Dec., 1890. through Norway with the vesey club. 
271 
much of the imaginative newspaper reporter. Fortunately, 
the three I had to concoct needed neither the suppressio veri 
nor the suggestio falsi , but it isn’t always easy even to tell the 
truth neatly. 
As between a quarter and a third of our time was spent 
therein, a word must be devoted to the Norwegian bedroom. 
Besides the ubiquitous stove, it contains one or more narrow, 
box-like bedsteads. A special peculiarity of many of the 
Norsk bedsteads is that they telescope sideways, so that when 
not in use the space they occupy can be much reduced. 
Unhappily, the bedclothes do not telescope; they remain 
permanently narrow. Nor do the bedsteads lengthen. How 
the Norwegians, who are by no means a short race, manage 
to submit patiently to their brevity is a puzzle to me. In 
more than one of our halting places the lady’s bedstead was 
several inches shorter than the gentleman’s, but, by way of 
compensation, was of a more ornate character. The unique 
feature of a Norwegian bedroom, however, is its mirror. This 
isof fair size, perhaps 18 x 12, and hangs upon the wall above 
the body level, but tilted forwards. Its frame is ordinary, 
much like a picture frame ; the special feature is the glass 
itself. You have all probably observed the distortion, often 
the dislocation, of a chimney by common window glass ; the 
Norwegian looking-glass does precisely the same kind of thing 
to the face. Facile princeps was our glass at Jerkin. 
Movement of the image across from one side to the other 
of this mirror, caused the features to writhe like those of a 
soul in mortal agony. Altogether, though, the stations we 
stayed at were decidedly comfortable; but some that we passed 
by, but did not stop at, suggested very much the reverse. The 
least comfortable at which we stayed was that at Aune. All 
wooden houses, however, are noisy, and you wonder what 
would occur if they caught fire. Security against this is the 
key to the building of a large station in several isolated 
sections. 
Our days upon the Dovrefjeld were devoted to serious 
botanical and geological work, and for either of these purposes 
Kongsvold makes the best possible head-quarters. The 
station lies at the point where the valley of the Driva, the 
river which drains the Dovrefjeld towards the Atlantic, 
narrows from the high and open fjeld into a mere gully, a 
thousand feet or more in depth, along the bottom of which, 
and close to the tumbling boiling river, the road is for mile 
after mile blasted well-nigh continuously out of the live rock. 
Behind the station is Knutshoe (5,565ft.), probably the most 
remarkable botanical mountain in Europe, upon whose 
