282 TRANSACTIONS AND PKOCEEDINGS OF THE [Sess. LXiv. 



are still crowned, is the most northerly of the large towns 

 of Europe, being in the same latitude as the south coast of 

 Iceland (63° 30' N.). As we approached it from the south, 

 sailing up the Trondhjem Fjord, we met the steamers which 

 had just started with passengers for the North Cape, to see 

 the midnight sun. We did not spend any time here, how- 

 ever, on this occasion, as we were invited to visit a friend 

 who had a salmon fishing on the Namsen Eiver, one 

 hundred miles farther north, and we expected to have 

 another opportunity of seeing Trondhjem on our return. 

 Taking steamer in the afternoon for Namsos, a small town 

 near the mouth of the Namsen Eiver, we reached our 

 destination in the small hours of the morning, this being 

 the third time within a week that we had to disembark 

 from a steamer and seek beds at an inn in the middle of 

 the night, a somewhat fatiguing experience. There was a 

 leper on board the steamer, a young man who had been 

 discharged from hospital at Trondhjem as incurable, and 

 was going home to his parents. There are leper hospitals 

 in all the large towns in Norway, but the disease is said to 

 be on the decrease, consumption being on the increase in 

 that country. Leprosy in Norway has been attributed to 

 the prevailing diet of the peasantry, which consists of dried 

 fish, to the exclusion of green vegetables. 



The sound of the hamnier was very rife at Namsos, for, 

 like many other towns in Norway built of wood, it is being 

 rebuilt after a fire, and that not for tlie first time. Visitors 

 from this country should make the acquaintance of Mr. 

 Sommerschield, the Vice-Consul here, who is very obliging, 

 and something of a "character." It is said that his greatest 

 distress after the late fire was at the loss of " Webster's 

 Dictionary" and " P>u ike's Peerage," a[)))arently his most 

 invaluable companions. 



The next stage of our journey was a twenty miles drive 

 in cariols up the wide valley of the Namsen to Oberhalden, 

 above which the river is no longer tidal. At this beautiful 

 spot we spent nearly a week, I'csting after our long steamer 

 journeys ; and, although salmon fishing was the order of 

 tlie day as well as of the night, we were able to make a 

 few notes on the botany of a fertile lowland and sub-alpine 

 country, 



