hour we returned to the post-house; and three dozen trout
were, in a short time, converted into a substantial dinner. The flesh,
however, was so impregnated with the taste of turpentine, that I
relinquished the greater portion of my share to others who were more
hungry, and not so dainty. Living almost entirely on fish caught by
ourselves, I had, on former occasions, incurred the loss of my dinner
through this disagreeable flavour, but could not discover its cause
until a glass of water, taken from the Larvig River, tasted so strongly
of the fir, that, I preferred the inconveniences of thirst to the means
of its alleviation. So much timber is floated from the interior to the
towns on the sea-coast, that the rivers retain the taste of the fir, and
even take from it a particular light yellow tinge, not to be seen in
those streams that are too small and shallow for rafts or boats. Some
kinds of fish, deriving their sole sustenance from these rivers, are
consequently saturated with turpentine.

After dinner we walked up a hill, down whose rugged side ran a rapid,
murmuring brook. The Fiord, surrounded by mountains, lay beneath us,
and, far away, we could see the boat that had brought us hither,
floating, like a white feather, slowly homewards to the yacht. The
blue-bell and fox-glove were growing on every hand, and the heath throve
in luxuriance, but, flowerless, seemed to miss the golden blossoms of
the furze.

Sauntering along, we could scarcely avoid stumbling over numberless
ant-hills, of considerable size and height, raised around the trunks of
fallen firs rent in two by the violence of the winter storms, or hewn
down to be converted into charcoal. Regardless alike of the sultry
summer heat and of us, how industriously the little people worked,
running hither and thither with pieces of stick, ten times larger than
themselves, and sometimes so ponderous, that half-a-dozen of them would
put their strength together, and pull them from one corner of their
dominions to the other! I observed a sturdy mechanic, hurrying, like a
thief, along the summit of this mound, fall headlong to the very base;
but immediately recovering his senses, seized his load again, and
mounted valiantly to his former elevation.

I threw my glove in the midst of them. Their confusion and dismay were
beyond all description; but collecting their self-possession, they
returned in a mob, and seemed to view attentively the great calamity
that had befal