s, having
an average width of about two hundred miles,--which gives to the
mountains of Norway and Sweden an area larger than the Alps, the
Apennines, and the Pyrenees combined, while the lakes, waterfalls,
and cascades far surpass those of the rest of Europe. There is no
other country where so large a portion is covered with august
mountains as in Norway. It includes an area of about one hundred and
twenty-three thousand square miles; and it has been said by those
most familiar with its topography, that could it be flattened out it
would make as large a division of the earth as would any of the four
principal continents. The ratio of arable land to the entire area of
Norway is not more than one to ten, and were it not that the support
of the people at large comes mainly from the sea, the country could
not sustain one quarter of even its present sparse population.
Undismayed by the preponderance of rocks, cliffs, and chasms, the
people utilize every available rod of land. Here and there are seen
wire ropes extending from the low lands to the mountain sides, the
upper ends of which are lost to sight, and which are used for sliding
down bundles of compressed hay after it has been cut, made, and
packed in places whither only men accustomed to scale precipices
could possibly climb. The aspect of such regions is severe and
desolate in the extreme, even when viewed beneath the cheering smiles
of a summer sun. What then must be their appearance during the long,
trying winter of these hyperborean regions? In snug corners,
sheltered by friendly rocks and cliffs from the prevailing winds, are
seen little clusters of cabins inhabited by a few lowly people who
live in seeming content, and who rear families amid almost incredible
deprivations and climatic disadvantages, causing one to wonder at
their hardihood and endurance. It is not uncommon to see along the
west coast of Norway, among the islands and upon the main-land,
farm-houses surrounded by a few low buildings of the rudest
character, perched among rocks away up on some lofty green terrace,
so high indeed as to make them seem scarcely larger than an eagle's
nest. To anybody but a mountaineer these spots are positively
inaccessible, and every article of subsistence, except what is raised
upon the few acres of available earth surrounding the house, must be
carried up thither upon men's backs, for not even a mule could climb
to these regions. A few goats and sheep must constitu