34^ Noj'zvay and the A'orivegians 



road, and they are the only beasts of burden. Asses 

 and mnles are practically unknown in the country ; and 

 only in a very few districts — some of those bordering on 

 Sweden — are cattle used for ploughing. 



3. Forestry. — The third productive industry of Nor- 

 way is the felling of trees, chiefly soft-wood trees, fir or 

 pine. Her exportation of the wood (deal) from these 

 trees forms the chief commercial link between Nor- 

 way and Sweden and our own country; so that it is this 

 wood-felling that we naturally think of as the charac- 

 teristic industry of Scandinavia. No part of Europe 

 does more in that way, in proportion to its size, than 

 this. Our word ' deal ' is derived from the Swedish 

 dcel, a piece; deal properly signifying the planks of 

 wood after the tree-trunk has been cut up, as distin- 

 guished from the mere trunk itself, and having nothing 

 to do with the material of which the pieces are made. 

 But, as a matter of fact, all the planks which come from 

 Scandinavia to England, being made out of soft-wood 

 trees, deal has come with us to stand for wood of this 

 kind. 



In early historic days there was no thought of ex- 

 porting wood from the country; but the houses were 

 then, as they are to-day, built almost entirely of wood, 

 and tree-felling was required for this purpose as well as 

 for the su23ply of firewood. In the earliest days the 

 Norsemen had no idea of cutting peat or turf for their 

 fires. The first Norseman who ever thoue^ht of doino- 

 this was Einar, the second Earl of the Orkneys. He 

 learnt the art no doubt from some of the Celts of the 

 islands. Since Einar's days the practice of peat-cutting 

 has been quite naturalised in Norway; and the traveller 



