MOUNTAIN PIATFAUX AND MOUNTAIN UAVINES. 31 



' Having refreshed themselves with a bottle of Bavarian 

 beer, and ordered supper and bed, they pressed on. There 

 were still ten miles to the Rinkan, and consequently no 

 time to be lost. The valley contracted, squeezed the 

 Maan between the interlocking bases of the mountains, 

 through which, in the course of uncounted centuries, it 

 had worn itself a deep groove, cut straight and clean 

 into the heart of the rock. The loud perpetual roar of 

 the vexed waters filled the glen ; the only sound except 

 the bleating of goats clinging to the steep pastures above 

 us. The mountain walls on either hand were now so high 

 and precipitous that the bed of the valley lay wholly in 

 shadow ; and on looking back its further foldings were 

 dimly seen through the purple mists; only the peak of 

 the Gousta, which from this point appeared entire and 

 perfect. 



' The valley of the Maan, apparently a rich and populous 

 region, is in reality rather the reverse. In relation to its 

 beauty, however, there can be no two opinions. Deeply 

 sunken between the Gousta and another bold spur of 

 the Hardanger, its golden harvest fields, and groves 

 of birch, ash, and pine, seem doubly charming from the 

 contrast of the savage steeps overhanging them, at first 

 scantily feathered with fir-trees, and scarred with the 

 tracks of cataracts and slides, then streaked only with 

 patches of grey moss, and at last bleak and sublimely bare. 

 The deeply channelled cone of the Gousta, with its 

 indented summit, rose far above us, sharp and clear in 

 the thin ether ; but its base, wrapped in forests, and wet 

 by many a waterfall, sank into the bed of blue vapour 

 which filled the valley. 



' Noon brought us to Hakenaes, a distance of twenty-one 

 miles. Here we stopped to engage horses to the Rinkan 

 Foss, as there is no post station at Mael.' They were 

 informed that the horses would be at Mael as soon as 

 they, and they resumed their stats in the boat. 



They arrived first, and lay upon the bank for some 

 time after arriving there, watching the postillions swim 



