NORWAY. 



707 



From this we see that Christiania, the new me- 

 tropolis of Norway, which in 1825 contained nearly 

 1,800 inhabitants less than Bergen, now contains 

 nearly 300 more than that old, and once so cele- 

 brated town, in which it will also be observed, the 

 paupers are considerably more numerous than in 

 Christiania. Stavanger appears to have increased 

 in population more than any other of these towns. 

 Konigsberg, notwithstanding the wonderful in- 

 crease which has occurred in the produce of its 

 silver mine during the last 10 years, is one of the 

 very few towns in Norway the population of which 

 has decreased during that period. Here, too, the 

 number of paupers is very great, being as numerous 

 as in Drammen, where the population is twice as 

 great. These remarkable facts indicate a change 

 of the ancient seats of welfare in Norway. 



In towns the proportion of females to males is 

 as 109 to 100. In two or three of the towns this 

 proportion is much smaller; and in Christiania and 

 Frederikshald, the males exceed the females ; but 

 u his must be owing to the military quartered in 

 those places; for while in all the towns the number 

 of married persons of both sexes is nearly equal, 

 and in Bergen and most of the towns there is an 

 excess of females among unmarried persons : in 

 Christiania and Frederikshald, on the other hand, 

 there is a large excess of unmarried males. 



That the number of unmarried people of each 

 sex should be in proportion to the total number of 

 males and females respectively, would appear a very 

 natural conclusion; but it appears that in Norway 

 the number of unmarried males was 375,771, whilst 

 that of females was only 373,728. But, on the 

 other hand, the number of widows, 42,660, greatly 

 exceed that of widowers, 16,625. If even a small 

 portion of the excess consist of widows of a mar- 

 riageable age, the natural proportion of the two 

 sexes is restored. The fact itself admits of an easy 

 explanation. The greatest number of unmarried 

 persons are necessarily under 20 years of age, es- 



pecially in a northern climate, wuere marriage sel- 

 dom occurs under that age; and in this period of 

 life the males predominate considerably. During 

 the next 10 years, from 20 to 30, the females are 

 slightly in excess, during which time more females 

 will be married than males, who usually marry 

 somewhat later in life. In the 20 years following 

 the numbers are nearly equal. After 50, when the 

 greater part of those of both sexes who are able to 

 marry are already married, the proportion of females 

 exceeds considerably that of males; but a great 

 portion of this excess must consist of widows, not 

 unmarried women ; so that the sum of unmarried 

 males, at all ages, would necessarily be somewhat 

 greater than that of unmarried females. The ex- 

 cess of widows, as compared with widowers, is ob- 

 viously caused chiefly by the greater mortality 

 among men, which the tables attest, there being 

 1 16 women to 100 men alive beyond the age of 50, 

 and the proportion increasing with each decennary 

 period, viz., 123 to 100, beyond 60; 132 to 100, 

 beyond 70 ; and 139 to 100, beyond 80 years of age. 

 With regard to the occupations of the popula- 

 tion, Norway is essentially an agricultural country. 

 Hence, among the total male population of 585,381 

 persons, of whom 434,267 are above 10 years of 

 age, 158,405 are cultivators of the land, to which, 

 as connected with agriculture, must be added a 

 large portion of the journeymen and servants ; 

 28,903 are engaged in navigation and the fisheries ; 

 23,145 in commerce and manufactures; which 

 number, however, may exceed that of seamen by 

 the addition of a portion of the journeymen ; 

 139,954 are classed as servants, of whom 124,627 

 belong to the country, and consequently especially 

 to agriculture, and 15,327 to towns ; 1,992 are 

 officers, 2,104 are pensioners, and 30,697, or more 

 than 5 per cent, of the male population, are pau- 

 pers 4,720 being inhabitants of towns, and 25,977 

 belonging to the country. 



In order to encourage cultivation in a country 

 where the products of the soil are gathered only by 

 a difficult and toilsome labour, the government of 

 Norway has judged fit to free newly-cultivated 

 land from taxes for a considerable space of time. 

 Therefore, the cultivators of land are divided into 

 two classes, taxed and not taxed. Of the former, 

 there are 103,192 ; and of the latter, 55,213. The 

 former are again subdivided into proprietors or 

 freeholders, possessing what is called the odels-ret, 

 of whom there are 72,624 ; and those with a limited 

 possession, a right of use, or farm, of which class 

 there are 30,568. 







OCEANIA, (a. to Oceanica.) The name 

 Oceania has been bestowed by modern geograph- 

 ers on that large region of the globe, which com- 

 prises all the islands in the Pacific ocean to the 

 south and south-east of Asia, including the Asiatic 

 archipelago, Australia, and Polynesia. This re- 

 gion extends from about the ninety-fifth degree of 

 east to the 110th degree of west longitude, and 



from the twenty-fifth of north to the fiftieth of 

 south latitude. Within these limits, stretching 

 10,000 miles in every direction, we have a vast 

 ocean, with a profusion of islands scattered over 

 it, one of them rather a continent than an island ; 

 five or six more, each equal in magnitude to almost 

 any in the world ; and one peninsula of great size. 

 The great mass of the land lies between the 9.5th 

 2 Y 2 



