230 
NOR 
tain of Norway. The river Drivane winds along the fide 
of it in a ferpentine courfe, foas to be met nine times by 
thofe who travel the winter-road to the other fide of the 
chain. The bridges are thrown over roaring catarafts, 
and but indifferently fattened to the fteep rocks on either 
fide ; fo that the whole exhibits a very dPeadful appear¬ 
ance, fufficient to deter the traveller from hazarding fuch 
a dangerous pafiage; for which real'on, people generally 
choofethe road over Filefeld, which is much more tedious. 
This, however, is the polt-road ufed by the king’s car¬ 
riages. The way is diftinguilhed by polls fixed at the dif- 
tance of two hundred paces from each other, that, in 
fnowy or dark weather, the traveller may not be bewil¬ 
dered. For the convenience of reiting and refrefhing, 
there are two mountain-ftoves, or houfes, maintained on 
Filefeld, as well as upon other mountains, at the expenfe 
of the public, and furnifhed with fire, light, and kitchen 
utenfils. Nothing can be more difmal and dreary than 
thefe mountains, covered with eternal fnow, where nei¬ 
ther houfe, tree, nor living creature, is to be feen, but 
here and there a folitary rein-deer, and perchance a few 
wandering Laplanders. In travelling from Sweden to 
Nordenfeld, there is only one way ofavoiding this chain 
of mountains-; and that is, where it is interrupted by a 
long deep valley, extending from Romfdale to Guld- 
brandfdale. In the year 1612, a body of a thoufand Scots, 
commanded by Sinclair, and fent over as auxiliaries to 
the Swedes, were put to the fword in this defile by the 
peafants of Guldbrand, who never give quarter. 
Befides this chain, there is a great number of detached 
mountains over all the country, that form valleys and 
ridges, inhabited by the peafants. Some of thefe are of 
confiderable height, and others exhibit very remarkable 
appearances. In failing up Joering Creek on the left hand, 
the fight is aftonilhed with a group of mountains, refem- 
bling the profpeft of a city with old Gothic towers and 
edifices. In the pariflt of Oerlkong is the high mountain 
of Skopfhorn, the top of which reprefents the figure of a 
fortification, with regular walls and baftions. In the dif- 
trift of Hilgeland appears a very high range of mountains, 
with feven pinnacles or crefts, known by the appellation 
of the Seven Sifters, difcernible a great way off at fea. To 
the fouthward of this range, though in the fame diftrifil, 
rifes the famous mountain Torg-hutten, fo called becaufe 
the fummit refembles a man’s head with a hat on, un¬ 
der which appears a fingle eye, formed by an aperture 
through the mountain, 150 ells high, and 3000 ells in 
length. The fun may be feen through this furprifing ca¬ 
vity, which is paffable by the foot of travellers. On the 
top of the mountain is a refervoir of water, as large as a 
moderate fifh-pond ; in the lower part is a cavern, through 
which a line 400 fathoms in length, being let down, did 
not reach the bottom. At Herroe, in Sundmoer, is an¬ 
other cavern called Doljleen, fuppofed to reach under the 
lea to Scotland; which, however, is no more than an idle 
tradition. In the year 1750, two clergymen entered this 
fubterranean cavity, and proceeded a confiderable way, 
until they heard the fea dafhing over their heads; the 
pafiage was as wide and high as an ordinary church, the 
fides perpendicular, and the roof vaulted. They de- 
fcended one flight of natural flairs ; but, arriving at an¬ 
other, they were afraid to penetrate farther : they had 
gone fo far, however, that two candles were confumed 
in their progrefs and return. A cavern of a very curious 
nature, ferving as a conduit to a ftream of water, pene¬ 
trates through the fides of the mountain Litnur. In the 
diltridl of Rake, in the neighbourhood of Frederickfhall, 
are three cavities in a rock, one of which is fo deep, that 
a fmall (lone dropped down does not reach the bottom in 
lefs than two minutes; and then the found it produces is 
pleafant and melodious, not unlike the found of a bell. 
The vail mountains and rugged rocks that deform the 
face of this country are productive of numberlefs inconve¬ 
niences. They admit of little arable ground ; they ren¬ 
der the country in fome parts impaffable, and every-where 
WAY. 
difficult to travellers; they afford fhelter to wild beafts, 
which come from their lurking-holes, and make terrible 
havock among the flocks of cattle ; they expofe the ffieep 
and goats, as well as the peafants, to daily accidents of 
falling over precipices; they occafion fudden torrents, 
and falls of fnow, which defcend with incredible impetuo- 
fity, and often fweep away the labours of the hulband- 
man; and they are fubjeft to dreadful difruptions, by 
which huge rocks are rent from their fides, and, hurling 
down, overwhelm the plains below with inevitable ruin. 
The peafants frequently build their houfes on the edge of 
a fteep precipice, to which they mult climb by ladders, at 
the hazard of their lives ; and, when a perfon dies, the 
corpfe mud be let down with ropes, before it can be laid 
in the coffin. In winter the mail is often drawn up the 
fides of fteep mountains. Even in the king’s road, travel¬ 
lers are expofed to the frequent rifks of falling over thofe 
dreadful rocks; for they are obliged to pafs over narrow 
pathways, without rails or riling on the fides, either fhored 
up with rotten ports, or fufpended by iron bolts faltened 
in the mountains. In the narrow pafs of Naeroe, is a re¬ 
markable way of this kind, which, above 600 years ago, 
the famous king Surre caufed to be made for the pafiage 
of his cavalry ; and even this would have been found im¬ 
paffable by any other horfes than thole of Norway, which 
are ufed to climb the rocks like goats. Another very 
difficult and dangerous road is that between Shoglladt 
and Vang-in-Volders, along the fide of a fteep mountain, 
in fome places fo narrow, that, if two travellers on horl'e- 
back lhould meet in the night, they would find it imprac¬ 
ticable either to pafs each other or turn back. In fuch a 
cafe their lives could not be laved, unlefs one of them 
lhould alight, and throw his horfe headlong into the lake 
below, and then cling to the rock, until the other could 
pafs. When a Iheep or goat makes a falfe Hep to the pro- 
jefilion of a rock, from whence it can neither afcend nor 
defcend, the owner hazards his own life to prelerve that 
of the animal. He directs himfelf to be lowered down 
from the top of the mountain, fitting on a crols flick tied 
to the end of a long rope; and, when he arrives at the 
place where the creature Hands, he fallens it to the fame 
cord, and it is drawn up with himfelf. Perhaps the other 
end of the rope is held by one perfon only ; and there are 
fome inftances in which the affiftant has been dragged 
down by the weight of his friend, fo that both have pe- 
rilhed. When either man or bead has had the misfortune 
to fall over very high precipices, they have not only been 
fuffocated by the repercuffion of the air, but their bodies 
have been always burft before they reached the ground. 
Sometimes entire crefts of rocks, many fathoms in length 
and breadth, have fallen down at once, creating fitch a 
violent agitation of the air, as feerned a prelude to the 
world’s difl’olution. At Steenbroe in Laerdale, a ilupen- 
dous mafs, larger than any caftle in the univerfe, appears 
to have been levered and tumbled from the mountain in 
large, lharp, and ragged, fragments, through which the 
river roars with hideous bellowing. In the year 1731, a 
promontory on Sundmoer, called Rammersleld, that hung 
over Nordal Creek, l'uddenly gave way, and plunged into 
the water; which 1 welled to fuch a degree, that the church 
of Strand, though half a league on the other fide of the 
bank, was overflowed; the creek, however, was not filled 
up ; on the contrary, the filhermen declare they find no 
difference in the depth, which is laid to exceed 900 fathoms. 
The remarkable rivers of Norway are thefe: The Nied, 
ifluing from Tydalen, on the borders of Sweden, runs 
wellward into the Lake Selboe 5 and afterwards, turning 
to the northward, paftes by the city of Drontheim, to 
which it anciently gave the name of Nideros and JSidroJia. 
Sole Ely, that, defcending from Sulafeld, runs with a rapid 
courfe through Nordaleinto the fea. Gillen, which rifes 
near Sffarsfeld in the north ; and, running twenty leagues 
wellward, through Aalen, Hlotaaleu, Storen, and Mel- 
huus, di(charges itfelf into the fea about a league to the 
weft of Drontheim. In the year 1344, this river buried 
x itfelf 
