open area in the city. It was
finished and occupied in 1866. The Market Place is adorned with a
marble statue of Christian IV. Another fine square is the Eidsvolds
Plads, planted with choice trees and carpeted with intensely bright
greensward. The chief street is the Carl Johannes Gade, a broad
boulevard extending from the railroad station to the King's Palace,
half way between which stands the imposing structure of the
University. Opposite this edifice is the Public Garden, where an
out-door concert is given during the summer evenings by a military
band. In a large wooden building behind the University is kept that
great unrivalled curiosity, the Viking ship, a souvenir of more than
nine hundred years ago. The blue clay of the district where it was
exhumed in 1880, a few miles south from Christiania at Gokstad, has
preserved it nearly intact. The men who built the graceful lines of
this now crumbling vessel, "in some remote and dateless day," knew
quite as much of the principles of marine architecture as do our
modern shipwrights of to-day. This interesting relic, doubtless the
oldest ship in the world, once served the Vikings, its masters, as a
war-craft. It is eighty feet long by sixteen wide, and is about six
feet deep from gunwale to keel. Seventy shields, spears, and other
war equipments recovered with the hull show that it was designed for
that number of fighting men. A curious thrill is felt by one while
regarding these ancient weapons and armor, accompanied by a wish that
they might speak and reveal their long-hidden story. In such vessels
as this the dauntless Northmen made voyages to every country in
Europe, and as is confidently believed they crossed the Atlantic,
discovering North America centuries before the name of Columbus was
known. Ignoring the halo of romance and chivalry which the poets have
thrown about the valiant Vikings and their followers, one thing we
are compelled to admit: they were superb marine architects. Ten
centuries of progressive civilization have served to produce none
better. Some of the arts and sciences may and do exhibit great
progress in excellence, but shipbuilding is not among them. We build
bigger but not better vessels. This ancient galley of oak, in the
beauty of its lines, its adaptability for speed, and its general
sea-worthiness, cannot be surpassed by our best naval constructors
to-day. An American naval officer who chanced to be present with the
author, declared that t