rvation; but the chief interest of the city
consists in its castle, university, library, and museum of Northern
antiquities. A traveler from the busy cities of America is struck with
the quiet aspect of the streets, and the almost death-like silence
that reigns in them after dark. In many places the sidewalks are
overgrown with grass, and the houses are green with moss. Stagnation
broods in the very atmosphere. Christiania is in all respects the
antipodes of San Francisco. A Californian could scarcely endure an
existence in such a place for six weeks. He would go stark mad from
sheer inanity. Beautiful as the scenery is, and pleasantly as the time
passed during my brief sojourn, it was not without a feeling of relief
that I took my departure in the cars for Eidsvold.

[Illustration: APPROACH TO CHRISTIANIA.]

The railway from Christiania to Eidsvold is the only one yet in
operation in Norway. It was a pretty heavy undertaking, considering
the rough country and the limited resources of the people; but it was
finally completed, and is now considered a great feature in Norwegian
civilization. Some idea may be formed of the backwardness of
facilities for internal communication throughout this country when I
mention the fact that beyond the distance of forty miles to Eidsvold
and the Lake of Miosen, the traveler is dependent upon such vehicles
as he takes with him, unless he chooses to incur the risk of procuring
a conveyance at Hamar or Lillehammer. The whole country is a series of
rugged mountains, narrow valleys, desolate fjelds, rivers, and fjords.
There are no regular communications between one point and another on
any of the public highways, and the interior districts are supplied
with such commodities as they require from the sea-board solely by
means of heavy wagons, sledges, boats, and such other primitive modes
of transportation as the nature of the country and the season may
render most available.

Like every thing else in Norway, the cars on the Eidsvold railway have
rather more of a rustic than a metropolitan appearance. They are
extremely simple in construction and rural in decoration; and as for
the road, it may be very good compared with a trail over the Sierra
Nevada Mountains, but it is absolutely frightful to travel over it by
steam. Three hours is the allowance of time for forty miles. If I
remember correctly, we stretched it out to four, on account of a
necessary stoppage on the way, caused by the t