Waterfalls 2 7 



ever leave the coast during the whole time they are in 

 Norway. They steam from fjord to fjord ; occasionally 

 th'ey may go for a day's drive over some neck of land, 

 but their knowledge of the country is like that of the 

 sportsman, entirely confined to the coast region. Lastly, 

 there are the regular travellers in the country ; but 

 even these travel little in the interior. One cross- 

 country route is a good deal frequented. It is that from 

 Christiania down the Gudbrandsdal, ending with the 

 magnificent Eomsdal. There is good reason for this 

 exclusiveness in JSTorwegian travel. The coast scenery 

 is far the finest which the country has to show, and is, 

 in truth, so magnificent that I shall not attempt to find 

 language fit to describe its beauties. The constant 

 juxtaposition of mountain and fjord gives this scenery 

 its peculiar charm. Add to this the moist and warm 

 summer climate which produces a vegetation of un- 

 equalled richness and beauty, the quantity of melting 

 snow which feeds an endless succession of waterfalls 

 and torrents. iSTo where are waterfalls so numerous as 

 in this land. You may travel for days and yet the 

 sound of them be never out of your ears. I have 

 counted as many as four-and-twenty, standing in one 

 spot. To tlie flowers of Norway a special chapter at 

 the end of the volume is dedicated. I will not say 

 that the meadows here are richer than I have seen 

 them in Switzerland in the spring, but they are as rich. 

 And there is one feature about the flora of Norway 

 incidental to a country with a short summer of long 

 days of sunshine, which, at midsummer time, even in 

 the southern half of the country, lasts from two, or half- 

 past, in the morning, to half-past nine or ten at night : 



