Now and again the eye is arrested by the
gracefully-disposed mountain-ash, heavy with clusters of red berries;
and often intermingled with the undergrowth, the pale dog-rose is
seen growing far beyond the reach of human hands. In Sweden there are
immense forests of firs hundreds of miles in extent, where the aspen
and mountain-ash also abound. The oak is rare, but is found well
developed in some of the southern districts of both Norway and
Sweden. Wood is almost universally used for family fuel, as well as
for manufacturing purposes, though some considerable quantities of
peat are realized from the bogs in some of the southern districts,
which is also consumed in domestic use.

The usual route of those who seek to gain a view of the "midnight
sun,"--that is, of witnessing the phenomenon of the sun passing round
the horizon without sinking beneath it,--is to depart from Trondhjem
by sea for the North Cape, skirting the iron-bound coast for a
distance of about seven hundred miles. This was the route taken by
the author, and over which he will ask the reader to accompany him.
As the steamer was just casting off her shore-lines and getting
underway, a passenger who seemed to have been accidentally detained
came running down the pier to get on board, in doing which he missed
his proper footing and fell into the water alongside. He was promptly
relieved from his somewhat perilous position, but in a decidedly
dripping condition. After descending to his cabin for a short time he
appeared in more presentable shape, wearing a plaid travelling suit
which was rather "loud" in the size of the diagonal figures. He wore
a single eye-glass, stuck after the English fashion before his right
eye, depending from which was a thin gold chain. His principal
occupation seemed to be the manipulation of that eye-glass, shaking
it out of place by a vigorous jerk of the head, and replacing it
again incessantly. The fellow was an unmistakable cockney, and a more
verdant specimen it would be difficult to conceive of. His great
simplicity as exhibited at times was almost beyond belief. He
appeared to be travelling alone, but though evidently near his
majority he was scarcely fit to do so. His ideas of geography, or
indeed of whither we were sailing, seemed to be ludicrously
involved. A Yankee schoolboy of ten years would have proved to be a
veritable Solomon compared with our cockney fellow-passenger.

As we sail northward, the rapid lengthening of