMURUDALEN.
+
+
+_Sunday, August 22._--We woke up this morning with a bright sun shining
+through the canvas of the tent, and making it intolerably hot inside;
+and as we threw open the door of the inner compartment, the fragrant
+aroma of the 'boss pie' was wafted to us on the morning air.
+
+We spent the morning in quiet Sunday fashion, chiefly in lying under the
+shade of an awning made with rugs which we call the 'sycamine tree,' and
+eating wimberries and cream. Besides this we perpetrated a great deal of
+high art; every one was seized with the desire of sketching the camp,
+and so we sat around on pinnacles like so many pelicans, libelling the
+unfortunate place from every position whence it could be seen.
+
+It is looking very comfortable just now. The tent itself is pitched in
+an angle of a steep little cliff which effectually protects it from cold
+winds at one side and the back, and at the other side we have put up a
+thick fence of birch branches to temper the storm to the sleeping-tent.
+We find it very convenient to have the two compartments: the inner one
+is only used for sleeping in, and always immediately after reveille is
+plunged in an apparently hopeless confusion of rugs, sheepskins,
+mattresses, and boots, with here and there a book or a hat protruding
+(to use the Skipper's beautiful simile) like brickbats in a dust-heap.
+After breakfast all the bedding is dragged out to be aired on the rocks,
+and the tent generally tidied.
+
+But the outer tent is always a picture of order and neatness, for here
+we keep our stores, boxes of flour and biscuits, cartridges, cooking
+utensils, tools, whisky, and potatoes. One of the boxes was made
+specially under Esau's directions to be used as a table: the top and
+bottom are both hinged, and so when the box is put on its front and
+these two lids opened it makes a very good large table; the lids are
+held up by a batten screwed underneath them, and for greater security we
+have added two legs. But at present the weather is so pleasant that we
+always feed outside, a few yards from the tent and nearer to the oven.
+
+On the extreme left, as the penny showman says, you will observe one of
+the meat safes, the other one 'thou canst not see, because it's not in
+sight,' being close to the back of the tent. Also behind the tent may be
+faintly seen the mustard and cress garden, always covered with a sheet
+by day to save it from the heat of the sun, and with the same sheet by
+night, to guard it from the cold, so that the poor thing never gets any
+light, and does not flourish very exceedingly. None of the mustard seeds
+have as yet grown up as big as the one in the parable, but when one does
+we mean to make a lot of salad out of it, enough for all the camp.
+
+Above the middle of the outer tent are three things which look like
+lightning conductors, but are only our rods, which are always stuck in
+the ground there when not in use. At their foot under the rock is the
+egg larder, neatly constructed of stones and turf, with a wooden lid;
+and hanging from the cliff hard by is a very pretty and curious spider's
+nest made of paper, like a miniature wasp-nest, about two inches in
+diameter.
+
+High up in the centre is 'the meteor flag of England,' engaged in its
+customary occupation of 'yet terrific burning,' there being absolutely
+no Dutch Boers here. Underneath its shelter are many forked poles with
+cross-bars, all made from the birch with which the valley abounds just
+here, and on which clothing of some sort is always hanging out to dry;
+so that the place looks like a laundry-ground, and deceives even the
+ravens, which come down in swarms from the mountains in search of maids'
+noses to devour. In the midst of these poles may be seen the oven, with
+its flue reaching halfway up the hill, and its two openings, the lower
+one for fuel, the upper for food.
+
+  [Plate: THE CAMP IN MEMURUDALEN.]
+
+Right in front of the tent is the fireplace, a long trench in the
+ground, faced with stones of such a size and shape that they form
+apertures suitable for our numerous pans; and simmering by the fire is
+the perennial soup. Nearer to the front is the wood pile, and nearer
+still the board on which the cooking things are placed after washing up.
+In front again of this is the little stream which supplies us with
+water, now rapidly beginning to fail under the influence of the long
+drought: it may be noticed that the engineers have changed its course in
+several places for greater convenience in getting water, and to give
+more room on the camp side.
+
+The foreground is a mass of juniper, wimberries, skintukt, crowberries,
+and rocks, and then comes about thirty yards from the tent the Memurua
+torrent, all thick and milky from the glacier, cold as Christmas,
+fishless, uninteresting, not drinkable, only useful as a refrigerator
+for milk, and only agreeable to look upon from a distance, but
+faithfully keeping up the unceasing roar that is customary among such
+torrents. This river makes the waters of the lake too cold to bathe in
+and too cheerless for fish to abide in near our camp, but it does not
+come into the picture, partly because it runs in a ravine, but more
+because it was right behind the artist.
+
+The lake itself is to the extreme right, with unclimbable snow-capped
+rocky mountains forming the opposite coast.
+
+To-day we dined at 4 P.M. in order to get an uninterrupted evening's
+fishing, but the experiment was not a success and will not be repeated,
+for it spoilt the dinner and we caught no fish. On returning to camp at
+night rather cold, very cross, and exceedingly hungry, we agreed that
+the best antidote for these dangerous symptoms would be hot soup, so
+John put the pot on the fire while the Skipper and Esau were attending
+to the tent and domestic duties.
+
+Soon the caldron was heated and brought into the tent, and the eager
+crowd drew near with cups and spoons, and one lifted the lid, while
+another plunged his cup into the steaming savoury mess. And then arose a
+great cry of horror and desolation, and the sleeping valley rang with
+the wail of men in despair, for John had put the wrong pot on the fire,
+and we had been presented with boiling dirty water in which the
+dinner-things had been washed up; while all the time the soup pot was
+quiet, untouched and cold in the corner of the tent where it is kept.
+
+But three hungry men are not to be balked of a meal on which their
+hearts are set by any trifle like this, so we all commenced with a will
+to stoke that fire up and put that other pot on, and we got our soup and
+were snugly packed in bed long before the gentle August moon had sunk to
+rest behind the sheltering mountain tops.
+
+The Skipper, by the way, is very much exasperated with this same moon
+just now. He says she is a fraud, for this morning when we got up, there
+she was high in the heavens.
+
+'What right,' he wants to know, 'has this moon--any moon, in fact--to be
+up there blinking away in the middle of the day when we have plenty of
+sun to light us? forward, dissipated thing! and then probably after this
+week we shall have ever so many nights without any moon at all, and all
+the earth left in total darkness to take care of itself; while here we
+are to-day with an absurdly round moon at one end of this comparatively
+diminutive valley, and a most extravagantly blazing sun at the other.'
+The whole thing is ridiculous, he says, and it must be confessed that
+there is some justice in his complaint; though no doubt there could be a
+good deal said on the other side.
+
+
+_August 23._--While Esau went out after deer the other two crawled up
+the mountain and over to Rus Vand to fish, and had a good day. Two of
+the Skipper's fish were three pounds each, but, like most of the biggest
+fish, not in that beautiful condition which the smaller ones always
+show. The Skipper is sure that the old worn-out fish creep up to the
+stony shallows at the western end of the lake to die in a sunny spot,
+just as we men creep away in our old age to Bath, Cheltenham, Cannes, or
+Algiers, to breathe our last in a warm place, thereby taking one step in
+the direction of the proverbial future.
+
+Esau arrived in camp about half-past seven, quite exhausted, and
+followed by Oela, also dead beat, and again bearing the heads and skins
+of two deer, a buck and a doe. He was hailed with fervent joy and many
+congratulations: it is certainly great luck to fall in with deer on two
+stalking days in succession, for they are by no means numerous here this
+year. Dinner was served in a marvellously short time.
+
+
+MENU.--August 23.
+
+             _Poisson._
+    Truite a la Fried in Butter.
+
+            _Entrees._
+      Kari of Reindeer Tongue.
+
+              _Rots._
+           The Boss Pie.
+
+             _Gibier._
+       Ryper a la Spitchcock.
+
+            _Entremets._
+  Jam. Wimberry tart. Marmalade.
+
+             _Potage._
+         Could not eat any.
+
+Then came Esau's romance.
+
+'We walked up the Memurua to the great glacier, and then skirted its
+south side. We found many fresh tracks, and about two o'clock, when we
+were seven miles from home, Oela spied three deer chewing stones about
+three quarters of a mile away. The wind was just in the right direction
+to allow us to approach them, and they were in capital ground for
+stalking, full of little hollows and slopes. But there was a serious
+drawback: on one side was a lake, on the other an impassable precipice;
+and before we could get into a place out of their sight we should be
+obliged to cross a narrow strip of ground in full view of them, though
+perhaps half a mile from them. We sat down and had our lunch, and waited
+an hour watching for them to lie down, and at last they did so; then we
+determined to risk the passage of the dangerous strip, and by crawling
+like serpents and aided by luck got across without the deer seeing us.
+Then we had to creep along the side of a scandalous precipice for the
+next half-mile, in no danger of being seen, but with our hearts
+constantly in our mouths as, despite our care, some stone was dislodged
+and went clattering down the rocks, sounding to my strained ears as if
+it must disturb every living thing within a mile. Very slow and
+difficult was our progress, occasionally dangerous, but at last we
+arrived at a spot 200 yards from the deer, which were still lying down,
+and pronounced by Oela to be a buck and two does.
+
+'This was a very awkward place to shoot from, and I thought I could see
+my way to a better one much nearer, so tried it and found it was just
+possible, and after about a quarter of an hour's worming, I arrived at a
+place only 100 yards from them. From this I could see both the does
+well, but only the head of the buck, and so had to lie there an hour
+waiting for him to get up. Both the does did so twice, offering
+beautiful shots, but he would not move, and they lay down again. I dare
+not whistle to make him jump up, for fear the does might possibly be in
+the way at the moment. So there I lay, miserably uncomfortable, with
+cramp in every muscle; and at last I tried to crawl to another stone
+about five yards away, from which I thought I could see to shoot at the
+buck. When I got to it and peered cautiously over, I was horrified to
+see the deer some distance away, and running as hard as they could
+towards a small glacier which was close to them.
+
+  [Illustration: Esau stalking near Hinaakjaernhullet]
+
+'Of course I instantly lost my head, and jumping up fired at the buck
+without much aim, and missed him. Then I recovered my senses and made a
+careful shot at the last doe, knocking her over like a rabbit. The other
+two were just then out of sight in a hollow, but they appeared directly
+going up the hill on the snow at a great speed; and getting a broadside
+shot at the buck I broke his shoulder; after this he went slowly, but
+still kept on up the hill, and when he was about three hundred yards
+away I fired two more shots, one of which hit him in the ribs, and the
+other cut one of his horns off. Then he gave up trying to mount the
+hill, and turned down towards the lake out of my sight. I ran as hard as
+I could across the shoulder of the glacier, and saw him standing down
+below me among the rocks close to the water, and sitting down I fired
+another shot which killed him.
+
+'This is not a creditable performance in the shooting line; but my solid
+bullets have a good deal to do with the matter: either of the first two
+shots would have stopped him at once if fired from an express with
+hollow-pointed bullets.
+
+'The doe is a barren one with a beautiful skin, and very fat, and the
+buck is the best we have killed at present this year, a four-year-old,
+what Oela calls a "litt stor bock" (little big buck), which I suppose is
+the next best thing to the mythical "meget stor bock," whose footprints
+we are always seeing, but who carefully absenteth himself whensoever the
+jovial hunter goeth forth to pursue him.
+
+'We saw a great deal of fresh spoor to-day, so that we may hope the deer
+are beginning to come to our part of the country: perhaps the poor
+things have been very much bullied in other places. Anyhow, they won't
+find any better country in Norway than where we went to-day; and the
+scenery there is glorious.'
+
+Esau was so tired that he fell asleep once in the midst of his exciting
+narrative, and as dinner was very late we all turned in almost as soon
+as it was finished.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+A PICNIC.
+
+
+_August 24._--There is a brood of ryper on the brow of the mountain
+above our camp, which we always put up when we walk over Glopit armed
+with rods, but never when we take a gun. There were originally eight of
+them, but one has succumbed to a merlin which hunts up there; and they
+are remarkably tame, so that when we put them up we throw stones at
+them, and fully expect to kill them by that means, but somehow they have
+escaped with their lives until now. This conduct has become unbearable,
+and we have sworn 'this day that brood shall die;' so the first thing
+after breakfast Esau and the Skipper toiled up the mountain with pockets
+full of cartridges and guns ready for the slaughter of the innocents.
+It takes just three quarters of an hour to get to the top; and after
+reaching it we tramped over some millions of acres in search of that
+brood, and of course it never obtruded itself on the scene. Finally the
+Skipper went home in disgust, remarking that 'he wished every ryper in
+Norway was at the bottom of Gjendin;' while Esau said 'he would stay up
+there a month or two and find those birds if they were anywhere on our
+sheet of the Ordnance map.'
+
+The Skipper had hardly walked 200 yards towards camp before he trod on
+the old cock, who got up observing kek! kek! kekkekkek_kek_, kurrack:
+kur_rack_; kurrack, krackrackackckkkkk! in an extremely indignant tone
+of voice, and the rest of the family immediately followed him,
+astonishing the Skipper so much that he missed the lot; and though we
+marked them down quite near we could not persuade any of them to risk
+their lives in flight again.
+
+The language used on this occasion scorched the herbage off so large a
+patch of ground, that John down below thought that Glopit had suddenly
+commenced a volcanic eruption.
+
+There are two kinds of birds known as ryper in Norway--the fjeld or
+skarv ryper, which is, we think, identical with our ptarmigan; and the
+dal or skog ryper, which we believe to be the same bird as the willow
+grouse of North America. The former of these is not numerous anywhere,
+but a few are always seen by the reindeer hunter up on the highest parts
+of the mountains, among the snow and rocks. They do not attempt much
+concealment, but their grey bodies and white wings are so exactly the
+colour of their habitation that it is very difficult to see them, as
+they sit perfectly still on the stones. If you do happen to catch sight
+of one, in all probability after looking at him for a little you will
+suddenly be aware that there is a small family of others all about him,
+and will wonder how they escaped your notice at first. They are not very
+useful for sporting purposes, as they are never found in great numbers,
+are too tame to give any trouble, and not particularly good to eat. The
+skog ryper is the bird which takes the place of the British grouse for
+the sportsman in Norway: he lives at a lower altitude than the skarv
+ryper, among the willows, wimberries, and stunted birches. In plumage he
+is not unlike our grouse, but not quite so red in shade, and with a
+white wing. During the summer he feeds on wimberry leaves, heather, and
+occasional bits of willow, and he is then almost if not quite equal to a
+grouse in flavour, but in winter, when there is nothing but willow to be
+had, the flesh becomes bitter and not nice to eat: the poor birds are
+then snared in great numbers, and may be seen hanging in English shops
+as 'ptarmigan,' which with their then white plumage they much resemble.
+After a good breeding season these skog ryper are very numerous in any
+favourable place in Norway, but they are so much inclined to lie close,
+that without dogs it is impossible to do much with them. Gjendin is too
+steep and desolate for them, but between the east end of the lake and
+Sjoedals Vand there is some first-rate country, and also a little at the
+west end.
+
+After lunch we all manned Esau's canoe, which is the largest, because he
+is the smallest man; and set off down the lake to Leirungsoe, the place
+where the professor's hut is built at the edge of the waterfall which
+runs out of a small lake there (not the real Leirung's Vand, which is
+further to the east).
+
+The Skipper had noticed a remarkably fine bed of moelte baer there, which
+we expected to be just about ripe now, and so we had determined to
+picnic (!) there, forsooth, as if our life were not one perpetual and
+perennial picnic.
+
+Leirungsoe is nearly four miles from our camp, and the professor's hut is
+an extremely comfortable and convenient little dwelling, in a most
+charming situation. Only one thing has been wanting, reindeer: he never
+found any, and left his hut a fortnight ago for a place further north,
+where we afterwards heard he had good sport.
+
+After landing, the Skipper and Esau climbed up the valley to the little
+lake in search of something to shoot, while John remained to bathe and
+fish at the fall. There were lots of duck on the little lake, and in the
+rushy swamp at its upper end, and the Skipper put up a large brood of
+ryper, which we marked into a very small patch of willow scrub
+surrounded by bare ground. We walked through and through that patch, and
+threw so many stones into it that we fancy we must have killed and
+buried most of them, for we only persuaded four of them to fly again,
+three of which we secured. Our shooting was soon over, and then we
+gathered a lot of moelte baer, and returned to John, who was getting
+dinner ready; and after a regal repast of kidneys, reindeer pie, and
+moelte, paddled home by moonlight, arriving soon after nine.
+
+We beguiled the journey home by songs and accompaniments by the
+following celebrated artists: Messrs. John, Skipper, and Esau. Among
+other songs was an original composition by John--air, 'Bonnie Dundee'--
+
+
+ODE TO THE LAST POT OF MARMALADE.
+
+  To the fishers of Gjendin the bold Skipper spoke:
+  'There is one two-pound pot that as yet is unbroke;[1]
+  So rouse ye, my gallants, and after our tea
+  Let us "go for" our Keiller's[2] own Bonnie Dundee.'
+
+    (_Chorus._) Come! up with the Smoer![3] Come! out with the Brod,[4]
+    We'll have one more Spise[5] that's fit for a god;
+    Come, whip off the paper and let it gae free,
+    And we'll wade into Keiller's own Bonnie Dundee.
+
+  You may talk of your moelte[6] with sugar and milk,
+  Your blueberry pasties, and jam of that ilk;
+  They are all very well in the wilds, don't you see?
+  But they can't hold a candle to Bonnie Dundee.
+
+    _Chorus as before._
+
+  Oh! the pies they were good, and the oven baked true,
+  With its door of green sod, and its sinuous flue.
+  Oh! the curry was toothsome as curry can be,
+  But where is the equal of Bonnie Dundee?
+
+    _Chorus again, gentlemen._
+
+  There are ryper on Glopit[7] as fleet as the wind,
+  And the Stor[8] Bock roams on the Skagastolstind;
+  There are trout, teal, and woodcock, a sight for to see,
+  But what meal can be perfect without our Dundee?
+
+    _Chorus, if you please._
+
+  Pandecages[9] are tasty, and omelettes are good;
+  Our eggs, though antique, not unsuited for food;
+  You can always be sure of at least one in three,
+  But blue mould cannot ruin our Bonnie Dundee.
+
+    _Chorus, only more so._
+
+  Take[10] my soup, though 'tis luscious, my oel,[11] though 'tis rare,
+  My whisky, though scanty, beyond all compare;
+  Take my baccy, take all that is dearest to me,
+  But leave me one spoonful of Bonnie Dundee.
+
+    _Chorus ad lib._
+
+Esau supplied an encore verse:--
+
+  It has made our lot brighter, and helped us to bear
+  Our troubles, the rain, mist, and cold northern air;
+  And the Gjende fly,[12] green fly,[13] bug,[14] skeeter,[15] and flea,
+  We should ne'er have done Deeing them but for Dundee.
+
+    _Chorus (of big, big D's)._
+
+
+NOTES ON THE ABOVE COMPOSITION.
+
+    [Footnote 1: 'Unbroke.' This is bold poetic imagery, meaning
+    unopened. Breakages were unknown during our expedition, and long
+    experience justifies us in assuring the world that breaking the
+    pot, though an effectual way of getting at the marmalade, is not a
+    satisfactory method. It will be found much better to remove the
+    bladder at the top. This may be depended on.]
+
+    [Footnote 2: Need we explain that 'Keiller's own Bonnie Dundee'
+    alludes to the marmalade made by that great and good man? No,
+    a thousand times no!]
+
+    [Footnote 3: 'Smoer,' Norwegian butter, pronounced Smoeurr--and it
+    tastes like that, too.]
+
+    [Footnote 4: 'Brod,' bread. The word does not rhyme to god, being
+    pronounced something like Broat, but it looks as if it rhymed.]
+
+    [Footnote 5: 'Spise,' a meal, pronounced Speessa.]
+
+    [Footnote 6: 'Moelte,' cloudberry, pronounced Moulta.]
+
+    [Footnote 7: 'Glopit,' the mountain between Gjendin and Rus Vand.]
+
+    [Footnote 8: 'Stor,' big, pronounced Stora before a consonant.]
+
+    [Footnote 9: 'Pandecages,' pancakes.]
+
+    [Footnote 10: 'Take.' This word is only used by poetic licence,
+    and must not be construed literally. When we attempted to 'take'
+    John's whisky on our return to camp, there was a good deal of
+    ill-feeling engendered, and he said that no one but himself
+    understood the subtleties of aesthetic metaphor.]
+
+    [Footnote 11: 'Oel,' the ale of the country, 'rare' both in quality
+    and, alas! in quantity.]
+
+    [Footnote 12: 'Gjende fly,' a fly peculiar to this lake, of which
+    more anon.]
+
+    [Footnote 13: 'Green fly,' a charming creature like a large grey
+    blue-bottle with green eyes; it bites a portion of flesh
+    sufficient for its wants, and then goes away to eat it.]
+
+    [Footnote 14: 'Bug.' Again poetic licence. 'Cimex lectularius' has
+    not been encountered during our stay in Norway this time;
+    nevertheless he is not unknown in the country, as the sojourners
+    in one of the Lillehammer hotels, not the Victoria, can testify.]
+
+    [Footnote 15: 'Skeeter.' The mosquito is a mournful and
+    disgraceful fact; and so are the sand-fly, the stomoxys, and the
+    flea. Memurudalen is more free from insects than any place we have
+    tried.]
+
+
+_August 25._--Still the same glorious weather, rather too glorious for
+our purling rivulet, which has now dwindled away to a mere thread of
+water, while even the larger stream on the hill behind the tent, which
+we use for bathing, is showing a marked decrease in volume.
+
+The Skipper and Oela went out stalking directly after breakfast, and Esau
+climbed up on to Bes Hoe to shoot ryper. John went over to Rus Vand to
+fish, and had a pleasant day. He managed somehow to drop his native
+'tolle kniv' into the lake, and of course immediately discovered that
+that knife was the most precious thing he possessed, in fact, the only
+thing he cared about in this world; though until it fell into the lake,
+he had regarded it with very unenthusiastic feelings--feelings of
+tolle-ration, the Skipper said. So he undressed and dived for it for a
+long time, and at last was lucky enough to recover it.
+
+It would have been a pleasing sight to a spectator, if any could have
+been present, to watch John playing at being a seal all by himself in
+Rus Vand, or standing on a rock poised on one leg like a heron, with his
+head sideways and keen eye piercing the cerulean wave. And it was good
+to see his proud bearing as he returned to camp with the 'tolle kniv'
+slung jauntily at his waist, and carrying over his shoulder the scaly
+spoil snatched from the vasty deep, as we used beautifully to word it in
+Latin verses--meaning the fish he had caught.
+
+  [Illustration: John diving for his knife in Rus Lake]
+
+At 8 P.M. the Skipper had not returned, so we dined, and then sat
+round the fire wondering what could have happened to delay him; and as
+time went on and still he never came, we began to get very uneasy;
+there are so many dangers by which the reindeer hunter may be
+overtaken--avalanches, crevasses, fogs, snowdrifts, broken limbs, or
+getting lost. We could only hope that none of these had happened to the
+Skipper, and at eleven o'clock gave up any hopes of his return that
+night and turned in, there being then a very decided fog a short way up
+the Memurua valley.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+THE SKIPPER'S RETURN.
+
+
+_August 26._--At breakfast-time the drover who had accompanied us to
+shoot ryper at Gjendebod arrived here on his way towards lower and more
+genial regions for the winter. We always feel that we are killing more
+game than we really need, and here was an outlet for our superfluous
+meat, so we gave him half a deer, and he went homewards rejoicing
+greatly.
+
+We had sent Ivar up to the drover's den in Memurudalen at daybreak to
+see if our missing ones had found their way to it and spent the night
+there, but he now came back without having found any traces of them.
+However, under the cheering influence of the morning sun we soon became
+resigned to their fate, and Esau so far regained his spirits that he
+crossed the glacier torrent with a gun, and penetrated the birchwood on
+the other side, to what he called 'shoot the home coverts.' He presently
+brought back a woodcock, which had got up about fourteen times before he
+killed it, and each time he had thought it was a fresh cock, so that he
+had had a regular sporting morning after it, 'seeing lots of cock get
+up, shooting at two, and killing one of them,' the wood being so thick
+that it was almost impossible to get even the snappiest of snap-shots at
+the agile bird.
+
+Esau then busied himself with the construction of a rack to hold all our
+guns and spare rods, cleaning rod, &c., with a shelf near the bottom for
+books, and another one whereon each man might keep his little valuables,
+such as pipes and watch, fly-books and reels. This contrivance was
+chiefly formed of birch boughs of peculiar shape, and when finished and
+placed in its proper position at the further end of the tent just behind
+our pillows, it presented a truly noble appearance.
+
+Lunch-time passed, and still the Skipper had not returned, so we decided
+that he must be defunct, and proceeded to write his epitaph, preparatory
+to organising a search expedition to bring in his remains.
+
+Here is one touching little poem:
+
+  He was rather tall and terribly thin,
+    But remarkably roomy inside;
+  We put up these stones to cover his bones
+    Near the place where we think he died.
+
+This is another:
+
+  IN MEMURUHAMEREN
+  (Hills Round the Camp).
+
+  Our Skipper has gone, our great head cook,
+    On a tour that e'en Cook won't find;
+  In a fissure he's surely taken his hook
+    Nor left any trace behind.
+
+  With a rod or pole he would fish for perch,
+    Now a rod, pole, or perch of ground
+  Is more than he needs, and in vain we search,
+    For his body will ne'er be found.
+
+  Now his angling is finished, though once every fin
+    Which came within reach he'd attack;
+  He was really so clever at reeling them in,
+    And his terms were to fish, 'nett catsh.'
+
+  On a lake or pond, or even a moat,
+    He beamed wherever he went;
+  How cheerfully he would tar his boat!
+    How gaily would pitch his tent!
+
+  After ryper or deer he would walk all day,
+    From the top of a hill to the bottom;
+  And we feel it unpleasantly sad to say
+    That the dear old Reaper's got him.
+
+  But we think it is time that this verse were done,
+    Which to mournfully write we've tried
+  In memory o' our darlin' one,
+    Who in Memurudalen died.
+
+While we were still lingering over these beautiful and appropriate
+sentiments, and deliberating as to whether they should be cut on a stone
+or only on wood, the corpse suddenly walked into the tent and announced
+that he wanted something to eat. We soon got over our natural
+disappointment at the waste of a good epitaph, and really welcomed him
+quite warmly, much more so when Oela appeared laden with the tit-bits of
+a reindeer buck. Then we set food before the Skipper, and after he had
+feasted he related unto us his story.
+
+'I left camp yesterday morning determined to beard the savage untamed
+reindeer of the mountains in his lair, and soon came on very fresh
+tracks, which we followed for some time, and at each step seemed to get
+"hotter," as the children say, and the indications of deer being near
+got more and more encouraging. However, by one o'clock we had seen
+nothing, so sat down behind a little rocky eminence to have our 'spise.'
+Mine was a particularly good lunch, as I had spread some gravy from the
+'boss pie' on my slice of bread and butter, and this with the icy cold
+snow-water was very grateful after a four hours' walk uphill under a
+scorching sun.
+
+  [Illustration: The Skipper about to astonish the Reindeer]
+
+'Oela also seemed to devour his food with considerable relish. So we had
+been sitting there some time, happily silent, as we cannot talk each
+other's tongue, and I was just preparing to move on, and putting my
+knife back in its sheath, when we heard a slight snort quite close
+to us.
+
+'Oela immediately peeped cautiously over an adjacent stone; then he
+pushed my rifle into my hand and whispering the magic word "Reins,"
+pointed to another stone a few yards away, whither he wished me to
+crawl. To unsling my cartridge-bag lest it should jingle, and creep to
+that stone, was what the novelists call the work of a moment: then I
+raised my head _va-a-ry_ gingerly, and saw forty yards away a single
+four-year-old buck standing broadside to me with his head in the air,
+sniffing suspiciously, and his whole attitude denoting uncertainty and
+caution. This buck, as we found out afterwards from the spoor, had
+walked up to within ten yards of us as we sat at lunch; then he must
+have either heard me or smelt Oela, probably the latter, for Oela seldom
+washes his hands, never his blood-stained hunting coat; and when I
+encountered his gaze he had evidently just decided that this was not a
+good place for reindeer to be about in. This was an excellent frame of
+mind on his part, but he arrived at it a couple of seconds too late: my
+rifle was levelled, and the shot hit him just above the heart. At that
+distance the express bullet smashed a portion of him about as big as a
+hat, so that he rolled over stone dead, and had no time for lingering
+glances or last words. Half an hour more, and he was skinned,
+gralloched, put in a hole and buried under a heap of stones, to remain
+there until we need his flesh and send the horse to bring him home. Then
+we built a little cairn to mark his resting-place for future use, and
+wandered on in search of the rest of his party.
+
+'Very soon we came on the tracks of four other deer, one of them only a
+calf, but although we followed the spoor all the afternoon we never came
+up with them: probably they were near enough to hear my shot when I
+fired, and at once betook themselves to remote regions.
+
+  [Illustration: Oela performing the Funeral Rites]
+
+'It had got so late before we gave up the search, and we were such a
+long way from home, that we determined to go to Gjendebod, at the
+Western end of the lake, hoping to get a boat there and return to
+Memurudalen by water. But on arriving there very tired, hot, and hungry,
+we found that the men had taken their boat down the lake, and would not
+return until to-day. This was a great blow, for it is quite impossible
+to walk along the shores of Gjendin, except, as John says, for a
+bird--and even it would have to fly all the way. Climbing up the
+mountain again was out of the question, as it is a seven hours' walk
+from Gjendebod to our camp, so there was nothing for it but sleeping
+there--a course which was very distasteful to me, as the food is bad,
+and I had no book with me, no tobacco, no hair-brush, and no
+fishing-rod.
+
+'To-day I started for home directly after breakfast. We wished to
+combine a little stalking with the walk, for we had to pass through some
+first-rate deer country--all that part, Esau, where you got your first
+two bucks; but of course we had not much chance of doing anything, as
+the wind was with us all the way. As you know, deer almost always feed
+up wind, so by walking against it you are safe from their ears and
+noses, and also are likely to be warned of their presence by coming on
+their tracks first. But in walking down wind all this is reversed; you
+come upon the deer without any warning, and they are almost sure to
+smell or hear you long before you discover them. Consequently, as we
+expected, we saw nothing on our way here to-day.'
+
+The Skipper's buck is a very good one, the best that has been killed at
+present, and there was much joy at his change of luck. But strictly
+speaking his bad luck has pursued him even in this instance, for if he
+had not been obliged to shoot when he did, in all probability the rest
+of the herd would have appeared on the scene, for their tracks showed
+that they were following the lead of this buck. Besides, there is not
+the same excitement in a chance shot like this as there is when you
+first find the deer, and then spend two or three hours in all kinds of
+uncomfortable modes of progression in order to approach them.
+
+However, when we were in this country before the Skipper had all the
+good luck, and Esau the bad, the former getting five deer and the latter
+only two, so that the present state of affairs may be looked upon as the
+working of retributive justice. When this view of the matter was
+suggested by Esau to the Skipper, he said, 'Retributive justice be
+blowed!'
+
+We celebrated the joyful reunion of loving hearts by a skaal, and so to
+bed, perfectly happy after the events of the day.
+
+
+_August 27._--We sent the men off this morning with the horse to bring
+in some of the meat now lying in the mountains, while we went by canoe
+to Gjendesheim to stay for a couple of days, as we cannot go stalking
+again till the already slain deer are brought home; the fish in the lake
+are not rising well after this long spell of fine weather, and with the
+exception of Esau's 'home coverts' there is no shooting for a
+fowling-piece at Memurudalen.
+
+Very few tourists find their way to Gjendin, but the season for them is
+over, and we expected to have the place to ourselves; but how fallible
+is human prescience! To our astonishment the sportsmen from Rus Vand had
+already occupied the greater part of the house, having abandoned their
+own hut for the same reasons which had led us to forsake our camp, and
+here they were, armed to the teeth with rods and guns.
+
+This seemed unlucky, and although we were outwardly glad to see them, at
+heart we could not help feeling how inconsiderate it was of them to come
+and shoot the fjeld and fish the river just when we wanted to do all
+that ourselves. No doubt they harboured precisely the same feelings
+towards us.
+
+However, we had dinner together, and introduced the 'boss pie,' now
+rapidly disappearing, to the notice of our Norwegian friends, and as the
+meal advanced a feeling of genial contentment crept over us, which
+seemed to influence all our senses; we began to talk over sport and
+compare our experiences in various countries and in pursuit of various
+animals: some of us were good listeners, others fond of talking, but all
+animated by a love for the same occupation, so that when at length one
+of the enemy handed round the best of cigars, even the Skipper became so
+mellow and pleasant that before going to bed we arranged for a joint
+shoot after ryper to-morrow; and said 'Good night,' feeling that it was
+quite fortunate that we had all come to Gjendesheim on the same day.
+
+One of our new friends is a Russian, an engineer officer; he speaks not
+the English, but we were introduced to him as a man who had shot more
+bears in Europe than any one else living. He has killed forty-two, and
+looks as though he had been hugged by each one of them before it finally
+succumbed. Now he wants to kill a reindeer, and has been attempting the
+feat to-day; apparently he will be _hors de combat_ for the rest of the
+week, as he can hardly move for stiffness: he has not been accustomed to
+the awful walking that stalking round Gjendin entails.
+
+Esau is also rather dilapidated, for he landed at Leirungsoe on his way
+down the lake, and walked round the mountain to Gjendesheim, leaving
+John to bring on his canoe. On his way he was obliged to wade across the
+Leirungs River, a wide and rapid stream, and just in the roughest part
+he trod on a loose stone and fell, cutting his knee and making a bad
+dent in his gun-barrel. Of course he was wet through and a good deal
+hurt, but hardly enough to account for the frightful state of his
+temper, till it came out that though he had walked through miles of
+beautiful ground for ryper, snipe, and duck, he had never got a shot at
+anything.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE GJENDE FLY.
+
+
+_August 28._--This was the hottest, most windless and cloudless day that
+has yet been made. The Russian and F---- went out with Esau and the
+Skipper to shoot ryper, accompanied by a pointer, which the Norwegians
+call a bird-hound. A brood was soon found and rose in front of Esau, who
+with his usual promptitude got a right and left; whereupon the Russian
+took off his hat, and bowing profoundly, advanced and solemnly shook
+hands with him, protesting that he had frequently seen marvellous
+shooting, but never, never aught like this; at least, that is what we
+imagined to be the translation of the neat little speech which he made
+in Russian.
+
+A ryper is easier to kill, if possible, than the tamest young grouse
+which gets up under a dog's nose on the calmest 12th of August; and Esau
+thinks fame is like an eel on a night-line, easily caught, but very
+difficult to hold afterwards.
+
+Satisfied by having witnessed this extraordinary specimen of our skill,
+the Russian gave up the chase, and returned to Gjendesheim completely
+exhausted by the heat; but the others went on till the afternoon, now
+finding a selfish old cock, whose fate no one regretted; now a young
+brood only just old enough to be shot: anon lying down to rest and eat
+berries, or bathing in the Leirungs Lake, but all the time extremely
+happy.
+
+F---- was so exceedingly polite that he would _not_ shoot unless birds
+enough for all of us happened to get up at once, and one brood escaped
+without a shot being fired, in consequence of our unwonted emulation of
+his courtesy.
+
+Near Leirungs we were fortunate enough to drive three large broods into
+the same bit of willow scrub, and had some very pretty shooting as the
+dog set them one by one; but there was hardly any scent, and the heat
+soon proved too much for our bird-hound, so we returned to Gjendesheim
+with a very considerable addition to the larder.
+
+Then followed hours of inability to do anything except lie on our backs
+with lighted pipes in our mouths, far too exhausted to smoke them; and
+at last--dinner; and soon the cooler air brought relief and engendered a
+return of bloodthirstiness, which impelled the gang of sportsmen to
+sally forth and rake the river till it was quite rough with artificial
+flies.
+
+This was a trying time, for by some means we have established a most
+dangerously flattering reputation as fishermen, and were bound to do all
+we knew to retain it. However, all turned out right; the Skipper went
+into the lake and got several beauties, and Esau did the same in the
+river, so that we came in with the best bags by a considerable margin,
+and could now afford to catch nothing for a whole day without being
+dethroned from our pedestal.
+
+The river, Gjendinoset as it is called, just in front of the rest-house,
+is a wonderful piece of water; there are about 150 yards of rapid in
+which the fish lie, then comes a fall, and below that there are nothing
+at present but small fish, though the big ones will soon begin to drop
+down lower for spawning. Consequently we all fish in the first 150
+yards, and to-day between 50 and 60 lbs. weight has been taken out; the
+same quantity yesterday, and probably for some days before; and the
+fishing will be even better a few days later, for the Gjende fly is
+beginning to hatch, and as long as he lasts the fish will rise well.
+
+We have heard so much of this fly that we had been expecting something
+rather gorgeous, a monster dragon-fly, or at least a second-rate
+butterfly, or a decent imitation of a stag-beetle; and we have been
+looking up gaudy Scotch and Canadian salmon flies, which we hoped might
+be passable substitutes; but, alas for the vain hopes of foolish man!
+the Gjende fly has come, and he is only a wretched little black beast
+like a very small, unenterprising, common or garden house-fly of Great
+Britain. He cannot fly decently; he is apparently devoid of sense; he
+has no moral, physical, or intellectual attributes for which a human
+being can learn to respect or love him; but--he _can_ CRAWL. If he
+alights on the water it never occurs to him to rise again, and he allows
+the trout, mad with the excitement of a fortnight's prospective
+gluttony, to scoop him down their capacious throats by companies. If he
+enters your mouth, which he does with a numerous retinue every time you
+open it, retreat from that untenable position is the very last thing he
+would think of; and with what may be a gleam of momentary intelligence
+he seems desirous of still further increasing his knowledge of the rest
+of your interior arrangements.
+
+With characteristic obstinacy, unmindful of the teachings of logic, he
+invariably acts on the fallacious maxim that 'an ink-bottle cannot be so
+full that there is not room for just one more Gjende fly.' The whole of
+the river here at the end of the lake, and for thirty yards on each
+side, is now pervaded by this noisome creature; the water looks as if it
+were covered with a mixture of soot and tar, the rocks are black and
+slippery with him, and the atmosphere is charged with him, so that the
+landscape dimly seen through the cloud looks as if it were dancing.
+
+Gjendesheim itself is unfortunately not quite beyond the zone which he
+infests, so that the windows look loathsome with crawling blackness; the
+tablecloth is strewn with the corpses of those who have imbibed the
+honeyed poison of the paraffin lamp and come to an untimely end, and the
+remains of the 'boss pie' would warrant a stranger in the belief that it
+had been composed of currants.
+
+We think Pharaoh must have been a man of extraordinary resolution, or
+else inane mildness of character, otherwise he would have sacrificed
+Moses long before the fourth Plague was concluded.
+
+Fortunately the Gjende fly has no insatiable craving for human flesh;
+the Skipper, indeed, asserted that one fastened on his hand and
+inflicted a wound that swelled enormously and remained swollen for
+several days, but the better opinion is that the creature that
+perpetrated this outrage must have been a viper, though we did not hint
+this to the Skipper, because he is firmly convinced that whisky is the
+only remedy for snake-bites, and that it must be taken in large
+quantities.
+
+If any one stuck up a rod near the river, in two minutes it looked like
+a black fir pole with a bunch on the top; and John, who is a man of
+great entomological knowledge, spent some time in studying this
+phenomenon. He reported that the flies crawled up for fun, intending to
+jump off the top ring, but when they got up it was so much higher than
+they expected that they were all afraid to try, and those at the bottom
+and halfway up kept jeering at the top ones and calling them names, and
+jostling them so much that they could not crawl down again. He also said
+that the swarm in the air was so dense that he wrote his name in it with
+his finger, and it remained visible for nearly a minute.
+
+Probably it is difficult for a man to speak the exact truth with his
+mouth full of (_f_)lies.
+
+When it was too dark to fish we sat round the fire and heard a good deal
+about the various winter sports of Norway, capercailzie stalking, bear
+hunting, elk and reindeer shooting, and running on skier, the snow-shoes
+of the country, which are very different from the well-known Canadian
+shoes, being made of wood, from six to twelve feet long, four inches
+wide in front, three behind, about an inch and a half thick where the
+foot rests, thinner at each end, and turned up and pointed in front.
+Every district has its own peculiar shape; about here the right shoe is
+made six feet long, the left one ten or eleven feet, it being more easy
+to turn if one is shorter than the other: some are made of pine, some of
+birch, and occasionally oak. The men of the Thellemarken are the most
+skilful runners, but it is now quite a fashionable amusement in
+Christiania during the winter, just as skating is in England.
+
+_Sunday, August 29._--Our Norwegian friends departed for the happy
+hunting-grounds of Rus Vand this morning, but before doing so they most
+kindly offered us the hut there any time after this week, at the end of
+which they are going south. We can hardly expect the present glorious
+weather, which has now lasted for three weeks, to go on for ever; and
+when the change comes, a tent will no longer be the abode of comfort and
+luxury that we at present find it, so that the offer of the hut is most
+opportune for us.
+
+We parted with great regret from people who have been so kind and
+hospitable, and many were the expressions of good-will and protestations
+of eternal friendship, as we shall not see them again till we pass
+through Christiania on our return home.
+
+That return home has caused the Skipper hours of anxious thought
+already: there is to be a wedding in England about the end of next
+month, at which, although it is not his own, his presence is urgently
+needed. He knows he ought to go, but hates to leave this blissful life
+just when the best stalking is beginning; consequently he devotes much
+time every day to the consideration of the subject, torn by doubts,
+tortured by terrible misgivings, and harassed by indecision.
+
+To-day, after being more than usually disagreeable under the malign
+influence of his conscience, and seeking for inspiration, first in the
+room at Gjendesheim, walking up and down like Weston; then on the lake
+paddling like a penny boat; and finally roosting on a rock at the top of
+the fjeld with his arms folded like Napoleon, and a gruesome scowl on
+his face, or at least on those portions of it which were visible through
+the mask of Gjende flies, he at last concluded to commit his fate to the
+decision of an unbiassed coin, if such could be obtained from any
+confiding friend.
+
+With great difficulty he persuaded Esau to lend him one oere, value 1/100
+of a shilling, which seems on reckoning to be about half a farthing;
+Esau observing as he gave it, 'It isn't that I'm stingy, old fellow,
+though of course I don't expect to see it again, but it _will_ throw my
+accounts out so.' N.B.--Esau's notion of keeping accounts is to put his
+receipts into one pocket, _and his disbursements into another_; if he
+has a vague idea to within 20_l._ or so of how the money has gone, it
+will be more than any one expects; that everything he possesses will be
+spent is a foregone conclusion.
+
+But to resume. The oere coin has no distinct head or tail, so the Skipper
+named one side heads, and tossed. The thing fell on its edge, and rolled
+round the table and about the room till it struck the wall, whereupon it
+fell over 'heads,' and decided that the Skipper must go to the wedding.
+
+So he sat down and wrote a letter saying that they must not expect him,
+and that he should stay out here the whole time that was originally
+intended; for as soon as he had dated the letter it occurred to him that
+it would be childish to allow such a weighty matter to be decided by the
+whim of a half-farthing coin, which might very likely be interested in
+the affair in some way, and which, as he truly said, would possibly have
+turned up 'tails' if it had not happened to fall on its edge and been
+interfered with by an unauthorized wall.
+
+Having thus acted according to his inclinations, and given his missive
+to Andreas to post when he leaves Gjendesheim next week, the Skipper
+became quite pleasant again, and went forth to his fishing 'ever and all
+so gaily O.'
+
+The ponies of Norway are wonderfully docile and clever; these qualities
+were well shown to-day in a black one belonging to Jens which came to
+take F----'s baggage over the mountain to Rus Vand. This pony was
+brought down near the door of the rest-house, and left standing there
+without any fastening or any one to look after him. The things were not
+ready, so he waited about two hours, occasionally wiping off the Gjende
+flies with his tail when their weight became insupportable, but
+otherwise never moving. The busy world (consisting of Andreas and
+Ragnild) pursued their usual avocations around him, goats ran against
+him, and insects climbed over him, but there he stood placid and
+motionless as a wooden rocking-horse. At last the baggage was ready, and
+they brought it out and piled it on his back until we feared he would
+break, and then Jens turned his head in the direction of Rus Vand, and
+gave him a gentle push to start him; and he went slowly off up the
+mountain, choosing the best way for himself, for no one went with him;
+in fact, Jens did not follow him for about half an hour, but no doubt he
+was found at the right place in the end. The whole performance reminded
+one of a clockwork toy, and John remarked as we stood and watched him
+out of sight over the pass, 'Now, that's what I call a well-trained
+pony.'
+
+During our stay here we had the pleasure of forming the acquaintance of
+an elk-dog. This animal is taken out in a kind of harness to which a
+rope is fastened, the other end of the rope being attached to the
+hunter's belt; and his legitimate occupation is finding elk in a forest
+by scent, and denoting their presence by his behaviour before the hunter
+gets within range of the elk's eyes, ears, or nose. Mr. Thomas brought
+him up here hoping to find reindeer with him in the same manner, as he
+had been unable to get a Finmarker[*] broken to reindeer; but the
+experiment has not been successful, for the dog has been so carefully
+trained to elk, that he exhibits a large and lofty contempt for so
+pusillanimous a creature as a reindeer, and will not confess that he has
+discovered the existence of such a thing at all.
+
+    [Footnote: Finmarker is the kind of dog usually employed for
+    finding reindeer: the name being derived from the district of
+    which it is a native.]
+
+But in addition to the fact that he finds no deer, he is a good deal of
+trouble from the fastidiousness of his appetite. It appears that he is
+accustomed to feed on dogs, and when he cannot get dogs he can rough it
+very well for a short time on boys or any other plain fare; but up here,
+where dogs are few and boys are extinct, he is having a very poor time
+of it. The last place where he had a really square meal was at
+Skjaeggestad, on the journey up, where he was lucky enough to get a whole
+dog and some portions of boy; since then he has only had limbs snatched
+off adventurous observers, and altogether seems to be pining for want of
+proper nourishment. He is about the height of a colley, but with an
+enormous chest and limbs, a head something like an Esquimaux, a wiry
+reddish yellow coat, and a most unkindly expression of countenance.
+In the absence of sufficient flesh food he appears to be developing a
+liking for man-diet, so we did not remain long in his society, for which
+indeed we only craved after we had perceived through a chink in the door
+of his dwelling that he was moored to a beam by a kind of anchor chain.
+We have often heard that there is a certain amount of danger in the
+pursuit of the elk; if the hunter is always accompanied by a dog of this
+kind we can easily understand it. However, he was a very interesting
+animal, and if we had a National School at Memurudalen we should
+certainly have tried to buy him, as there is any amount of room for
+_debris_ there. What a boon he would be in some of the thickly populated
+districts of England!
+
+In the afternoon we paddled leisurely back to our camp and found it
+looking prettier than ever, but, alas! our little stream had ceased to
+run. However, there is another one not more than forty yards away, so we
+shall not be much troubled by its loss.
+
+
+_August 30._--The sun still shines upon us from a cloudless sky, and
+early in the morning, before any breeze springs up, the lake makes a
+most beautiful picture, with its steep mountain sides and foaming
+torrents so perfectly reflected in the green unruffled water. But,
+lovely as it is, its beauty is rather wasted on us now, for it has been
+just the same for the last three weeks, with the outlines all hard and
+clearly defined, and none of the graduated effects of distance which we
+get from the hazy climate at home: in this clear atmosphere the peaks
+twenty miles away are as bright as those a mile or so beyond the lake.
+Probably this is the reason why we so seldom see pictures of Norwegian
+mountain scenery, and that the few which do appear are often condemned
+as hard, cold, and unsatisfactory.
+
+The most prominent object in looking towards the lake from our camp is a
+curious pyramidal mound, about thirty feet high, close to the water's
+edge. It is so regular in shape that we have devoted many hours of
+cogitation and argument to the discovery of its history.
+
+John (who is a man of considerable archaeological fame) maintains that it
+is a funeral barrow in which some ancient Viking was buried, and he
+wants us to give up our cartridges for the purpose of constructing a
+mine and blasting him out: we have vainly represented to him that it
+cannot be a Viking's tomb, because there is absolutely nothing to Vike
+up here.
+
+The Skipper says it is a glacial moraine, 'any donkey can see that at a
+glance;' and Esau holds to the opinion that it is an artificial mound
+put up for ancient regiments of Gjendin yeomen and Memurudalen militia
+to practise archery at. Possibly none of these theories give the correct
+solution; but, whatever its origin, it makes a capital rifle butt for
+our occasional shooting. Esau was heard to irreverently remark, as he
+aimed at it with the Skipper's rifle, 'he guessed an express bullet
+would rouse old Jarl Hakon out of that,' but nothing particular
+followed.
+
+To-day the Skipper composed an Irish stew as a _piece de resistance_,
+which, when it came to table, was unanimously voted the best of all the
+excellent dishes on which we have feasted here. After dinner we made an
+enormous fire for the sole purpose of warmth, as the nights are now very
+cold, and during this fine weather after sunset a strong draught sets
+down our valley towards the lake. We have ascertained that a like
+draught blows down each of the other valleys running into Gjendin,
+making the lake a centre. That in ours begins gently directly the sun
+has set, and increases in strength until it amounts to a stiff breeze;
+and as it comes direct from the vast snow fjelds, it is a disagreeably
+chilly blast, which freezes that side of our bodies remote from the
+fire, and leads us to envy the happy condition of a leg of mutton
+attached to a roasting-jack. That, 'o nimium fortunatum!' enjoys equally
+in every part the genial warmth, while man has no mechanical arrangement
+by which his immortal soul can be rendered blissful through the medium
+of a temperate body.
+
+In the morning a breeze begins to blow out of the lake into all the
+valleys; illustrating on a small scale the cause of land and sea breezes
+all over the world. The Skipper and John (who is a man of profound
+science) have elaborated a theory explaining the exact reason of this
+interesting phenomenon; but as their explanation is entirely opposed to
+the teachings of Dr. Brewer and the opinions of Professor Tyndall, and
+involves a rearrangement of existing notions concerning radiation and
+the movements of the heavenly bodies, we think it best to exclude it
+from these pages, as this is not a simply scientific work, and we have
+no desire to hurt the feelings of even the above-named misguided
+philosophers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+DISASTER.
+
+
+_August 31._--We have got quite tired of writing 'Another beautiful
+day,' and in future shall bring notebooks to Norway with these words
+ready printed at the top of each page.
+
+The Skipper paddled away to Gjendebod, to bring home the deerskin which
+he had left there to dry. He returned with a splendid bag of the best
+trout that ever came out of Gjendin, and that means the best in the
+world; but he was in a state of great indignation because he had been
+charged 5s. 6d. for beds, dinners, and breakfasts for himself and Oela
+when they stayed there a few nights ago. This is the result of living in
+a cheap country for two months: to the ordinary Englishman it would not
+appear an exorbitant hotel bill, especially when the hotel (!) is fifty
+miles from a town, and only open for two months in the year.
+
+Just at bedtime Esau crawled into the tent saying that he had strained
+his back in lifting a stone: he was in such pain that he could hardly
+stand, and was white and shivering. We undressed him and put him to bed,
+and then produced the liniment from the 'medicine chest,' by which name
+we dignify the cigar-box which contains our little stock of drugs. Then
+John spent an hour viciously rubbing remedies into his victim's back, as
+one rubs oil into a bat, so that Esau presently groaned out, 'Thanks,
+John, I think that will do, I feel a great deal better now;' and
+certainly he did seem to experience a kind of relief as soon as the
+rubbing stopped. After this we turned in.
+
+
+_September 1._--Esau spent a sleepless night, and this morning could not
+move. Thereupon John nobly closed with him for another half-hour's
+rubbing, which had a decided effect, and after giving him some
+breakfast, we carried him out and made a comfortable bed for him under
+the Sycamine tree, and there left him with the library and all his
+belongings in easy reach.
+
+At midday John returned from fishing to lunch with the invalid, and we
+wondered how all our friends in England were getting on with the
+partridges, and almost wished we were there for a few minutes, as we
+pictured to ourselves Eddie and Jack both talking sixteen to the dozen
+at lunch over beefsteak pie and beer (fancy beer, John!); old Blank,
+with two young dogs tied to him, perspiring over the downs; and the
+Major sitting with his cigar aboard the yacht at Cowes, and thinking how
+snug his birds were lying down Gorseham way, not to be disturbed till
+his return next month to shoot at them, while all the time the Furzely
+boys were walking them up, and making them as wild as hawks.
+
+After lunch, John accomplished what has long been his great desire, the
+ascent of the sugar-loaf mountain across the Memurua; and after boiling
+a thermometer at the topmost peak, burying a pocket handkerchief
+(thoughtfully borrowed from Esau, who was too unwell to refuse him
+anything), and 'carving his name on the Newgate Stone with his Tollekniv
+fine tra la,' he returned in raptures about the view, and overcome with
+sublime and poetical emotions, which did not subside until he had poured
+forth his soul to his two friends at dinner.
+
+The Skipper stalked without success, though he found the tracks of a
+good herd that had only just passed over the ground. Though the day was
+so pleasant, he had not exactly enjoyed his walk, for he could not help
+being filled with gloomy forebodings about Esau; picturing to himself
+the difficulties that would arise in getting men to carry the invalid
+down to Christiania in a litter, with him yelling at every step. But
+behold, how untrustworthy a thing is imagination! when the Skipper
+arrived in camp, he was agreeably surprised to find the object of his
+solicitude sitting up and actually stirring the rice for the curry, so
+marvellous had been the effect of John's lubrication; assisted by the
+support to his back of a kind of splint composed of birch bark, a towel,
+and two straps.
+
+
+_September 2._--John ate new bread again for dinner yesterday, and the
+Skipper was aroused in the middle of the night by a claw reaching out
+from the adjoining bed, which clutched his pillow and rug and tried to
+drag them away; the whole of this being accompanied by blood-curdling
+groans and hideous yells. He became more peaceful after a short time,
+but the Skipper is now in mortal fear lest John should again suffer from
+indigestion, and again stretch out that gruesome claw, and grabbing him
+by the hair, drag him forth from the tent, and with demoniac shrieks
+stamp the life out of his frail body, while he makes the quiet valley
+re-echo to his triumphant mocking laughter. This, the Skipper asserts,
+would be only one step beyond his conduct of last night.
+
+The latest scientific observations have caused us to re-classify the
+different altitudes thus:--First, the country of high cultivation and
+wild strawberries; above that the zone of uncleared pine forests and
+most of the berries; then the belt of stunted birches and black game;
+higher still, that of cows and goats; and above that, the country where
+reindeer flourish and snow lies all the year round. This takes us to the
+summit of all things earthly, and in this zone there is hardly any
+vegetation. Beyond it is the region of eagles, but in the present
+incomplete state of human knowledge we have been content to explore this
+highest zone by letting our spirits soar aloft without our bodies.
+
+Gjendin is just at the highest point of the stunted-birch belt, and when
+the wind gets into the N.W. the thermometer, without waiting to reflect,
+falls a great distance very hurriedly. John, having no sheepskin,
+suffers a good deal from the cold at night; and the haughtiness of his
+spirit is so far broken that he now sleeps in two pairs of trousers,
+three shirts, and a coat, besides all his rugs. A few short weeks ago he
+turned from us with an air of aristocratic nausea when we were getting
+into bed clothed in a single shirt and pair of trousers, donning for his
+part a linen nightshirt, an effeminacy previously unheard of in camp
+life.
+
+These things are changed now, and it is difficult to persuade him not to
+go to bed with his boots on; but it has to be prevented on account of
+the new bread.
+
+The monotony of an uneventful day was only broken by the occasional
+rubbing of Esau's back, amidst the victim's agonised appeals for mercy,
+as he thinks it is rubbed away to the bone. However, the effect is
+magnificent, and he can now hobble about camp and be useful to a certain
+extent.
+
+                      MENU.--September 2.
+
+     _Vins._         Truite a l'Irlandais.       _Legumes._
+  Onion Sauce.          Salmi of Ryper.          Crumpets.
+                       Woodcock a l'Oven.
+                Compote of Rice and Wimberries.
+
+After dinner we dug a small hole in the floor of the outer tent, in
+which we placed a spadeful of red-hot embers from the fire. This is a
+capital device for obtaining warmth in a tent, as there is no smoke, and
+the embers keep glowing for a very long time; possibly it might be
+dangerous in a very close-fitting tent, but ours is airy, not to say
+hurricany.
+
+Round this fire we sat and talked and smoked until bedtime, hoping
+against hope for a few more days of sunshine; but when we turned in, the
+wind was howling and moaning along the hill-side in a very ominous and
+unpleasant manner.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+A CHANGE.
+
+
+_September 3._--'Forty below Nero' was the probable position of the
+thermometer during the night. Esau declares that his back is quite well,
+but it is suspected that he only does this in order to avoid the
+administration of further remedies by John.
+
+However, we consider this such a successful cure that we here give our
+recipe for strained backs to an expectant world, not as a sordid
+advertisement, but from pure philanthropic motives.
+
+'Take the patient and place him on a grassy spot in the sun, and
+lubricate with oil; rub this in for three hours with the hand; seize his
+wrist and feel the pulse (if you can find it), displaying at the same
+time a large gold watch; look profound; mutter inwardly. Now shift him
+gently to a shaded position; and having lighted a fire to the windward,
+prepare and cook thereon fourteen or fifteen pancakes, and administer
+while hot (as a mixture, not a lotion). Take care that the aroma of each
+cooking pancake is wafted in the direction of the patient. Carry this
+principle throughout all his nourishment. Explain to him that deer
+abound in the neighbouring mountains; show him quantities of
+fresh-caught fish and newly killed ryper; ensure a week of fine weather,
+and if this do not cure him he must be a _malade imaginaire_.'
+
+Notwithstanding the improvement, of course Esau was not fit to go
+stalking, and this and other reasons suddenly induced us to leave
+Memurudalen to-day for good, and go to Gjendesheim on our way to Rus
+Vand. So we made a last gigantic pie, packed up, lunched, and then
+pulled down the tent, which had been standing so long now on the same
+spot, and embarked everything on board our two canoes and the
+Gjendesheim boat, which had been lent to us. Then the whole fleet sailed
+from these hospitable shores 'neath a stormy sky, with cold wind and
+rain, and the towering heights of Memurutungen all wrapped in angry
+clouds, frowning blackly above us.
+
+It was quite sad to leave the snug little corner where we have spent
+such a happy, careless time, with all the comforts which we have added
+gradually to our temporary home; and the valley looked very desolate
+without the tent, the cheerful fire, and 'the meteor flag.'
+
+Esau's last act was to fill two brass cartridge cases with water and
+hammer them firmly into each other; the air-tight boiler so formed he
+put into the fire under the oven, and after waiting a short time for the
+explosion, forgot all about it and went away without telling any one.
+Just then John arrived at the spot to see if there were any loose
+belongings lying about, and was horrified to observe the oven suddenly
+elevate itself into the air and disappear among the clouds with a loud
+report. His mind at once reverted to the happy life of a landlord in co.
+Limerick, but he soon realised the true state of affairs, and came down
+to the lake muttering something about 'tomdamfoolery,' a Norwegian word
+which expresses censure of the silly custom of practical joking.
+
+This morning we found a merlin sitting just outside the tent door; it
+had evidently been stuffing itself with scraps of offal from the camp
+until it was perfectly stupid and could scarcely fly. Esau wanted to
+knock it on the head at first, but more humane feelings came over him,
+so he fetched his rifle and shot it for an hour or so, till at length
+the bird, wearied by the constant noise, retired into the birch woods,
+and we saw it no more.
+
+There are usually several ravens near the camp, which come down to
+'carry off carrion,' but otherwise there are not many birds here: the
+most common are buzzards and kestrels, which abound; two eagles, which
+are generally soaring above Memurutungen; a pair of ospreys occasionally
+flying about the lake; a rough-legged buzzard seen once, a few merlins,
+and a small short-tailed red hawk, with whom we are not acquainted;
+sometimes black-throated divers and scaups on the lake, and a few
+fieldfares and redwings in the birch woods. We have found many nests of
+the latter in the trees, and one of a fieldfare in a bank.
+
+What rare times all the birds and beasts of prey will have for the next
+few days in Memurudalen! only to be equalled by the early days of the
+Australian gold fever. Nuggets of inestimable value in the shape of
+heads, tails, and other portions of reindeer, ryper, duck, and
+trout--intermingled with other delicacies, such as potato skins, jam and
+marmalade pots, and whisky bottles--will from time to time be unearthed
+amidst shrieks of triumph. 'Claims' will be run up to a fabulous price,
+and many a battle royal will be fought in that happy valley where we
+have spent a month of peace. As we depart in mournful silence, brooding
+over the days that are no more, we see in fancy the numerous bright eyes
+which from lairs and eyries are watching our every move, their owners
+all ready to swoop down on our _debris_ as soon as we have passed out of
+sight.
+
+The lake was very rough, and we were quite afraid of being swamped and
+losing our baggage from the magnitude of the big little waves; but
+luckily the boat took our heaviest things, or we should not have been
+able to venture; and so the canoes, lightly loaded and with all sail
+set, rode gallantly o'er the foaming billows, and we all got safe to
+Gjendesheim. The cheery fire in the room, with its bare wooden walls and
+benches, made a picture which seemed the perfection of comfort after the
+chilly tent and the freezing N.W. wind.
+
+  'It is the black north-wester
+    That makes brave Englishmen
+  Use very naughty words, and wish
+    Themselves at home again.'
+
+One of the party is always telling us that he intends to inflict on the
+British public a narration of our experiences on this expedition, and
+although he has not yet begun to collect materials for the work, we have
+begun to invent titles for the book that is to be. One is 'England,
+Canada, and Norway,' being a description of Englishmen travelling in
+Norway with Canadian canoes; and we think this title might induce
+schoolmasters to buy it, under the impression that it is a geographical
+treatise on those countries.
+
+The Skipper proposed 'The Fool with the Fowling-piece, or Fishing and
+Flyblows.' John's title was 'Mems. from Memurudalen, or Jottings from
+the Jotunfjeld;' and Esau suggested 'Glopit, top it, and mop it,'
+alluding, he said, to the state of John's forehead whenever he arrived
+at the summit of that mountain; but the explanation was received with
+such a chorus of 'Oh! {drop it!} {stop it!}' from the others that he
+gave up the idea.
+
+  [[The original is printed between lines:
+           {drop}
+      'Oh,        it!'
+           {stop}     ]]
+
+One notion is to make the book a collection of cooking recipes for
+camp life, and call it 'Grunts from a Gourmand in Gulbrandsdalen, or
+Paragraphs from the Pen of a Pig;' but we think we should promote
+a more active sale among respectable people if it were called
+'Self-Improvement, or Lights thrown on Good Living.'
+
+Another idea is that it might get a sale by appearing surreptitiously
+among the Christmas books for the young, and for that purpose we should
+use the names of our two henchmen Anglicised. 'Oola and Eva: a Tale for
+Girls,' could not fail to attract the favourable attention of parents
+and guardians.
+
+Possibly it might create a greater sensation if it were introduced to
+the world as 'Julia and Pausanias: an Idyll.' It is very difficult to
+decide on a good name, but we are all agreed that the name once found,
+it will be perfectly easy to write the book afterwards.
+
+
+_September 4._--How soothing and pleasant it is, when we hear the storm
+and rain shrieking and beating outside, to reflect that there is a good
+solid roof over our heads, and that we shall not be roused in the night
+by the cry of 'All hands turn out to slack off guy-ropes!'
+
+This morning the lake was so rough that we perceived that we had been
+very lucky to make our voyage yesterday; we certainly could not have
+attempted it to-day. The man from Gjendebod was here, and started for
+the other end of the lake with Andreas in the big boat about nine
+o'clock, but at two they came back dead beat and wet through, having
+been obliged to desist from their attempt before they had gone two
+miles, and they considered themselves lucky to have got back.
+
+  [Illustration: Canoeing after Duck in a Storm]
+
+The appearance of the lake is wonderfully fine as the white-capped
+breakers come rolling in, flinging the spray high up the face of the
+opposing cliffs, and dashing with an angry roar against the black rocks
+where they jut out into the deep part of the lake. The Skipper,
+affirming that he could smell the salt in the air, began to look out
+pollack-flies, while John put on a beautiful brand-new shooting coat,
+and went down to the shore to pick up seaweed and dig on the sands: he
+came back saying that the tide was coming in, and he thought he had seen
+the smoke of a steamer in the offing.
+
+Close to this end of the lake a little promontory runs out, which forms
+a breakwater, so that the sea just opposite the house is comparatively
+calm. In this bay, directly after breakfast, we saw two scaups, and the
+Skipper and Esau manned a canoe to try for them, the former to paddle,
+the latter to shoot. Only one was shot at, and it managed to fly beyond
+the headland before falling dead, and we dare not go after it in our
+frail craft.
+
+  [Illustration: Andreas: our Retriever]
+
+In the afternoon we took all the male inhabitants of this district, viz.
+Oela, Ivar, and Andreas, to act as spaniels and retrievers, and went into
+the fjeld above Gjendesheim for ryper. We had quite a sporting
+afternoon, as we managed to find a good many broods: the strong wind had
+made them so much wilder that they got up with reasonable haste and
+energy, instead of waiting to be kicked and then only running away.
+
+  [Illustration: Ola and Andreas capturing a wounded Grouse]
+
+We had great fun also in watching the behaviour of our men, especially
+their method of capturing a wounded bird. One which was hit in the head
+had dropped among some rocks, and Oela and Andreas went in pursuit; they
+crawled suspiciously about, peering over the stones as if they were
+stalking reindeer; then suddenly catching sight of the bird, which was
+crouching down as birds hit in the head sometimes do, they advanced
+cautiously upon it, each with an uplifted stick in his hand, and crept
+like assassins nearer and nearer to their victim. At last they stood
+within reach. Oela gave the word to strike, and strike they did, as if
+they were breaking stones, and the poor old ryper lay at the feet of its
+murderers a mangled, bleeding corpse.
+
+We shot all the afternoon with almost unvarying luck, hardly ever losing
+a bird; now getting four barrels into a large brood, now picking up a
+solitary old cock that had selfishly separated himself from his family,
+and selected a particularly advantageous feeding-ground for his own
+exclusive benefit, and at intervals having a little recreation afforded
+by our men, especially the professional buffoon, Ivar.
+
+In one marshy bit of ground a pair of short-eared owls were incautious
+enough to fly up in front of Esau, and were promptly added to the bag;
+they were in beautiful plumage, which was luckily not injured by the
+shot, so we were much pleased at getting them. Then we went towards the
+river into the ground frequented by ducks, and got a little shooting
+there, and finished the day by walking round the shoulder of the lower
+fjeld about the time that the ryper were coming there to feed, and so
+back to Gjendesheim. Altogether the walk was most enjoyable, and as we
+returned and gazed over Gjendin, the contrasts of storm and sunshine,
+tumbled clouds and rough waters, and occasional glimpses of the highest
+mountains gleaming through rifts in the surrounding blackness as the
+bright sunbeams lighted up their peaks of snow, formed the most striking
+picture of wild and desolate grandeur that can be imagined.
+
+Esau's shooting is remarkably unerring, and we feel so annoyed with him
+sometimes when he _won't_ miss even a palpably difficult chance, that we
+were quite glad a few days ago when he took such a long shot that it
+strained his gun, and the Skipper exclaimed, 'Ah, I told you you would,
+I've been expecting it all along.'
+
+  [Illustration: John and the Skipper upsetting in the Canoe]
+
+John had an unstrung kind of day. Starting down the river to fish soon
+after breakfast, he became so engrossed in his sport that he forgot all
+about lunch, and did not return till dinner-time, when he walked
+abstractedly into the room where we were sitting, and pulled out his
+watch; then after studying it and making calculations for a short time
+he remarked slowly, 'I left here at six minutes past ten, and hanged if
+it isn't ten minutes past six now; my watch must have stopped.' Then he
+wandered off upstairs to his room, still ruminating over this
+extraordinary occurrence to his watch; but in his absence Ragnild had
+changed all his things into another cabin without telling him anything
+about it, so that he found his old habitation swept and garnished, and
+began to think, like Clever Alice, 'This is none of I.' However, he got
+over this difficulty and came down to dinner, still looking a trifle
+abstracted, but with his usual appetite. Afterwards the Skipper paddled
+him across the river to fish, and when coming back, John upset the canoe
+and nearly drowned them both in the presence of Esau and every native in
+the district, who joined in mocking them in the Norwegian tongue from
+the bank.
+
+Finally he informed us that during his wanderings he had composed a
+short poem, 'which,' said he, 'as you have not heard it, I will now
+proceed to recite.'
+
+So we went to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+RAPID-RUNNING.
+
+
+_Sunday, September 5._--To-day the Skipper and Esau determined to try to
+run the canoes down the river to Sjoedals Lake, where we intend to leave
+them during our stay at Rus Vand.
+
+All things being ready, the Skipper started about eleven o'clock on his
+perilous voyage, closely followed by Esau. The river is full of
+impracticable falls, some of them twenty or thirty feet high, but
+between these places there are splendid rapids, and the excitement of
+running them is delightfully fascinating. When we came to a bad fall we
+carried the canoes round, and enlisted the services of our two men to
+help us in this part of the performance. Oela did not like this at all,
+for carrying a canoe of 80 lbs. weight over very rough ground is hard
+work, and Oela loveth the fireside and the odour of roasting coffee
+better than hard work on the Sabbath.
+
+Presently we came to a place which the Skipper wanted to run, but which
+Esau declared to be too dangerous; it was a very swift and rocky rapid,
+with two extremely sudden turns, the lower of which was only a few yards
+above a high fall. Esau only ran past the first turn, which was quite
+nervous work enough, and then got to shore and waited on the bank for
+the result of the Skipper's exploit.
+
+Down he came at about fifteen miles an hour, took the first turn most
+successfully, and then, by some extraordinary strokes of his paddle,
+which no man living but himself could have performed, and aided by a
+species of miracle, he got round the second; but then an eddy caught the
+canoe, and she became unmanageable, so that instead of stopping in a
+little creek of quiet water as he intended, he came straight on at a
+terrific speed, and ran high and dry on a ledge of rock just above the
+fall, losing his paddle at the shock. Wonderful to relate, the canoe was
+not a bit injured, but the paddle whirled over the abyss and disappeared
+for ever; and the Skipper was pleased because he had not done the same.
+
+We spent five hours in this kind of amusement, and enjoyed it almost
+more than anything else we have done. The constant danger of a smash or
+an upset, the sensation of speed, the delight of the sudden rush to the
+gliding dip over a fall, with the water roaring past a rock on each
+side; the big waves below the fall, which catch the canoe and toss it
+from one to another till you feel as if you must be thrown out; and the
+curious appearance that the hurrying foam-flecked waters all round
+present, combine to make Sunday rapid-running a very popular pursuit.
+
+While we were doing the last bit above Sjoedals Lake, our men, instigated
+no doubt by Oela the Lazy, seized the opportunity given by a long rapid
+to go home, and as we were pretty well tired out with our exertions, we
+left the canoes above the lowest fall and walked back to Gjendesheim.
+But we cannot recommend this river to future voyageurs; there are too
+many places that cannot be run; and we hear that we are regarded as
+decidedly mad for having attempted it.
+
+  [Illustration: Making a Portage by the Sjoa River]
+
+Oela, our stalker, is a man whom we do not much admire. He is a big,
+handsome fellow, with a light beard and moustache, and rather a weak
+face; and his good qualities are extreme cleverness at almost any kind
+of work--carpentry, smith's work, needlework, and saddlery, all seem to
+come alike to him--and as a deer-stalker he is first-rate, and never
+makes a mistake. But we fear that his profession at home is to be an
+independent gentleman, and he is very lazy, and nearly always sulky.
+This sulkiness annoys us more than anything else, but we also get very
+angry with him for being afraid of everything. He is afraid to go in the
+canoes, and nothing has ever induced him to enter either of them. He is
+afraid of rowing against a wind, or going out stalking on two successive
+days, lest he should tire himself; and he is afraid of washing up plates
+and pans lest he should lose dignity, but it does not bore him to sit by
+and watch other people perform the operation.
+
+The Gjende fly was a marvellous sight to-day; we thought him numerous
+before, but we little knew the accumulated villany of which this noxious
+creature is capable. Every fly that we saw here a week ago has now got a
+large and healthy family of some hundreds, and a darkness which may be
+felt broods over the river and its shores. And now that the cold weather
+has set in, he begins to perceive that his short but effectual career of
+annoyance draws near to its close, and the whole face of nature is
+covered with torpid crawling things, that make one turn in disgust from
+everything one touches. May his end come soon, for we love him not.
+
+  [Illustration: A Norwegian Fire-place]
+
+We are very comfortable here at night sitting round the noble fireplace
+in the corner of the room. These corner fireplaces are found in every
+saeter and homestead in this part of the country, and are very
+picturesque and cheery, vastly superior to the modern stove, that may be
+seen standing up gaunt and inhospitable in every house in more civilised
+regions. Most of them have the chimney supported by a crooked piece of
+birch wood coming down from the roof and hooked underneath the
+projecting angle of stonework, but in some there is instead an upright
+iron bar from the hearth. Generally speaking, they are placed quite
+against the wall in the corner, but we have seen several with a space
+behind large enough to walk through, and one which even had a bed
+behind it.
+
+
+_September 6._--The sea on Gjendin has organised something remarkably
+like a ground swell under the influence of the continuous storm, and its
+fury is more magnificent than ever; no boat here would have a chance of
+living in it.
+
+Esau spent the morning packing his bird-skins in a wooden box for their
+journey home, as we hardly expect to get much more in the way of
+specimens. Then we had another afternoon at ryper, not quite so lucky as
+yesterday, but still satisfactory. When we returned we found that
+Andreas had brought from Besse Saeter a vast pile of literature which had
+been accumulating at the Vaage post office for the last month. After
+dinner, when we were all buried in our respective letters and papers,
+occasionally reading out particularly interesting scraps of news,
+Ragnild came in and informed us that a certain Norwegian, whom we may
+call Mr. Fox, had come there to fish. This was a man who had done some
+business for us here two years ago, and we had had a little
+correspondence with him before coming out this year. Thinking we might
+have given him some trouble, and not having any great liking for his
+character, we naturally wished to be especially civil to him; so we
+asked Ragnild to bring him in and stay to interpret for us.
+
+Presently he entered the room, and after greeting us sat down and
+refused to have anything to drink: this astonished us so much that it
+completely drove our small stock of smaller talk out of our heads. The
+commonplaces of polite conversation sound perfectly ridiculous when
+gravely uttered to an interpreter for transmission to the proper
+recipient, and so Ragnild seemed to think, for her translation always
+sounded much shorter than our flowery sentences. We tried a variety of
+feeble questions to which we already knew the answers, somewhat in the
+following style:--
+
+'We presume, Mr. Fox, that you like Norwegian cheese?'
+
+'Does your brother also like Norwegian cheese?'
+
+'Do you speak German?'
+
+'No? but your brother, we believe, plays the Norwegian german-flute?'
+
+'The friends of your sister's children are also our friends. They live
+in England, but we believe they still like Norwegian cheese.'
+
+'We like much the cheese of the country, and have never suffered
+asphyxia from it.'
+
+'We shall take a small quantity with us to England for the destruction
+of rats;' and so forth.
+
+Presently Esau, getting impatient, suggested in a loud voice that we
+should 'ask him some questions out of Bennett's Phrase-book.' Then he
+was covered with shame, as he feared that Ragnild would immediately
+translate this to Mr. Fox; but fortunately she did not.
+
+On reference later to the said Phrase-book we find that some very
+appropriate and useful sentences may be gleaned from its fertile pages.
+For instance, 'Who are you? What sort of weather is it to-day?' (these
+two remarks are introductory, as it were, and to inspire confidence in
+the person addressed). Then we come to the point: 'Will you lend me a
+dollar? Be quick! Thank you, you are very kind.' Here the speaker would
+turn to Ragnild and proceed thus: 'Put this in my carpet bag. Make haste
+and bring me a light, open, four-wheeled phaeton carriage, drawn by one
+horse.' Then to Mr. Fox, 'Good morning; I must go, but I shall return in
+a month.' Then the speaker might wink at John and depart.
+
+Now came the most awful pause that the history of the world in its
+darkest moments can yet point to. We coughed and glared at each other,
+and felt in our pockets as if we might find something to say there; and
+then the Skipper had a brilliant idea, and said, 'Ask Mr. Fox how long
+he intends to stay here.' But Ragnild at once replied, 'Only two days,'
+without referring the question to him at all; so that remark was wasted,
+and our embarrassment became worse than ever; for now not only had we to
+invent subjects of conversation, but also to put them in such a form
+that Ragnild should not be able to answer them without taking Mr. Fox
+into her confidence. He all the time was most annoying, as he would do
+literally nothing to keep up his end of the conversation, and replied to
+our lengthiest and most brilliant efforts of exuberant verbosity by
+monosyllables and inarticulate grunts.
+
+At last, in desperation we presented him with a very nice new English
+knife, for which he did not seem to care at all; and so we parted, both
+sides feeling that the interview had been a failure.
+
+The following note is extracted from one of the journals:--'The common
+cheese of Great Britain is unknown in Norway, but in the roadside inn,
+the smallest saeter or farmhouse, and the humble cottage dwelling, the
+traveller can always obtain that excellent substitute, the goat's-milk
+cheese of the country.' The colour of this excellent substitute is that
+of Windsor soap; its consistency, leather; and its scent, decomposed
+glue, which causes the natives to keep it under a glass shade. If you
+eat it, your own dog will shun you; if you avoid it, you starve.
+
+
+_September 7._--Esau always wakes up in the most boisterous spirits, and
+as the partitions between the cabins are only made of thin boards full
+of knot-holes, he can be heard all over the house the first thing in the
+morning jeering at John, who sleeps next door, whistling, and crowing
+like a baby in his cot: he continues these little games long after
+breakfast-time, and though he is wide awake, will _not_ get up. All this
+sounds very pleasant and cheery to talk about, but the Skipper, who
+usually wakes in a temper the reverse of angelic, being influenced by an
+unequal liver, wishes that these walls were twice as thick, and that
+Esau was at Hong Kong.
+
+Generally he tries little stratagems to induce Esau to get up, dressing
+operations having a tendency to quiet him. Sometimes he enters the room
+sniffing, and remarks, 'How deuced good the coffee smells roasting!' or
+'We're going to have a tip-top fish for breakfast, but there's very
+little of that pie left; enough for two of us p'raps' (this would mean
+about eight pounds). Or he looks out of the window, and assuming an
+attitude of intense surprise, hanging on to the frame like Irving in
+'the Bells,' says, 'By George, Esau! there's a fellow just below looking
+through a binocular that can give yours six lengths for mechanism.' If
+all these expedients fail, he gives in, and dresses quickly with his
+ears full of tow, leaving Esau aloft, and gets into the eating-room,
+where the floor and ceiling between put a soft pedal on operatic
+selections.
+
+Esau says all this ill-feeling arises because the Skipper cannot whistle
+Berlioz's 'Faust,' and is jealous.
+
+Andreas and Ragnild are making preparations for their departure, which
+takes place to-morrow; then Gjendesheim will be closed, the door
+fastened, the windows shuttered, and the place will be left to itself
+until next June. Very soon now Gjendin will be covered with ice and
+snow: most of the good folks in the saeters have already gone to the
+valleys for the winter.
+
+We thought it would be more convenient for them if we took our departure
+to-day, so packed our goods on the pony and said 'Farvel' to
+Gjendesheim. Our last view of Gjendin, as we turned to look from the top
+of the pass, was just as it appeared when we first saw it--black,
+gloomy, and forbidding, with the cold north wind sweeping in a hurricane
+over its waters, and heavy rain-clouds hanging over its mountain
+shoulders, making a scene as awfully lonely and desolate as it is
+possible to depict.
+
+  [Illustration: Jens and his Pony on their way over Bes Fjeld]
+
+After the pony had gone with the last load we suddenly discovered that
+the tent had been forgotten: it and its appurtenances make a package
+weighing about 70 lbs. Now we _all_ hate carrying 70 lbs., but
+fortunately at this crisis a _deus ex machina_ appeared in the person of
+a stranger. At first we thought it must be one of our own men returning
+for something after changing his coat, but on his nearer approach we
+found that he was the rest of the population of the district, whom we
+had not seen before, coming down in a body. This was Hans Kleven, who
+has the reputation of being the best hunter in the country. He is a
+small sturdy man, with amazing shoulders and a pleasant, good-humoured
+face, and a most gorgeous check shooting-coat, of a pattern so enormous
+that there are only three squares on the whole of his back, which is a
+pretty broad one. This coat was given to him years ago, apparently about
+1840, by an English sportsman, and he is as proud of it as ever Joseph
+was of his celebrated garment. To him we committed our tent, which he
+carried over to Besse Saeter, three miles away, without turning a hair.
+We rewarded him with a shilling, and from his profuse gratitude we
+conjecture that he only expected fourpence for the job.
+
+Our first step at Besse Saeter was, as usual, to demand food; and John
+asked for a dish called 'Tuk melk,' which had been recommended to him as
+very Norwegian and very good. A woman at once went to fetch it from the
+other saeter, a quarter of a mile away, and presently brought it in a
+large wooden milk-tub about the size and shape of a sitz bath. How that
+poor woman carried it we know not; it occupied half the table, and was
+so scrupulously clean that we feared to touch it with our sordid hands.
+
+John and Esau at last attacked it in the orthodox manner, which is to
+sit on opposite sides of the table, and to draw a line across the
+surface of the milk with a spoon before beginning, and then to 'eat
+fair' up to that line. It would have amused some of our friends at home
+if they could have seen these two young men of fashion at the moment
+when both of them were engaged with abnormally large wooden spoons,
+silently ladling down 'Tuk melk' out of a tub as big as a drawing-room
+table.
+
+They reported that it was on the whole good; something like curds, but
+with a sourer taste, and it was much improved by sugar; but though they
+ate a large quantity of it, being men of great courage and
+determination, they could not persuade the Skipper to risk his life in
+experiments with untried articles of food. He, however, gave utterance
+to the following refined expression of his sentiments:--'I wouldn't
+touch that beastliness if you gave me fourteen pence a spoonful to
+swallow it.' No one offered the reward.
+
+Out shooting on the other side of the lake, we put up a snipe just at
+evening, which went down again close to us. This species of game is not
+common up here, although we find his cousin the woodcock fairly often;
+consequently we were much excited, and advanced upon the foe with
+insidious step, and bloodthirsty weapons almost at our shoulders in
+order to slay him as soon as he should rise. All went well, and at the
+right moment up he got, and promptly did the Skipper fire and miss him;
+while Esau's gun for the first time on record missed fire, and left him
+using language that ought to have ignited any cartridge. So the happy
+bird zigzagged off into the dim shades of sheltering night, and we went
+on our way full of thought and sorrow.
+
+Arriving again at the saeter after narrowly escaping shipwreck in the
+passage, we found that Jens had come to meet us, and as he will enter
+our service from this date, we shall no longer need Ivar, and paid him
+off, arranging, however, that he is to come to help us home when we
+leave Rus Vand.
+
+We like Ivar very much now, though we did not by any means dote upon him
+at first. Ivar is a good fellow, but an idiot, perfectly willing to do
+anything in the world, but not understanding _how_ to do anything. His
+budding reputation was blasted in our eyes the first time that we left
+camp and entrusted everything to his care: we were away for three days,
+and in that time he consumed nearly four pounds of our best butter; on
+our return we decided that he was a knave, but we have since learnt that
+it was only his natural impulsiveness that led him to commit such an
+outrage; and now that we have found how eager he is to oblige us in
+everything, we like his strange nature better than Oela's awful laziness
+of character. He came into the room this morning to stand for his
+portrait, and the easy, graceful attitude that he assumed for the
+occasion was inimitable. His waistcoat and boots were perhaps his
+greatest charm, but his open countenance and genial smile (six inches in
+diameter) played no small part in causing him to become beloved by us as
+he was.
+
+Ivar always laughed like a nigger on a racecourse, and whenever we took
+him out ryper-shooting he was exactly like an unbroken retriever: if a
+bird was killed, he _would_ rush in to gather it, and we had to shout,
+'Back, Ivar, back! Lie down! Down charge!' to prevent him disturbing any
+birds that might have chanced to remain during the yells and convulsions
+of Christy Minstrel mirth into which the death of a ryper always sent
+him. His behaviour usually made us laugh so much that we attributed any
+missing to the unsteadiness caused by constant hilarity. We gave him our
+spade as a parting present, and dismissed him with our blessing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+RUS VAND.
+
+
+_September 8._--This morning we crossed the fjeld to Rus Vand in a gale
+of wind. Waving a 'Farvel' to the kindly folk at Besse Saeter, we have a
+stiff climb up by the side of the torrent which comes gadareneing[*]
+down from Bes Lake, high above our heads, and presently we stand on the
+open fjeld above the saeter. Below lie the green waters and birch-clad
+banks of Sjoedals Lake; far away to the east the great fall and larger
+trees that mark the outlet of the lake; and still further, glimpses of
+lower Sjoedals Lake, with its forests of pine, haunt of the black game
+and capercailzie. But we cannot stand long to look, for the side of a
+Norwegian mountain, though eminently suited to hurricanes, is extremely
+_un_suitable for human beings while the stormy winds do blow. En avant,
+Messieurs, en avant! and we fight our way across the flat top to the
+opposite brow. Here we must pause, though AEolus himself say nay. 'What a
+glorious sight!' Straight in front, the cloud-girt peak of
+Nautgardstind, all glistening white with newly fallen snow, but of him
+only the top can be seen; his middle is hidden by a never-ending rush of
+scudding clouds. Higher still and westward the jagged summits of
+Tyknings Hoe and Memurutind, also pure white where the snow can lie, but
+with huge black lines and chasms where the steep rocky face stands up
+gaunt and repellent, so sheer that snow can never lodge; nearer the
+tremendous mass of Bes Hoe frowns above us; and far below in front the
+Russen River winds its way through barren rocks and patches of willow,
+to warmer and more hospitable regions, leaving with a leap of joy the
+cold storm-rocked Rus Lake, which has been its cradle since its birth in
+the mighty glaciers around.
+
+    [Footnote: Gadareneing, _i.e._ rushing violently down a steep
+    place.]
+
+Such was the scene lying before us on the north side of the mountain,
+grand beyond description, perhaps the finest in Norway, but not exactly
+inviting to shivering hungry mortals, so not much time was spent on it.
+Down we went, with the wind worse than on the other side, howling past
+our ears and screeching in the gun-barrels, and at last arrived at the
+lake to find Jens hauling for his life at the boat which, though filled
+with water by the breakers, had fortunately not been battered to pieces
+on the rocky strand. He had left it dragged up on the beach out of the
+water, but the sea had increased so much in his absence, that if we had
+been a little later it would without doubt have been smashed.
+
+However, we soon baled her out, and with Oela as Charon commenced the
+passage. Rusvasoset, as the outlet is called, is not more than 60 yards
+across, but the waves had had seven miles of very open water to get up
+in, and they came rolling down to this end in a very alarming manner.
+With great difficulty we shoved off, and then with Oela sculling his
+hardest, and the Skipper keeping our head to wind, we at last got safe
+across with no mishap but the loss of Oela's hat and a thorough ducking
+for all of us.
+
+  [Illustration: A Stormy Crossing at Rusvasoset]
+
+Oela was very sorrowful about his hat, which was of pure Leghorn straw,
+double seamed, extra quality lining; and being further embellished with
+a black braid ribbon, it was a great source of pride to him; but we
+mocked when it flew away, and are inclined to bear its departure with
+equanimity, and hope it will be accepted as a propitiatory offering by
+the angry Lady of the Lake.
+
+All the things were at last safely housed, and we soon made ourselves
+comfortable in our new abode, which is luxury itself in this weather
+when compared with a tent.
+
+There are two huts, one by the edge of the lake, the other about 20
+yards away, and it is the latter which we occupy. We enter by a door
+about five feet high, invariably knocking our heads against the lintel
+and swearing as we do so. The first room is about nine feet square, with
+a narrow dresser under the solitary window on the left, and an iron
+cooking stove in the nearest corner to the right, the more remote one
+being tenanted by a bed. Round the room at various heights are shelves
+and hooks adorned by cooking utensils of all kinds, very kindly left for
+us by their worthy owners; two or three stools complete the furniture;
+and on the floor are to be seen carved the effigies of departed trout of
+fabulous weight, with dates and the initials of their captors. Passing
+on through a still smaller doorway we find ourselves in another room of
+the same size, but with three beds instead of one, and an open Norwegian
+fireplace; the same kind of pegs and shelves, and hooks for guns on the
+wall; more profile fishes, and walls covered with records in pencil of
+game killed by former inhabitants, with occasional amusing notes. This
+is our dining, drawing, and bed room; the other is only used as kitchen.
+
+The men's hut near the water is also divided into two rooms: the outer
+and much larger compartment is used as a cellar, larder, and general
+store-room, and presents, to say the least of it, a somewhat untidy
+appearance, as bottles, barrels, and boards, a grindstone, reindeer
+bones, a saw, a side-saddle, and old nets are piled together without any
+attempt at order. The inner room is very small, about nine feet by four,
+and there our two men sleep; and there also is a large oven built of
+stone, and heated by a fire inside it. As we had no bread, we proceeded
+to bake, and our ignorance of the manners and customs of this oven
+caused the bread to have a terribly trying time of it; for we did not
+make it hot enough at the first attempt, and the bread was left lying on
+the top covered by a cloth for over an hour while the oven was being
+heated a second time.
+
+All's well that ends well, and this batch of rolls turned out the very
+best that frail man ever tasted, and consequently at supper we ate
+enough bread and butter and jam to supply a school feast of the
+hungriest description.
+
+While the Skipper and John attended to the loaves Esau looked after the
+fishes, and very soon got a nice dish of half-pounders in the river.
+As he came back something in the middle of the stream caught his eye.
+'It is, yet it can't be--yes, by George, it is, Oela's hat!' wedged in
+between two rocks, and slightly out of shape, but with the
+double-seamed, extra quality lining uninjured, and the pure Leghorn
+straw in very fair condition. The effusion with which Oela received it
+was a sight to be seen, but no one else exhibited much enthusiasm.
+
+An inventory of our remaining stores reveals the fact that we have heaps
+of everything except coffee and bacon, which can only last about a week
+longer. In view of this happy state of things the Skipper proposed to
+spend a week of wild and reckless profusion and sinful extravagance.
+
+Esau at once pictured himself seated on a grassy slope giving way to
+Epicurean indulgence, surrounded by three untouched pots of jam, and
+eating from a fourth with a table-spoon; at his side a cup of tea
+blacker than ink, and flavoured with condensed milk thicker than cream,
+while he flipped lumps of sugar into the water instead of pebbles, and
+commanded Oela to sand the floor of the hut with pepper.
+
+John suggested as an amendment that we should make some exception to
+show that we possess the power of self-denial. 'Let us,' said he, 'deny
+ourselves in some one thing. Not in luxuries, which are getting scarce;
+in that there would be no merit. No; rather let us exercise our virtue
+in respect of what we have in the greatest abundance, and thereby show a
+great and shining example to the world. Let us abstain entirely from
+water.' (He had ascertained that there was plenty of whisky.)
+
+Esau rose to oppose the remarks of the honourable gentleman. 'Such
+self-denial would be a good action, but the constant performance of
+virtuous actions tends to make one haughty. I dare say you fellows don't
+know this, but I do, because I've tried it. I prefer to be wicked and
+humble.'
+
+The motion was not pressed to a division.
+
+We are well provided with all kinds of food, for we found in the larder
+a shoulder of venison, and we have any amount of ryper, which, as John
+says, 'will save our bacon, though they could not save their own;' and
+so with a comfortable hut to live in, a river full of fish at our door,
+and a blazing fire to sit round, life assumes a rosy hue, and we go to
+sleep in real beds with bright hopes of the future.
+
+The Skipper was heard to murmur as he turned over to sleep, 'I say, what
+bread that is! When I get home I shall publish a pamphlet, and teach all
+the world to bake like that.'
+
+It is rather rough on the Skipper's pamphlet to publish his recipe here,
+but this is copied from his journal:--
+
+'Take dough in large quantities and place it on a tin. Heat the oven
+till you are sick to death of piling on wood. Smoke a pipe, and remove
+the ashes. Place the dough in the oven, and leave home for an indefinite
+period. If you ever return, remove the decomposed particles, and let
+them get warm in the sun, or else freeze in the snow, it really don't
+matter a bit. Now heat the oven and recommit them. Brood over the oven
+exhibiting the tenderest solicitude. They will soon be done, and perhaps
+will be good, perhaps not; nobody can tell.'
+
+
+_September 9._--Last night was very cold, and this morning there was ice
+on the lake, and the bilge-water in the boat was frozen solid. Esau and
+Jens went up the lake in the boat to stalk, and the Skipper accompanied
+them to fish, while John fished nearer home.
+
+About six o'clock the boat was seen returning loaded with the head and
+skin of a very fine buck, and Esau gave us his history thus:--
+
+'As soon as we landed halfway up the lake we found the spoor of two very
+large bucks and a smaller one which had swum across the lake in the
+night. They seemed to have gone towards the Tyknings glacier, so we went
+in that direction also. The wind was as bad as it could be in that
+valley, for we were obliged to walk exactly with it at first instead of
+against it, in order to get round a sufficiently large piece of country,
+and then work back against the wind. We walked a couple of miles without
+seeing anything, and at last got close to the Tyknings glacier and the
+iceberg lake at its foot. You know that lake well enough, Skipper, full
+of lumps of ice, some of them as big as this hut, which keep breaking
+off from the projecting glacier as it slides down; and I dare say you
+remember what an awful deathly stillness reigns there and what a dismal
+sight the lake is, cold and black under the shade of the crags which
+close in its sides.
+
+'Well, we sat down there and used the glasses for a long time----'
+
+'What do you mean by "using the glasses?"' interrupted John; 'drinking
+whisky and water?'
+
+Esau withered him with a look and went on.
+
+'Well, "spied," if you like, spied for a long time without seeing
+anything; and we had just walked on again a few yards, when the silence
+was suddenly broken by a cry from Jens of "Reins," and there, 300 yards
+in front of us, was a noble buck which had evidently been concealed from
+our view by some rocks, and had now smelt us and was departing at a
+stately trot, apparently despising undignified hurry.
+
+'I fancy his intention was to trot away at that long swinging pace, and
+get into Asiatic Russia in time for tea; so I grabbed the rifle from
+Jens, as of course, now that he was alarmed, a long shot was our only
+chance; sat down on a stone, and with the faintest hopes of hitting him,
+fired twice, and, of course, missed.
+
+'Now here was where my luck came in. If that buck had not been so proud,
+he could have run straight away from us to the glacier beyond the lake,
+but we were "betwixt the wind and his nobility," and he wanted to get a
+clean breeze, and run against it instead of down it. Consequently, when
+he was about 350 yards away he turned to the right, apparently intending
+to make a circle round us, and so get the wind in his face.
+
+'Directly he turned broadside to us Jens gave a shrill whistle, and the
+buck stopped short for a moment, so that I had just time to make a
+careful shot, and the bullet hit him in the ribs. At the shot he
+stumbled, but recovered himself instantly, and made off a good deal
+faster than before, evidently perceiving that things were getting
+serious, and that "this here warn't no child's play." Before I could
+fire again he got into the ravine which runs down towards Rus Lake, and
+was out of our sight.
+
+'We thought there was just a chance of cutting him off in that extremely
+rough ground, though, of course, we could not tell whether he was much
+hurt or not; so we ran as hard as we could for about a quarter of a
+mile, loading as we ran. Suddenly I caught sight of him going very
+slowly, but luckily he did not see us, so we dodged into a little gully,
+and after another short run came in sight of him standing still, no
+doubt owing to his wound, and about 250 yards away.
+
+'This time he saw us, and darted off as fleetly as ever, no longer with
+his side to us, but straight away. I was dead beat, and Jens had thrown
+himself down, and was panting like--like----'
+
+'A concertina?' suggested the Skipper.
+
+  [Plate: DEATH OF THE 'STOR BOCK' AT THE ICEBERG LAKE, TYKNINGS HOe.]
+
+'Yes, just so. Anyhow, we could not run another yard; you know what it
+is on those stones, so I sat down again, and with the rifle going like a
+pump-handle, fired, and, by the greatest luck, hit him close to the
+tail, and the bullet went clean through his body and smashed his
+shoulder. Down he went, and we raised a yell of triumph, whereupon he
+jumped up again and went off at a slapping pace in a most extraordinary
+manner. I believe if he could have reached the snow he would have done
+us even now, but we were between him and the glacier, and he had nothing
+but rocks to go on, bad enough for a deer with the proper complement of
+legs and ribs, and very trying indeed to one crippled like this, I'm
+sure.
+
+'However, he kept going at a great pace for a few hundred yards, and we
+lay in a state of exhaustion and watched him through the glass. Soon he
+began to move more slowly, and then to go round and round in a small
+circle, and at last he lay down. By that time I had partially recovered
+my wind, so I stalked him with great care and got within a hundred yards
+of him, took a steady aim for his heart, and pulled. To my horror he
+bounced up again, and ran like a hare for a dozen yards, and then rolled
+over and over as dead as Julius Caesar.
+
+'How Jens and I whooped and shook hands and laughed can be imagined by
+any one who has seen a grand deer almost escape him, and then, by a bit
+of luck and a breakneck run, just nailed him when the chance seemed
+hopeless. After that we lay on our backs and panted for some time, but
+after finishing the whisky and a large portion of the iceberg lake we
+recovered sufficiently to skin our prize and cut him up. He is a most
+splendidly fat "stor bock," Jens says by far the best that has been
+killed in these parts this year; a beautiful skin, and, best luck of
+all, his horns have got rid of the velvet, and are fit to take home: and
+they have fourteen points. I measured the fat on his loins, and it was
+two and a half inches thick. Jens tried to bring home a hind quarter as
+well as the head and skin, but before he had gone twenty yards he found
+that it was too much for him, so turned back and buried it with the
+rest.'
+
+At this time of year the biggest bucks of a herd seem to separate
+themselves from the rest and roam about, either alone or perhaps a
+couple together. We think they act wisely in this respect, as the calves
+are now old enough to run as fast as their mothers in case of danger,
+and do not need any paternal protection; and the bucks would no doubt
+become horribly bored if they remained with their wives and children all
+the year round; whereas by this system they are quite independent for a
+time, and roam all over the country, seeing a lot of life and living
+uncommonly well. Very much like a married man, when he gets away on
+board a friend's yacht for a couple of months, and comes back quite
+brightened up at the end of his trip, and positively agreeable and
+good-tempered to his wife and family, insomuch that they are right glad
+to see him home again.
+
+Of course the stalker's great object in life is to shoot one of these
+big bucks; but it is a desire seldom realised, as they are very
+restless, and only haunt the most secluded and difficult country. We
+have only met with two others in this expedition, and those the Skipper
+saw retiring at a good swinging trot over the heights of Memurutungen.
+
+We have obtained some interesting information from Jens about the horns
+of the reindeer. As every one knows, both the bucks and does have horns,
+but they shed them at different times: those of the does and smaller
+bucks are now in velvet, and will not get properly hard until October;
+they will then remain on all through the winter, and be shed in the
+spring. But the large bucks have their horns hard now, and will shed
+them in the winter, and so be defenceless during the time when the snow
+lies thickest.
+
+All this is undoubtedly true, for Jens is thoroughly trustworthy in his
+facts, but what is the reason?
+
+Jens does not know, but he gives us another fact. In the winter, when
+the 'stor bocks' have no horns, the snow is often so deep that only the
+strongest deer can scrape it away to lay bare the moss which at that
+season forms their food. Then come the does and smaller bucks, and with
+their horns push away the unfortunate big ones, and so are saved from
+starvation, while the ill-treated 'stor bocks' have to work double tides
+in order to get anything to eat.
+
+We present this fact in all humility to Mr. Darwin as a solution of the
+problem, 'Why has the female reindeer horns?' Evidently, they originally
+had none, but by constant pushing at their lords and masters they
+developed them by degrees; then, by the survival of the fittest, those
+does with the longest and sharpest horns prospered most, and soon there
+were none of the hornless does left, and all calves began to have horns
+as a matter of course.
+
+Esau is inclined to the belief that, by the same line of reasoning, the
+big bucks, constantly being shot at through untold ages, have developed
+cast-iron ribs, and that that is the reason why they take such a lot of
+killing.
+
+Possibly we have worked the theory in the wrong direction. It may be
+that originally all deer of every kind had horns, and the reindeer doe
+is the only female which now keeps them, because she alone has to fight
+for her living; but the snow and the horns together are cause and
+effect, of that we are convinced.
+
+The _piece de resistance_ at dinner was a ryper curry, executed in the
+Skipper's best manner, and worthy of a place amongst the old masters,
+though providentially none of them were here to help us with it. John
+also contributed his share to the menu, a roley-poley pudding, which,
+when it came to table, looked a trifle doughy at the ends, as even the
+best of such puddings generally do.
+
+John turned to Esau, and in his sweetest manner said, 'Do you like end,
+old fellow?'
+
+He, a little astonished at this unwonted politeness, replied with equal
+courtesy, 'No, thank you, I don't think I care about end.'
+
+'Ah,' said John, 'well, the Skipper and I _do_;' and thereupon cut the
+pudding into two portions, and was giving one to the Skipper and the
+other to himself, when the proceedings were interrupted by a brief but
+energetic scene of riot and bloodshed, which was terminated by a treaty
+of peace on the basis of the _status quo_ as regards the pudding, and
+subsequent re-division of the same into three parts by a mixed
+commission.
+
+Among the fish brought in to-day was one enormously long brute which
+ought to have weighed five pounds, but was only three pounds. The
+Skipper captured this prize at the outlet of the lake, which seems to be
+a favourite place for sick and dying fish like this.
+
+Matters of food are generally referred to Esau, because he cares more
+about eating than the other two, as _they_ say, or because he has got
+more sense than they have, as _he_ says. The two explanations are
+probably identical.
+
+When this fish was brought to him for judgment, he promptly said, 'Give
+it to the men.' The Skipper replied, 'My dear chap, whenever we collect
+any kind of food that isn't quite nice, you always "give it to the
+men."'
+
+Esau became grave at once, and answered 'You forget we are not in
+England. At home, truly, we give the best of everything to our servants,
+and are thankful for the worst ourselves; but Norway is a country where
+the canker of civilisation has not yet crept in to taint everything it
+passes over, and where the noisome worm of increasing independence does
+not blossom in the heart of every tree. Our men would be proud and happy
+to chew this aged fish, and we have had instances to convince us that
+they would be prouder and happier if the aged fish were nearly putrid.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+LUCK.
+
+
+_September 10._--The Skipper caused great sorrow this morning at
+breakfast by announcing his intention of leaving Rus Lake on the day
+after to-morrow, which ought to be a Sunday, according to our reckoning.
+It seems that his conscience upbraids him for leaving a brother to be
+married without his assistance, and the House has sadly approved his
+decision.
+
+While Esau was having a great day with the trout in the river, the
+Skipper went after deer, and came back cursing Fortune and all her
+emissaries and signs, which means ravens, horseshoes, spiders, and so
+forth. A few days ago, when he was starting on a stalk, he heard a raven
+croaking overhead, so refrained from looking up lest he should catch its
+eye, and have bad luck; but that raven was not to be balked of his
+victim, and obtruded himself so that the Skipper _had_ to see him, and
+of course no deer came that day. The next day _two_ ravens crossed his
+path, both cawing in the loudest and most jubilant manner; so he was
+greatly delighted, thinking that this was a sure precursor of good
+sport; but something was wrong, and again no deer resulted. But to-day
+two ravens came and cawed in a gentle, soothing, confident manner just
+outside the window before we got up: this gave the Skipper great belief
+in the turn of luck, and he started with a rope in his pocket to tie up
+the deerskins withal, his knife sharpened like a razor, and his bag full
+of cartridges. Once again he saw nothing, and was nearly withered away
+by the cold wind and rain. Coming home he picked up a horseshoe,
+probably the only one in the Jotunfjeld; but the times are out of joint,
+and these barometers of fortune have become depressed by the prevailing
+bad seasons and the state of the weather, so that they cannot be
+depended on.
+
+In spite of the absence of sport he came back raving about the glorious
+views of the mountains, which quite repay any one for a long walk now
+that they are newly covered with snow. From Nautgardstind looking
+northwards, away from the glaciers, a splendid panorama is spread
+out--hill, forest, and lake, lighted up by the bright gleams of the
+September sun, still shining out bravely at intervals although winter
+has begun. Down to the right is the hilly woodland country through which
+we journeyed on our way hither, and on the left a vast plain of rolling
+ground. Far beyond this rises a towering cluster of high-peaked
+mountains, over whose heads float bands of fleecy clouds, while up their
+weather-worn sides the cloud-shadows drift and seem to nestle in sleep.
+They say these peaks are called Ronderne, but surely when seen on such a
+day, 'a dream of heaven' is a better name; for where else on earth can
+man be so near heaven as in a lofty solitude like this, where he can
+gaze his fill on nature's most beautiful loneliness untouched and
+undisturbed by human hand? Oela's ignorance of English enables one to
+gloat in silence over such a scene, without any danger of being rudely
+recalled to earth by a jarring exclamation of 'Ain't it lovely?' or
+'That's about as good as they make 'em, eh?'
+
+  [Illustration: Gloptind Rock, at the Western End of Rus Lake]
+
+
+_September 11._--The Skipper made a last stalk, with his usual luck, not
+seeing even a track, though he went into ground that we always
+considered a sure find, near the west end of the lake. Near there, and
+under the shelter of the curious sugar-loaf rock called Gloptind, there
+is a little ruined hut, which was built by a former occupier of Rus Vand
+for greater convenience in shooting near that part of the ground. When
+we were here before, Esau was obliged to go home prematurely, and the
+Skipper and Jens went to stay in this den after his departure, and got
+several deer while there. This evening we persuaded the Skipper to tell
+us all about it, and after he had put himself in what he considered a
+comfortable attitude on the bed, and lighted his pipe, he began.
+
+'Well, when Esau went home, Jens and I were left up here, and got on
+very comfortably considering the disadvantages under which the human
+race has laboured ever since that unlucky business of the Tower of
+Babel.'
+
+'What _does_ he mean?' whispered John anxiously to Esau.
+
+'How should _I_ know?' replied the latter. 'Just listen a bit longer,
+and I dare say we shall find out.'
+
+The Skipper went on: 'We went out several days, and walked enormous
+distances without seeing any deer, so one day we decided to put a frying
+pan, some firewood, and a change of clothes into the boat, and row up to
+that little tumbledown stone hut at the other end for a night or two, as
+it is in the heart of the most unfrequented country, and there is
+nothing near to scare the most timid deer.
+
+'We packed everything into the boat and rowed off one fine morning, the
+clouds, however, beginning to hang ominously over the distant mountains.
+Jens rowed slowly, so that I could fish on the way, and our progress was
+further delayed by a head-wind.
+
+'Very soon the clouds closed in all round, and the sky got very dark.
+Jens kept rowing on steadily, from time to time looking up at the high
+mountain ridges that wall in the west end of the lake, while I devoted
+my attention to whipping the water from the stern, hoping to entice some
+unwary fish before the approaching rain should stop our chance of
+getting some fresh food. Suddenly he stopped rowing, and uttering the
+magic word "Reins," pointed up to an apparently deserted mountain slope
+on the Bes Hoe side, and handed me the glass, by the aid of which I soon
+discovered two reindeer bucks feeding about a mile away, and almost
+straight above us.
+
+'I had on a blue serge suit, so the first thing to be done was to change
+to my stalking suit then and there in the boat; meanwhile the threatened
+rain began to descend in torrents, and the wind swept by in such squalls
+that Jens had to work hard to keep the boat in her place. At last the
+change was completed, the serge suit stowed away under a mackintosh, and
+we got to shore and began our stalk.
+
+'It was a difficult task to keep out of sight while advancing, and we
+could only move at intervals when the deer shifted for a few moments
+behind a rock or into a hollow in their search for food, so that we had
+first to run, when opportunity offered, for a quarter of a mile over
+very bad ground, then crawl another quarter over more broken ground; and
+at length, after an hour of this, being pretty close to the deer, they
+happened to come more into view, and we had to lie prone on our bellies
+for nearly twenty minutes (while they fed their way into the next
+hollow); and the heavy rain pelted down on us till we were soaked,
+sodden, and nearly perished with cold.
+
+'I thought that time of cramped penance would never end, but at last the
+hindermost buck got his head safe behind a welcome ridge, and then we
+were soon up and after them.'
+
+Here the Skipper stopped to strike a match on his trousers and relight
+his pipe, and then resumed: 'Now we knew we must be close to them, and
+with rifles cocked, and hearts beating uncomfortably, advanced
+expectant. I forgot to tell you that after Esau went home I allowed Jens
+to take his rifle out, he was so desperately keen about it.
+
+'Suddenly we came on the bucks only forty yards away, conscious of
+danger, but not knowing what they feared; too unsettled to feed, too
+uncertain to move.
+
+  [Plate: GOOD SPORT, BAD WEATHER. THE SKIPPER'S TWO 'STOR BOCKS.']
+
+'I fired first, and immediately afterwards, as pre-arranged, Jens fired,
+and both deer bounded into the air and disappeared like lightning over a
+ridge beyond them. We followed at our best pace, I cramming in a couple
+of cartridges as we ran, and saw them again directly, still running, and
+a good deal further away. I fired two more shots, and one buck fell dead
+at once, while the other galloped on about twenty yards further, and
+then suddenly stumbled and fell head over heels.
+
+'I fancy that our first shots killed them, and that one was really
+killed by Jens, but may I never know for certain! The yell that we gave
+when we saw them both lying dead woke the echoes of that dreary
+solitude, and must have been worth hearing by any student of human
+nature: in a wild shout of triumph there is only one language for all
+nations, and Jens and I joined our voices in the same glorious tongue
+for once.
+
+'Both these deer were "stor bocks," six years old and fat. We skinned
+them there, and leaving the bodies as usual safe under stones, returned
+to the boat with the heads and skins. By the way, John, you must have
+seen the horns of these two deer on the wall of Besse Saeter, for I had
+no means of getting them home, and Jens put them up there.
+
+'The day was drawing to a close when we reached the little stone hut
+which was to be our lodging: its roof was full of holes, and let the
+rain through like a sieve; but we stretched the two deerskins over it,
+and so made it habitable for a time. Inside there is, as you know, only
+just room for two men to lie side by side touching each other; and here,
+after a liberal meal and a contemplative pipe, we turned in and slept
+like honest men.
+
+'Next morning after breakfast, while I was making up a fresh cast for my
+rod, I saw a man approaching the hut. As this was the only intrusion
+from human beings that we had suffered for more than a month, I was not
+a little surprised. Where the deuce could a man come from? and what the
+dickens could he want? It soon proved to be old Tronhuus with a note for
+Jens.
+
+  [Illustration: The old stone Hut near Gloptind]
+
+'I must explain that Besse Saeter where Jens lives belongs to a man who
+comes from Christiania, and Jens is only his tenant there. This man had
+arrived at his saeter two days before this with a young English nobleman,
+whom he was proud to have as his guest, and to whom he naturally wished
+to show some sport; but he had been unable to do so for want of a good
+stalker. This was of course very unfortunate for him and his guest, but
+it by no means justified his present conduct. He had addressed a letter
+to Jens, but written it in English, so that I should read it, sending
+merely a verbal message to Jens by his father, to ensure our both
+knowing the purport of the letter, which was to the following
+effect:--"Jens. If you do not return with the bearer of this letter to
+Besse Saeter to show myself and Lord ---- some deer, you will at once
+lose your tenancy of Besse Saeter." I could not keep Jens and thus cause
+him to be unfairly ejected from his home, so having no paper with me,
+I wrote in pencil on the back of the note that Peter had brought: "As
+you must be aware that Jens is acting as my servant this summer, and
+that by calling him away you leave me absolutely alone at the stone hut
+on Rus Vand, I hope that you will not detain him after receiving this
+note."
+
+'With this missive Jens departed, and soon old Peter followed him, and
+left me, like Robinson Crusoe, alone on my desert highland. I am bound
+to say that I felt inclined to inquire with Selkirk, "O solitude, where
+are the charms?" as I turned to perform the duties of the day,
+absolutely deserted in that desolate spot, with no companions but the
+lake and solemn mountain heights around me; so after a short time I put
+the Lares and Penates----'
+
+'Hollo, what's that?' broke in Esau; 'you never said anything about
+bringing that with you before.'
+
+'You duffer!' said the Skipper; 'it's Norwegian for the frying-pan and
+tea-kettle: do you mean to say you've been all this time in the country
+without learning that?'
+
+'Oh, all right,' grunted Esau, 'go on.'
+
+'Well, I put them into the boat and sculled the seven miles back to this
+hut, as I did not feel inclined to remain alone in that little stone
+hutch for the night.
+
+'Three days passed before they let Jens return to me; and during that
+time I was certainly rather dull, and at night felt a trifle creepy, but
+the days did not pass as slowly as you might have imagined; for being
+without assistance my time was fully occupied in catching my daily
+supply of fish, chopping firewood, cooking, washing, and so on. At night
+the wind howled dismally round the cabin walls, but after the hard work
+of the day I soon fell asleep, and at last began almost to like the
+solitary life. Still I longed for Jens to come back, as I could not go
+out stalking alone; the season was far advanced, and the weather very
+cold.
+
+'How I cursed that Englishman' (gentle murmurs of 'Bet you did' from the
+other two) 'as I cleaned out the tea-pot and scoured the frying-pan! and
+how I pictured him to myself wandering with my faithful Jens over the
+best reindeer-fjeld, and scaring away all the deer with his
+loud-sounding Bond Street express!'
+
+'I say, Skipper,' put in Esau, 'did _his_ Bond Street express make any
+more row than _yours_? because if----'
+
+'My dear fellow,' said the Skipper, 'you always put that kind of
+expression into narrative; it's Homeric; an educated man would be
+pleased with it.
+
+'I was always expecting Jens; every sound, real or imaginary, caused me
+to look up over the deserted lake, and hold my breath while I listened
+to make out his voice in the distance; and when I went down the river I
+heard his cheery shout in the rush of every rapid and the roar of every
+fall.
+
+'After all it was only three days, and then one afternoon I found him
+waiting for me at the hut. I was glad to see him--gladder than I am to
+hear the dinner-bell at home, as glad as a bee is to get into the open
+air after bunting its head against a window-pane for three days'
+('Beautiful simile!' from John), 'and especially glad to see how pleased
+old Jens was to return to me again. I was also not particularly sorry to
+hear that he had found a herd of deer and taken Lord ---- within shot;
+and the only result was a calf, which Jens himself shot after the
+Englishman had missed.
+
+'After this I had a good time with grand fishing and more deer, but we
+did not stay much longer at Rus Vand; as you know, I was back in England
+by the end of September.'
+
+The story ended, we called the men in and had a great settlement of
+wages and milk bills, and arranged how the Skipper's baggage should be
+transported tomorrow, and the rest next week.
+
+  [Illustration: A Night at Rusvasoset, after a Day at Haircutting]
+
+Then we filled up glasses round with whisky and drank a solemn Skaal
+(pronounced Skole) to every one, and then to Gammle Norge, and finished
+the evening with 'Auld Lang Syne.' It must have been a ludicrous sight
+as we stood tightly packed in that tiny room, with heads all bent
+towards the centre to avoid the rafters, our hands crossed in orthodox
+fashion, and roaring at our highest respective pitches as much of the
+words as we knew, while we swayed our arms up and down in the manner
+essential to the proper rendering of the good old song.
+
+When the men cleared out, Esau produced a gorgeous counterpane which he
+had commissioned Peter to buy in Vaage six weeks ago, and which the old
+man brought over from Besse Saeter to-day. Its manufacture is peculiar to
+this district; it is woven in most tasteful colours, red, magenta, blue,
+and green being the most prominent, with a kind of diamond pattern in
+white running diagonally across it; but, from the 'What's the next
+article?' air with which Esau exhibited it, we began to suspect that he
+was rather disappointed with it, and wanted to induce some one to buy
+it. Suffice it to say that its introduction was received with coldness.
+
+This was a bad day for sport; we caught very little, and shot less. We
+did spy a reindeer directly after breakfast, but as he was about six
+miles away, close to the top of one of the highest mountains, and
+running as if Loki were after him, no one cared about pursuing him.
+
+John fishing in the lake managed to lose a 'twa and saxpenny' minnow,
+trace, and twenty yards of reel line, and was quite discontented.
+
+At night the wind had increased to a storm, and the clouds were right
+down on the water, and hurrying past in endless wreathing drifts like
+witches trooping to their nocturnal Sabbath.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+NOT LOST, BUT GONE BEFORE.
+
+
+_September 12._--Early this morning we sorrowfully packed the Skipper's
+things on the pony, and then we three and Oela marched off down the river
+towards civilisation. The Skipper hoped to get over about twenty-five
+miles before night; Esau wanted to try the river a long way down; and
+John said he 'always liked a stroll on Sunday,' and with that object
+accompanied the Skipper for the first eleven miles of his journey,
+returning to Rusvasoset in time for dinner.
+
+About four miles below Rus Lake, the river, which is there about thirty
+yards wide, suddenly disappears into a narrow cleft in the rocky bed,
+and runs in this curious rift for several hundred yards, and then again
+emerges into daylight. The sides of this rocky prison are just over a
+yard apart at the narrowest place, though the gap only appears to be a
+few inches wide; but the force with which the immense body of water is
+squeezed through the tortuous passage far down below, whirling huge
+boulders along with irresistible force, and covering the surrounding
+rocks with moisture from the ever-rising misty spray, makes it a severe
+trial to the nerves to step across the cleft; the ceaseless din of the
+rushing water is of itself sufficiently appalling.
+
+This channel has evidently been gradually worn down through the solid
+rock, which here appears to be a reef of softer nature than the usual
+formation of this country. On the top and in niches all the way down are
+still to be seen the turn holes caused by stones working round and round
+in an eddy; but the curious fact is that while at the top the cleft is
+only a yard across, it widens regularly out as it gets deeper, and at
+the bottom is fully ten yards in width. Now it seems unlikely that the
+Russen River could ever have been content to run in a bed so much
+narrower than its present one, and from the appearance of the strata we
+imagine that as it worked down and undermined the cliffs at each side,
+they have gradually toppled forward to meet each other. Probably soon
+they will actually touch, after which a very short time will see the
+natural arch so formed covered with vegetation, and the river will run
+in a subterranean passage.
+
+Through this channel no fish could pass alive, so there Esau bade
+'farvel' to the Skipper, and, encumbered with rod and fishing bag,
+leaped like a goat across the intervening Devil's Dyke, and was soon
+lost to view as he fished his way up stream.
+
+The other two pursued their journey steadily, and found it pleasant to
+gradually walk down from the Scotch mist which overhung everything up at
+Rus Vand, into, firstly, dull dry weather just below the clouds, and
+then a little further into real sunshine and warmth. About one o'clock
+they reached Hind Saeter, the tenants of which were still there, but just
+in the act of removing to the valley. Here they feasted together on
+fladbrod, and then the things were packed on a cart, and the Skipper,
+following them as they jolted away under Oela's guidance through the pine
+forest, was seen no more by his disconsolate comrade.
+
+When John returned to Rusvasoset a little before dinner-time, we found
+it necessary to bake bread and a pie, our invariable rule 'when in
+doubt.' This was not a case that admitted of any hesitation, for the
+Skipper had taken all the food that he could annex for his sustenance on
+the journey, as he did not expect to find any people in the saeters on
+his path.
+
+The evening was spent in general tidying, and mending various articles
+which had gone wrong; holes in landing-nets, rents in trousers and
+coats, and inserting new screws in Esau's boots for the stalk he hoped,
+but hardly expected, to make on the morrow. At night the outlook was
+anything but encouraging, dense clouds folding all nature in their cold
+embrace, and the pitiless rain beating down on our poor little hut as if
+it took a pleasure in the occupation.
+
+
+_September 13._--Rain, and nothing but rain.
+
+  [Plate: CHEERFUL! THE HUTS AT RUS LAKE.]
+
+
+_September 14._--We never knew when sunrise and daybreak took place
+to-day, or whether they happened at all, for the prospect was more
+hopeless than ever, and the rain still fell with unabated vigour.
+
+We were at the end of our indoor resources, but fortunately Oela returned
+with some English papers which he had found waiting for us at Ransvaerk,
+the saeter at which he and the Skipper passed the night, and at which
+this bundle of literature had been deposited about a fortnight ago by
+the latest traveller from Vaage. But for this, there would certainly
+have been bloodshed in this remote spot, our tempers not being equal to
+the strain of two days in succession without being able to see ten yards
+in front of us, or to stir out without becoming water-logged.
+
+Even the fish were apparently at last disgusted at not being able to get
+into a dry corner by jumping out of the water, and our efforts to
+persuade them to try the interior of a waterproof bag only met with
+indifferent success.
+
+The stubborn resistance of our well-tried roof has at last been
+overcome, and soon after turning in last night we had to turn out again
+to rig up various hydrostatic appliances with a view to diverting the
+course of some of the superfluous rainfall, and irrigating the floor
+therewith instead of letting the beds get it all. The latter really
+needed it much less than the boards, which were somewhat dusty; but
+probably the mistake arose from John sitting on one of them while he
+mixed the dough, so that it might have been taken for a flour-bed.
+
+
+_September 15._--At last we were relieved by a change in the wind, soon
+followed by a cessation of rain, and then the mist began to lift, and by
+noon the sun was actually beginning to glimmer feebly, and the mountains
+to be visible for half their height.
+
+  [Illustration: Rus Lake from the Western End: Nautgardstind in the
+  Distance]
+
+John went on a general tour of mountaineering and prospecting in search
+of scenery, and came back delighted with himself, having made a higher
+climb than usual, and seen Nautgardstind in all the perfect beauty with
+which the newly fallen snow had endowed him.
+
+It has already been mentioned that John does _not_ like walking uphill,
+and when he makes a self-sacrificing and voluntary ascent as he did
+to-day, he comes home brimming over with an excess of conscious virtue
+which does not pass away until the genial influence of a good meal and a
+pipe has reduced him to the level of all humanity.
+
+On his way home he heard a feeble squeak in a bush, and peering in
+discovered a small animal which he at first took for a guinea-pig; but
+soon, perceiving that it must be a lemming, his natural impulse was to
+poke it with a stick. This was his first interview with one, though they
+are common enough up here; and he is disposed to think them morose in
+disposition; but really he ought to have recognised the fact that the
+thin end of a walking-stick is not a means of intercourse at all likely
+to arouse the sympathy of any animal, least of all that of a juvenile
+lemming, who is obviously overcome with drowsiness, and wants to be let
+alone.
+
+The winter is now coming on apace, and already every fall of rain down
+here is a snowstorm in the mountains, and every clear night means a
+biting frost up there. Esau, scaling the heights of Bes Hoe with Jens in
+search of deer, found none on account of the mist, and in addition to
+the danger of getting lost, a new peril was added by the snow. It
+appeared that during the night a severe frost had immediately followed
+the rain and coated everything with ice, then snow had fallen to the
+depth of three inches, and on the top of that rain and sharp frost
+again. The result was that at every step they broke through the crust of
+ice on the top, and sank through the three inches of soft snow on to the
+lower stratum of ice. This was all very well as long as they were on
+rough ground; but the snow making every place look the same, in one
+instance they got on to one of the steep little glaciers which are
+common on Bes Hoe, without knowing that they had done so: and suddenly
+Jens lost his footing and began to slide downwards at a terrific speed.
+It seemed to Esau that he would shoot straight down into Rus Vand,
+looking very blue and cold three thousand feet below; but a friendly
+boulder intervened, and by its assistance, and by spreading himself out
+like a gigantic spider, he managed to arrest his wild career, and they
+got safe across the treacherous glacier.
+
+They had to cross another on their return, which was done with fear and
+trembling; but although the difficulties of this kind of stalking when
+unaccompanied by deer may seem to outnumber the pleasures, still
+occasionally they were on fairly safe ground, and could get their hearts
+out of their mouths for a few brief moments. At such times the splendid
+view of all our old Gjendin mountains rising tier after tier behind each
+other, a boundless sea of peaks and domes and jagged crags, all robed in
+purest white, with the sun lighting up the virgin snow almost too
+brightly for the eye to rest on; the keen frosty air; and the solemn
+stillness, only broken now and again by the twittering of a flock of
+snow buntings, amply repaid them for the arduous climb.
+
+Then a few minutes of glorious excitement as, by the aid of glissades,
+they shot down the steeps that it had needed hours of hard labour to
+surmount, and they were back on the shores of Rus Vand, where at present
+the snow had hardly begun to lie.
+
+  [Illustration: Glissading home after a blank day]
+
+In spite of the cold we had some first-rate fishing, and Esau caught a
+trout which he asserted to be the very best fish for shape, condition,
+and colour, that ever came out of Rus Lake, or anywhere else. Though not
+as large as many we have caught, being only 21/2 lbs., it certainly was a
+beauty, and resembled the perfect fish that are occasionally seen in an
+oil painting, but very seldom encountered in tangible, edible form.
+
+The Rus trout, like those of Gjendin, are quite silvery, almost as
+bright as a salmon, but with a few pink spots instead of black ones, and
+uncommonly pretty they look when fresh out of the water.
+
+  [Illustration: Rus Lake from the Eastern End: Tyknings Hoe and
+  Memurutind in the distance]
+
+Too soon evening put an end to our sport, and when the last rays of the
+setting sun had tinted the distant snow with a delicate pink hue which
+lingered, paled, and faded as the cold silvery light of the moon began
+to assert its sway, the keen air drove us home, and made us content to
+enjoy from the hut door the lovely clear night which succeeded so bright
+a day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+A LAST STALK.
+
+
+_September 16._--The morning did not belie its fair promise, but opened
+as brightly as the most exacting hunter could require.
+
+  [Illustration: Off! A Reindeer recollecting an engagement]
+
+Esau and Jens made a last laborious and fruitless stalk, trying not only
+the whole Rus Valley, but crossing the mountains northwards into
+Veodalen and traversing all the slopes of Glitretind, a most splendid
+sight just now with his towering pyramid, 8,140 feet high. Such a walk
+would have been impossible but for the snow, which had been reduced by
+the wind to the consistence of hard sand, and made the going as good as
+it could be.
+
+Esau, who saw nothing all day, was a little annoyed on his return to
+hear that John had wandered but a short distance up Nautgardstind to
+gloat over the view, and there walked almost into a reindeer buck;
+which, as John was armed with no more deadly weapon than a
+double-barrelled field glass, had escaped uninjured. 'Twas ever thus.
+
+However, the mention of this buck opened on John's devoted head the
+floodgates of Esau's memory, and he insisted on telling about his last
+stalk here two years ago, as follows:--
+
+'By George! I shall never forget how Jens and I turned out that morning
+across the same precipice that you passed to get up Nautgardstind: we
+started pretty early because it was my last day, and I had sworn to
+catch something or perish.
+
+'About ten o'clock we saw four deer, a fine buck and three does, on a
+long narrow snow-drift on the east side of the mountain: they were about
+a mile off and moving away, with the wind blowing straight from them to
+us; so we went after them as fast as we could, without much attempt at
+concealment at first.
+
+'Presently they left the snow and turned to the left, as if to skirt
+round the mountain, we still following and getting rather nearer to
+them. They seemed very restless and kept moving, and at last began to
+trot, and soon got out of our sight.
+
+'We were half an hour without seeing them again, and at last Jens
+discovered them far down below us in the large valley where you saw that
+one to-day. The place where they were was quite unapproachable, but Jens
+pointed out a sort of pass by which he thought it was likely they might
+leave the valley, and so we went and hid ourselves in a convenient nook
+fifty yards to the leeward of that place.
+
+'There we lay in a bitterly cold wind for an hour, and then the deer
+began to come in our direction. Now was the critical moment: there were
+two practicable routes in the pass; would they choose the nearer one,
+which would give me a shot, or the other? They stopped a little time to
+look for food, and provokingly grazed their way very slowly towards the
+wrong one, and then all of a sudden seemed to make up their minds and
+turned to the right one. The cold and cramp were forgotten as the deer
+came within three hundred yards and were nearing us quickly, and, with
+rifle cocked, I was already wondering whether the buck's horns were in
+velvet or not, and thinking what a splendid coat he had; when without
+any warning a storm of sleet swept down upon us, and a dense mist
+drifted over the mountain and shut out from our gaze the rocky pass and
+deer alike wrapped in impenetrable gloom.
+
+'For fully half an hour this lasted, and then the mist cleared as
+quickly as it had come, the sleet stopped, and the sun shone out, making
+the ground fairly smoke: but, alas! the deer were gone. We looked for
+their tracks, and found that they had actually passed within forty yards
+of us during the storm; but our chance was missed, and there was nothing
+for it but to renew the search.
+
+'Another hour of walking, and Jens' quick eye caught sight of them, this
+time high above our heads on some snow near the top of Nautgardstind,
+and at last, thank goodness, lying down. There seemed to be a
+possibility of getting to them, and we spent another hour crawling like
+serpents in the attempt, only to find our way barred when we were within
+four hundred yards by a ridge over which we could not pass unseen.
+
+'However, from there we saw plainly that we could approach them by going
+up the mountain, and then coming quite straight down above them, with
+hardly any difficult ground to traverse. So we performed that weary
+crawl back again, until we were safely out of sight, and then went up
+Nautgardstind at a speed that has never been equalled.
+
+'Half an hour took us to the top, and then Jens made the only mistake in
+a stalk that I ever saw: he got his bearings wrong somehow, and thought
+that the deer were on one bit of snow, the top end of which we could
+see, while I thought they were on another. Of course I had much more
+confidence in Jens' opinion than in my own, but it turned out that he
+was wrong, and in crawling to the place where he expected them to be, we
+unluckily came into full view of the snow where they really were--a fact
+which was made unpleasantly apparent to us by our suddenly catching
+sight of four deer galloping down the drift two hundred yards away.
+
+'I took a careful aim at the buck, but fired too low, and the bullet
+broke his fore-leg, which did not prevent him from following the does,
+though at a reduced pace. Now I think our best chance would have been to
+remain perfectly still, and trust to his stopping in time in some place
+where I could get to him; but Jens was terribly excited, begging me to
+shoot, and my own head was by no means as cool as it should have been,
+so I sat on a rock and fired away all my remaining cartridges except
+two, at the gradually receding form of the reindeer: I suppose at the
+last shot he was five hundred yards away, and I don't think I ever hit
+him again.
+
+'Presently he got round the corner to the right, and into the next
+valley, where a few days before I had killed two deer; and as I ran to
+the right above him an astonishing sight met my gaze. The valley was
+full of deer, about fifty altogether, in three distinct herds, and they
+were all running about frightened by the firing, and not sure in which
+direction it would be safe to go.
+
+'While we watched them from our peak a mile above, a buck and two does
+with a calf left the herd, and began to come towards the very snowdrift
+on which the four deer were lying when we made the fatal mistake. What
+became of the rest we never knew, nor whither our wounded buck went; for
+when we saw this fresh four making for the drift, it occurred to us to
+run towards the top and try to intercept them if they should attempt to
+ascend the mountain on the snow, as we expected they would.
+
+'Off we ran at top speed over terribly rough ground, and before we got
+nearly in shot of the top of the long drift we saw the deer get on to it
+at the bottom, and begin to gallop up with their untiring stride. It was
+simply a race, with long odds on the Running Rein; and soon we saw them
+standing at the top, while we were still over two hundred yards from it.
+Then for the first time they saw us (for the drift was in a ravine, and
+out of our sight as we ran), and they turned to flee, but Jens somehow
+managed to find breath enough to whistle, and the deer stopped for a
+moment.
+
+'I fired my last two cartridges, but in the condition to which I was
+reduced by the run I could not have hit a haystack, and no damage was
+done. So we turned homewards with deep and abiding sorrow in our hearts,
+too despondent to look again for our wounded buck, or to see what became
+of the other herds.
+
+'In those days I always took out seven cartridges, which I fondly
+imagined to be a lucky number; but after this I solemnly registered two
+vows: firstly, never to go out with so few again; and secondly, never to
+shoot them all away at absurd distances in the forlorn hope of killing a
+wounded deer.' Esau here paused for a moment or two, and then resumed:
+'By Jove, I did make myself agreeable to the Skipper when I got home
+that night. I remember he said----'
+
+But John thought it was _his_ turn to have a few weeks' conversation,
+and rudely interrupted Esau's reminiscences by calling his attention to
+some writing which, like Belshazzar, he had detected on the wall above
+his bed. It was in pencil, and seemed to have been written in
+prehistoric times, for it was all illegible except the first two lines,
+and even those required a great deal of deciphering by the aid of a
+dripping candle, while Esau knelt on his bunk and flattened his nose
+against the log wall, before he could read them. Then after licking the
+tip of a pencil for a long time in meditative silence, he scrawled the
+remainder of the poem underneath, so that the whole composition read as
+follows:--
+
+  A reindeer three miles off you spy,
+  And to shoot that reindeer you will try.
+  First a mile at the top of your speed you go,
+  Then you climb a mile up loose rocks and snow,
+  Then a mile on your hands and knees you crawl,
+  And----
+
+(when you have executed these little manoeuvres and arrived at the place
+with your garments all in tatters and your whole body a mass of bruises
+in all probability you will either find that the insidious animal has
+removed himself to the uttermost ends of the earth five minutes before
+your appearance on the scene, or else you _do_ get a shot at him and)
+
+          ----you miss that reindeer after all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+HOMEWARD BOUND.
+
+
+_September 17._--Our ears were gladdened by the sound of Ivar's hoarse
+cachinnation some time during the night or early morning, and on turning
+out he informed us that he should have been here yesterday, but his cart
+had been smashed on the road beyond Hind Saeter: however, he had patched
+it up and got it to the saeter; so we distributed our goods on the two
+ponies, after seizing our last chance of a 'square meal,' by eating an
+enormous breakfast of venison pie, cutlets, and trout.
+
+All our stores came to an end yesterday, except candles and soap. The
+latter article has for some time been lying in great bars on a shelf as
+a reproach to us, and we were glad to get it out of our sight to-day,
+and 'give it to the men,' as we would anything else that is repulsive to
+our feelings. There were a few scraps of other delicacies which we
+divided among the retainers, and then taking with us a fore-quarter of
+'stor bock' for our own consumption on the journey, and a hind-quarter
+carefully sewn up in the sail of Esau's canoe, and intended as a present
+for Mr. Thomas, we regretfully took leave of the little hut, and started
+for Besse Saeter.
+
+Oela and Jens were sent down the Russen River, which is the nearest way
+to Hind Saeter; and Ivar was to meet us at the eastern end of Sjoedals
+Lake as soon as he could get there.
+
+We paused at the brow of the hill to have a last look at the beautiful
+lake and quaint little huts, and to take off our hats to grand old
+Nautgardstind, to whom we hoped we were not bidding an eternal 'farvel;'
+and then we turned across the fjeld, and, losing sight of the Rus
+valley, were soon looking forward again to the change and uncertainty of
+the homeward journey.
+
+From Besse Saeter, which was reached at noon, we launched our craft into
+the lake with a nasty side-wind blowing, which delayed our progress
+considerably, so that we took an hour to reach the lower end of the
+lake, a distance of not quite four miles.
+
+There we found Ivar with his pony and sleigh, on which the canoe was
+conveyed to the junction of the Sjoa and Russen Rivers, where Esau
+launched her again and ran the rapids down to Ruslien Saeter, a very fine
+bit of stream, in which the canoe could only just manage to live.
+
+Finding that the saeter girls were still here, we went in and asked for
+milk. They suggested cream: amendment carried without a division. A huge
+bowl of the thickest and most delicious cream was set before us, which
+we, armed with two enormous spoons, attacked and soon consumed utterly,
+with an indefinite amount of fladbrod and cheese. Charge for the whole,
+sixpence! We have no hesitation in saying that the cream alone would
+have been worth its weight in gold in Piccadilly.
+
+We then regained our craft, and had a delightful cruise down to Hind
+Saeter, the stream going at mill-race speed all the way, so that we did
+the two and a half miles in fifteen minutes, arriving long before our
+cavalcade of men and ponies, who started twenty minutes before us, while
+we were discussing the cream.
+
+The saeter was deserted for the winter, but Ivar produced his cart from
+the bed of a stream where he had left it to improve the wheels, and at
+half-past five we, with Jens and one cart, resumed our journey, leaving
+the other two men with the canoe to follow us.
+
+We had originally intended to make the journey to Lillehammer from here
+entirely by canoe down the Sjoa until it joined the Laagen, but the
+premature departure of the Skipper knocked that little scheme on the
+head.
+
+It would have been a tremendous enterprise, for the Sjoa is such a
+turbulent river that there would have been a great deal of portage to be
+done; but we had agreed to allow a fortnight for it, and were looking
+forward to it with great delight. The Laagen is a fairly navigable river
+all the way, with the exception of a few very large falls; but there is
+a good road by its side, so that we should have had no difficulty if we
+had been lucky enough ever to reach it. However,
+
+  The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
+            Gang aft a-gley;
+
+and we were reduced to the prosaic necessity of walking, and helping to
+hold our luggage onto a jolting cart.
+
+As we gradually descended into the birch-woods we were much struck by
+the beautiful effects of the variegated autumn tints, and soon the
+brilliant reds and yellows of the birches began to contrast with the
+dark green of the fir trees, the light greyish green of the lichen, and
+rich brown and purple of the ground and undergrowth. It was so long
+since we had seen any trees, that their beauty seemed to come to us
+quite as a new sensation.
+
+Below Hind Saeter the road lay through dense forests of pines for mile
+after mile, with hardly any change except where we got occasional
+glimpses of the Sjoa tearing madly along far beneath us--so far that
+only a faint murmur came up from the leaping, hurrying waters. Hour
+after hour we walked, and still the same dark forest gloomed above us,
+so remote from the busy haunts of men that it seems not to be worth any
+one's while to cut the trees except for use in the immediate
+neighbourhood, and hundreds of them lie naked and dead as they have
+fallen before the fury of the gale, and slowly rot or are devoured by
+insects until their place is ready for a successor.
+
+As the shades of evening began to close, we were several times startled
+as the huge body of a capercailzie darted across the road at a pace
+which seemed impossible to such an enormous bird, and with an absence of
+noise that appeared equally unnatural.
+
+About half-past eight we came to a more open part of the forest, and
+soon we saw a glimmering light ahead: Jens cheerily said, 'Ransvaerk;'
+and in a few more minutes we pulled up at the door of a large saeter.
+
+Without knocking Jens opened the door, and we walked in and struck a
+light. There was the usual fireplace and table, and in the further
+corner a bed, which, as we presently perceived, was occupied by two
+girls. This discovery embarrassed us a little; but no one else, least of
+all the girls themselves, appeared to be at all disconcerted.
+
+In our favoured land a woman would probably be slightly concerned if she
+were aroused from sleep by the unceremonious entrance into her room of
+three men, two of them ruffianly-looking strangers of foreign exterior;
+but not so these artless beings. The elder one at once got out of bed
+and proceeded to dress, while her sister remained where she was and soon
+fell asleep.
+
+When the dressing commenced, we, being innocent young bachelors, retired
+and remained outside till it was finished, but we do not believe she
+appreciated our delicacy at all.
+
+Then this poor girl, no doubt very tired after a hard day's work at
+cheese-making, proceeded to relight the fire, prepare coffee, and broil
+some venison for us. And just as we finished a hearty meal, Oela and Ivar
+arrived, so that she had to begin all over again for them. Finally, in
+spite of our remonstrances, she dragged her sister out of the bed, and
+insisted on our having it, while they went and slept in another building
+a few yards away. So John took the bed they had vacated, while Esau made
+a couch for himself in the cheese-room, and we slept the sleep of the
+hard-worked, virtuous, penniless wanderer.
+
+Verily they have a better idea in Norway of true hospitality than in any
+other country under the sun.
+
+
+_September 18._--How strange that our return to the haunts of men should
+be chiefly marked by the sparseness of the fare provided for breakfast!
+A tin of sardines took the place of the usual trout; and although
+Ransvaerk consists of a group of several saeters, and almost attains to
+the dignity of a village, and our quarters were in the largest and most
+imposing mansion, there were no forks or spoons to be obtained, and we
+had to fish our sardines out of their native oil with a Tollekniv,
+assisted by a finger, and convey them to our mouths with the same
+implements.
+
+After breakfast Esau and Jens turned out in pursuit of capercailzie,
+which abound in the forest here; but though they persevered until three
+o'clock, and got several shots, the annoying birds all 'went on,' as an
+English keeper generally says when you ask, 'Did you see if I killed
+that rabbit?'
+
+Esau had used up all his large shot at ducks up at Gjendin, and his
+cartridges were perfectly ineffectual at such a strong bird as the
+capercailzie. Besides this, they are extremely wary, and always rise
+about thirty yards from the shooter; they fly quite straight, and so are
+very easy to hit; but though Esau knocked clouds of feathers out of them
+at every shot, and did bring one to the ground which, from the closeness
+of the underwood, could not be gathered, he was obliged to submit to
+disappointment for once.
+
+In one part of the forest they heard a raven shrieking angrily
+('skriking,' Jens called it, which has the same meaning in North country
+dialect), and going to the place were in time to see a goshawk gliding
+swiftly away with some victim in its grasp. In another place there were
+a lot of squirrels, which Jens induced Esau to shoot for some purpose of
+his own. What that purpose was we could only guess by seeing him gather
+a bunch of beautiful wild currants and some flowers just before reaching
+the saeter, and then brush his hair and march out with his bouquet,
+berries, and squirrel-skins to some place unknown.
+
+Soon after three o'clock we resumed our march, and almost directly
+quitted the good Vaage road along which we travelled last night, and
+took to a cow track on the right. The cart with the canoe had a very
+rough time of it for the first five or six miles, jolting and bumping in
+and out of holes, bogs, and ruts, and over boulders and logs in a most
+appalling manner; then we had a piece of decent road again, and at the
+finish another mile of rough track.
+
+Soon after starting we passed the saeter where Jens lives when he is not
+hunting in the mountains, and Esau wishing to see what kind of
+snow-shoes they use in this part of the country, Jens ran up to the
+house and fetched his 'skier.' To give an idea of the absurd honesty
+which prevails here, we noticed that though Jens had been absent from
+home for the last two months, and the windows were shuttered up, yet the
+door was only latched; and after the inspection of the snow-shoes, Jens
+would not trouble to take them back, but simply left them by the side of
+the road, to wait his return three or four days hence.
+
+Another instance illustrating the same simplicity occurred to us once
+when travelling in quite a different part of Norway. When changing
+carioles at a station our baggage was all heaped together on the
+road-side, and as we wanted to stay there an hour or so for dinner, and
+this was a main road with a fair amount of traffic, we suggested to the
+landlord that our goods had better be brought inside the station. He
+merely looked up at the sky with a weather-wise eye, and replied, 'Oh
+no, I'm sure it won't rain.'
+
+Our route to-day through the forest was most beautiful, at one time
+descending to the level of the Sjoa, and even struggling along its bed
+where the going on the bank seemed to be inferior, at another climbing
+up and up and ever higher, until we stood on the summit of the range of
+hills which confine this valley on the northern side. It is called
+Hedalen, and is one of those strikingly beautiful half-cultivated
+Norwegian dales which occupy the space between civilisation and the
+untouched realms of nature.
+
+This evening, the setting sun throwing a rich golden glow over the
+scene, and lighting up the brilliant autumnal colours of the trees, gave
+us an opportunity of seeing it quite at its best.
+
+Gradually the forest began to get more open, and the road to improve.
+Several peasants in picturesque garb were seen on the wayside: rough
+buildings became more frequent, and fields and fences quite common; at
+first only pasture land, but soon corn-fields and patches of potatoes.
+
+Then at last in the twilight we make a swift descent from the ridge
+along which the road runs; a short plunge through a thicket, down a
+grassy track; a bridge over a little stream; and as we breast the
+opposite bank, a pile of buildings looming in front and looking
+perfectly gigantic to our eyes, so long accustomed to the tiniest of
+huts; and Jens points up, cracks his whip, and says, 'Bjoelstad.' The
+pony boils up something like 'a trot for the avenue,' and rattles the
+cart into a large square courtyard, tenanted only by two huge dogs; and
+as a cheery old Norseman rushes out in great excitement to welcome us
+and lead us into a bright, clean, curtained room, we feel that we have
+said farewell to the delights of savage life, and will probably have to
+put on a necktie to-morrow.
+
+Here we parted with our faithful Jens, and very sorry we were to do so,
+as we think him a first-rate fellow: a man with a bright eye and stolid
+demeanour; naturally silent, but game for anything; a keen sportsman and
+wonderful stalker, and without a particle of the laziness and sulkiness
+which characterised Oela.
+
+Here, for the first time since leaving Lillehammer in July, we slept
+between sheets.
+
+Our own and only Ivar has volunteered to what he calls 'transportare'
+all our baggage in his cart down to Lillehammer, distant about eighty
+miles hence, for the sum of twenty-two shillings. This sounds
+unreasonable, but it was his own suggestion, so we did not argue the
+point, only stipulating that he should be there by noon on Tuesday,
+to-day being Saturday, and leaving the details to him.
+
+Our thoughts were here recalled to the Skipper and his adventures by
+finding the following note from him:--
+
+  'DEAR ESAU,--I have left behind me here certain of what the Romans
+  so appropriately called "impedimenta," and hope that you will be
+  able to bring them home for me. I got an old, old man with a small
+  cart to bring my luggage down from Ransvaerk. It was a wet day.
+  I walked the first nine miles while the old man and the rain were
+  both driving. This ancient driveller seemed to imagine it was a
+  fine day, and had hung on his best coat and hat, further
+  aggravating his appearance with a spotted kerchief and a light
+  heart. He seemed remarkably cheerful, as carolling he drove his
+  carjole and cajoled his horse through the dripping pine forests.
+  I arrived here at midday, and the owner, Ivar Tofte, came out to
+  meet me. He took a great fancy to me, and we finished together a
+  bottle of the most delicious aquavit, which he produced from a
+  cellar where it had been laid down in the time of the Vikings.
+  It is a pity neither of you can speak the language!
+
+    'Yours haughtily,
+
+      'THE SKIPPER.'
+
+We found that the 'impedimenta' of which the Skipper had spoken were 147
+loaded cartridges wrapped up in a flannel shirt, the whole being
+enveloped in a partially cured reindeer-skin.
+
+We were further reminded of our lost one by looking in the Day-book (or
+traveller's name-book), where his was the last English name. This was
+not surprising, for though Bjoelstad is a posting station, it is a very
+out-of-the-way place; but we looked back for two years without finding
+that any other Englishman had been here, and then the Skipper's name
+occurred again. Between these dates the names were all Norwegian, and
+there were not very many even of them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+BJOeLSTAD.
+
+
+_Sunday, September 19._--Bjoelstad is an ancient Norwegian homestead, and
+consists of several separate buildings surrounding a central rectangular
+court. The house that we slept in bears the date of 1818, and is the
+most modern as well as the largest of the group; it is really a suite of
+state apartments for the use of the king on the rare occasions when he
+visits this part of his dominions.
+
+On the left-hand side of the courtyard as we stand at the door of our
+state apartments, is a very quaint and picturesque old house with a
+handsome porch, built in the Byzantine style, date 1743, and in this the
+owner lives whenever he comes to this farm.
+
+Opposite to us is another building even more curious in its
+architecture, and considerably older than the other; and the remaining
+side of the yard is occupied by another more modern edifice, used
+chiefly as a storehouse. Besides these there are several other detached
+outbuildings, in which sleighs, ploughs, spare cooking utensils, rugs,
+and various other useful and useless articles are kept, including all
+the fittings and even the weathercock of an ancient church which used to
+stand close to the farm, but which is now demolished and partly reduced
+to firewood.
+
+  [Illustration: Old Buildings in the Courtyard at Bjoelstad]
+
+The owner of all this grandeur is one Ivar Tofte, a wealthy yeoman who
+has several other farms in other parts of the country, one of which is
+much larger and more important even than Bjoelstad; and we were lucky
+enough to find this Northern Croesus at home, for it turned out that he
+was the cheery old man in the shocking bad hat who had run out to
+welcome us last night.
+
+This morning he came into our room after breakfast, with a bottle of
+aquavit in his hand wherewith to drink our health. Now to refuse this
+ceremony is an unpardonable insult, but we had tasted aquavit before,
+and had a wholesome dread of the nauseous compound, reeking of carraway
+seeds and aniseed, which we were accustomed to expect out of an aquavit
+bottle. So we poured out very small glasses, clinked them in approved
+manner, and raised them to our lips as we uttered the magic word Skaal,
+more with a feeling of disgust than any other sensation. And then it was
+beautiful to see a heavenly smile steal over Esau's ingenuous
+countenance; while John, softly murmuring, 'Chartreuse, by George!'
+reached for the bottle, and with a shout of 'Skaal Ivar Tofte,'
+proceeded to fill himself a bumper. It was a perfect liqueur, soft,
+delicate, and mellow, as probably age alone could have made it; and we
+drank Skaal to 'Gammle Norge,' and England, and Kong Oscar, and Queen
+Vict_oo_ria, and Ivar Tofte again, and then ourselves again; whereupon
+the old man perceived that we appreciated his 'cuvee de reserve,' and
+went for another full bottle, which he left in our room, so that we
+could 'put it to our lips when we felt so dispoged.'
+
+After this, John, feeling at once genial and liberal, announced his
+intention of buying a sheenfelt (sheepskin rug) for importation into
+England; and Tofte with an aged retainer volunteered to show us his
+stores of sheepskins.
+
+First our guide procured a bunch of enormous keys, such as Bluebeard
+would have hanging from his waist in a pantomime, labelled 'Key of the
+Wine-cellar. Umbrella stand. Fowl-house. Potted shrimps. Cupboard where
+the jam's kept,' &c., &c. Then he marched off to one of the buildings,
+followed by us and the other old man, whose profession was apparently to
+exalt Bjoelstad sheenfelts, and to debase--as far as extreme volubility
+and strict inattention to the elements of truth would enable him to
+accomplish that object--an ancient one which John wished to give in part
+payment.
+
+Bluebeard led us up some stairs to the Blue Chamber, where we saw
+hanging in a row the skins, not of his deceased wives, but of many
+'timid-glancing, herbage-cropping, fleecy flocks,' to use the beautiful
+and touching language of the Greek poet. Then the two accomplices
+selected the sheenfelt which they intended us to buy, and began to
+expatiate on its beauties in terms of undisguised admiration; and after
+half an hour's huckstering and haggling, of course they persuaded John
+to take that and no other. However, it was a beautiful specimen of this
+kind of rug, of a dark grey colour, and very thick, warm, and heavy; so
+both sides were highly satisfied, and proceeded to the drinking of more
+aquavit in celebration of the bargain.
+
+The weather was so unpleasant, and Bluebeard and his aquavit were so
+engaging, that we decided not to leave here till to-morrow. Our host was
+delighted to hear this, and at once went for more aquavit, which he
+appears to consider the first necessity of life; and then he proceeded
+to show us round his ancestral halls, as though he were a sober old
+verger of Westminster Abbey.
+
+There was a sort of old-world Rip van Winkle sleepiness about Bjoelstad
+very soothing to men who like us have lived in the nineteenth century
+for some few years. All the varlets and handmaidens were dressed in the
+old native costume, so appropriate to the ancient wooden buildings with
+quaintly carved eaves and doorways, about which they hovered. In the
+courtyard were two enormous dogs, that barked loudly whenever we
+appeared, but at the same time wagged their tails and looked imbecile
+and good natured. There were also four geese, who meant to be sitting
+basking in the rain, but as soon as anybody came to one of the numerous
+doors, or crossed the yard, they all stood up and quacked solemnly
+fourteen times each, then hissed once, and sat down again; and as some
+one was always moving about the court, the quiet rest of those birds was
+more anticipatory than real; but they alone of all the living creatures
+at Bjoelstad appeared to have any fixed employment which demanded
+constant attention.
+
+Bluebeard first took us through the state apartments, which contained
+many curious and interesting things of all ages, from an axe nearly a
+thousand years old, to a Birmingham plated teapot won at the Christiania
+horse show in 1860.
+
+The Toftes boast themselves descended from Harald Haarfager, and are so
+proud of their ancestry, that from time immemorial they have never
+married out of their own family. If dear old Bluebeard may be accepted
+as an ordinary result of this system, it must be confessed that it has
+its advantages.
+
+The things that he chiefly delighted to show us were those which had
+been used by the king during his occasional visits, the most curious
+being a large stone table made of one enormous slab not more than
+three-quarters of an inch thick, but very hard and elastic, more like a
+steel plate than stone; gorgeously embroidered counterpanes and chairs;
+some very old ploughs and sleighs; and a brass-bound box with a
+marvellous representation of Adam and Eve, very evidently before the
+Fall, and the most remarkable thing in serpents which the wildest flight
+of human imagination has yet conceived. There were some very nice silver
+utensils and ornaments, but not many, as most of his plate is kept at
+his largest farm. All that he had here was in a cupboard with a rubbishy
+unlocked deal door, standing in John's bedroom; a fact which speaks
+volumes for the trusting simplicity and total inability to read a man's
+character from his appearance, caused by a millennium of marrying your
+cousin once removed. Poor Bluebeard! he little thought what a viper he
+was nurturing in his bosom, or rather in his chest (his plate chest),
+and that in that room lay one who could perhaps, if he would, answer the
+questions--
+
+Who took the Gainsborough?
+
+Who has the Dudley diamonds?
+
+Who stole the donkey? and
+
+Where's the cat?
+
+N.B.--John has now a large collection of ancient Norwegian silver,
+counterpanes, belts, tankards, knives, and ornaments to dispose of at
+very low prices if no questions are asked. --ADVT.
+
+
+_September 20._--We left Bjoelstad in carioles on a real road about nine
+o'clock, Bluebeard himself assisting in the operation of harnessing the
+ponies and packing the baggage. Just as we were driving off,
+a brilliantly original idea occurred to him, and he said, 'Come in and
+taste my aquavit.' We did not like to refuse an old grey-haired man's
+simple request, so descended and drank another Skaal to all the usual
+loyal, patriotic, and festive toasts, and then we drove off murmuring
+somewhat indistinctly, 'Shkaal Iva' Tofte Shhkaal Iv Toffie Shko Toffy.
+Jolly good fler-ole-shole-Toffy.'
+
+All day we drove, and ever as we descended the Hedalen valley with the
+noisy Sjoa on our right hand, the farming kept improving, and the
+country becoming more populous; and we saw many families digging
+potatoes, many pigs roaming free and unmolested as they do in Ireland,
+and a few men bringing up stores from the town for the long season of
+snowed-up dreariness now so near at hand. Jens told us that in winter,
+even so far to the south as Vaage, the sun only rises about eleven, and
+sets at one o'clock, giving barely three hours of daylight in midwinter;
+though he said that in the mountains where he spends his time hunting,
+there is rather more light than in the valleys.
+
+It may be well to explain in what manner so much information was
+obtained from men whose language was unknown to us, and to whom ours was
+equally incomprehensible.
+
+The glorious principle of co-operation did it all. The Skipper spoke
+Norse with great elegance and fluency, but did not understand it at all.
+Esau could understand it perfectly, but was unable to express himself in
+that tongue to even a limited extent; and John could neither speak nor
+understand a word. Consequently our united accomplishments were equal
+to meeting any emergency that might arise, even to the disentanglement
+of such a coil as--
+
+_Brandforsikringsselskabet_, or--
+
+_Sommermaandernepassagerbekvemmeligheder_,
+
+or any other of the little complex words that an educated Norwegian can
+construct. It is wonderful to hear the natives launch out into one of
+these cataracts: they do it fearlessly, and steer through the whole with
+unflagging fortitude, and very seldom with any fatal results.
+
+The hay harvest seemed to be quite finished except on the roofs of the
+houses, where some people were still cutting and carrying their crops.
+The barley had just been reaped, and was now being dried by the process
+of impalement, a dozen sheaves, one above the other, being transfixed by
+a pole stuck into the ground, just as a naughty boy sticks a row of
+moths on a long pin, or as the unfortunate Bulgarians were supposed to
+be exhibited during the 'atrocity' scare. Can it be possible that those
+stories arose from the distant contemplation of a barley-field?
+
+  [Illustration: Barley Sheaves: A Norwegian 'Atrocity']
+
+The Norwegians also dry their hay in a different manner from that
+usually practised in England. They erect high hurdles made of larch
+poles in lines at intervals all over the field, and on these they hang
+the hay to dry as we hang towels on a horse, and it is by this means so
+well exposed to both air and sun that it dries very quickly. No doubt
+the hurdles are also very useful in spring as a shelter for the young
+lambs.
+
+The weather kept improving so much that we grew quite jubilant, and the
+ever-changing scenes that opened before us seemed full of life and
+brightness, and we looked with a certain amount of pleasure on even the
+magpies, which sat on the fences in scores, pluming their black-green
+feathers, and talking things over quietly to themselves. So different
+from the wary magpie of England, who, knowing that he is an Ishmael,
+glories in the fact, and shrieks defiance to mankind at the top of his
+voice and a tree.
+
+For three hours we followed the brawling Sjoa through scenery that would
+bear comparison with Switzerland, and then we reached the spot where it
+joins the mighty Laagen, and crossing the latter by a picturesque but
+discouraging bridge, soon struck the main road, and pulled up for our
+first change of ponies at Storklevstad, nineteen miles from Bjoelstad.
+
+At another place further on we found a shop kept by a Norwegian Yankee,
+and entered it to buy some sugar-candy, wherewith to appease our
+cariole-boy. This storekeeper informed us that the emigration from
+Norway to the States was enormous just now, especially to Minnesota and
+Wisconsin, and that no less than sixteen men had gone this year from the
+little village of Vaage--a place which does not strike one as being
+likely to contain that number of able-bodied men at one time. Oela had
+told us that five of his brethren were in Minnesota, but that he himself
+had no intention of leaving his native country; and this we thought to
+be well, for if he were to join them we are convinced that any
+enterprise in which they might be engaged would inevitably fail with his
+invaluable co-operation and assistance--unless perhaps the Skipper could
+be induced to go out there and occasionally exhort him.
+
+At Listad we lunched off a real white tablecloth; that is to say, we ate
+not the cloth, but everything eatable that was placed on it.
+
+We also found a note from the Skipper asking us to bring along one or
+two little things that he had been obliged to leave behind in his
+hurried flight, just as the allied armies kept finding Napoleon's
+belongings at different places after Waterloo. The present loot
+consisted of a coat, sleeping rug, and a towel.
+
+At Kirkestuen we quitted the track for the night, having made fifty
+miles in about ten hours. This, according to our experience, is a fair
+rate of progression in Norway; in fact, the traveller is more likely to
+find the average below this than above, unless he drives the good little
+ponies faster than they like to go, which is wrong.
+
+Here the three women who kept the station were immensely amused because
+we asked for coffee with our food, and one of them took upon herself the
+task of rebuking us for such dissipated habits, and explained at great
+length that no respectable people ever did such a thing. 'Coffee,' she
+said, 'should only be drunk during the day, gruel after sunset.' But we
+persisted in our reckless demand, and they finally gave in, and produced
+the delicious compound that may be expected at any wretched little
+dwelling throughout the country.
+
+This was the first place where the papered rooms and iron stoves of
+modern Norway obtruded themselves on our notice; but in spite of these
+we were very comfortable, and think that Kirkestuen deserves all the
+praise which we cannot find lavished upon it in any of the guide-books:
+it is cheap, comfortable, and clean, and the food is excellent. If the
+three young ladies who preside over its arrangements wish to send us any
+little remuneration for this advertisement, we are agents for several
+Central African Missions, to which we could hand it over; or, as 'best
+aquavit' is a good deal appreciated by the missionaries themselves when
+they are suffering from certain diseases peculiar to the Central African
+climate, we would receive that liqueur in cases of not less than three
+dozen in lieu of money.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+DOWN TO CHRISTIANIA.
+
+
+_September 21._--The steadily improving weather of our homeward journey
+is very pleasant, and already we are beginning to almost forget those
+'Miseries in Cold and Grey' which were so conspicuous during our last
+few days at Rus Vand.
+
+To-day we noticed that the whole population of the country appeared to
+be engaged in the seductive pastime of potato-digging. One family that
+we passed consisted of papa, mamma, and eight children of different
+ages, all absorbed in this pursuit. The parents had gardening tools, the
+elder children were using pickaxes and trowels, the younger ones
+fire-shovels and wooden baking spades, and the mere babies were hard at
+work with spoons and toasting-forks.
+
+Here and there we detected a few people still making hay, presumably
+because they had no potatoes. In Norway the hill-sides are so steep and
+rocky that there is not overmuch room for the cultivation of grass, so
+they have to collect it from every available corner where a few sprays
+of anything green can contrive to exist. As we have mentioned, they are
+now curing grass on the house-tops, and to-day we saw a man with a
+scythe about eighteen inches long, mowing in amongst the stones on the
+river bank, and in some of the places where he went the scythe blade was
+the only blade visible to the naked eye. One thing seems certain, that a
+Norwegian _will_ make hay while the sun shines, even if he can only find
+rocks out of which to make it.
+
+On this part of our journey we passed a great many spotted black and
+white pigs: these pigs move with a greater dignity of bearing than the
+ordinary white pig of Scandinavia, and altogether seem to consider
+themselves superior to him, although they have not a curly tail.
+Personally we think there is a certain subtle charm about the curly tail
+of the white pig, a something that sets him off and renders him more
+pleasing to the eye of the beholder than is a spotted pig with a
+straight tail. However, our humble opinion does not seem at all to
+affect the swagger of the spotted pig.
+
+Near Formoe we overtook a rosy-cheeked girl of about eighteen, astride a
+bare-backed pony: the pony was seized with a spirit of emulation, and
+insisted on accompanying the carioles for some distance in spite of her
+efforts to stop it.
+
+The weather was now delightful; the roads were dry and dusty, and the
+sun was so hot that the long cool shadows of the pine woods which at
+frequent intervals hedge in the road were quite a welcome relief both to
+us and our shaggy steeds.
+
+Ever as we followed the almost imperceptible descent of the road, the
+great river Laagen became wider, deeper, and bluer, as it gathered
+increased volume from the numberless tributaries which flow into it from
+every hill, till at length at Fossegaarden it plunged over a series of
+ledges in a splendid succession of falls, and after winding awhile amid
+fir-clad islands and shaded grassy banks, it flowed into the Mjoesen Lake
+and was lost, while we on the road above, rounding the last corner and
+turning to the east, soon found ourselves in Lillehammer, which really
+looked quite a towny little town.
+
+Esau stopped at Fossegaarden a couple of hours to throw a fly in the
+tempting-looking water below the falls, and was rewarded at the first
+cast by a rise from a fish whose peculiar wriggling and rolling soon
+showed him to be a grayling; and before leaving, the bag was filled with
+some very fine specimens of this beautiful and delicate fish.
+
+We were greeted as old friends at the Victoria Hotel, where Ivar had
+already arrived with our things. Then we ordered our own dinner, and
+told the host to supply Ivar with whatever he wanted regardless of
+expense (the result of this reckless munificence was a bill for nearly
+two shillings); and in the happy frame of mind produced on both sides by
+this course we settled our accounts with him, and giving him all our
+worn-out garments and some candles and matches, we parted with the last
+of our henchmen.
+
+By the way, we here found a note from the Skipper asking us to bring
+home a pair of shooting boots, three socks, and the remains of what had
+apparently been a pocket handkerchief; but the obvious course that
+suggested itself was 'give 'em to the men,' and we insisted on Ivar
+taking these valuables.
+
+
+_September 22._--With the utmost difficulty, by threats and coercion
+Esau was induced to leave his bed, and dragged to the steamer in time
+for her departure, as, if left to his own inclinations, he would have
+remained in his insidious couch until this globe had performed its
+diurnal revolution.
+
+As it was, the 'Skiblaedner' was indulging in a final premonitory shriek
+before leaving the pier when we came hurrying and stumbling down the
+hill at all paces, and we only stepped aboard just as she threw off the
+last detaining rope.
+
+The steamer was at first very empty, but more people joined us at every
+stopping-place, of which there are about a dozen on the lake. Some of
+these are little villages, with only the bright roofs and church spire
+peeping out from among the fir trees; others no more than a
+landing-stage projecting into the blue waters, and no other indications
+of life save perhaps a couple of idle fishing boats and a flagstaff.
+
+The morning was so calm and fine, that the grayling playing under the
+shore made the only break in the otherwise unruffled surface of the
+lake, and it seemed strange to find ourselves back in summer again,
+having left winter with its snow and frosts far above us up at Rus Vand
+only a few days ago.
+
+At Hamar some English people came aboard, so that we had some one to
+talk to. At every place where the steamer stopped and fresh passengers
+came off in boats to meet us, it seemed to be customary that they should
+take off their hats to the captain on the bridge as they pulled up
+alongside: even when we passed the smallest places without stopping,
+merely throwing the mail bag into a boat as we darted by, the
+fresh-water sailors on the steamer all took off their hats to the
+fresh-water sailors ashore, the latter always returning the salutation;
+and considering the fact that two steamers pass every day, this
+indicates no small degree of politeness.
+
+There is a great amount of character to be noticed among the natives
+during a voyage on the lake, and although they are badly and even
+grotesquely dressed (for the pretty old costume has quite disappeared in
+this part of the country, and its modern substitute is hideous), still
+their old-fashioned manners and simple courtesy are very striking; and
+in spite of their love of a little mild ostentation they are so quiet
+and well behaved, that they would appear to great advantage if
+contrasted with the crowd that may be found say on a Greenwich steamer.
+
+At Eidsvold we left the steamer for the train which was waiting to
+receive us, and about nightfall were once more in Christiania, and after
+a sumptuous supper went to rest in sumptuous beds, thinking ere we fell
+asleep of how to-morrow we should again have to submit ourselves to the
+yoke of civilisation, to discard our flannel shirts for linen ones and
+stick-up collars, to throw aside our shooting boots, and again bite off
+our nails, which have grown to their natural length under the soothing
+influence of a long spell of unworried conscience.
+
+
+_September 23._--We found Christiania this morning almost as hot as we
+left it, the streets all dry and dusty, and the trees parched for want
+of rain; and the sunshine was very pleasant as we wandered about the
+town into the various shops, purchasing articles by the assistance of
+which we hoped to attain popularity among our relatives on our arrival
+in England.
+
+The shopkeepers were almost all very slow; in fact, the transaction of
+any business is not the hardy Norseman's strong point. We copy this
+extract from the Skipper's journal:--
+
+'I went to the bank this morning to get some circular notes changed, and
+they kept me there fussing over them for fifty minutes before I got the
+money. During this time of expectation I read two letters from home
+through, and had a chase after a torpid fly on the floor with my stick:
+considering his languid condition this fly showed great spirit, but
+after following him about three feet along the floor and nine inches up
+the wall, I made a fortunate dash at him, and concluded his existence.
+Then I thought for a while and stared all round the room, and cut my
+nails with my knife. Then I counted how many boards there were in the
+floor, and how many nails there were on an average in each board, and
+made a little calculation on these figures to discover how many nails
+there were in the whole room, and what they weighed, how much they cost,
+how many miles they would reach if laid end to end, and how many men at
+how much an hour for how long it had taken to drive them all in. Then
+again I thought for a while, but still the money did not come, and my
+moral reflections on men and things had just led me to the conclusion
+that all mortals were but desolate creatures, and that I of all men was
+most desolate and abandoned, when at the end of forty minutes an
+official arrived with a sort of cheque. And after that it took ten
+minutes more to change the cheque into money in a lower room, where the
+clerks had their hair so beautifully brushed and were so haughty, that
+instead of being angry I could only thank them profusely for giving me
+the money at all.'
+
+After finishing our hunt for curios, it occurred to us that we ought to
+see the vikings' ship recently unearthed somewhere on the fjord, so we
+walked down to the University, where we were told by a student that it
+was not yet open to the public, but that if we would ask the Professor
+of Archaeology, whom John profanely designated 'the boss that runs the
+antiquity show,' he had no doubt that, being strangers, we should be
+allowed to see the ship.
+
+Would the fact of a man being a foreigner obtain his admission to a
+private view of an English curiosity, save perhaps the plans and
+mechanism of an iron-clad or torpedo? Probably not.
+
+Revolving these thoughts within our minds we sought the professor, and
+he at once left the work upon which he was engaged and took us to the
+ship, which was locked up inside a wooden building that has been erected
+for it.
+
+Very interesting it was, the preservation of the wood and also the
+ironwork being wonderful. Unfortunately, some archaeologists of earlier
+date than the present had also made some excavations in search of
+memorials of the past. They had cut a large hole in the side amidships,
+for the purpose of carrying off the ornaments and other valuables by
+which the dead viking was surrounded, in the chamber constructed for his
+body right in the centre of the boat. The modern archaeologists call
+their predecessors 'sacrilegious robbers,' but we are averse to the use
+of strong language among men of science.
+
+However, the rest of the ship was perfect, even to the shields which
+used to adorn the gunwale, which are now seen to have been made of thin
+wood, and were probably only ornamental. She was a good big boat, rather
+flat-bottomed and low in the water, but with great breadth of beam, and
+built on lines that left no room for doubt as to her seagoing qualities.
+
+The whole day was occupied by this shopping and sight-seeing, and we
+went to bed more exhausted than by a hard day's stalking at Gjendin, and
+not half so much satisfied with our achievements.
+
+It is almost unnecessary to mention that we found at the hotel a note
+from the Skipper, begging us to bring home a waterproof sheet and a few
+clothes that he had been obliged to leave there. We think that this
+young man must have shed nearly all his raiment before leaving Norway,
+and gone home clad in a yellow ulster which we know he had left at the
+hotel in July; for, judging from the fragments that we have picked up
+from time to time on our homeward route, he cannot have much other
+property with him except his gun, rifle, and fishing-gear.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+HOME AGAIN.
+
+
+_September 24._--To-day our Norwegian friends who lent us the hut at Rus
+Vand came to dine with us, and then saw us safely aboard the 'Angelo,'
+and at five o'clock, in the presence of an immense crowd which covered
+the whole quay, some of the people cheering, but many more weeping, we
+steamed out of the harbour.
+
+As the sound of the last bell died away, and the last gangway fell with
+a crash on to the landing-stage, a hatless, breathless man rushed up the
+companion and darted at the spot where he supposed the gangway to be:
+seeing that he was too late, he yelled to the people on shore, and made
+as though he would have cast himself into the water, but was restrained
+by the passengers. Meanwhile a fleet of little boats endeavoured to
+catch a rope and be towed until he could be lowered into one of them;
+but all failed, and the unfortunate man was carried off to
+Christiansand, so that on his involuntary voyage he would have leisure
+to meditate on the folly of a too prolonged farewell.
+
+With a gentle breeze we steamed down the fjord, which never looked more
+lovely than on this evening; and so beautiful was the night, so warm, so
+radiant, and with such a depth of glorious colouring from the departed
+sun, that people crept away into the shade out of the _moonlight_, from
+pure force of habit, after the heat of the summer.
+
+The influence of such a night, together with a certain sense of
+something completed; the calm ocean all round us, and the soothing,
+monotonous throbbing of the untiring screw, produced a longing for
+confidence in John's bosom, so that he gave utterance to his sentiments
+as he leant with Esau over the rail of the hurricane deck, and watched
+the ever-sparkling phosphorescent lights caused by the passage of the
+vessel through the quiet water.
+
+'Yes, I'm sorry to be leaving Norway, for, you know, there's something
+delightful to me about the simplicity of the people' (Esau's mind
+reverted to Ivar Tofte and his plate cupboard); 'they seem to place a
+childlike confidence in a stranger, which is quite incomprehensible to
+me. Then there is an unwordable calm, an indescribable tranquillity,
+which seems to cling both to the country and its inhabitants; even the
+houses seem to possess an imperturbable serenity of demeanour which you
+will not find on any other island in Europe. In fact, y'know, Esau, it's
+a country where one might live quietly and die in peace, where "moths do
+not corrupt, neither do worms break through and steal," don't you know,
+Esau? And I'm deuced sorry to have to count among past memories the time
+we have spent here, where the unbroken harmony of existence is that
+repose for which my soul has longed these many years; but never until
+now, no, by George! never, has it been able to discover the most
+uncertain tracings of its ideal.'
+
+Here Esau, who had his deck shoes on, seeing what sort of a mood John
+was in, stole away quietly towards the cabin, and left him prosing on to
+the German Ocean. He paused, however, a moment before descending the
+companion stairs, and caught a few more words which, as the moon had now
+set, John was confiding to the darkness.
+
+'A couple more days, and we shall be back in England, where, y'know,
+I think civilisation is overdone. My existence there is a perpetual
+state of toadying and being toadied: you see, it's a place where the
+serpent of social emulation creeps into our very beds, and hangs
+suspended over our heads by a mere thread when we least expect him; and,
+y'know, Esau----' But Esau had slunk down the stairs, and the rest of
+this impassioned outburst is, we fear, lost to humanity.
+
+
+_September 25._--We woke up to find ourselves just leaving
+Christiansand, and soon reached the lighthouse at what the Skipper calls
+'the bottom left-hand corner of Norway,' but remained in bed while we
+glared at it through the port.
+
+We were taking out a great number of emigrants for America, fine,
+sturdy-looking young fellows, probably as hard as nails, and quite equal
+to coping with the difficulties of a new country. They all looked so
+cheery and full of hope and expectation, that we could not help thinking
+rather sadly of the day when they will wake up to some of the unpleasant
+realities of Yankee life, and wish themselves back again in their native
+hills among their own simple-minded friends.
+
+The day passed in the manner usual at sea when the water is smooth and
+the ship goes merrily homeward bound. Hardly any one missed a
+meal--rather a difference from the ordinary state of affairs in the wild
+North Sea; and at evening the sun went down in a blaze of scarlet and
+gold, which was reflected from the perfectly calm surface; and we turned
+in with tranquil minds, even Esau being now reasonably hopeful of seeing
+the Humber without suffering the pangs of starvation.
+
+Esau is not a good sailor. On the last occasion of our return from
+Norway he crossed by the 'Angelo' a fortnight before the Skipper; and
+the latter, on arriving on board prepared for the voyage, saw the
+steward, and asked him, 'What sort of a passage did you have last trip,
+George?'
+
+'Beautiful, sir. I never see a smoother sea.'
+
+Then the Skipper went on, 'Did you see anything of Mr. Esau on the
+voyage?'
+
+To which George replied, 'I seen him come aboard.'
+
+And this brief remark of George's conveyed a world of untold fact.
+
+
+_September 26._--We dropped anchor outside Hull at half-past five this
+evening, in the remainder of the very same drizzling rain that was going
+on when we left England in July.
+
+Hull on Sunday in a soaking rain is not a place to grow romantic about,
+so we omit all reference to our first sensations and maledictions on our
+return to our native climate, and proceed to a more agreeable
+subject--dinner.
+
+It was a merry meal in company with four of our fellow-passengers, who
+were likewise returning from sport in Norway--two from salmon fishing,
+two from red-deer stalking, and with whom there was consequently a bond
+of sympathy.
+
+With these kindred spirits, after British beef had been washed down with
+British beer, a Skaal drunk in British champagne, and tongues were
+loosened by the confidential pipe and British cigar, we chatted long and
+pleasantly; wandering again with rod and gun among the rugged mountains
+of that wild north land, recalling exploits performed, and perhaps
+indulging in those mild and harmless exaggerations of doughty deeds
+which no traveller or sportsman can resist. Already we found ourselves
+forgetting the few disagreeable incidents that occurred during our trip,
+and viewing everything through that rosy mist which happily arises
+before all past hours of pleasure and discomfort alike. Too soon bedtime
+put an end to our retrospect, and we slept the sleep of the wearied
+traveller, with dreams of trout, ryper, and reindeer--steamboat,
+cariole, and sleigh--mountain, lake, and river--tent and saeter--paddle
+and pony--hurrying through our brains in wild confusion.
+
+To-morrow, alas! we commence again a life of gilded misery and gloomy
+magnificence. Give to us the untrammelled freedom of 'Gammle Norge,' and
+the humble crust of fladbrod----_with_ JAM.
+
+  [Illustration: 'FARVEL.' [Three at Home Again]]
+
+
+_Spottiswoode & Co., Printers, New-street Square, London._
+
+
+
+
+  [Map: THE JOTUNFJELD
+  Showing various Routes to it.
+  E. Weller _Lith._]
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+           *       *       *       *
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+Typographical Errors (noted by transcriber):
+
+The word "invisible" means that there is an appropriately sized blank
+space, but the character itself is missing. Some names are written
+differently in the List of Illustrations than elsewhere in the text;
+these are not individually noted.
+
+  _... to that of all other sons of Adam._'  [_final . missing_]
+  a delicious meal off trout, strawberries and cream
+    [_text unchanged: may be error for "of"_]
+  It is eleven miles long; very deep; very blue  [_comma invisible_]
+  the name is a little difficult to pronounce [pronouce]
+  a delicious meal nearly ready cooked by Esau  [delicions]
+  and often gets his deserts.  [_final . missing_]
+  a hole in the ground  [he ground]
+  they expected to meet their boat.  [_final . missing_]
+  'I ran straight on, and following round the shoulder of the hill
+    [_open quote missing_]
+  to assist in the operations there going on.  [_final . missing_]
+  while Oela undertook the labour.  [_final . missing_]
+  taking the north side of the lake, Esau the south.  [lake.]
+  Skipper: 'Let me blow it out.'  [_close quote missing_]
+  without the deer seeing us  [dear]
+  [Footnote 9: 'Pandecages,' pancakes.]
+    [Pandecagos _corrected from main text_]
+  to have our 'spise.' ... gravy from the 'boss pie' ...
+    [_single inner quotes as shown_]
+  'Oela also seemed to devour his food  [_open quote missing_]
+  'We packed everything into the boat  [_open quote invisible_]
+  carolling he drove his carjole and cajoled his horse
+    [_anomalous spelling "carjole" unchanged: may be intentional_]
+  as the moon had now set, John was confiding  [_comma invisible_]
+
+Phonetic spellings:
+
+  "Pandecages" with macron on second "a":
+    the vowel is broad, as in "father".
+  "cano" with breve over "a":
+    the speaker pronounced the word as "can" + "oh" (that is, neither
+    the Norwegian nor the correct English pronunciation).
+  "Gammle Norge" ... "Queen Vict_oo_ria"
+    both represent Norwegian pronunciation: final "e" is not silent,
+    and "o" is pronounced like "continental" u.
+
+
+Norwegian:
+
+Written Norwegian has three extra vowels: ae, o, a. At the time _Three in
+Norway_ was published, the language generally used Danish spelling. Many
+words written with "ae" would now use simple "e", and the letter "a"
+(pronounced like "continental" o) was written "aa".
+
+The letter "o" is equivalent to "oe" ("o umlaut"); the correct letterform
+may have been unavailable to the printer.
+
+The spelling "Ragnild" (expected form "Ragnhild") is used consistently.
+The forms "Bred Sjoe" : "Bredsjoe", "skin tukt" : "skintukt" (see
+Berries), and Jotun Fjeld : Jotunfjeld each occur.
+
+Double vowels representing a single long sound are rare except in a few
+names; the macron on the first "u" in "Tronhuus" is redundant.
+
+The inconsistent capitalization of "Ryper" : "ryper" is unchanged. The
+plural form "ryper" is used throughout for both singular and plural.
+
+Consistent o/oe (o) errors:
+
+  Oela (the name) _for_ Ola
+  brod, fladbrod _for_ brod, fladbrod
+  Formoe, kroene, moelte baer, spoer, Stroemkarl _for_ Formo, krone,
+    moltebaer, spor, Stromkarl
+
+Other uses of oe (o) are correct: oel, oere, hoe, sjoe and any place names.
+
+Words:
+
+  The men had been complaining that it was a 'dole vei' (bad road)
+  soon after the start, now they said it was 'schlamm'
+    [darlig vei; slem]
+  Skoggaggany ... is merely the Norwegian for a scaup duck
+    [_one Norwegian translation says, in paraphrase, "we called it
+    Skoggaggany because we thought it sounded so Norwegian". If the
+    word is real, it should end in _-and_, "duck"._]
+  'Nei' was again the answer, and an ominous whisper of 'landsmand'
+  (the policeman) was plainly audible.
+    [lensmand, _now written_ -mann]
+  'Ingen dyr, ingen fresk spoer, ingen gammle spoer,' as the Norsk jaeger
+  would remark
+    [_The spelling with ae for ae is anomalous. Modern Norwegian would
+    have "jeger", though "jaeger" is correct for the time. The spelling
+    "spoer" is here an error for "spor" (tracks)._]
+  the "jarraf," as they call it
+    [jaerv, _now written_ jerv]
+  John, feeling at once genial and liberal, announced his intention
+  of buying a sheenfelt (sheepskin rug) for importation into England
+    [skinnfeld, _now written_ -fell]
+
+Berries:
+
+Most of the berries of the country are now just at their best, and
+Memurudalen is a grand valley for all of them, except of course the
+strawberry and raspberry, which will not grow at this altitude. But we
+have 'klarkling' (the English crowberry) in great abundance; blau baer
+(wimberry), the finest and best ever seen, in quantities; also 'skin
+tukt,' another blue berry rather larger than a wimberry, and with a
+thicker skin and wonderful bloom on it; this we think does not grow in
+England. Then less numerous are a berry something between a raspberry
+and a red currant, but of better flavour than either of them; and the
+great and glorious 'moelte baer' (cloudberry); to say nothing of 'heste
+baer,' and 'tutti baer,' and several others of unknown names. The last one
+grows in England, but we have forgotten its name; they make jelly from
+it here, and prize it highly for its acid taste.
+
+  'klarkling' (the English crowberry)  [krekling]
+  blau baer (wimberry)  [blabaer (_etymologically "blueberry", but not
+    the same as the American blueberry_)]
+  'skin tukt,' another blue berry
+    [_probably "blokkebaer", also called "skinntryte"_]
+  something between a raspberry and a red currant  [rips]
+  'moelte baer' (cloudberry)  [moltebaer, _also written "multebaer"_]
+  'heste baer,'  [_possibly "heggebaer"_]
+  'tutti baer,'  [tyttebaer]
+  we have forgotten its name
+    [_English "lingonberry", from its Swedish name "lingon"_]
+
+Song:
+
+  [Footnote 4: 'Brod,' bread. The word does not rhyme to god, being
+  pronounced something like Broat, but it looks as if it rhymed.]
+    [_The Norwegian word is "brod". Here the writers almost seem
+    to be talking about the German equivalent "Brot"._]
+  [Footnote 8: 'Stor,' big, pronounced Stora before a consonant.]
+    [_The writers have misunderstood a rule. The word does vary
+    between "stor" and "store", but the difference is grammatical,
+    not phonetic._]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Three in Norway, by
+James Arthur Lees and Walter J. Clutterbuck
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author	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-14 20:06:10 -0700
committer	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-14 20:06:10 -0700
commit	765aa9cb7a7e799c0617f4b701af604930d5146f (patch)
tree	b843aefc58256ebdf2bf6e5e9aa06a092c709121