heir wind. But in spite of every indulgence, it was
disheartening to see the perspiration dripping, like a fountain, from
the flanks and stomachs of the animals, while they panted for breath.
Toiling up the acclivity, we arrived, at last, at the summit of the
mountain; and although the elevation must have been several thousand
feet above the level of the sea, a plain of great extent, inclining
slightly downwards to the north-west, and without the vestige of a
shrub, spread before us. Alighting from our carrioles, we stood on the
highest point of the mountain, and looking down the opposite side almost
perpendicularly beneath us, a beautiful lake suddenly broke upon the
view, the verdant banks of which, fringed with cottages, meandered for
many miles along a still, romantic valley. Down the sides of the
mountains that encompassed this valley, and with whose rocky heads we
had an equal altitude, hundreds of cascades were seen leaping among the
riven crags, and hid for a time from sight by the firs, would burst
again upon the eye, and roll in one large spout of foam down the
ravines, till they mingled with the sleeping waters of the lake now
thrown into deep shadow by the gigantic mountains, and ended day.

Taking up our abode for the night with a Scotsman, whose cottage we
found through the assistance of one of our skydsguts, we strove to make
ourselves as comfortable as circumstances would admit. This gentleman,
who had left his native land with the laudable motive of teaching
husbandry to the Norwegians, and with the ulterior chance of making his
fortune, discovered that the Norwegian farmers were as steadfast to the
aboriginal mode of cultivating their land, as he was ambitious of
becoming rich, and so, like a sensible man, when he found that his
agricultural scheme had failed, and retreat homewards, for want of
means, was impracticable, he wedded a Norwegian woman, and renting a
tract of land, turned farmer on his own account. All that his frugal
wife had collected for household use among these solitary mountains,
milk, eggs, and salmon, was freely offered to us; and having brought our
own tea and sugar, together with a few bottles of beer, we easily made a
wholesome meal. After we had supped, our host said that his house was
small, and his sleeping accommodation still more limited; but if we
could arrange between ourselves, as to the appropriation of one bed, and
a small sofa, he would be proud indeed to shelter us for