SIDE I.IGHTS ON BIRDS 



One feature of Loen is that it is partly sur- 

 rounded by the great Josterdal glacier— the largest 

 glacier in Europe. At certain points the ice 

 precipices descend into the valleys, and as the ice 

 melts the outflow from these form rivers thac 

 take their broken course through great desert 

 areas of rocks borne down from the mountains. 



Here a colony of common gulls is nesting, and 

 when we approach they at once rise and fill the 

 air with their protesting cries. As we rest behind 

 a rock, however, peace is gradually restored, and 

 watching through the glasses we see the gulls, 

 one by one, subside upon some grassy hollow in 

 the stones, and resume their position on the 

 nests. In order to reach them it is necessary to 

 wade through one or more of the ice rivers which 

 meander through the stony desert, and soon the 

 nests are all around us, each conspicuously placed 

 on some slight elevation, with the brown, mottled 

 eggs in full view. On most of the islands and 

 promontories of the lakes in the hills the common 

 gull is a constant nesting species, and shares 

 with the redshank and the sandpiper the solitudes 

 which are rarely invaded by man. 



Leaving Loen, we take the coasting steamer 

 which brings us to Sandene, an important centre, 

 with distinct traces of a street. Here civilisation 

 is rife, for not only is the telephone in general 

 use — ^this is now a mere common-place in Norway 

 — ^but a commodious motor car, known as the 

 " 'bile," awaits us at the hotel door. Those 

 who remember the precipitous ravines which lie 

 between Sandene and Redd, when the little 

 stolkjserre appeared at times to be standing almost 

 on end, supported only by a cautious pony, 

 which felt its way down the smooth rocks after 

 the manner of a fly descending a window-pane, 

 might well pause to wonder how the ' ' 'bile " 

 was about to perform its office. 



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