April, 1891. through Norway with the vesey club, 
87 
into them. For this purpose our steamer was rather a con¬ 
venience than a necessity, since we could use it or leave it at 
our pleasure; i.e., it could deposit us at any particular place, 
and, as in this Romsdal expedition, could await our return to 
the same place; or, on the other hand, could move on to 
some further point, at whicli we could be picked up. The 
heads of some of the upper branches of Norwegian fjords 
are occasionally separated from one another by but a few 
dozen miles of land, while passing round by water might 
involve a journey of perhaps as many hundreds. On two 
occasions we were thus deposited by our steamer at the head 
of one fjord, and, while we made our way across by land to 
the head of another, our steamer went round by water and 
met us. Our next expedition illustrated this. Resuming our 
steamer at Veblungsnaes, while we dined and slept we were 
carried round a hundred miles or so to Meraak, at the head 
of the famous Geiranger, a branch of the Stor Fjord. This 
Geiranger Fjord is one of the culminating glories of the west 
coast of Norway. The water is a mere wandering streak, 
generally about a quarter of a mile in width, but bounded by 
the most magnificent cliffs it is possible to imagine, averaging 
little short of 4,000 feet in height, and generally a sheer vertical 
for half that amount. We were roused long before six a.m., 
so as to miss nothing of this fjord—a grey cheerless morning, 
with a persevering drizzle, the acquaintance of which we 
were destined to make at greater length later in the day. I 
think I have already referred to the weather which accompanied 
our Norwegian tour, and which gave us but three rainless 
days during our entire absence from Birmingham. Well, 
as almost every misfortune possesses some compensating 
advantage, so with these nearly incessant rains. Next to her 
fjords and cliffs, nay, rather far ahead of them, Norway is, par 
excellence, the land of waterfalls. Hardly a day passed without 
our seeing a fall, the merest fraction of which would make the 
immediate fortune of any west or central European holiday 
resort ; and sometimes not one, but a half dozen. Of such a 
nature is this Geiranger Fjord, for from its stupendous cliffs 
hang waterfalls by the dozen, varying from this whose loud 
thunder can be heard long before it itself comes into sight, to 
that whose thin filmy veil becomes more and more diaphanous 
in its two thousand feet of descent, until it literally disappears 
in middle air. Noticeable amongst a middle type are the 
so-called “ Seven Sisters Waterfalls,” the seven being, how¬ 
ever, but a figure of speech, for, with the best will in the 
world, and unlimited materials in the way of rain, we could 
count but five. Above Meraak is a remarkable level plateau, 
