THE LAND OF FJELD AND FJORD. 
7 
camping-out on those higher regions of eternal snows, 
beyond the limits of sseters or signs of human exist¬ 
ence : where the wild reindeer wander in peace amidst 
some of the rudest scenes on earth—more akin to lunar 
landscape—and where the unsophisticated ptarmigan 
perk and crane as one passes within arm’s-length, no 
doubt mistaking the unwonted apparition of a man for 
some new species of deer carrying an express rifle in 
lieu of antlers. 
Passing from snowfjeld to forest, we enter a very 
different region. Commencing about the Arctic circle, 
and trending southwards, a vast area of central Norway 
is clad with dense pine-forest, stretching across to the 
borders of Sweden, and lying chiefly to the eastward 
of the main mountain-range. The timber line varies 
from fifteen hundred to two thousand feet, and many 
a hundred miles of pathless primaeval forest lies between 
Nordland on the north and the Telemark and Wenern 
on the south. Amidst these I have spent several 
seasons, hunting the elk and bear in Namdalen and 
Sandola-dalen, under the deep spruces of Inderoen 
and the Nordenfj eldske, and on the highlands of the 
Swedish divide. 
The inland waters of Norway are stated to cover 
one-twentieth of her entire superficial area, and by 
many that twentieth is regarded as of more importance 
than all the ninety-five per cent, beside. I have not 
neglected it, having passed glorious springtides on the 
great salmon-rivers, as hereinafter recorded; while, in 
their seasons, I have landed bull-trout and sea-trout, 
with yellow trout, grayling and char, in a hundred 
Scandinavian lakes and streams. 
