208 
WILD NORWAY. 
passing by old-time haunts of sea-kings like Herlaug 
and other heroes of the Bersaker Saga. 
These old sea-kings, so the Norsemen aver, dis¬ 
covered North America, and were at the sites of Boston 
and New York five hundred years before Columbus 
crossed the Spanish main. 
Luckily for our heavily-freighted craft, the sea was 
smooth, though frequent waves lapped threateningly 
over the gunwale. Starting at five o’clock next 
morning, we carioled from the head of Lyngen-fjord 
under pouring rain, as far as track led in the desired 
direction ; then from the upmost farm we “ packed ” 
our kit, and taking ourselves a wider course, to stock 
the larder with a few brace of grouse, we were encamped 
by nightfall in our log-hut—height only six hundred 
feet—in the heart of that upland forest. 
Furudal, with Finvolden adjoining, formed ideal 
hunting-grounds. Saucer-shaped, and fifteen to twenty 
miles across, the lower forests were encircled by ranges 
of higher fjelds, while the floor was occupied by two 
series of lakes, from around whose darksome shores 
stretched away pines in everlasting undulation—here 
dense forest, there broken by patches of tawny bog or 
moorland with scattered trees. Forest-growth extended 
to some fifteen hundred feet up the fj eld-sides; above 
that, timber gave place to dwarf-birch and willow, and 
higher still, to the stunted, mossy flora of the fjeld. 
Though steep places and rugged were not wanting, yet 
the general contour lay fairly even—that is, for Norway 
—the hills rising gradually from the lakes, with many 
upland plateaux and gentle slopes, where forest and 
mountain-meadow alternated. Goat-herds have summer 
