i88o-i88iJ 49 



pine and other trees. He gave a vivid description lot the 

 manners and customs of the Norwegians. The universal and 

 genuine politeness is particularly striking, and this, accompanied 

 with a kind and simple homeliness and extreme honesty, is 

 perfectly refreshing to the tourist. He showed a specimen of 

 the tasteful costume of the peasant women of the Hardanger 

 district, and which is still the ordinary dress. Norway formerly 

 was a notoriously drunken country, but under the beneficial 

 influence of legislative restrictions, including the Gottenburg 

 system, by which a town gives all the licenses to a company, 

 which, after dividing amongst its shareholders 5 per cent, on 

 the capital, hands over the balance to the authorities to pay for 

 schools, and the total closing of public-houses from 5 p.m. on 

 Saturday until 7 or 8 a.m. on Monday, drunkenness has nearly 

 disappeared. Education is compulsory, and there is an excellent 

 series of schools open to all classes at moderate fees. Travellers 

 must be prepared to rough it in the country districts, the food 

 being neither attractive nor nutritious. Coffee of excellent 

 quality is usually obtainable even in very poor places. Cheese 

 seems a staple article of diet, not unfrequently five different 

 descriptions being on the table at once. The steamers plying 

 on the fjords, which sometimes extend 150 miles into the 

 country, form a ready means of communication, but land 

 travelling is tedious. The post is slow, and telegraph offices 

 are rare, except along the coast. The scenery is strikingly 

 beautiful, the air clear and refreshing, and altogether Norway 

 offers peculiar advantages to tourists who wish, during their 

 holidays, to secure absolute freedom from the cares of business. 



In the conversation which took place after the conclusion 

 of the paper, Mr. Joseph Wright, F.G.S., mentioned that he 

 had examined three little parcels of mud which Mr. Pim had 

 taken off the anchor when it was raised at several places in the 

 N.W. Coast of Norway. Two proved extremely rich in foram- 

 inifera. Although each parcel weighed only about one ounce, 

 he found in that from Vikholmen, lat. 66.20 N., no less than 

 sixty-one different species, many of them represented by 



D 



