170 Natural History Tour in Norway. 



rain, and were benefited by a thorough ducking, which threw 

 a damp upon the pleasure of our sail. The scenery was as grand 

 as that we had passed through during the preceding day. 

 Indeed, I have never seen anything in Switzerland or in 

 Scotland which could compete with the stupendous magni- 

 ficence of the Hardanger- fiord. 



Viger is a pretty village, in the middle of a natural park, 

 walled in by mountains. There being no "guest-giver" 

 there, we proceeded to the parsonage, and were received with 

 a kindness and hospitality never to be forgotten. From Viger 

 we journeyed to Eid-fiord, situated at the head of the fiord upon 

 a gravelly delta, formed from the debris of the neighbouring 

 mountains by the river Voring, which is expanded into a 

 lake about two miles broad, and the same in length, just above 

 this delta. At the upper end of the lake we found a series 

 of terraces of debris, on which grew Astragalus alpinus 

 (Phaca astragalina Dec), Erigeron acris, Carex recur va, and 

 A^abis petrae N a. Our object in visiting Eid-fiord was to see 

 the great fall of the Vorings-foss, one of the finest waterfalls 

 in Europe, first made known to the traveller by Professor 

 Hanstein a few years before, and which appears to be the water- 

 fall mentioned by Inglis, as of a somewhat apocryphal exist- 

 ence. It is formed by the fall of a large river down a deep 

 and narrow ravine, presenting an unbroken cascade of 800 ft. 

 or more. According to our guide, comparatively few of its 

 visitors had descended the ravine, which is easily accounted 

 for, when the difficulty, and often danger, of such a descent 

 is considered. We ventured, and were well repaid for our 

 pains by one of the finest sights, probably, in Europe. 



The Vorings-foss is about fourteen miles distant from the 

 fiord ; and the elevation of the ground in the neighbourhood of 

 the fall must be very considerable. On it we found Phyllodoc? 

 tfaxifolia (Menziesza cserulea) abundant and in fine condition; 

 Aconitum lycoctonum, A'rabis alpina, Veronica saxatilis and 

 alpina, and Bartsza alpina. In the lower part of the valley, lead- 

 ing to the fall, grew Asperugo procumbens. We returned from 

 Eidfiord down the Hardanger to Graven, where (it being Sun- 

 day) we rested for a day, and had the pleasure, for the first time, 

 of tasting the flesh of the reindeer ; a delicacy peculiarly agree- 

 able to our palates, as for the last week our food had consisted 

 solely of cold fish and haver-brod, a sort, but a very poor 

 sort, of oat bread, which, combined with the misery of wear- 

 ing wet clothes, made anything in the shape of meat and a 

 warm shirt the summit of human felicity. The water of the 

 Hardanger-fiord around Graven tastes quite fresh : the sides 

 of the rocks at the water's edge are thickly covered with stunted 

 specimens of the iVfytilus edulis. 



