r the salmon river. In the
summer nothing pleases them better than to tramp, with knapsack on
back, for days on end, in the wilderness of the mountains, obtaining
shelter for the night at some out-of-the-way mountain farm or at one
of the snug little huts of the Norwegian Tourist Club. In the winter
they have their sleighs, snow-shoes, toboggans, and skates to assist
them in taking air and exercise, and in a Norwegian winter one does
not live in a state of uncertainty as to whether the ice will bear or
the snow be still lying on the ground when one wakes up in the morning.

So comfortable has travelling in Norway been made for foreigners that
there is no difficulty in going anywhere. There is a railway from
Christiania to Bergen, and another from Christiania to Trondhjem. There
are regular steamers on all the fjords and along the coast, even up
to the North Cape and beyond. Wherever there are roads there is a
well-appointed service of vehicles and posting-stations, and wherever
anyone is likely to go by steamer, road, or rail there are hotels.

CHAPTER III

THE PEOPLE AND THEIR INDUSTRIES

The greater number of the people are country-folk, who gain a
living by farming, timber-working, or, when living near the sea,
by fishing. Then there are a certain number of men who are soldiers
by profession, and more still who are sailors--not fighting sailors,
but serving on board the 8,000 merchant vessels which Norway possesses.

Everyone who lives in a Norwegian town is connected one way or
another with some sort of trade or profession; and, of course, in
the seaports there are always ships coming and going, unloading and
loading, and so providing plenty of work for a great many men. In
the towns also there are, as in every civilized town, men who follow
regular professions--clergymen, merchants, bankers, lawyers, doctors,
hotel-keepers, shop-keepers, and others, as well as Government
officials, learned professors, literary men, and artists.

As a nation Norway cannot be considered wealthy, but the fact that she
employs so many ships for trading purposes is perhaps a proof that she
is fairly prosperous. There are few really rich Norwegians, and still
fewer who are able to live as independent gentlemen on their estates;
no man can claim the right to be called noble, for the nobility of
the country was abolished by law nearly a century ago, and since
then equality has been the birthright of every Norseman. But no o