VEGETABLE PKODUCT10NS OF NORWAY. 245 



The amount of suffering, nay, positive starvation, that 

 accordingly ensued is perfectly inconceivable. I can 

 only compare it to the Irish famine of 1848. 



The high floods of 1860 caused an immense amount 

 of damage, for they literally washed off the top soil 

 from the fields, leaving nothing but a deposit of slime 

 and grit behind. Many of the peasants thus became 

 completely ruined, and had to sell their farms for a 

 mere nothing, and emigrated to America in numbers 

 truly surprising for so small a country.* 



As above stated, Norway extends through 13 of 

 latitude, consequently one may expect to meet with 

 striking climatic changes. Other modifying circum- 

 stances must, however, be taken into consideration. A 

 glance at the map will show what an extensive sea- 

 board Norway possesses, and, as is well known, this 

 fact alone prevents! extremes of heat and cold in 



in succession, was in the following autumn sacrificed by his subjects. 

 The same fate also happened to the ancestor of the Norwegian auto- 

 crat, Olaf Traitelgja, who lived at the end of the seventh century. 

 On the other hand, there was a general belief that the corpse of a 

 king under whose reign there had been prosperous harvests, pos- 

 sessed a charm, so as to insure a succession of good years. Thus 

 in 860, when Halfdan Svarte died, his body was divided into four 

 parts, one of which was sent to each of the four quarters of the 

 country for interment. Vide Schubeler's ' Culturpflanzen Nor- 

 wegens ' 



* From 1851 to 1855 the numbers of emigrants amounted to 

 21,921. In 18G1 I believe them to have amounted to 0,800 ! 



f Thus, at Bergen, Lit. 60 23' 37", the mean temperature for the 

 whole year is + 8 '21 Centigrade ; the mean temperature for the 

 winter + 2'21, and for the summer + 14'75. At the North Cape 

 for the whole year it is + 0; for the winter, 5; for the summer, 

 -6-25. At Christiauia, lat. 54 54' 43", it in + 5-37; -Xi; 



