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which from their depth and gloom one might fancy to be the avenue to 

 abodes of more mysterious creation; mountains, whose dim and 

 rugged and gigantic forms seem like the images of a world which one 

 might dream of but never behold." 



In such terms is the country spoken of by an intrepid traveller, 

 writing under the nom de plume of Derwent Conway ; and in similar 

 terms is it spoken of by others. By one traveller, Norway is spoken 

 of as a land " whose only charm is to be found in her dim moun- 

 tains, her silent forests, and her lonely lakes." 



Another, Edward Price, an artist, who traversed the land and 

 looked upon every scene with an artist's eye, speaks of Norway as 

 a country " which surpasses every country of Europe in the depths 

 of its fiords, and in the grandeur of its forests and forest scenery." 

 Having landed at a distant point, and traversed the land, chiefly on 

 foot, seeing thus much which could not otherwise have been seen in 

 the course of his tour, he reached the capital; and of what he saw as he 

 approached it he thus writes : " Luxuriant pasturage and crops, giving 

 rich promise of an abundant harvest, lay on every side. Wood was 

 no longer the great staple of the land, but was scattered over a charming 

 undulating country only in such quantity as served to shelter the 

 fields and beautify the landscape ; nor was it now confined to fir, but 

 included all the variety of trees which we are accustomed to find in the 

 temperate latitudes. The Christiania fiord, spotted with its islands, and 

 seemingly environed with its finely wooded banks, formed innumerable 

 bays and creeks, all calm and pellucid beneath the warm rays of the 

 noonday sun." Thus did it appear when approached from the land ; and 

 in accordance with this is the account of its appearance as approached 

 from the sea. 



With an account of this we are supplied by the Rev. Henry Newland, 

 in a popular little work entitled, " Forest Life in Norway and Sweden, 

 being Extracts from the Journal of a Fisherman " ; and throughout this 

 little work are dispersed several graphic sketches of woodland scenery, 

 as viewed with the eye of a sportsman. 



Derwent Conway's tour was made, if I mistake not, in 3 827. Price 

 travelled through Norway in the year before this ; but fifty years have 

 made no great change in the general features of the country. It was 

 in 1833 that I first went to the north of Europe. In that year Barrow 

 devoted a summer vacation to a tour through Norway, having pre- 

 viously made short excursions through Russia, Sweden, and Denmark ; 

 and not a few of his sketches will be found in keeping with those given 

 by the other tourists cited. 



Somewhat nearer to the present time was published in 1850 

 " Rambles in Norway," by Thos. Forrester, Esq., in which there are 



