804 NORWAY. 



time among low bushes and wild flowers, but found 

 no game. The gulls, as if aware of my intentions, had 

 forsaken the low rocks, and were flying high up among 

 the precipices and serried ridges and peaks of the moun- 

 tain. Resolved not to be discomfited I began to ascend, 

 and as I mounted upward the splendour of the island 

 scenery became more apparent. The virtuous feelings 

 consequent upon early rising induced a happy frame of 

 mind, which was increased by the exhilarating influence 

 of the mountain air. 



It was a wild lonesome place, full of deep dark gorges 

 and rugged steeps, to clamber up which, if not a work of 

 danger, was at least one of difficulty. While I stood on 

 a rocky ledge, gazing upwards at the sinuosities of the 

 ravine above me, I observed a strange apparition near the 

 edge of a rock about forty yards off. It was a face, a 

 red, hairy, triangular visage, with a pair of piercing black 

 eyes, that gazed down upon me in unmitigated amaze- 

 ment. The gun flew to my shoulder ; I looked steadily 

 for a moment ; the eyes winked ; bang ! went the gun, 

 and when the smoke cleared away the eyes and head 

 were gone. Clambering hastily up the cliff, I found a 

 red fox lying dead behind a rock. 



Bagging Reynard, I ascended the giddy heights where 

 the gulls were circling. Here the clouds enshrouded me 

 occasionally as they sailed past, making the gulls loom 

 gigantic. Suddenly an enormous bird swooped past me, 

 looking so large in the white mist that I felt assured it 

 must be an eagle. I squatted behind a rock at once, 



