782 



NORWAY. 



58'^ to 71° ir N. latitude, and from 5° to 30° E. longitude. It is a narrow strip of teriitory, 

 for the most part not exceeding 60 miles in length, and contains 130,000 square miles. 



2. Mountains. The JS^orwegian JMountains form a grand chain, extending northeast and 

 southwest nearly 1,200 miles. The northern part of this ciiain forms the boundary between 

 Norway and Sweden ; in the south, it bears the name of the Scvcbcrget, and Dovrefield^ and 

 further north, the name of the Kioclcn mountains; The highest point of the chain, is the 

 SrMgstlostind, in the Dovrefield range, which is 8,400 feet above the sea. There are glaciers 

 in these mountains, presenting beautiful and fantastic masses of ice, which are ascribed by the 

 ^mple northern tribes, to the powers of magic. It is the peculiar character of the Norwe- 

 gian mountains, that they combine the grandeur of Alpine scenery, with the luxuriant softness 

 of the vales of Italy. 



3. Rivers. Numerous streams descend from the mountains, but none are navigable, and none 

 are considerable for length except tlie Glommen which rises in Lake Oesting, and flows south- 

 erly into the sea at Frederickstadt. Cataracts and shoals obstruct its course in every part, and 

 the only use to which it is applied, is that of floating down timber from the mountains. 



4. Lakes. The lakes are numerous, and many are of considerable size. The Micesen is 

 60 miles in length, and 18 wide. The Rundsion is 50 miles long, and 2 in width. The Lake 

 of Fasmund is 35 miles long, and 8 wide. In many of the lakes are floating islands, or mar- 

 dynes, composed of pieces of turf, or sea-grass; torn from the shores by the water, and matted 

 together by the force of the currents. 



5. Islands. The Loffoden Islands lie on the northwestern coast, and form a crescent round 

 a bay called the West Fiord. The largest is Hindooen. They consist of high mountains, 

 covered with perpetual snow. Nearly all the remainder of the coast is strewed with small 

 rocky islands, called, in the language of the country, holms. 



6. Bays. The branches of the sea, which indent the whole coast of Norway, are almost 

 innumerable ; but they afford scarcely one good harbor. Among the Loftbden Islands is the 

 whirlpool of Maelstrom., which in rough weather is very dangerous to ships.* 



7. Capes. The two most remarkable capes lie at the two extremities of the country. JYorth 

 Cape, at the northern extremity, is formed by several islands lying close to the shore ; they 

 consist of high craggy rocks, and exhibit the most dreary and desolate appearance. The 

 southern extremity of Norway is called the JSTaze, and forms the northern point of the entrance 

 vo a strait called the Sleeve, which communicates with the Baltic. 



8. Climate and Soil. Norway extends within the Arctic cii'cle, and its northern part is ex- 

 posed to all the rigors of a polar winter ; here the sun continues above the horizon in summer, 

 for two months and a half, and in winter remains below for an equal space. There is hardly 

 such a thing in Norway, as spring or autumn, the summer's heat so suddenly succeeds the cold 

 of winter. In the southern parts are some tracts of considerable fertility, yet the soil of Nor- 

 way, generally, is stony and barren ; and in many parts it may be said there is none at all. 



9. Geology and Minerals. These wild regions consist almost wholly of the primary strati- 

 fied rocks ; gneiss is the most frequent and abundant ; the mica-slates, clay-slates, and horn- 

 blende rocks being subordinate to it. Veins of granite, sienite, and porphyry occur, and there 

 are beds of transition limestone, and old red sandstone. Norway possesses quarries of granite, 



* An American captain gives the following description 

 of this celebrated plienomenon. " I had occasion, some 

 years since, to navigate a ship from the Nortli Cape to Dron- 

 theim, nearly all the way between the islands orrocks,and 

 the main. On inquiring of my Norwegian pilot about the 

 practicability of running near the whirlpool, he told me, 

 ■ that with a good breeze it could be approached near 

 enough for examination, without danger, and I at once 

 determined to satisfy myself. We began to near it about 

 10, A. M., in the month of September, with a fine leading 

 wind, northwest. Two good seamen were pl.aced at the 

 helm, the mate on the quarter-declt, all hands at their sta- 

 tion for working ship, and the pilot standing on the bow- 

 sprit between the night-heads. I went on the main- 

 topsail yard with a good glass. I had been seated but a 

 few moments, when my ship entered the dish of the 

 whirlpool. The velocity of the water altered her course 

 3 points towards the centre, although she was going 3 

 knots through the water. This alarmed me extremely for 

 a moment. I thought destruction was inevitable. She, 



however, answered to her helm sweetly, and we ran along 

 the edge, the waters foaming round us in every, form, 

 while she was dancing gayly over them. The sensations 

 I experienced are difiicult to describe. Imagine to your- 

 selves an immense circle running round, of a diameter of 

 one mile and a half, the velocity increasing as it approx- 

 imated towards the centre, and gradually changing its 

 dark-blue color to white, — foaming, tumbling, rushing to 

 its vortex, very much concave, as much so as the water in 

 a tunnel, when half run out; the nois°,too, hissing, roar- 

 ing, dashinar, all pressing on the mind at once, presented 

 the most awful, grand, and solenm sight, I ever experi- 

 enced. We were near it about 18 minutes, and in sight 

 of it 2 hours. It is evidently a subterranean passage. 

 From its magnitude, I should not doubt that instant de- 

 struction would be the fate of a dozen of our largest ships, 

 were they drawn in at tlie same moment. The pilot says, 

 that several vessels have been sucked down, and that 

 whales hnv?. also been destroyed." 



