THE LAND OF FJELD AND FJORD. 
3 
(nothing accessible , at any rate) that will compare with 
the serrated outlines of Lofoten in wildness and sublime 
desolation,—while the arctic idea is intensified by the 
shoals of whales and grampus that gambol in the 
narrow seas. 
Still further north, in Spitsbergen, no vestige of 
colour remains to relieve the terrible asperity of a con¬ 
temporary “ glacial epoch ” in full present operation, 
and which seems likely to survive for many more aeons 
before retiring within the limits of a geological definition. 
But “ scenery ” will not be described. It is too big 
for epithets, and superlatives are played out. In Nor¬ 
way it must be taken without saying. Nor, if difficult 
to describe, is it easier to depict, for pencil cannot 
portray that which impends; while the scale and the 
nearness of the point of view alike forbid such subjects 
being focussed upon puny paper—that is, as seen from 
the level. Though less impressive, perhaps the most 
imposing Norsk landscapes are those seen from above. 
Truly charming subjects are afforded looking down glen 
or corrie at a thousand or fifteen hundred feet; but 
beyond such limited range, the power of art has yet to 
catch the full breadth of this big land, to realize its 
ideals of spirit and space in a crystal atmosphere, 
where distance is often all but annihilated. As for 
photography, in landscape it is caricature, false alike 
in perspective and proportion. 
The Norsk fjelds rise abrupt and direct to their full 
height. Hence, though few exceed seven thousand feet, 
and none reach nine thousand feet, they look bolder 
than loftier ranges in other lands where gradients are 
more prolonged. One’s eye enjoys in Norway chronic 
