Forests of the Interior 29 



But Norway, as we have said above, is not merely a 

 ta\)le-land. In many places it breaks into real moun- 

 tain scenery, as in the Dovrefjeld and the Jotunheim ; 

 and in almost every case the table-land continues to 

 rise in elevation toward that great back-bone of Scan- 

 dinavia, the Keel, which runs nearly parallel with the 

 Norwegian coast. Any one who has never visited this 

 interior portion can have no notion of what the pine- 

 forests of Norway are like in their grandeur. 



The traveller, therefore, should not leave the country 

 without seeing these back parts of it, or travelling 

 somewhere near the Keel ; and in the present day, by 

 the spread of the railway system, this is not difficult 

 to do. The railway from Throndhjem to Christiania 

 begins near the southern end of the Keel, and at first 

 the line continues to ascend till it attains a consider- 

 able elevation. At Eoraas we see the country in its 

 bleakest aspect ; when we reach Koppang we find the 

 forests in their perfection. We are now hanging upon 

 the lower skirts of the Keel, and well in that country 

 known as the Upland. At either Eoraas or Koppang 

 we can, if we choose, leave the train and travel for a 

 wliile inland by road on foot or by kariole. We have 

 a still more interesting experience as we mount the old 

 road from the Throndhjem Fjord leading straight across 

 into Sweden, We travel continually uphill, getting 

 splendid views of the fjord in many windings and 

 branches — ^just such a view, in fact, as St. Olaf saw a 

 few days before his death, as we shall narrate hereafter, 

 and fancied he was looking over the whole world. The 

 road rises from the neighbourhood of Verdal. At first 

 the country is very rich, as all the Throndhjem district is. 



