. On the Christiania Fjord numbers of these
sporting fishermen are to be seen at work all through the winter,
and judging by the frequency of their visits to their different holes,
they must take a quantity of fish. It is cold work, however, sitting
and watching for the signal to come from the hole, and one cannot
help admiring the men's energy and keenness.

It is only natural that, living in a country where fish is so
plentiful, the people themselves should be great fish-eaters, and
the daily fish-markets at Bergen and other places on the coast are
most interesting sights. As a rule the fish are brought to market
alive in half-sunken canoes, towed astern of the fishing-boats,
and at Bergen all the bargaining is done between the buyers on the
quayside and the sellers in their boats.

In proportion to the population the variety of occupations in Norway is
certainly great, and there are other industries besides those already
mentioned. There is, for example, a considerable trade in skins
and furs, in condensed milk, butter, and margarine, and in certain
minerals and chemicals. Employment is found also for many men on the
railways--in road-making, in boat and shipbuilding, in timber-dressing,
in mechanical engineering, in slate-quarrying, in stone-cutting,
and in mining (principally in the silver mines at Koengsberg).

It would seem, therefore, as if there were plenty of work for the
Norwegians to do, and they are willing workers. Abject poverty, as
we know the term, has no place in Norway at present, for the country
can support its people, thanks, perhaps, to the fact that the desire
to emigrate to America and Canada is strong.

CHAPTER IV

ON THE FARM

Norway is not like England, where nearly every bit of ground is
cultivated, for nothing will grow on bare rocks, and a good deal of
Norway is barren land. In fact, except in the low country down in the
south, the only land worth cultivating lies, as a rule, in the valleys
near the fjords. There are situated all the farms, sometimes with small
orchards of apples and cherries, but more often with potato plots,
a little corn, and a great amount of grassland. As the mountains
are always so close at hand, the fields are generally strewn with
rocks and boulders, and are very uneven, so haymaking is not easy,
and such a thing as a mowing-machine would be quite useless.

Every blade of grass that can be gathered has to be made into hay,
otherwise the ponies and