208 SPORT IN NORWAY. 
through Bykle to Valle Preestegjeld * in Seetersdal, one 
may find a broad and well-kept-up road, winding its 
way for more than ninety miles through the whole 
extent of the valley along the Bygland Fjord, and the 
banks of the Otter to Christiansand. 
Where it passes through wild and precipitous places, 
as in Bygland’s Prestegjeld, there are now roads built 
at much expense, and with great slall, on the face of 
the cliff. In former times there used only to be a 
wretched bridle-road, from which horses used frequently 
to be precipitated, or, under the most favourable cir- 
cumstances, only prevented from falling headlong into 
the depths below by means of a restraining power ap- 
plied to their tails. And this but half a generation 
ago! : 
Not without reason did the peasants christen this 
place “ Devil’s Chiff.” A yawning abyss opens on the 
right, while on the left the mountain rears its side, 
covered with birch and wild cherry growing between 
immense blocks of rocks. These huge boulders, which 
seem to have been hurled down in wild disorder by 
giant force into the valley below, along the foaming 
river or dreamy fjord, form a peculiarity of Setersdal 
landscape, and give it a wonderful air of defiance and 
savage wildness, perhaps nowhere else to be found. 
Here the marks of “'Thor’s hammer” may be seen, 
* Prestegjeld, or “ parish.” 
