as advantageously here as in the place of its
origin. Nevertheless, the people are what we call in America hard
drinkers, though little absolute drunkenness was observable. The
quaint little shops of the town, which are slightly raised above the
level of the street, have another and rather inferior class of stores
under them, accessible by descending steps from the thoroughfare.
This division of trade, by arranging a series of basement stores, is
so common here as to form a feature of the town; and the same is
observable in Copenhagen, where many jewelry, art, and choice retail
stores are located in the basement of the houses, with an
establishment devoted to some other line of trade above them. The
shops in Bergen are well filled with odd antique articles, mostly of
domestic use, such as old plate, drinking-cups, spoons, and silver
goblets bearing the marks of age and the date of two or three
centuries past. A little experience is apt to create considerable
doubt in the minds of inquiring travellers as to the genuineness of
these articles, which, like those found in the odd curio shops of
Japan, are very largely manufactured to order in this blessed year of
our Lord, however they may be dated.

The native jewelry is curious and some of it quite pretty, not for
personal wear, but as a souvenir. Evidences of thrift and prosperity
impress the stranger on every side, while extremes in the social
condition of the people do not appear to exist. They are neither very
rich nor very poor. There are no mendicants or idlers to be seen; all
persons appear to have some legitimate occupation. One looks about
in vain for any sign of the thirty-two churches and half-score of
convents which history tells us once made of the place a noted
religious centre and a Mecca for devotional pilgrims. The Cathedral
of St. Olaf is venerable, dating from 1248; but except its antiquity
it presents nothing of special interest to the stranger. There are
numerous handsome villas in the immediate environs, where some very
creditable landscape gardening is to be seen, while the surrounding
fields are clothed in emerald vegetation. Some new villas were
observed in course of erection, but as we continued our stroll the
sterile and rocky hills which form the background to the picture of
Bergen were soon reached. A favorite walk in the suburbs is to the
Svartediket, a lake which supplies the city with water, pure and
excellent. At Tjosanger, not far away, i