THE LAND OF FJELD AND FJORD. 
5 
and will have acquired a new and impressive idea of 
this grand wild land which is now becoming a chief 
summer playground of the touring world. It is a 
characteristic of hills in all lands, not excluding Norsk 
(though of the latter in a modified degree), that they 
appear worse than they really are. Go to work with 
stiff neck and a set purpose, and the summit will be 
found to have been gained with less labour than 
was anticipated. 
The highlands—the roof of Norway—vary infinitely 
in character. Many of moderate elevation (say, 
under three thousand feet) are of moor-like aspect, 
rolling, broken ground clad for miles around with wiry 
scrub of dwarf birch, creeping willow, and such-like 
alpine plants, with numerous tarns and patches of bog 
interspersed. Snow only lies here in patches on the 
northern faces; whereas, on the higher fjeld, it remains 
in wreaths (or snsefonds) and unbroken sheets through¬ 
out the year. On really high fjeld, snow seems to 
alternate only with naked faces of bed-rock, black as 
Erebus, or chaos of tumbled boulders. Plant-life is 
restricted to lowly forms, such as reindeer-moss and 
lichen, with the puniest of stunted shrubs and crypto¬ 
gams. Yet even here are scattered oases of fell-meadow 
and pasturage where, in some sheltered glen, one finds 
grass and wildflowers quite luxuriant. These (if within 
reach of the nearest valley) are occupied by sseters, the 
summer sheilings of the peasantry, who during July 
and August ascend thither to graze their cattle and 
goats, to make butter and cheese, and to gather into 
stacks or sheds, as hay, the crop of grass and mountain- 
plants. The produce is afterwards conveyed on sledges 
