A HOME ON THE HIGH FJELD 181 



to hear it run down, but non-fishing visitors have 

 occasionally been heard to complain that they felt shut 

 in by the massive walls of snow-capped and pine- clad 

 granite which fence on either side the narrow valley 

 through which the Sundal River takes its impetuous 

 course to the fjord, and I must admit that there is 

 some justification for the complaint. This confined 

 character of the valley is not peculiar to our fishing- 

 quarters ; most rivers in Norway run through com- 

 paratively narrow gorges fringed with a slender margin 

 of pasture-land, wood and tillage. There is therefore 

 some excuse for a desire occasionally to get above the 

 visible mountain-barrier, and breathe the fresher air of 

 the undiscovered country behind. 



Visitors seldom prolong their sojourn on the moun- 

 tain-tops beyond the limits of some brief expedition 

 after reindeer or ptarmigan, and to spend a few hours 

 among the soeters in the upland slopes involves a 

 climb of some 3000 feet, which taken each way cuts 

 " a monstrous can tie " out of the twelve or fourteen 

 hours of daylight. It is seldom that one can enjoy 

 the tonic of the mountain air for any time without 

 elaborate preparations for camping, or taking up one's 

 quarters in some soeter, which, though pleasant enough 

 for the young and hardy, is scarcely suitable for ladies 

 or those who are not prepared to rough it. For this 

 reason my host has for some years occupied a small 

 house on the mountain, to which he has from time to 

 time added fresh rooms and new comforts and con- 

 veniences ; and there he has been accustomed to spend 

 three or four weeks between his visits to his summer 

 and autumn fishing-quarters. 



This delightful mountain home, which he has 



