114 AN OCTOBER WALK IN N0EWA1\ [Dec. 



allows of root-hold foi; trees and shrubbery, and, except upon the 

 high fjelds, which are exclusively composed of moorland, bare rock, 

 or ice-field, there is no lack of trees where root-hold is obtainable in 

 Norway. And the mountain-sides at Eide are beautiful with a 

 perfect wealth of foliage. But the vale itself claims notice first. 

 Its floor is almost entirely composed of pasture land, on which the 

 herbage, refreshed by autumn rains, is of the brightest green. A 

 river, some forty or fifty j^ards across, and well stocked, like most 

 Norwegian rivers of equal size, with salmon and trout, brawls over 

 its boulder- strewn bed to the fjord. Except where the foam and 

 swirl of a rapid or some deep dark pool intervenes, its waters are 

 so crystal-clear that the trout and their movements are plainly dis- 

 cernible in many places, and in autumn in Norway tlie hopes of 

 the angler fall with the waters. Its banks are, throughout its course 

 from the lake in the adjoining valley of Graven, thickly covered 

 with a growth of alder and ash, both of which trees still preserve 

 the dark-green hues of summer foliage. 



In Norway the alder appears to liave a special foe in tlie shape 

 of an insect which in many places almost strips the trees of their 

 leaves, or rather the fleshy portions of them, leaving nothing but 

 skeletons, lace-like in appearance, and beautiful in their way. With 

 this exception, I fancy that the trees in this country, and indeed 

 generally in Scandinavia, are remarkably free from the attacks of 

 parasites. The alder and the ash are much valued Ijy the Norwegian 

 peasants, as furnishing fodder for their cattle during the long severe 

 winter. In early Octo'ber, just before the leaves change colour, 

 every farmer fills two or three of his barns with small branches cut 

 from these trees; with this food the cows have to be content, for all 

 the hay is required for the horses. The work of collecting and 

 storing these leafy branches is entrusted to the old women and 

 3'ounger girls, the latter climbing up into the trees when necessary, 

 and displaying as miich agility and fearlessness as a school-boy after 

 a bird's nest. The fair sex in Norway have to do their share of liard 

 work, and do it uncomplainingly ; an old beldame may frequently 

 be seen trudging Iiomewards over the slippery ice-worn rocks of a 

 difftciilt mountain-path, bent almost double with the weight of her 

 years and such a bundle of boughs as a strong English labourer 

 would consider amply large enough for him to carry across a stack- 

 yard. 



Here and there we come across a copse of hazel ; it is a grand 

 year for nuts in Norway, and all the boys and girls in the Vale of 

 Hide have their pockets well filled daily. I have never seen in 

 England such a profusion of fruit as is not uncommonly found 

 clustering on, the branches of a Norwegian hazel grove. The river is 



