342 Norway and the Norwegians 



historic people who, thousands of years before the Chris- 

 tian era, lived dotted about on the sea-coast of the 

 Baltic, in Denmark, in Southern Sweden, in a few 

 places in Norway. These primitive people lived chiefly 

 on the shell-fish which they found in their neighbour- 

 hood. But they did venture out sometimes into deep 

 water, for some bones of deep-sea fish have been dis- 

 covered amono- their remains. In later ao'es fishermen 

 settled all along the sea-coast of Norway. Long before 

 there was much cultivation of the interior, there were, 

 no doubt, colonies of them scattered far up the coast. 

 These gained their livelihood by fishing in the fjords, 

 and their frail boats were protected from storms by the 

 belt of islands outside. 



Then came the time of agriculture and of cattle- 

 breeding, and at the beginning of the historical era 

 these were so far developed that the two most fertile 

 parts of the land, the region which lies behind the 

 Christiania Fjord and the region which lies round the 

 Throndhjem Fjord, were the most thickly inhabited, and 

 were politically the most important parts of the country. 



It is just at the dawn of the historical period that 

 we begin to hear of adventurers penetrating into the 

 forest regions, and clearing out from the midst of them 

 space for a fresh settlement, which sometimes grows 

 into a little kingdom. Tree-felling of this kind was for 

 the sake of clearance merely, and was not in itself a 

 productive industry. We have to come down to the 

 sixteenth or seventeenth centuries, before the exploita- 

 tion of the forests takes its place as a branch of 

 industry and commerce. Of late it has proved a more 

 productive industry than the fisheries. 



