38 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Fig. 2. Norwegian Uplands in Summer. Snow field near Djupvashvitten. " In 

 many places the snow has not disappeared by the end of summer, and thus furnishes 

 a continual supply of water." 



themselves in rude huts along the shore, and when the fish arrive they • 

 are notified by telephone. A season's catch is often valued at nearly 

 $2,000,000. The fish are brought on shore and dried; the heads and 

 backbones are ground for fertilizer, or boiled with hay for cattle food; 

 the livers are tried for cod-liver oil. This fishing, like that of the New- 

 foundland Banks, is attended with great loss of life. Brought up in 

 such a school, it is not surprising that so many Norwegians are sailors 

 and that Norway ranks next to England and the United States in mari- 

 time commerce, nor that Norwegian masters command vessels in all 

 parts of the world, from the whalers of Japan to the fruiters on our 

 own east coast. In addition to the cod fisheries, the herring fisheries 

 occupy many men, while a smaller number fish for salmon, salmon- 

 trout, and market sea-fish, as well as lobsters. 



The third great industry of Norway is that connected Avith timber. 

 While the highlands are barren, the lower slopes, even far to the north, 

 are densely wooded. The most important woods are pine and spruce, 

 and in the more northern portions birch is abundant, indeed far be- 

 vond the line of conifers the white birch continues, until it becomes at 

 last so stunted that it is hardly more than a bush, and we are above 

 the tree-line. The fashion of building houses is evidence of the wealth 

 of timber. In the north all houses are built of logs, hewn smooth on 

 two sides and hollowed on tlfe lower side to fit the unhewn, rounded 

 top, thus avoiding a crack. At the corners and where the partitions 

 meet the walls, the logs are carefully dovetailed together, so that the 



