90 FORESTRY OF NORWAY, 



way was constructed, sails to Lillehammer, at the northern 

 extremity of the lake. The Miosen is a long, narrow lake, 

 not unlike our Windermere, but on a larger scale ; being 

 some seventy miles in length. The mountains that form 

 its basin rise to a height of about 2000 feet at their visible 

 summits ; their form is not remarkable, but their sides, 

 sloping down to the lake, are covered with rich emerald 

 verdure, rivalling, if not excelling, our own green fields, 

 and even those of Ireland. These slopes are backed by 

 fine woods of birch and mountain ash, and dotted about 

 them are the wooden farm-houses. Altogether, the Miosen 

 is a beautiful lake, though not exciting rapture. About half 

 way on the lake is the site of the ancient town of Stor- 

 Hammer Storr signifying large, and Hammer the same 

 as our ham or hamlet. The ruins of its old cathedral 

 remain, and near it, or, I believe, including it, is the farm 

 of George P. Bidder, once the famous calculating boy,* and 



* From time to time there have appeared such prodigies of boys who seemed not to 

 calculate but to see, as many men see, that 1 and 1 are 2, that 2 and 3 are 5, what are 

 the sums and products of numbers greater far than these. Such was Jididiah Buxton, 

 such was Terah Colburn. The latter has left us a memoir of his life and achievements. 

 On one occasion he was asked to name the square of 999,999, which he stated to be 

 999,998,000,001. He multiplied this by 49 and the product by the same number, and 

 the total result he then multiplied by 25, the two latter operations being comparatively 

 simple from the proportions which 25 and 50 bear to 100. He raised with ease the figure 

 8 to the sixteenth power. He named the squares of 244,999,755 and 1,224,998,775. He 

 instantly named the factors 941 and 263, which would produce 247,483. He could dis- 

 cover prime numbers almost as soon as named. In five seconds he calculated the cube 

 root of 413,993,348,677. But he admits that George Bidder was even more remarkable 

 in some ways than he was ; he could not extract roots or find factors with so much ease 

 and rapidity as he, but he was more at home in obstruse calculations. 



At three years of age George Bidder answered wonderful questions about the nails in 

 a horse's four shoes. At eight, though he knew nothing of the theory of ciphering, he 

 could answer almost instantaneously how many farthings there were in 868,464,121. 



An octogenarian who saw these statements in the Spectator subsequently sent to that 

 journal the following account of his recollections of two interviews which he had with 

 him when Bidder was a little boy : ' In the autumn of the year 1814, I was reading 

 with a private tutor, the Curate of Wellington, Somersetshire, when a Mr Bidder called 

 upon him to exhibit the calculating power of his little boy.then about eight years old, who 

 could neither read nor write. On this occasion he displayed great facility in the mental 

 handling of numbers, multiplying readily and correctly two figures by two, but failing 

 in attempting numbers of three figures. My tutor, a Cambridge man, Fellow of his 

 college, strongly recommended the father not to carry his son about the country, but to 

 have him properly trained at school. This advice was not taken, for about two years 

 after he was brought by his father to Cambridge, and his faculty of mental calculation 

 tested by several able mathematical men. I was present at the examination, and began 

 it with a sum in simple addition, two rows, with twelve figures in each row. The boy 

 gave the correct answer immediately. Various questions, then, of considerable 

 difficulty, involving large numbers, were proposed to him, all of which he answered 

 promptly and accurately. These must have occupied more than an hour. There w 



