ESMARK : MOLLUSCA OF NORWAY. 9 1 



From the little I have seen in ' Gudbrandsdalen,' (the valley 

 that goes more north-westerly up to Romsdalen), I can safely 

 say, that a careful explorer would be sure to find many interest- 

 ing species ; whilst the valley of Valders is entirely unknown. 



If you desire to proceed higher up towards the North, to 

 the arctic regions of our country, you will require both time 

 and patience, for the distance is much greater, it is no 

 longer a question of hours but of days, when you take any 

 excursion. From Christiania to Throndhjem by rail the dis- 

 tance is 560 kilometers (about 377 English miles). From the 

 latter place you may proceed the whole way by steamer up to 

 Vadsd, 2,134 kil. (about 1,406 miles). When going up there 

 in 1882 I did not go further than to the parish of Lebesby in 

 ' Laxefjord,' which is situated 2,463 kil. (1,674 niiles) from 

 Christiania, and took eight days to get there, and that seems a 

 long time to spend merely to get to the place of your destination. 

 These regions are however extremely attractive, not only to the 

 tourist, but to everyone who is able to sacrifice some part of 

 his time to study nature in one direction or another. In 

 the latter case a visitor has also the great advantage that he can 

 enjoy the beautiful scenery and employ his time in studying. 

 He may do one thing, and at the same time not neglect the 

 other ; he is even in a better position than a tourist generally 

 is, because he gets to places where tourists seldom go. 



The nature of the scenery here offered to the traveller is 

 grand indeed. High mountains, in many places descending 

 perpendicularly into the sea, often appearing as if they had 

 been torn asunder. Sharp alpic peaks covered with snow, and 

 the blue glaciers may be seen, but nowhere else illuminated 

 by the midnight sun, which at the same time sends a play 

 of colours on the sea and the fjords. The bottom of the valley 

 is overgrown with trees and bushes that decrease in size the 

 further you proceed towards the north. Our common lowland 

 plants have frequently much greater^flowers and fresher colours 

 than in the more southern regions, and our alpic flora is grow- 



