st words until the bell rings for the steamer's departure,
when a lady passenger suddenly discovers that she has left something
behind. The wildest confusion follows, and away run all the friends to
fetch it from the house, returning just in time. Then the good-byes
begin again, and as the steamer finally departs, everyone shouts,
"Farvel! farvel! farvel!" frequently and rapidly; hats are raised,
and handkerchiefs continue waving until the boat can no longer be seen.

Returning down the Mauranger Fjord we steam out across the main
fjord, and early in the afternoon call at several small places on the
northern shore--Bakke, Vikingnaes, Nordheimsund--each with its spruce
hotel, enticing the traveller to loiter and explore the country in
the neighbourhood. A little later we enter the Fiksensund, a narrow
branch fjord, and a wonder of wonders. For a distance of seven miles
it wends its way amongst the mountains. In places the precipitous
hillsides are within a hundred yards of each other, and in no part is
this extraordinary fjord-arm a third of a mile in width. For thousands
of feet sheer out of the water rise the bold walls of granite, with
here and there a ledge thickly wooded with fir and birch. It looks as
if the mountains had been torn asunder to admit the sea, and local
legends say that a spiteful giantess did this and many other nasty
things in the giant age. Half-way up the fjord the steamer fires a
gun, so that the passengers may hear the echo, and the sound comes
back time after time from every nook and cranny. At the end is Botnen,
with a road running away north to other farms, and eventually to the
railway from Bergen to Vossevangen.

Again we return to the main fjord, and before long enter the
Gravensfjord, wherein lies Eide, a kind of junction of the
steamer-routes, and a very touristy place, as there is a good
driving-road to Voss. The Bergen steamer continues its way up
the Soerfjord to Odda, which is reached late at night; but we,
who are bound for Eidfjord, change into a small branch steamer,
and are soon rounding a mighty headland, and, if there is any wind,
getting a tossing for a few minutes, the fjord just here being wide
and open. The head of a seal may occasionally be seen bobbing up
and down, and large flocks of duck are always swimming about at a
respectful distance from the steamer. And what a view we have across
the expanse of water! The never-ending mountains stretch away one
behind the other,