ys and splendid groves, I reached the town of Drammen,
which lies on the shores of the sea and the river Storri Elf, and whose
vicinity was announced by the beautiful country-houses ornamenting the
approach to it.

A long, well-built wooden bridge, furnished with beautiful iron
palisadings, leads over the river. The town of Drammen has pretty
streets and houses, and above 6000 inhabitants. The hotel where I lodged
was pretty and clean. My bedroom was a large room, with which the most
fastidious might have been contented. The supper which they provided for
me was, however, most frugal, consisting only of soft-boiled eggs. They
gave me neither salt nor bread with them, nor a spoon; nothing but a
knife and fork. And it is a mystery to me how soft eggs can be eaten
without bread, and with a knife and fork.

August 25th.

I hired a fresh horse here, with which I proceeded to Kongsberg, eighteen
miles farther. The first seven miles afforded a repetition of the
romantic scenery of the previous day, with the exception of the sea. But
instead I had the beautiful river, until I had ascended a hill, from
whose summit I overlooked a large and apparently populous valley, filled
with groups of houses and single farms. It is strange that there are
very few large towns in Norway; every peasant builds his house in the
midst of his fields.

Beyond this hill the scenery grows more monotonous. The mountains are
lower, the valley narrower, and the road is enclosed by wood or rocks.
One peculiarity of Norwegian rocks is their humidity. The water
penetrates through countless fissures, but only in such small quantities
as to cover the stones with a kind of veil. When the sun shines on these
wet surfaces of rock, of which there are many and large ones, they shine
like mirrors.

Delemarken seems to be tolerably populous. I often met with solitary
peasant-huts in the large gloomy forests, and they gave some life to the
monotonous landscape. The industry of the Norwegian peasant is very
great; for every spot of earth, even on the steepest precipices, bore
potatoes, barley, or oats; their houses also look cheerful, and were
painted for the most part of a brick-red colour.

I found the roads very good, especially the one from Christiania to
Drammen; and the one from Drammen to Kongsberg was not very
objectionable. There is such an abundance of wood in Norway, that the