176 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



crop therefore, such as it is, gets no ordinary care 

 and attention, and the patient plodding Scandinavian 

 peasantry, knowing that it would stand a poor chance 

 of drying in this uncertain climate if left upon the 

 ground, take the trouble to hang it up handful by 

 handful on rows of hurdles brought out for the occasion 

 into the hayfields. The idea is a good one, as the 

 grass dries very rapidly in this way ; it might possibly 

 be worth the consideration of the now much 

 straitened British farmer, who also usually has a 

 very changeable climate, amongst other things, to 

 contend with. 



So valuable indeed is the smallest patch of grass 

 in this rock-bound country, that we frequently saw a 

 most luxuriant growth carefully cherished upon the 

 roof of an out-house or stable, where at intervals 

 sheep are hauled up to browse, or hay-making opera- 

 tions are carried on ! 



On joining the rest of our party at the end of the 

 day at Gudvangen, I found that a friend who had a 

 "net" with him had taken the same species of 

 Lepidoptera as I had, with the addition of a speci- 

 men of the angular winged Argynnis pales (Schiff.), 

 var. Lapponica (Stgr.), an interesting Alpine and 

 northern insect, which he had captured in a small 

 meadow near Vinje. 



Whilst steaming down the Sogne Fjord late on the 

 evening of this particular day, we passed some 

 salmon weirs, behind which were some curious long 

 white streaks upon the rocks, looking like water at a 

 distance ; on inquiry, we learned that these were 

 r ainted cascades, made for the purpose of taking 

 advantage of a salmon's well-known predilection for 

 ascending waterfalls ; truly a novel way of attracting 

 the fish into the nets ! 



Our journeyings did not permit of further ento- 

 mological collecting till we reached the far-famed 

 Romsdal valley ; landing at Nses late in the evening, 

 I took my net on shore for the chance of a few 

 insects in the darker hollows of the woods, &c, 

 towards midnight ; but when I say that we took a 

 very successful photographic view at 11.15 p.m., and 

 that I made a water-colour sketch an hour later, it 

 will readily be understood that one was hardly likely 

 to capturefmany moths ; indeed, during my trip in 

 Norway I never saw a single Noctua, and conclude 

 that they must arrange their emergence into the 

 perfect state for the spring or autumn, when the days 

 are shorter ! The country hereabouts would, I am 

 sure, well repay the thorough investigation of all 

 geological visitors ; on the mountain-side close to 

 Verblungnres no fewer than four well-defined, raised 

 beaches mark successive coast lines ; up the valley- 

 moraines, striations, rounded blocks, and all features 

 of glacier action, may be studied to repletion, while 

 every form of disintegration, by air, frost, water, 

 landslips or avalanche, is illustrated most vividly, and 

 on a really cyclopean scale. 



Next morning I took my net and a few boxes with 



me for the drive up to Horgheim. Truly this was 

 the grandest bit of country I had ever collected in, 

 but so impressive and overpowering was the scenery, 

 that one could hardly bring one's thoughts down to 

 so small a thing as an insect. We drove up the 

 fertile valley of the Rauma, carpeted in places with the 

 brightest and loveliest of flowers, well-nigh awed, I 

 may say, by the sight of the huge bare gneiss preci- 

 pice of the Romsdalhorn disappearing in the clouds 

 on the one side, and the towering crags of the 

 Troltinderner, with jagged pinnacles clear cut 

 against the sky, far above us on the other ; far above, 

 I say, for they were 5800 ft., or considerably over a 

 mile high, above our heads, and so precipitous, that 

 I verily believe one could have thrown a stone from 

 the top of the nearer peaks to the bottom of the 

 valley. The winter snows were still lying thick in 

 the hollows, but ever and anon the warmth of the 

 perpetual summer sunshine told upon them, and twice 

 did we see a huge avalanche come roaring down 

 with a noise like thunder, bringing enormous rocks 

 and all sorts of lesser debris into the valley ; luckily 

 these avalanches seldom reach as far as the road in 

 summer, but we passed one great rock which had 

 evidently fallen a day or two previously, and which 

 had ploughed across our road and gone crashing 

 through the wood beyond, laying low all the trees 

 in its path. 



The woods here were chiefly composed of alder, 

 birch, and ash ; here and there we saw a diminutive 

 oak, but the great tree of which we are so justly 

 proud in England cannot in this climate develop 

 into more than a large stunted bush. Although 

 perennial vegetation is so dwarfed, many familiar 

 plants of a summer's growth attain to a wonderful 

 luxuriance, owing to the almost perpetual sunshine 

 they enjoy during their short season ; the meadows in 

 this valley were one mass of flowers ; there were beds 

 of deep red-purple heartsease growing so thickly that 

 you could hardly see any green between the blossoms, 

 and the latter were fully 1 in. by § in size. Yellow- 

 rattle, bird's-foot trefoil, milkwort, eye-bright, globe 

 flower, and other friends at home, were here seen of 

 a most abnormal size and in most luxuriant profusion. 

 Aconite was common in the woods, and many plants 

 quite unknown to us, appeared here and there also ; 

 I was quite sorry that I had no time to collect more 

 of them, but of the few brought home and since named, 

 Comics Stucica has perhaps proved the most inter- 

 esting ; it is very rare with us, occasionlly occurring 

 in the Scotch Highlands, and is remarkable for its 

 very small, almost unnoticeable, flower, surrounded 

 by four pale white sepals, which appear like four 

 white petals, though of course they are not the flower 

 at all. A friend who was with me also made an 

 interesting find at the foot of the Romsdalhorn, dis- 

 covering a specimen of the Scandinavian edelweiss 

 [Anlcnnaria alpiua ?) among some rocky debris. 



In this land of brilliant blossoms, T naturally 



