s_ to be killed. Quick, come
with me to the butcher's!"

The two friends rushed out of the house, and reached the shop of the man
of meat just in time, fortunately, to arrest the fatal blow. The order
was of course countermanded, and they were thus saved the necessity of
setting up a butcher's shop in Bergen to get rid of their superabundant
beef!

That night the _Snowflake_ set sail for the far north, and next morning
our three adventurers were galloping through the wilds of Norway.

CHAPTER FIVE.

CARIOLE TRAVELLING--MISERABLE LODGING AND POOR FARE--NATIVE
PECULIARITIES--A NIGHT BATTLE.

As I am now about to drag my reader through the wild interior of Norway,
let me try to describe it. Don't be alarmed, dear reader, I do not mean
to be tedious on this point, but I candidly confess that I am puzzled as
to how I should begin! Norway is _such_ a jumble of Nature's elements.
Perhaps a jumbled description may answer the purpose better than any
other. Here it is, then.

Mountains, and crags, and gorges, and rocks, and serried ridges;
towering peaks and dark ravines; lakes, and fords, and glens, and
valleys; pine-woods, and glaciers, [For a full description of glaciers,
see "Fast in the Ice," page 86, volume 3 of this _Miscellany_]
streamlets, rivulets, rivers, cascades, waterfalls, and cataracts. Add
to this--in summer--sweltering heat in the valleys and everlasting snow
and ice on the mountain-tops, with sunlight all night as well as all
day--and the description of Norway is complete. No arrangement of these
materials is necessary. Conceive them arranged as you will, and no
matter how wild your fancy, your conception will be a pretty fair idea
of Norway. Toes these elements into some chamber of your brain; shake
them well up,--don't be timid about it,--then look at the result, and
you will behold Norway!

Having said thus much, it is unnecessary to say more. Rugged grandeur
is the main feature of Norway.

On a lovely summer's evening, not long after the departure of the
_Snowflake_ from Bergen, our three travellers found themselves trotting
through a wild glen on each side of which rose a range of rugged
mountains, and down the centre of which roared a small river. The glen
was so steep, and the bed of the torrent so broken, that there was not a
spot of clear water in its whole course. From the end of the lake out
of which it flowed, to the head of the fiord or firth into which it ran,
the river