ne
can prevent money made in trade gradually finding its way into the
pockets of a few capable men of business, and thus class distinctions
must be created. The majority of the Norwegians, however, are content
to work and earn sufficient to maintain themselves and their families
in fairly comfortable circumstances, and fortunately the products of
the country enable them to do so.

The forests, covering as they do almost one-fourth of the area of
Norway, are of immense value, and the timber trade is a source of
income to a great number of the people. Much of it, of course, is used
in the country itself, as the houses and bridges are mostly built of
wood; but there is plenty left to be exported to England and other
foreign countries, as anyone who visits the ports in the South of
Norway can judge for himself. Between Christiansand and Christiania,
for instance, one may see enormous stores of timber awaiting shipment,
and one wonders how it will ever be shipped. Then, travelling among
the forest-clad mountains, one finds the woodman busy with his axe,
and the great bare tree-trunks being hauled down to the banks of the
torrent or river, so as to float on the waters to the low country,
and thence even to the sea-coast. Again, on lakes like the Randsfjord,
the sight presented by the gathered logs, which have floated down
from the mountains, and which are being rafted for their final voyage,
is an extraordinary one. Acres and acres of floating timber cover the
end of the lake, and the massive trunks are packed so close that you
might wander about on them at your will for hours.

But it is not only timber in a raw state that does so much for the
prosperity of Norway, for a great trade is done also in matches as
well as in wood-pulp. The latter is a comparatively modern industry,
and its development has been rapid. Anyone who visits Christiania
and has the opportunity of taking the little town of Hoenefos in his
travels, should not fail to pay a visit to the pulping works. It is
said that in Chicago one may see a herd of swine driven in at the
front gate of a factory and brought out at another gate in the form
of sausages. At Hoenefos trees go into the works and come out as paper,
or very nearly so.

The waterfall, which gave a name to the place, is at the meeting
of two rivers--one flowing from Spirillen Lake and the other from
the Randsfjord, and was at one time beautiful. Now, however, its
picturesqueness is marred by th