ORWAY is the northern tourist land; the Switzer- 
land of North Europe. 
Norway also has its shining Ice-braes, larger than 
any other glaciers in the continent of Europe. It 
C) has waterfalls of matchless beauty, which precipitate 
themselves with noise like thunder, a depth of 700 feet, to where 
no human eye can reach, nor foot tread their margin. It 
also has its Alps, mighty and snow-clad, as the Swiss Alps them- 
selves, although of less considerable heights ; but the nature and 
ordinary character of the Alpine scenery in the two lands, are 
entirely different. At the foot of the Swiss Alps winds a belt 
. of chestnut and walnut trees, on their slopes flourish even vines, 
and the inhabitants grow wheat on the shores of charming lakes 
or in the warm valley bottoms, where the mulberry-tree, the fig- 
tree, and the maize also flourish. The Norwegian Alps rise as a 
rule from a lofty mountain plateau; their summits are sometimes 
decidedly imposing, and their confused masses of mountain-ridges 
and deep valleys picturesque; but no trees wreath the bases 
of the peaks, except the uppermost stragglers of the stunted pines 
and birches; and in the corries on the mountain-sides and upon 
the plateaux, large tracts are covered with thickets of the silver- 
gray mountain-willow, which in turn are succeeded higher up by 
monotonous areas covered by various species of lichen. 
Here, in the belt of gray mountain-willow (Salix lapponum, and 
S. glauca), is the home of the Willow Grouse, here is the goal of 
the sportsman’s longing ; but the height—between three and four 
thousand feet—above the level of the sea, and the more northerly 
situation, cause these mountain-wastes from which our proudest 
peaks rise directly, to be only inhabited in the summer-time 
by scattered ‘“‘ Sater” folk (or mountain-dairy people), or to be 
frequented by the numerous summer visitors,—Tourists and 
Sportsmen. 
