NORWEGIAN BIRD NOTES 



be noted. Gulls are always in evidence, and 

 occasionally the form of a great black-backed 

 gull looms largely amidst its congeners. Now. 

 small groups of eider ducks move in the moie 

 sheltered estuaries, an oyster-catcher alights on 

 a rock, or a black cormorant wings its sombre way 

 across the fjord. Once a velvet scoter is marked 

 in the distance, and on several occasions the dark 

 form of an Arctic skua darts like a sinister shadow 

 through little parties of gulls and terns, spreading 

 instant dismay and confusion in their ranks. 



Again it is midnight when the ship passes be- 

 neath the mighty rock of Hornellen, which rises 

 for more than 3,000 feet sheer from the fjord. 

 On a craggy island is the little hamlet of Muldoen, 

 where the ship's captain courteously stops his en- 

 gines in order to permit us to land. So in the wan 

 light we descend the great vessel's side to the tiny 

 boat on the black water beneath, and are rowed 

 to where a tangle of quaint wooden erections mark 

 the quay. The hotel — or what stands for such — 

 is dark and appears to be uninhabited, but we 

 find a supper spread, and from the many weird 

 comestibles we select a meal. I^ater we are dis- 

 covered by a sleepy hand-maiden, innocent of 

 English, and eventually reach our beds. 



The coasting steamer which is to take us down 

 the Nordfjord is due at midday, so we have some 

 hours to inspect our environment. We are in a 

 black, rocky cup, the upper edges of which are 

 broken into serrated crests, capped with snow. 

 At our feet lies the fjord, and on the opposite 

 shore, tiny red and blue houses are perched on 

 apparently inaccessible crags, laced with white 

 waterfalls. Muldoen itself, with its single road, 

 irregular wooden houses, white church, and 

 crudely painted hotel,- clings to the side of a 

 precipice, and as the eye is turned upwards, it 



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