e green
terrace, so high, indeed, as to make them seem scarcely larger than an
eagle's nest. To anybody but a mountaineer these spots are inaccessible,
and every article of subsistence, except what is raised upon the few
acres of available earth surrounding the dwelling, must be carried up
there upon men's backs. A few goats and sheep must constitute the animal
stock, added to which are generally some domestic fowls. These dwellings
are constructed of logs, cut in the lofty gulches, and drawn by hand to
the spot, one by one. It would seem that such energetic industry applied
in some inviting neighborhood would insure a more desirable result.

CHAPTER XVI.

Bergen is situated some two hundred miles northwest of Christiania, and
may be reached from thence by a carriole (a peculiar native vehicle)
journey across the country, over excellent roads, or by steamboat
doubling the Naze. The latter route, though three times as far, is most
frequently adopted by travellers as being less expensive and
troublesome. Another, and perhaps the most common, route taken by
tourists is by the way of Lake Mjoesen, called the Valders route. It
involves railroad, steamer, and carriole modes of conveyance, and in all
covers a distance of at least three hundred and fifty miles.

Bergen was the capital of Norway when it was under Danish rule, and was
even up to a late period the commercial rival of the present capital,
Christiania. The town rises from the bay nearly in the form of a
crescent, nestling at the foot of surrounding hills on the west coast,
between those two broad and famous arms of the sea,--the Sognefjord and
the Hardangerfjord. The first-named indents the coast to a distance of
over one hundred miles, the latter seventy miles,--the first being
north, and the last south of Bergen. The excellent situation of the
harbor and its direct steam communication with European ports gives this
ancient city an extensive commerce in proportion to the number of
inhabitants, who do not aggregate over forty thousand. A large portion
of the town is built upon a promontory, between which and the mainland
on its north side is the harbor, which is rarely frozen over, owing to
the influence of the Gulf Stream, while the harbor of St. Petersburg
(Russia), in about the same latitude, is closed annually by ice for at
least three months.

We see here more of the traditional Norwegian customs than are to be met
with either at Gottenburg or Chris