252 WANDERINGS AND MEMORIES 



into the circles of intellect that exist there, without 

 reserve or false sentiment. 



But, alas, there is another side to the picture, 

 and when the War let loose all its attendant con- 

 comitants of greed and self-interest, Norway was 

 not without its opportunists and " gulach " million- 

 aires, who became rich at the price of honour. 

 In Denmark, Sweden, Holland and Norway there 

 were many who only thought of profit, above all 

 considerations of right and wrong. Here was the 

 chance of a lifetime to become rich offered, and 

 they took it. 



" The nearer the frozen Pole you get," writes 

 my dear old friend Sir Henry Pottinger, a man 

 who, above all others, knew the Norse character, 

 " the more does mute endurance become the promi- 

 nent virtue and stolid selfishness the most con- 

 spicuous vice," and if we add to this the words 

 of Kipling : " There's never a law of God or man 

 goes north of 63," we get a very fair estimate of 

 coast-line Norwegian character in the years 1914- 

 1918. When we have left Trondhjem behind us 

 we find, as it were, an entirely different race of 

 Norsemen, comprising a mass of coast-line fisher- 

 men-farmers and small mercantile or fish merchants. 

 Nearly everything and everybody depends directly 

 or indirectly on fish, and no other subject seems 

 ever to be discussed. 



Let us look for a moment at these modern 

 representatives of the old sea rovers. They are, 

 for the most part, a commonplace people, with 

 close-cropped hair and smooth faces. They wear 

 sticky oilskins, fingerless gloves and woollen 

 wrappers. They lounge about, expectorate freely 



