16 TRAVELS OF A NATURALIST 



identify as heavy snow was falling and our veils were close 

 around our faces. They looked like Crested Tits, but the 

 altitude was considerably above the fir woods. We heard 

 a Peregrine Falcon. 



Our sleighing came to an end at Maristuen, where 

 we took again to our carioles and proceeded down the 

 grand valley of the Loerdal all the way to Loerdalsoren. 

 The first, or upper, part of the valley we saw little of, 

 owing to blinding hail showers in our faces and snowdrift 

 whirling along the sides of the mountains. 



Just above Husum, however, it cleared up, and the 

 rest of the journey was very enjoyable. 



We left for our return journey the inspection of the 

 ancient wooden, tar-covered church of Borgund, which 

 Alston described as like a model in ebony of a Chinese 

 Pagoda. 



We descended to Husum by a wonderful series of 

 zigzags of solid masonry, called ' Bindehellen,' down 

 which we had to walk our horses, keeping a tight rein, 

 and so down the hillsides to Blaaflaten. 



Alston described his impressions of the Loerdal as a 

 most magnificent gorge, something like an exaggeration 

 of Glencoe, but much deeper and narrower, and about 

 thirty English miles in length. It winds and twists in a 

 wonderful way, presenting new views at every turn, and 

 the road sometimes runs close to the river, and is some- 

 times hundreds of feet above it. 



The scenery of the valley is very grand in some 

 places, strongly reminding me of the view at Fluelen 

 at the head of Lake Lucerne : a narrow, winding valley, 

 shut in on every side by grand snow-capped mountains, 

 the snow whirled in wreaths along their sides by the 

 wind. 



In one place between Husum and Blaaflaten the road 

 winds along the edge of a precipice of 200 or 300 feet, 



