how her eye would have sparkled at such a scene.

Lower down, it was scarcely less beautiful. The waters spread out again
to a double width. The rocks were, or appeared to be lower; and now and
then, in some space between rock and rock, a strip of brilliant green
meadow lay open to the sunshine; and there were large flocks of
fieldfares, flying round and round, to exercise the newly-fledged young.
There were a few habitations scattered along the margin of the fiord;
and two or three boats might be seen far off, with diminutive figures of
men drawing their nets.

"I am glad I brought my net too," thought Rolf. "My rod had done good
duty; but if I am coming upon a shoal, I will cast my net, and be home,
laden with fish, before they think of looking for me."

Happy would it have been if Rolf had cast his net where others were
content to fish, and had given up all idea of going further than was
necessary: but his boat was still dropping down towards the islet which
he had fixed in his own mind as the limit of his trip; and the long
solitary reach of the fiord which now lay between him and it was
tempting both to the eye and the mind. It is difficult to turn back
from the first summer-day trip, in countries where summer is less
beautiful than in Nordland; and on went Rolf, beyond the bounds of
prudence, as many have done before him. He soon found himself in a
still and somewhat dreary region, where there was no motion but of the
sea-birds which were leading their broods down the shores of the fiords,
and of the air which appeared to quiver before the eye, from the
evaporation caused by the heat of the sun. More slowly went the canoe
here, as if to suit the quietness of the scene, and leisurely and softly
did Rolf cast his net: and then steadily did he draw it in, so rich in
fish that when they lay in the bottom of the boat, they at once sank it
deeper in the water, and checked its speed by their weight.

Rolf then rested awhile, and looked ahead for Vogel islet, thinking that
he could not now be very far from it. There it lay looming in the
heated atmosphere, spreading as if in the air, just above the surface of
the water, to which it appeared joined in the middle by a dark stem, as
if it grew like a huge sea-flower. There is no end to the strange
appearances presented in northern climates by an atmosphere so different
from our own. Rolf gazed and gazed as the island grew more like itself
on his approach; and he