ch they have such easy access. This is an
inconceivable luxury during the long winter months; and their large
open fireplaces and blazing fires, even in the cool summer evenings,
constantly remind one of the homes of the settlers in the Far West.
When the roads are covered with snow the true season of internal
communication commences. Then the means of transportation and travel
are greatly facilitated, and the clumsy wagons used in summer are put
aside for the lighter and more convenient sledges with which every
farmer is abundantly provided. All along the route the snow-plows may
be seen turned up against the rocks, ready to be used during the
winter to clear and level the roads. In summer the means of
transportation are little better than those existing between
Placerville and Carson Valley.

[Illustration: SNOW-PLOW.]

It was during the height of the harvesting season that I passed
through the Gudbransdalen. One of the most characteristic sights at
this time of the year is the extraordinary amount of labor imposed
upon the women, who seem really to do most of the heavy work. I
thought I had seen the last of that in the Thuringenwald, Odenwald,
and Schwartzwald, while on a foot-tour through Germany; but even the
Germans are not so far advanced in civilization in this respect as the
Norwegians, who do not hesitate to make their women cut wood, haul
logs, pull carts, row boats, fish, and perform various other kinds of
labor usually allotted to the stronger sex, which even a German would
consider rather heavy for his "frow." The men, in addition to this
ungallant trait, are much addicted to the use of tobacco and native
corn-brandy--which, however, I can not but regard as a sign of
civilization, since the same habits exist, to some extent, in our own
country. Chewing and drinking are just as common as in California, the
most enlightened country in the world. Wherever I saw a set of
drunken fellows roaring and rollicking at some wayside inn, their
faces smeared with tobacco, and their eyes rolling in their heads, I
naturally felt drawn toward them by the great free-masonry of familiar
customs.

[Illustration: A DRINKING BOUT.]

The system of farming followed by the peasants is exceedingly
primitive, though doubtless well adapted to the climate and soil.
Nothing can be more striking to a stranger than the odd shapes of the
wagons and carts, and the rudeness of the agricultural implements,
which must be patterned