perienced traveller
finds himself often deceived in judging of distances.

A little to the westward of the steamer's course in coming hither
from the main-land lies the famous vortex known as the Maelstroem, the
theme of many a romance and wild conjecture which lives in the memory
of every schoolboy. At certain stages of the wind and tide a fierce
eddy is formed here, which is perhaps somewhat dangerous for very
small boats to cross, but the presumed risk to vessels of the size of
common coasting-craft under proper management is an error. At some
stages of the tide it is difficult even to detect the exact spot
which at other times is so disturbed. Thus we find that another fact
of our credulous youth turns out to be a fable, with a very thin
substratum of fact for its foundation. The tragedies recorded in
connection with the Venetian Bridge of Sighs are proven to be mostly
gross anachronisms; the episode of Tell and the apple was a Swiss
fabrication; and now we know that neither ships nor whales were ever
drawn into the Norwegian Maelstroem to instant destruction. There are
several other similar rapids in and about these pinnacled islands,
identical in their cause, though the one referred to is the most
restless and formidable.

On close examination the Lofodens were found to consist of a maze of
irregular mountain-peaks and precipices, often between two and three
thousand feet in height, the passage between them being very
tortuous, winding amid straits interspersed with hundreds of small
rocky islets which were the home of large flocks of sea-birds. "It
seemed," as was expressively remarked by a lady passenger, "like
sailing through Switzerland." Dwarf-trees, small patches of green
grass and moss grew near the water's edge, and carpeted here and
there a few acres of level soil; but the high ridges were bleak and
bare rock, covered in spots with never-melting snow and ice. Most of
the coast of Norway is composed of metamorphic rock; but these
islands are of granite, and for marvellous peaks and oddly-pointed
shapes, deep, far-reaching gulches and canyons, are unequalled
elsewhere. It seemed to us marvellous that a steamer could be safely
navigated through such narrow passages and among such myriads of
sunken rocks. These elevations from beneath the sea varied from mere
turtle-backs, as the sailors called them, just visible above the
water, to mountains with sky-kissing peaks. For a vessel to run upon
one of the low