52 FORESTRY OF NORWAY. 



the horses across the mouth of the Maan Elv. ' Leaving 

 the boat which was to await/ says he, ' our return the next 

 day, we set off up the West Fjord-dal towards the broad 

 cone-like mass of the Gousta Fjeld, whose huge bulk, 6000 

 feet in height, loomed grandly over the valley. The houses 

 of Mael clustered about its little church, were scattered 

 over the slope above the lake; and across the river, amid 

 fields of grass and grain, stood another village of equal 

 size. The bed of the valley, dotted with farms and groups 

 of farm houses, appeared to be thickly populated ; but, as 

 a farmer's residence rarely consists of less than six build- 

 ings sometimes eight a stranger would naturally over- 

 rate the number of its inhabitants. The production of 

 grain also is much less than would be supposed from the 

 amount of land under cultivation, owing to the heads 

 being so light. 



' The pyramid, 1500 feet in perpendicular height above 

 the mountain platform from which it rose, gleamed with a 

 rich bronze lustre in the setting sun. The valley was 

 now a more ascending gorge, along the sides of which our 

 road climbed. Before us extended a slanting shelf, thrust 

 out from the mountain, and affording room for a few 

 cottages and fields; but all else was naked rock and 

 ragged pine. 



' When we reached the little hamlet on the shelf of the 

 mountain, the last rays of the sun were playing on the 

 summits above. We had mounted about 2000 feet since 

 leaving Tind Lake, and the dusky valley yawned far 

 beneath us, its termination invisible, as if leading down- 

 ward into a lower world. Many hundreds of feet below 

 the edge of the wild little platform on which we stood 

 thundered the Maan in a clift, the bottom of which the 

 sun has never beheld. Beyond this the path was imprac- 

 ticable for horses ; we walked, climbed, or scrambled along 

 the side of the dizzy steep, where, in many places, a false 

 step would have sent us to the brink of gulfs whose 

 mysteries we had no desire to explore. After we had 

 advanced nearly two miles in this manner, ascending 



