CHAPTER lit. 



MOUNTAIN PLATEAUX AND MOUNTAIN RAVINES. 



AMONGST the export timber ports of Norway, Avendal, 

 Drammen, Christiania, and Fredrickshold, an important 

 place is held by Drammen, the harbour of which is always 

 crowded with tiers of shipping, with huge piles of timber 

 on the wharfs, and vast rafts of timber afloat upon its 

 waters. From this port some 1 1 0,000 tons of timber are 

 annually shipped to England, Holland, and France. 



After reaching Christiania my first excursion, I have said, 

 was towards Drammen. There M. du Challu had been 

 before me; and instead of telling here of what I saw, 

 beyond stating that I greatly admired the trim cottages and 

 well kept fields through which the train passed on leaving 

 the capital, I would take my readers further in the wake 

 of M. du Challu, in the journey which he made through 

 Drammen and Konsberg to the west coast. Of which he 

 has left an account, in which he tells with pleasure of the 

 peculiar costume and habits of the Saetersdal, and of the 

 Lemarken, of which there are two divisions. He tells of a 

 drive of twenty miles from Konsberg, which brought him 

 to a forest on a plateau 1700 feet above the level of the 

 sea, whence descending a ravine through a dark wood, he 

 found suddenly burst into sight the farm of Bolkesko, 

 1240 feet above the level of the sea, of which he writes : 

 ' I know of no farm in Norway so picturesquely situated, 

 and none with such peculiarly superb landscape. It was 

 nestled among fir-clad hills, whose dark colour contrasted 

 with the green meadows and fields which they surround. 

 The place was partly hemmed in by barren mountains, on 

 which were patches of snow. Here in a steep valley two 

 lakes apparently overlapping each other are noticed : the 



