The Days of a Man 1890 



had taken the wheel himself. This was my first 

 and only view of a man for whose personality and 

 political career I held from the beginning a profound 

 distrust, as my friends can readily testify. 

 oddeand Returning from the Naerofjord to Bergen, we 

 ti* followed the inlets of Hardanger up to Odde, the 



da' finest excursion center in all Norway. From this 

 point a boatman bearing the picturesque name of 

 Ivor Strand rowed us over to the mouth of the 

 Tysse (the stream draining the Skjaeggedal), whence 

 we made on foot a visit (my third) to the Skjaeg- 

 gedalsfos, the most superb waterfall in Europe. For 

 the return to Odde we walked across the wonderfully 

 impressive mountain pass M^rfaldscardene, which 

 towers above the town the long snow mass of 

 the Folgefond, parent of many glaciers, fronting us 

 across the Sjzfrfjord all the way. Next day we went 

 up the Eidfjord and Maab0 River to the magnifi- 

 cent V^ringsfos, passing on the way the deep glacial 

 lake, Eidfjordsvand, surrounded by high polished 

 cliffs which our landlord had warned us were "very 

 periculose." 

 On foot Mrs. Jordan and I now left the party at the F^sli 



^ nn at t ^ ie k ea d f tne falls? and started on foot for 

 the reindeer pastures high above, where we spent 

 the night at a saeter or chalet called Stor Ishaug 

 "Great Ice Hill." This was a memorable excursion. 

 Crossing the river Bj^rkli on a wavering plank 

 suspended by wire a few feet above the churning 

 torrent and only a short distance from the 52O-foot 

 drop of the falls, we cheerfully ascended on and on 

 over wide pastures carpeted by the dwarf birches 

 Betula nana. These tiny treelets cover millions of 

 acres throughout subarctic Europe, Asia, and 



