on a stone and shouted in a loud voice, "Come and help
us, fairies!"--whereat the others laughed heartily. The wind was against
us, but I thought the men hugged the shore much more than was necessary.
I noticed the same thing afterwards, and spoke of it, but they stated
that there were strong currents in these fjords, setting towards the
sea. The water, in fact, is but slightly brackish, and the ebb and flow
of the tides is hardly felt.

The scenery in the Osterfjord is superb. Mountains, 2000 feet high,
inclose and twist it between their interlocking bases. Cliffs of naked
rock overhang it, and cataracts fall into it in long zigzag chains of
foam. Here and there a little embayed dell rejoices with settlement and
cultivation, and even on the wildest steeps, where it seems almost
impossible for a human foot to find hold, the people scramble at the
hazard of their lives, to reap a scanty harvest of grass for the winter.
Goats pasture everywhere, and our boatmen took delight in making the
ewes follow us along the cliffs, by imitating the bleating of kids.
Towards noon we left the main body of the fjord and entered a narrow arm
which lay in eternal shadow under tremendous walls of dark rock. The
light and heat of noonday were tropical in their silent intensity,
painting the summits far above with dashes of fierce colour, while their
bases sank in blue gloom to meet the green darkness of the water. Again
and again the heights enclosed us, so that there was no outlet; but they
opened as if purposely to make way for us, until our keel grated the
pebbly barrier of a narrow valley, where the land road was resumed. Four
miles through this gap brought us to another branch of the same fjord,
where we were obliged to have our carrioles taken to pieces and shipped
for a short voyage.

At its extremity the fjord narrowed, and still loftier mountains
overhung it. Shut in by these, like some palmy dell in the heart of the
porphyry mountains of the Sahara, lay Bolstadoren, a miracle of
greenness and beauty. A mantle of emerald velvet, falling in the softest
slopes and swells to the water's edge, was thrown upon the valley; the
barley had been cut and bound to long upright poles to dry, rising like
golden pillars from the shaven stubble; and, to crown all, above the
landing-place stood a two-story house, with a jolly fat landlord smoking
in the shade, and half-a-dozen pleasant-looking women gossiping
in-doors. "Can we get anything to eat