250 Natural History lour in Norway. 



bourhood. The men of the kiln told us it was found about 

 two miles (fourteen English) from Christiansand. 



We left Christiansand early in the morning of June 21st. 

 Our course lay, as before, amongst the islands, and the passage 

 was exceedingly narrow in many places, often with a street of 

 houses on each side of us. Mandal was the first town we 

 stopped at, but we did not land. A discussion of a rather 

 amusing nature took place here amongst several of the pas- 

 sengers, two of whom, besides ourselves, were English, as to 

 the merits of Derwent Conway's (Mr. Inglis's) book, which, 

 by the by, is every where abused in Norway as incorrect, and 

 nowise to be relied upon. He says (if I remember rightly) 

 that he landed at Mandal at low water, and was carried on 

 shore over a sandy beach. Now, there is little or no tide on 

 the south coast of Norway ; and many Norwegians on board 

 maintained there was no such thing as a sandy beach at 

 Mandal, where they had often been. On turning round a 

 small promontory the enigma was explained: there was a 

 beach, which, though not at Mandal, was very near it, but 

 had escaped the observation of our Norwegian friends. 



We soon made the Naze ; but I was greatly disappointed 

 with the appearance of this famous headland. Instead of a 

 high and precipitous cliff (as I had been led to expect from 

 Mr. Inglis's description), frowning proudly over the waves 

 of the Atlantic, the coast was lower than usual, and the rocks 

 shelved towards the sea. In the mean time we busied our- 

 selves arranging the treasures of the preceding day's excur- 

 sion, occasionally banishing the melancholy thoughts which 

 might distract us at the sight of so many fair flowers cut off 

 in their bloom of beauty, by a glance at the still fairer living 

 flowers, who peered curiously, with an arch smile and a ques- 

 tioning eye, into our plant-pressing occupation. Without 

 joking, the ladies of Norway are exceeding pretty, and well 

 worthy the attention of the naturalist. 



We were now sailing northwards along the western coast 

 of Norway ; and the more they receded from the south, the 

 higher and grander became the precipices. At Zisterland, 

 however, a flat tract of sandy ground occurs, where M. Blytt 

 informed me he had found jEryngium maritimum, Fiola lactea, 

 ^fnagallis arvensis, and other sand-inhabiting plants. On the 

 rocks he pointed out Euphorbia palustris (a plant not found 

 in Britain), and kept a keen look out for ivy, which, in the 

 north, is esteemed as a precious desideratum. About five 

 o'clock in the evening we arrived at Egersund, a small town 

 situated at the end of a long fiord; and, as it is light enough 

 there at that season to botanise all night if one chose, we 



