92 ESMARK : MOLLUSCA OF NORWAY. 



ing quite down to the sea. All this must necessarily create the 

 most vivid admiration and enthusiasm of every one who comes 

 to see these tracts. 



When you are ashore anywhere you must, however, remem- 

 ber that it is not an easy matter to go from one fjord to another. 

 Even with a steamer it may take you from twelve to eighteen 

 hours. And in places where you cannot take the steamer, but 

 must have a boat, you will find it exceedingly wearisome in spite 

 of the soft and pleasant couch of blankets and reindeer skins, 

 that your boatmen have prepared for you, as the passage may last 

 from sixteen to twenty, nay, even up to thirty hours. 



In the easterly parts of Finmarken — except in the South 

 Varanger — you must necessarily limit your excursions to the 

 sides of the valley, on the tops of the mountains you would 

 find nothing but naked rocks. In other places where the moun- 

 tains are more cut and less cohesive, you will find greater and 

 lesser inlands, there you may ascend higher and find Pisidium in 

 the mountain lakes — in some places even Limntza. But you 

 will certainly find the road up very difficult, for to tell the truth, 

 there is no road at all ; you must proceed over rocks, through 

 swampy moors, wade through snow and rivers to reach the lakes. 



And then we must remember that the species found do not 

 correspond with the exertions. They can, at any rate, not be 

 compared with what we find in the more soutliern parts of 

 Norway. But on the other hand, they are often of much greater 

 interest, and sometimes you will feel rewarded for all your 

 trouble in finding a great number of specimens. 



The districts that are more or less examined, are altogether 

 very few and of very little extent. The valley of Christiania 

 (Christianiadalen), that is to say, the town itself and the sur- 

 rounding parishes, must be said to have been examined the 

 best, and yet, even there, a great deal is left undone. Excur- 

 sions have also been made towards Drammen, to Modum, 

 Ringerige, and the east side of Tyrifjorden. The Skiensfjord, 



J.C, v., July, 18S6. 



