208 SPORT IN NORWAY. 



through Bykle to Valle Praestegjeld * in Saetersdal, one 

 may find a broad and well-kept-up road, -winding its 

 way for more than ninety miles through the whole 

 extent of the valley along the Bygland Fjord, and the 

 banks of the Otter to Christiansand. 



Where it passes through wild and precipitous places, 

 as in Bygland's Praestegjeld, there are now roads built 

 at much expense, and with great skill, on the face of 

 the cliff. In former times there used only to be a 

 wretched bridle-road, from which horses used frequently 

 to be precipitated, or, under the most favourable cir- 

 cumstances, only prevented from falling headlong into 

 the depths below by means of a restraining power ap- 

 plied to their tails. And this but half a generation 

 ago! 



Not without reason did the peasants christen this 

 place " Devil's Cliff." A yawning abyss opens on the 

 right, while on the left the mountain rears its side, 

 covered with birch and wild cherry growing between 

 immense blocks of rocks. These huge boulders, which 

 seem to have been hurled down in wild disorder by 

 giant force into the valley below, along the foaming 

 river or dreamy fjord, form a peculiarity of Ssetersdal 

 landscape, and give it a wonderful air of defiance and 

 savage wildness, perhaps nowhere else to be found. 

 Here the marks of " Thor's hammer " may be seen, 



* Praestegjeld, or " parish." 



