184 FORESTRY OF NORWAY. 



girls calling the cattle that wended slowly on their way, 

 browsing as they went On the right bank of the lake a 

 magnificent cataract fell from a great height. 



' We followed the shore till we came to the upper ex- 

 tremity of the lake. The people were watching us, wonder- 

 ing who we could be, for they expected no one from their 

 home. 



* On our arrival they bade us enter the house, which 

 was as comfortable as that of a farm, and the usual saluta- 

 tions took place ; the milk was passed around in the large 

 flat pail in which it is kept for the cream to rise ; taking 

 the customary sip we handed it back with thanks, and the 

 usual pressing invitations to drink more were responded 

 to by drinking as much as we could with Many thanks 

 Mange tak! 



There, as elsewhere in Norway and in Sweden, he was 

 made the more welcome when they learned he was from 

 America where a member of the family was settled. 'The 

 father had come the day before to carry back the butter 

 and cheese which was made to the gaard or farm, which 

 was at a great distance on the Soer fiord, one of the 

 branches of the Hardanger. He was the father of a large 

 family of grown-up children, . . . a type of the Norse- 

 man North-man hospitable but undemonstrative, with 

 a tall and spare figure, and a kind face. Three of the 

 daughters were at the saeter for the summer, all of them 

 pictures of health, and blondes of the type of the descend- 

 ants of the fair-haired Vikings. Syvnor, the eldest, rather 

 short in stature, was nineteen years old ; Anne was seven- 

 teen, tall, muscular, with piercing blue eyes, and fully able 

 to take care of herself : she would have made a good model 

 for a valkyrie ; Martha was sixteen, with golden hair, soft 

 blue eyes, and delicate complexion. All three were cele- 

 brated on the Hardanger for their beauty, and young 

 farmers, without number, were trying to win their hearts/ 

 He praises the maidens, and the invigorating climate pre- 

 vailing at such places 4000 feet above the level of the sea ; 

 and he goes on to tell : 



