120 NORWEGIAN FOREST SCENERY. 



died back, and a feathery head alone surmounts a lofty 

 pole mostly grown straight and even as a bulrush. 



These poles are cut in millions, and shipped to Eng- 

 land and other places, as scaffolding and telegraph poles ; 

 and by inspecting the scaffolding of any building in 

 process of erection in London, the dwellers of that great 

 wilderness of houses can form a very fair idea of what 

 a Norwegian forest is like, where these tall, symme- 

 trical little trees may be frequently found growing over 

 a large area of country so closely together that it is 

 not always easy to pass between. The hoary hand of 

 antiquity has however everywhere left its mark through- 

 out these forests, in dead and decaying timber, which 

 together with many of the living specimens, is festooned 

 with dark grey pendant mosses, swaying in the wind. 

 At every few steps some picturesque object is gene- 

 rally found to adorn the scene, such as weather-beaten, 

 lichen-covered rocks, masses of fern, or bilberry, or 

 other dwarf undergrowth, and it is rare to travel far 

 without meeting some crystal brook, whose ice-cold 

 waters descend from the frozen fjeld above. 



As usual in every forest country at the present day, 

 bands of wood-cutters work destruction throughout 

 these ancient forests; through which the trails by 

 which they have dragged the fallen timber down to 

 the neighbouring river are everywhere to be found, 

 upon whose waters it is thence floated down to the 

 sea, and exported, or sawn up for local consumption. 



The destruction of the forest in this way is everywhere 

 a grievous spectacle to the lover of nature. In Europe, 

 however, there is generally some local authority, and 

 often stringent laws, to control and prevent wanton 

 waste or wholesale destruction ; judicious thinnings may, 



