92 FORESTRY OF NORWAY. 



between three and four thousand feet above the sea level. 

 It has no particular claims to the picturesque, and the 

 absence of great rocky masses deprives it of any savage 

 grandeur though it is sufficiently desolate. The tints of 

 the abundant reindeer moss, or rather lichen (Cenomyce 

 rangiferina), are in many parts very beautiful ; especially 

 where a rounded heap of earth- covered boulders is over- 

 grown with it. It is dry and crisp, forming a luxurious 

 mountain couch ; it varies from straw-colour, through a 

 pale buff, to a bright orange and red brown. Its habit is 

 to grow on the dry, well-drained spots, while peat moss 

 occupies the swampy localities.* 



Du Challu, in his work entitled The Land of the Mid- 

 night Sun, has given a graphic sketch of reindeer grubbing 

 under the snow for this article of their food ; and he has 

 given a genial account of the domestic life of the farmers 

 in Guldbrandsal. 



In continuation of his journey, after describing Jerkin 

 and the hospitalities of the hostelry there, Williams says : 

 ' Walking on the fjeld the view of Schneehaettan is rather 

 fine from its highest ridge. This mountain, long regarded 

 the highest in Norway, is not so imposing as might be 

 expected from its height, 7,620 feet above the sea ; but it 

 is only 4,500 feet above Jerkin, and 3,520 above this 

 point, which is 4< ; ] 00 feet above the sea level, and said to 

 be the highest carriage road in North Europe. The 

 ascent appears very easy from here a long ridge stretch- 

 ing gradually down from the summit like Goat Fell in 



* The botanic name of the lichen, Cenomyce, is derived from kenos, empty, and 

 mykos, a minute fuugus, and has been given in allusion to the hollowness of the little 

 fungus receptacles with which it is studded. This constitutes for the greater pail of 

 the year, and especially in winter, the food of the vast herds of reindeer on which 

 the Laplanders further to the north are dependent for support hence comes its popular 

 name. Linnaeus tells that no vegetable grows throughout Lapland in such abundance 

 as this, especially in woods of scattered pines, where for very many miles together the 

 surface of the sterile soil is covered with it as with snow. On the destruction of forests 

 by fire, when no other plant finds nutriment, this lichen springs up and flourishes, and 

 after a few years attains its greatest size. Here the reindeer are pastured, and whatever 

 may be the depth of snow during the long winters of that climate, they have the power 

 of penetrating it and obtaining their necessary food. Linnaeus has given a beautiful 

 description of this lichen, and of the animals whose support it is, in the Flora Lappomca 

 (p. 832). It may be found in woods in Britain, and another species found growing on 

 banks the Cupped conomyce, C. pyxidatais sometimes employed by the poor in the 

 cure of the hooping-cough. Louden. 



