NORWAY 17 



and we could have ' chucked a biscuit ' from our carioles 

 right down into the Lcerdal River. 



At another spot the road wound in and out along the 

 face of a precipice, having been cut out of the solid rock, 

 the river foaming along in a narrow gorge about 160 feet 

 below us. Every turn of the road discovered a new 

 scene, some other high snow mountains taking the place 

 of the last. 



We met with but little appearance of costume among 

 the natives, except a worsted nightcap, either red or blue, 

 and blue jackets with silver buttons. We expect to see 

 more of this at Vossevangen. 



The lower part of the Loerdal River, below Blaaflaten, 

 runs through a wider part of the valley, and the road 

 becomes level. The birch-trees coming into leaf were 

 very pretty. 



Here we saw a Trout or two rising, but the water was 

 bright green and full of snow. 



One cliff was pointed out by our Shiitsgaaden between 

 Blaaflaten and Loerdalsoren, where Eagles (Orne) breed. 

 We saw numbers of Fieldfares, Ring Ouzels, etc., and one 

 fine adult Merlin kept flying alongside our carioles for a 

 considerable part of the road. 



We drove into the village of Loerdalsoren up to the door 

 of the inn, and after an unusual delay we had an excellent 

 supper about nine o'clock of trout and 'beefsteaks.' The 

 trout had the decided flavour of very fine river-trout, and 

 little flavour of sea-trout, yet curdy like salmon. 



At Hoeg and at Blaaflaten we saw Clarke-Kennedy's 

 name in the ' Dag-bok ' under date of May 4th. He 

 had come from Christiania via Hallingdal. 



May 19. 



Friday, the 19th of May, was a tiresome day, as we 

 had to wait for the stearner to start for Gudvangen. 

 VOL. i. 3 



