248 SPORT IN NORWAY. 
damage from the frosty nights in the latter part of 
August ; but the position of the locality exercises great 
influence, for it often happens that the corn is ripe for 
the sickle on the side of the fjeld facing the south, 
while that on the opposite side is still green. In 
Jemteland, in Sweden, the peasants heap up large 
masses of brushwood on the north side of their small 
patches of corn to protect them against the north-wes- 
terly winds which prevail usually during the night-time.* 
As may be anticipated from the configuration of the 
country, the quantity of rain that falls in different 
localities varies exceedingly. Thus, while but little 
rain falls in the eastern districts, an immense quantity 
falls on the western coasts. At Bergen, for instance, 
it may be estimated at 85 inches, while at Christiania, 
taking the average of twenty years, it is 20°7 inches. 
In 1859 it was at this latter place 21 inches, while in 
the disastrous year of 1860 it amounted to 30°5. 
It is no exaggeration to say that Norway enjoys 
* During the summer, when it is fine weather, a wind called the 
“ Sol-gang” is prevalent ; that is, the wind follows the sun, blowing 
in the morning from the east, and during the evening and night 
from the west. 
t The rain at Bergen is quite proverbial. A native of that city 
informed me that he should say they did not have fifty fine days in 
the whole year. And though the skipper’s logical (?) inference, 
that because it rained when he sailed out of the port, and rained 
when he returned, that it therefore always rained there, is no more 
to be relied on than that Calais is a very windy town, because the 
hat of the author of “ A Sentimental Journey’’ was blown off as he 
turned the corner of a street; yet from the immense quantity of 
rain that falls there it will be evident that the wet days must far 
outnumber the fine ones. 
