CHAPTER X. 



LAKES. 



A MARKED feature of Norwegian scenery not to be over- 

 looked is the lakes. There, as elsewhere, lakes are, as 

 they are generally I had almost said universally a mere 

 expansion of a river. Seldom, if ever, is its source only a 

 spring in its depths. One or more rivers or rivulets flow 

 into it and feed it, filling the hollow or valley to over- 

 flowing, and a different name may be given to the out- 

 flowing stream than that borne by any one of the feeders, 

 but this does not affect the fact that the lake is only an 

 expansion of one of these, and a receiver of its affluents at 

 that place. 



A lake known to most tourists in Norway is the Miosen 

 lake, not far from Christiania, lying by the highway 

 leading thence to the Dovrefjeld and the western coast. 

 The Miosen lake is reached from Christiania by a railway 

 which passes through a rich fertile valley, with a pretty 

 river winding along it, and then plunges through some 

 dense forests of tall pines, with stems so straight and 

 uniformly tapering that they appear like huge fishing- 

 rods. Their bark has a fine rich colour, which reflects 

 the sunlight, and fills the whole atmosphere between the 

 labyrinth of bare poles with a warm tinge, similar to that 

 produced by stained-glass windows in the aisles of a 

 Gothic cathedral. 



The Eidsvold station of the railway is beautifully situated 

 on the river which flows from the Miosen lake to the Glom- 

 men, and thence a steamer, formerly owned chiefly by one 

 of our countrymen, famous in his day, by whom the rail- 



