A RIVER OF NORWAY 



CHAPTER I 



THE RIVER GAULA 



" Child of the bright and stainless snow." 



STUART, Lays of the Deer Forest. 



IT rises among the western outposts of the 

 biggest snow-field in Europe, and runs a course 

 of perhaps fifty miles to the head of the fjord. 

 It drains an area of about 250 square miles, and 

 like most rivers of Western Norway, is almost 

 wholly dependent for its head of water on the 

 summer melting of the winter's snows. Mid- 

 way in its career it forms two great lakes, 

 respectively ten and fifteen miles long, which 

 serve the double purpose of equalising its flow, 

 and of raising the temperature of the water 

 through the exposure of a large surface to the 

 air. Its lower course is broken by several falls 

 or rapids, one of which, some twelve miles from 

 the tidal water, finally bars the upward run of 

 salmon. The lowest fall, fifty feet high, is 



A 



