122 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



to be abroad, as he wanders from farm to farm, so that the most distant fami- 

 lies have the benefit of his instruction. Every town has its public library, and 

 in many districts the peasants annually contribute a dollar towards a collection 

 of books, which, under the care of the priest, is lent out to all subscribers. No 

 i^orwegian is confirmed who does not know how to read, and no Norwegian is 

 allowed to marry who has not been confirmed. He who attains hu twentieth 

 year without having been confirmed has to fear the House of Correction. Thus 

 ignorance is punished as a crime in Norway, an excellent example for far richer 

 and more powerful nations. 



The population of Norway amounts to about 1,350,000, but these are very 

 unequally distributed ; for while the southern province of Aggerhuus has 513^000 

 inhabitants on a surface of 35,200 square miles, Nordland has only 59,000 on 

 16,325, and Finmark, the most northern province of the land, but 38,000 on 

 29,925, or hardly more than one inhabitant to every square mile. But even this 

 scanty population is immense when compared with that of Eastern Siberia or 

 of the Hudson s Bay territories, and entirely owes its existence to the mildness 

 of the climate and the open sea, which at all seasons affords its produce to the 

 fisherman. 



It is difficult to imagine a more secluded, solitary life than that of the " bond- 

 ers," or peasant proprietors, along the northern coasts of Norway. The farms, 

 confined to the small patches of more fruitful ground scattered along the fjords, 

 at the foot or on the sides of the naked mountains, are frequently many miles 

 distant from their neighbors, and the stormy winter cuts off all communication 



NOKWEGIAN TAKM. 



