304 Rev. U, F. Borgesen's Description of Vetties Giel, 
noise like thunder, tumbles over the precipice in a tremendous 
fall. The violence of this, and the agitation produced by its 
rushing over, is such, especially in summer, that the house con- 
tinually shakes; and every fluid which stands in an open vessel, 
exhibits a constant tremulous motion. The walls and the win- 
dows which are next the river, are always wet, from the vapour 
ascending from the fall. They told me, that this fall was 200 
fathoms high ; and, when you look down to the abyss below, 
and then raise your eye to where the river issues from this lofty 
vale, you can scarcely call it in question. Beside the fall in the 
hard granite precipice which it washes, they have mined a rut, 
I cannot call it a way, though it serves for one, broad enough 
for one man ; or, at most, a little well-trained horse, but not be- 
side one another, to go upon it. 
This rut, the roof of which is just so high, that a grown up 
person can stand upright in it, is the only way to the farm- 
house till you get up to a considerable height. It reaches not, 
however, the whole way. There is a gap, which is filled up 
by pieces of timber, joined together, of 6 or 7 ells in length, 
one end of which rests on this rut, the other on a projection of 
the mountain, which likewise serves as a support to a bridge 
which goes over the fall. In these pieces of timber are cut 
notches, which serve for steps ; and in going up these notches, 
while you see through the timbers the foaming cataract under 
you, and are involved in its mists, he must be a native of Leir- 
dal who does not then feel that his life hangs on a few inches of 
slender tree. It is a matter of course, that neither this wooden 
path, nor the bridge itself, nor the rut in the side of the rock, 
are provided with any kind of rail or defence. A Leirdaller 
knows not the name, has not the conception of giddiness. He 
falls as other people do, although he stands where they would 
fall : he is dashed to pieces like them, but this comes from 
his inconceivable rashness, and from his not having wings. 
Of the ten years I have now been here, not one has passed 
without instances of persons being killed by falling over pre- 
cipices. This is one of the common modes in which people 
die, and it awakens no particular sensation. They believe, how- 
ever, that the spirits of these persons go about after death, 
and they have a particular name by which they distinguish them 
from other ghosts. When the farmer in Afdal brings any 
