4 
WILD NORWAY. 
gratification, with frequent surprises; but, in a book, it 
is inconvenient to be ecstatic, so we will now leave 
“ scenery ” and, as before proposed, take it for granted. 
Travelling along the main routes, but little is seen 
except the wall-like slopes of the fjelds. Some tourists, 
perhaps, conclude that these are unscalable. Few, at 
any rate, attempt the ascent, or see what lies above and 
beyond. There is something, it is true, in the character 
of the fj eld-sides—perhaps it is the bold and serrated 
contour of the sky-lines—which suggests that they 
lead merely to knife-edged ridges, falling away on the 
reverse with equal abruptness as from the visible apex. 
But that is not so. Norway lies up there'. 
One may have read (and overlooked amidst dry 
statistics) in faithful Bennett or Baedeker, a statement 
that “ one half of Norway lies at an elevation exceeding 
two thousand feet.” Within that little fact are com¬ 
prehended very large results. Those mural precipices 
that he sees are but the walls of vast table-lands, 
stretching for twenty, thirty, it may be fifty miles, 
and even more, before another deep valley breaks 
their continuity. It is up here, on these glorious high¬ 
lands, that the Norway of the hunter and stalker, of 
the sportsman, naturalist, and mountaineer is to be 
found. The people, it is true (and the salmon !), live 
down below, in the valleys; but to see Norway, to 
realize what the word means, you must get on the 
top —out on the roof 
The high fjeld is worth the ascent. The tourist 
will not be disappointed. On the contrary, he will 
find himself, in the course of a ten or twelve hours’ 
walk, amidst scenes that he will not forget during life, 
