156 SPOKT IN NORWAY. 



see ; but on application found that, as it was not con- 

 sidered worthy of a place amongst the archives, it had 

 been destroyed. I would have given a great deal 

 to have seen it, and have made a verbatim translation 

 of it. 



From what I could ascertain as to the result for 

 I was at the lake in question last summer, and made a 

 point of gathering what information I could it ap- 

 peared that some inquiry was made into the matter. 



I should think it more than probable that an elk 

 may partly have been the cause of this too. Somebody 

 very likely, as in the first story, had seen one swimming 

 about, and had at once put it down for a monster ; 

 while the remains of fish on the bank, probably the 

 work of an otter, served to confirm the reports that 

 had been spread of its devastations. 



While going up the Bandag's Vand on a steamer, 

 the captain drew my attention to a narrow part of 

 the lake, through which we were passing perhaps 

 eighty yards wide which the peasantry firmly be- 

 lieved to have been caused by a sea-serpent which, 

 tired of remaining in the upper part of the lake, had 

 forced its way through the narrow channel connecting 

 them, and made it larger and deeper. 



