X.] *• THE MALSTROM. 167 



an open boat." But in this wild romantic country, with its 

 sparse population, rugged mountains, and gloomy fiords, 

 very ordinary matters become invested with a character of 

 awe and mystery quite foreign to the atmosphere of our 

 own matter-of-fact world ; and many of the Norwegians are 

 as prone to superstition as the poor little Lapp pagans who 

 dwell among them. 



No later than a few years ago, in the very fiord we had 

 passed on our way to Alten, when an unfortunate boat got 

 cast away during the night on some rocks at a little distance 

 from the shore, the inhabitants, startled by the cries of dis- 

 tress which reached them in the morning twilight, hurried 

 down in a body to the sea-side, — not to afford assistance, — 

 but to open a volley of musketry on the drowning mariners ; 

 being fully persuaded that the stranded boat, with its torn 

 sails, was no other than the Kracken or Great Sea-Serpent 

 flapping its dusky wings : and when, at last, one of the crew 

 succeeded in swimming ashore in spite of waves and bullets, 

 — the whole society turned and fled ! 



And now, again good-bye. We are just going up to dine 



with Mr. T ; and after dinner, or at least as soon as 



the tide turns, we get under way — Northward Ho ! (as 

 Mr. Kingsley would say) in right good earnest this time ! 



