CASUAL VISITS TO NORWAY 167 



this day, and all the next alas ! the voyage, in and 

 out of the fiords, with sundry stoppages in bays where 

 the patient farmer makes patches of green on a stub- 

 born soil, and the hardy, sober-sided fishermen toil for 

 scant living, is done at disadvantage for those who 

 would fain have the masses of rocky borderings clear 

 against the sky. The mountains are shrouded in mist 

 and capped with clouds, and during Tuesday night the 

 gale howls, and the storms of rain volley against the 

 windows of the cosy little smoke house on deck. 

 Wednesday is an improvement in that the gale has 

 blown itself out. But the rain it rains on, though now 

 in a soft drizzle instead of driving sheets. The sides of 

 precipitous mountain crags are silvered with cascades, 

 and as we penetrate further into the fiord the scenery 

 develops grandly, and the old snow patches on the dark 

 and lofty summits and picturesque saddles look start- 

 lingly white. 



Voyaging up the coast and on the Norwegian fiords 

 is delightful indeed in fair weather. As a rule there is 

 neither pitching nor rolling, but it would be rash, 

 nevertheless, to suppose that it is always like boating 

 on a river. Our little steamer for the best part of one 

 day and night, as a matter of fact, pitches and rolls 

 enough to save some of the passengers the expenses of 

 the table. As the ticket only means passage money, 

 and the traveller is charged, as in an hotel, for what 

 he eats and drinks, he, at any rate, is not tormented 

 by the thought that he has paid for that which he has 

 not received. Still, it is not often that the fiords are 

 in a ferment of waves under a heavy gale, and the worst 

 that happens is a temporary deviation from the general 

 smoothness when the course lies where there is open 

 sea on one side. The voyage northwards from Stav- 

 anger, where the Hull boats first touch, is mostly 



