Through Scandinavia to Moscow
Wonderful Ride Down the La
, Norge, Sept
tossing by our side. The two days so far had been clear and cloudless, but now the air was full of a fine mist, and we probably ascended
ther, and a plant with fine red and yellow leaf gave color to the heights between the sombre greenness of the fir forests below and the whiteness of the snow-fields above.
ht, the road which leads to the Tyin Vand and the ice-crowned summits of the Jotunheim. Here was a large and comfortable inn, Nystuen by name, and Ole Mon gave the ponies their first morning's feed, adding an armful of mountain hay to the oatmeal diet. Half an hour's rest is the usual limit, and the ponies see
OTECTE
we fairly scampered down to a fine inn, painted red with curiously-carven Norse ornamentation on the gables, called Maristuen. Here we had fresh salmon, and more good coffee. For breakfast we were given trout and eggs, now salmon and a delicious custard for dessert. At table we met a Mr. C and wife, of Chicago, going over our trail, and we may meet them again in Stockholm. They are anxious to go on to Russia after seeing Stockholm, and have urged us to go along also. Across the table from
together by an iron rail; a slope down which we rolled at a flying trot, coasted down-the roaring, foaming river below, far below. Close to us were falls and cascades and cataracts, and the stupendous mountains, the snow-capped rock-masses lifting straight up thousands of feet. H grew so excited, exclaiming over the mighty vistas of rock and water and distant valley, that I had fairly to hold her in; and ever we rolled down and down and down, spanking along with never a pause fo
AND FEET OF
sand feet, and hove to at the farmstead of Kvamme for the ponies to be fed once more before their last descent. A mile or two further on
round about. They were looking intently at the distant summit of the precipice towering above them. My eye followed theirs. I could barely make out a group of men shoving a mass of something over the edge, and then I beheld the curious sight of a haymow flying through the air. Nearer it came, and nearer until it landed at the women's feet. I then made out a wire line connecting a windlass set in the ground near where the women stood and reaching up to the precipice's verge,
ight between the two descents, we made solemn friendship with the old Norseman who here keeps the roadhouse; his daughter "had been in Chicago," she spoke perfect United States, and took us to see, hard by, the most ancient church in Norway, the church of Borgund, eight hundred to one thousand years old. It is very qu
to Gutvangen, then drive by carriage to Eida, on the Ha
n the book were already a number of brief statements in French and German and Norwegian, by different travelers, declaring him to be a "safe and reliable man," who had "brought them to their journey's end without mishap." I took the book and wrote down some hurried lines. When I had finished, he gazed upon the foreign writing and then disappeared with the book into the kitchen to consult the cook, who had lived in Minneapolis. He presently reappeared, his eyes big with wonder a
n, you are
orker and a
ongue and rare
us a stunne
rge's fjelds and
a tell of wha
l stand astonis
d you take them
SHIP, LAE