The Project Gutenberg EBook of Feats on the Fiord, by Harriet Martineau

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: Feats on the Fiord
The third book in "The Playfellow"

Author: Harriet Martineau

Release Date: November 1, 2007 [EBook #23277]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FEATS ON THE FIORD ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

Feats on the Fiord, by Harriet Martineau.

________________________________________________________________________
This book was first published in a collection of stories, "The
Playfellow," along with "The Crofton Boys", "The Peasant and the Prince"
and "The Settlers at Home." However, being of a somewhat whimsical
nature, it later attracted artists and publishers with a bent in that
direction. This is the original version, dating from the mid nineteenth
century.

________________________________________________________________________
FEATS ON THE FIORD, BY HARRIET MARTINEAU.

CHAPTER ONE.

ERLINGSEN'S "AT HOME."

Every one who has looked at the map of Norway must have been struck with
the singular character of its coast. On the map it looks so jagged,
such a strange mixture of land and sea, that it appears as if there must
be a perpetual struggle between the two,--the sea striving to inundate
the land, and the land pushing itself out into the sea, till it ends in
their dividing the region between them. On the spot, however, this
coast is very sublime. The long straggling promontories are
mountainous, towering ridges of rock, springing up in precipices from
the water; while the bays between them, instead of being rounded with
shelving sandy shores, on which the sea tumbles its waves, as in bays of
our coast, are, in fact, long narrow valleys, filled with sea, instead
of being laid out in fields and meadows. The high rocky banks shelter
these deep bays (called fiords) from almost every wind; so that their
waters are usually as still as those of a lake. For days and weeks
together, they reflect each separate tree-top of the pine-forests which
clothe the mountain sides, the mirror being broken only by the leap of
some sportive fish, or the oars of the boatman as h