t they are killing a goose which lays golden eggs. The
government, so prudently economical that it only allows $100,000 worth
of silver to be quarried annually in the mines of Kongsberg, lest the
supply should be exhausted, has, I believe, adopted measures for the
preservation of the forests; but I am not able to state their precise
character. Except in valleys remote from the rivers and fjords, one now
finds very little mature timber.

"The tallest pine,
Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast
Of some great admiral,"

I have not yet seen.

We at last came upon a little lake, in a close glen with walls 1000 feet
high. Not suspecting that we had ascended much above the sea-level, we
were surprised to see the gorge all at once open below us, revealing a
dark-blue lake, far down among the mountains. We stood on the brink of a
wall, over which the stream at our side fell in a "hank" of divided
cataracts. Our road was engineered with great difficulty to the bottom
of the steep, whence a gentler descent took us to the hamlet of
Vasenden, at the head of the lake. Beyond this there was no road for
carrioles, and we accordingly gave ours in charge of a bright, active
and intelligent little postmaster, twelve years old. He and his mother
then rowed us across the lake to the village of Graven, whence there was
a bridle-road across the mountains to a branch of the Hardanger Fjord.
They demanded only twelve skillings (ten cents) for the row of three
miles, and then posted off to a neighbouring farmhouse to engage horses
for us.

There was a neat white dwelling on the hill, which we took to be the
parsonage, but which proved to be the residence of an army captain on
leave, whom we found sitting in the door, cleaning his gun, as we
approached. He courteously ushered us into the house, and made his
appearance soon afterwards in a clean shirt, followed by his wife, with
wine and cakes upon a tray. I found him to be a man of more than
ordinary intelligence, and of an earnest and reflective turn of mind,
rare in men of his profession. He spoke chiefly of the passion for
emigration which now possesses the Norwegian farmers, considering it not
rendered necessary by their actual condition, but rather one of those
contagions which spread through communities and nations, overcoming
alike prudence and prejudice. He deplored it as retarding the
development of Norway. Personal interest, however, is everywhere
str