NOEWEGIAN TOWNS. 123 



situated on the Glommen, and covering a vast space witli its scattered quarters, 

 isolated he uses, timber-yards, and workshops. Sarpahorg also, though a mere 

 country town, takes up as much space as a capital, stretching some miles west of 

 the factories and saw-mills set in motion by the Sarp rapids. AYood is likewise the 

 staple trade of the pleasant town of Moss, standing on an isthmus between two 

 inlets and two harbours, aiul thus enjoying two outlets, the one towards 

 Christiania, the other seawards. Here was signed, in 1814, the treaty of union 

 between the two kingdoms of Norway and Sweden. 



Christiania, or Kristiania, capital of Norway, and the second largest city in Scan- 

 dinavia, occupies the extremity of a fiord separating the two secondary peninsulas 

 of South Norway and Gotaland, which form the great southern bifurcation of the 

 Scandinavian peninsula. The fiord may be easily defended, its shores contracting at 

 Hvidsteen and Drobak to a narrow passage, now commanded by the guns of 

 Oskarsborg. At its upper end it forms a vast basin of crescent shape, where 

 liarbours may be constructed under the shelter of every projecting headland. 

 Christiania possesses two such harbours — Piperviksbugten on the west, and 

 Bjorviken on tho east, the latter the most frequented. But the bay is blocked by 

 ice on an average for four months in the year. It was formerly known as the 

 Vilccn, or " Gulf ";?r/r excellence, and was much resorted to by the vikings. Its 

 importance is now mainly due to the fertility of the lands surrounding it. The 

 district of Akershus, about the capital, possesses of itself alone more than half tlie 

 arable land of the kingdom, and the hills facing the fiord formerly grew the finest 

 timber in the country, and still contain the largest mineral deposits. 



Lake Mjoscn, the largest in Norway, forms a sort of northern continiuition of 

 the fiord, with which it V\^as at one time connected. Here also are discharged the 

 Glommen, Dramm, and other rivers, whose lower courses are connected by high- 

 ways with the capital, which has thus become the converging point of all the com- 

 mercial routes descending from the surrounding valleys. Christiania, moreover, 

 enjoys easy access across the Oplande plateau and the Gudbrandsdal to the Atlantic 

 seaboard, and especially the Trondhjem and Molde fiords. Most of the important 

 events connected with the protracted struggles between the two nations have taken 

 place along this historic highway, between Christiania and Trondhjem, now 

 traversed by a line of railway. The capitals of both kingdoms, lying nearly under 

 the same parallel, are connected by a natural road passing along the northern 

 shores of the great lakes. Christiania thus forming the apex of a triangle, of which 

 Trondhjem and Stockholm occupy the two other angles. Seawards, also, the 

 position is most favourable, shipping having direct and easy access from the fiord 

 through the Skager Rak to Hamburg and London, through the Kattegat to 

 Copenhagen and the Baltic. 



About the middle of the eleventh century was founded the town of Oslo, or 

 Opslo, now forming the east suburb of the capital, and two hundred and fifty years 

 later on the fortress of Akershus was raised, which still commands the junction of 

 the Aker and Lo Rivers. After the fire of 1G24 the place was entirely rebuilt and 

 named from Christian lY. of Denmark, and since the second conflagration of 1808 



