42 TRAVELS IN THE EIGHTIES. 



us that the family (of whom it consisted he could not 

 tell) were out haycutting, but we found subsequently 

 the scythes in an out-house. True, the ashes in the 

 large grate still possessed a faint supply of caloric, 

 but there was no bread (flad-brod) or cooking utensils 

 visible, denoting the probability of the inhabitants 

 having gone for the day to some distant hut or saeter 

 on the mountains. The stream had dwindled into a 

 mere brook too small to invite any one to angle. To 

 sleep was the only remaining resource. It was with 

 a sense of relief that some hours later we woke at the 

 sound of a woman's step upon the threshold. We 

 offered to pack on our own backs the whole of our 

 luggage and afterwards row the boat, if she would 

 only guide us at once to the upper farmlet ; but some 

 washing of clothes had to be finished first, which 

 meant two hours occupied in boiling and beating the 

 different articles. 



At length we were able to embark in an exceedingly 

 small and almost perfectly circular boat, reminding 

 one of those craft known upon some parts of the 

 Thames as "cockles," and with an unconquerable 

 propensity to spin round and round instead of advanc- 

 ing. The lake crossed, a short march brought us to 

 the edge of another, on the far side of which could be 

 dimly discerned a log hut and some out-houses the 

 outposts, not of civilisation, so wretched were they, 

 but of human habitations, on the natural frontier 

 between Sweden and Norway. The lofty fjelds over- 

 hung the lake, which reflected their steep, bare slopes. 



