MOUNTAIN PLAIFAUX AND MOUNTAIN RAVINES. 351 
‘ Having refreshed themselves with a bottle of Bavarian 
beer, and ordered supper and bed, they pressed on. There 
were still ten miles to the Rinkan, and consequently no 
time to be lost. The valley contracted, squeezed the 
Maan between the interlocking bases of the mountains, 
through which, in the course of uncounted centuries, it 
had worn itself a deep groove, cut straight and clean 
into the heart of the rock. The loud perpetual roar of 
the vexed waters filled the glen; the only sound except 
the bleating of goats clinging to the steep pastures above 
us. The mountain walls on either hand were now so high 
and precipitous that the bed of the valley lay wholly in 
shacow ; and on looking back its further foldings were 
dimly seen through the purple mists; only the peak of 
the Gousta, which from this point appeared entire and 
perfect. 
‘The valley of the Maan, apparently arich and populons 
region, is in reality rather the reverse. Jn relation to its 
beauty, however, there can be no two opinions. Deeply 
sunken between the Gousta and another bold spur of 
the Hardanger, its golden harvest fields, and groves 
of birch, ash, and pine, seem doubly charming from the 
contrast of the savage steeps overhanging them, at first 
scantily feathered with fir-trees, and scarred with the 
tracks of cataracts and slides, then streaked only with 
patches of grey moss, and at last bleak and sublimely bare. 
The deeply channelled cone of the Gousta, with its 
indented summit, rose far above us, sharp and clear in 
the thin ether; but its base, wrapped in forests, and wet 
by many a waterfall, sank into the bed of blue vapour 
which filled the valley. 
‘Noon brought us to Hakenaes, a distance of twenty-one 
miles, Here we stopped to engage horses to the Rinkan 
Foss, as there is no post station at Mael.’ They were 
informed that the horses would be at Mael as soon as 
they, and they resumed their seats in the boat. 
They arrived first, and lay upon the bank for some 
time after arriving there, watching the postillions swim 
