10 TRAVELS IN THE EIGHTIES. 



over twice, but was compelled to ascribe it to a desire 

 on the part of the inhabitants to please by inventing 

 an agreeable fiction. 



I must describe one other adventure in Norway. 

 I had just returned from a river called the Orkla, and 

 was in bed in an hotel in Trondhjem with a cold. My 

 interpreter, a useless fellow whom I had just paid off as 

 not requiring his services any longer, had previously 

 informed me that a farmer in the valley of the Orkla 

 had telegraphed to the Politikammer or Constabulary 

 that he had not received a sufficient sum for the hire 

 of his pony. I found on calling, that no such tele- 

 gram had ever been sent. My presence had been 

 required for purposes of identification, as soon after 

 the landlord, knocking at the door, announced that 

 " five policemen " wished to speak with me. Secure 

 behind the rampart of my eiderdown coverlet I bade 

 him show them upstairs, and in clattered three of the 

 police with the sworn interpreter and the town clerk of 

 Trondhjem. Some portentous-looking official papers 

 were unrolled and read aloud, which informed me that 

 I was required to pay a thousand kroners or suffer 

 arrest. I had been mistaken for another Englishman 

 who had made a contract with some of the Orkladal 

 farmers for the salmon fishing in their river, and 

 owing to their continuing to use nets, contrary to the 

 stipulation, had thrown over the whole arrangement. 



On my return to England I received a telegram at 

 Hull ordering me to join the Berkshire Eegiment at 

 Gibraltar. 



