Norway is an extensive country in the north of Europe, united with Sweden under one king. All the territory which is now comprised by Norway and Sweden, was designated Scandia by the ancients. Pliny calls it Scandia insula, an appellation which derives its origin from the circumstance of the Romans, in the time of their great naturalist, being only acquainted with that part of the country called Skanen or Skonen, the little information which they possessed being obtained from some Germans. This is the ancient province of Schonen or Scania, the most southerly of Sweden. The name was afterwards changed to Scandinavia, which has been called the "store-house of nations," but without any just title to such a distinction. It seems now quite certain that Scandinavia was not the native country of the Scythians or Goths, but that they migrated from Asia to Europe. The fact of Pliny having designated Scandinavia as an island of considerable although uncertain magnitude, has also given rise to some discussion. To the imperfect knowledge of geography which the ancients possessed may reasonably be attributed their mistaken notion as to the insular position of these countries.
But our present purpose is with Norway, which in Swedish is called Norrige, and in Danish, Norge (pronounced Norre). "In spite of the vague ideas which the ancients entertained of the northern countries of Europe," says Maire-Brun, "it cannot be doubted that the country which Pliny calls Nerigon is Norway. Many geographers have asserted that the name signifies the 'Way of the North'; but its true etymology seems to be Nor-Rige, 'Kingdom of the North,' or rather, perhaps, assuming the word Nor as signifying gulf, 'Kingdom of Gulf,' because in effect its coasts are much more indented than those of Sweden. We thus see that the name of Nerigon has much more analogy with that of Norrige than with that of Norway, which at the first glance appears to be the origin of the modern name. The early history of Norway is interwoven with the annals of Sweden and Denmark, and consists in legends contained in the Heimskringla or Saga, a collection of ancient manuscripts, which is to Norway what the Edda is to Iceland. The petty sovereigns who held sway in Norway in remote ages were independent, but appear to have acknowledged a kind of supremacy in the kings of Sweden and Denmark, probably more nominal than real; but until the ninth or tenth century little is known of the annals of the country. The Norwegians, of course, constituted no inconsiderable proportion of those daring adventurers who, under the general name of Normans on the Continent, and Danes in Britain, became at one time the terror of all the maritime parts of Europe."
The Royal Northern Antiquarian Society of Copenhagen has published a series of the Saga, comprehending the historical account of events which belong to European history, as well as to that of Scandinavia, during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. It includes a period of about 170 years, beginning with the Saga of St Olaf, the contemporary of Canute the Great of England, who assumed the crown of Norway in 1013, and continuing the series until the death of Magnus Erlingson in a sea-fight with Sverrei I, in 1184. This is one of the most curious and minute pictures of an age long past which the literature of Europe is possessed of. It is not only valuable as an historical document, confirming or adding to our stock of facts relative to a dark period of English history, but as a record of the social condition of the country at that time, and of the influence of the Thing, or assembly of the people; a reference of all matters to this popular convocation being one of the most striking facts recorded in the Saga. From these rude annals we learn that, at a period immediately preceding the first traces of free institutions in our own country, similar institutions existed in great activity amongst these northern people. It seems a fair inference from these facts, therefore, that we owe the political institutions which we enjoy to the Danes and Normans, who were more likely to impose their own peculiar institutions upon those whom they subdued, than to receive institutions from the conquered.
From other Sagas preceding that of St Olaf, we learn that about the middle of the ninth century Hallden the Black divided Norway into five districts, with fixed head places for holding Things in each. At these assemblies laws were framed suitable to the local circumstances of each district, which gave its name to the code. This potentate was succeeded by the celebrated Harold Harfagr, or the Fair-Haired, who ascended the throne at ten years of age, and reigned from 863 to 936. This warlike monarch, after long fighting, reduced all the independent nobles or petty kings to the condition of subjects, and consolidated the various principalities of Norway into one kingdom. Thus was consummated in a single reign, and that, too, in the ninth century, a work which afterwards cost the other nations of Europe several centuries of bloodshed and contention. But this was more easily accomplished in Norway than elsewhere; for in that country the great nobility never had feudal powers, and consequently those who were under them as servants were bound by no such ties of vassalage as the retainers of a Highland chieftain or a Norman baron. They were not taught passive and unconditional submission to a superior, although he might bear the title of king; for before a small sovereign could make war he was under the necessity of assembling the Thing, and obtaining its sanction. The equal division of property among children, which extended to the crown itself, prevented the accumulation of power in the hands of individuals; and the circum-
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1 See the article "Norweigo" in the Dictionnaire Geographique de l'Encyclopedie. 2 From Nord and weg (way), Norweg. 3 See the articles DENMARK, FRANCE, and ENGLAND. stance of the total want of fortresses, castles, or strongholds in the country, owing to the division of estates, effectually prevented a nobility from attaining the same power with the nobles of feudal countries, and setting the royal authority at defiance. Some of these nobility or small kings colonized Iceland; and Normandy was conquered by Rolf Gangr, one of those whom Harold Harfagr expelled from Norway. In this king's reign Christianity was introduced into the country, and from this period the events recorded in the historical Saga may claim some degree of confidence.
The length of this reign was no doubt favourable to the lower orders, by consolidating their institutions, which, as they weakened the authority of the petty kings, were favoured by Harold. Eric, his son and successor, whom he had associated with himself in the royal authority, was deposed by the Thing on account of his cruelty, and a younger brother succeeded him. Hakon, which was the name of this son of Harfagr, was brought up from his childhood at the court of Athelstan, King of England. He reigned nineteen years, during which period there was frequent reference to the Things, both for amending the laws and for the dissemination of Christianity. It appears that, in attempting to establish the religion of the Cross in his dominions, Hakon had recourse to what were considered as unconstitutional means; for we find that, at a meeting of the Thing, held in the year 965, a husbandman named Asbjorn, of Medallhus, stood up and declared, on the part of his neighbours and of himself, "that they had elected Hakon to be their king upon the condition that freedom of religion and freedom of conscience should be warranted to every man; and if the king persisted in attempting to suppress their ancient faith, they would elect another king;" adding, "and now, king, make thy choice." This is certainly one of the most striking instances of parliamentary patriotism to be met with in the history of Europe; and we must descend six or seven centuries nearer to the present time before we can match it in the annals of our own country. Hakon was not only compelled to give way, but also to take part in the heathen ceremonies of the meeting. This king was slain in 963, in a battle with the sons of his elder brother Eric, upon whom Athelstan of England had conferred the kingdom of Northumberland.
It appears that, after the death of Harfagr, the small kings again had risen to some degree of power, and that each in his own assembly, called also a Thing, had exercised a limited authority. Olaf the Saint, before he assumed the name of king, consulted one of these assemblies of the nobility as to the way of proposing his claim as heir of Harfagr to the general Things of the people; and he proceeded in such a manner as to show that their voice alone was insufficient to constitute him supreme chief in the land, without the sanction of the general Thing. These institutions appear to have always conferred or confirmed the royal prerogative, and to have been of great importance in that age amongst the whole Scandinavian people. In cases where the good of the community was at stake, they set the royal authority at defiance, and obliged the sovereign to accept of such international contracts as the Things of both countries conceived was for their mutual benefit. The Thing of Sweden compelled the sovereign of that country to conclude a peace with Norway, and to bestow his daughter in marriage on King Olaf, towards whom he cherished implacable enmity. Olaf had the title of Saint conferred on him for the exertions which he made to introduce Christianity amongst his subjects; but in prosecution of this object he exercised the most atrocious cruelties, and completely alienated the affections of his people. He attempted to govern without the intervention of the Things, which became the cause of his ruin; for when Canute the Great, who conquered Norway, invaded his dominions, the people literally "stopped the supplies;" and, unable to collect a force sufficient to oppose the King of England, he was compelled to seek refuge in Russia. For the purpose of recovering his crown, he landed in Sweden with a few followers, and, having received an accession to his force from the king of that country, who was his brother-in-law, marched from the Gulf of Finland across the peninsula to the Fjord or Gulf of Trondhjem. In the meantime the Thing of Norway raised an army of 12,000 borderers, and placed it under the command of Olver of Egge. At the debouch of the valley of Vardal they met Olaf at the head of about 4000 adventurers. The conflict could not be doubtful where there was such an inequality of numbers, and where the superiority lay on the side of those who were fighting in defence of their liberties. King Olaf was defeated and slain, without even showing the prudence and courage which had distinguished his early career. This battle was fought on the 31st of August 1030, and not on the 29th of June or July 1033, as is commonly stated. The body of the fallen monarch was transported to St Clement's church in Trondhjem, which had been erected by himself. In return for the services which he had rendered the church, the clergy soon afterwards canonized him; and even at Constantinople temples were erected to his memory. His tomb was regarded as a consecrated spot, to which pilgrimages were performed, not only by ardent devotees from the north, but also from the south of Europe.
Canute the Great did not long remain in Norway; and from the period of Olaf's death the country was ruled by native monarchs, who even for a time governed Denmark. It may be gathered from the ancient chronicles before referred to, that at this period society was composed of four distinct orders. The first was the nobility, who were descendants of royal families; and, without regard to priority of birth, those who were descended both on the mother's side and father's side from Harfagr were eligible to the supreme monarchy. They appear to have had no civil power or privilege as nobles, but merely this odelsbaarn-ret to the crown. The odelsbaarnmena, bondermen, or husbandmen, were the proprietors of lands held neither from the king nor from any feudal superior. These were the people who had a voice at the Things. A third order consisted of the unfree men, holding land for services as vassals or as labourers in cottages, but who had no voice in the Things in respect of their land. A fourth order was composed of the tralle or domestic slaves, who were private property, and in a lower state than the former class. This condition of society, which was equivalent to slavery, was abolished by Magnus VII., who reigned from 1319 to 1344.
The most important event in the history of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, in the middle ages, was the union of the three kingdoms under one sovereign, Margaret, daughter of Waldemar, King of Denmark, which was effected by the league of Calmar, in the year 1387. The circumstances which led to this remarkable occurrence will
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1 Harold Harfagr was born in the year 853; he began to reign in 863, and died in 935. St Olaf's father was Harold Grundeke, his grandfather Godred, his great-grandfather Bjorn Starke, and his great-great-grandfather Harold Harfagr; and St Olaf was born A.D. 995, only fifty-nine years after the death of his great progenitor Harfagr. A contemporary of St Olaf was therefore a credible source of information for the events of Harfagr's reign, such as the conquest of Normandy by Rolf Gangr, the colonization of Iceland, &c. (Laing's Journal of a Residence in Norway.)
2 This is put beyond a doubt by a circumstance which all accounts of the battle mention, namely, that a total eclipse of the sun occurred on the same day. Professor Hansteen of Christiania has calculated that such a celestial phenomenon could only have taken place on the 31st of August 1030. Norway be found narrated in the article Denmark. Had this princess been as capable of conquering national prejudices as she was of defeating armies, her dominions would have constituted a great and powerful monarchy. But the passions of her people were more than a match for her policy; and it was no doubt better that the three nations which she governed should each remain in quiet possession of its own freedom, as enjoyed under its own form of government and laws, than that they should lay aside all differences, and, heartily uniting as one kingdom and people, become the terror and scourge of Southern Europe. Margaret died without issue; but during her lifetime she appointed her grand-nephew, whom some historians call her cousin, Eric, a descendant of the dukes of Pomerania, as her successor; and he succeeded to the triple crown of Scandinavia in 1412. The union, however, was far from being cordial; and for rather more than a century local insurrections from time to time broke out and distracted the country. The Swedes, in particular, felt great reluctance to submit to a foreign dynasty; and after various attempts on their part to shake themselves free from the compact of Calmar, the oppression and cruelty of Christian II. led to the final separation of Sweden in 1520, under the celebrated Gustavus Erickson or Vasa. Norway and Denmark, however, remained under one sceptre, till, at the adjustment of European affairs after the fall of Napoleon, Norway was separated from Denmark, and united to the crown of Sweden. This took place in the year 1814.
The circumstances which led to the forcible separation of two countries that had for centuries been united by the closest relations, and the union of one of them with another country which had for so many ages been regarded as a natural enemy, may be shortly stated. The grand object of the leading powers was to induce every state to join in the league against Napoleon; and Sweden, in consideration of an ample bribe, acceded to the general confederacy. One of the foulest stains on the escutcheon of Great Britain is the treaty which she entered into with Sweden, dated 3d March 1813. By this notorious compact against the liberties of a whole people, England gave to the King of Sweden the kingdom of Norway (which was no more hers than Rome or Pekin), together with Guadaloupe, and a million of pounds sterling, as a remuneration to his Swedish Majesty for joining the allied powers against France.
After the battle of Leipzig, fought in October 1813, the Crown Prince of Sweden entered Denmark with his army; and after some bloody scenes in Holstein, peace was concluded at Kiel on the 14th of January 1814. By this treaty Denmark gave up all right to Norway, considering it as quite hopeless to enter into a contest with Sweden and England. Although the King of Denmark might relinquish his claim to the sovereignty of Norway, this was no reason for the people of that country making an unconditional surrender of themselves to a foreign potentate. They declared themselves an independent nation, framed a constitution of their own, and proclaimed Prince Christian, son of their former sovereign, and governor of Norway, as their lawful king. Not a little blood was shed in the contention between Sweden and Norway; and England actively interfered by blockading the ports of Norway, for the purpose of starving the inhabitants of the country into subjection. But a speedy settlement of the question became necessary to all parties. The constitution which the Norwegians had prepared in April 1814, and which they were in arms to maintain, was guaranteed to them, Norway, upon condition of their accepting along with it the Swedish monarch as king, and the Crown Prince of Denmark abdicating the throne. Matters were arranged on this footing; and on the 17th May 1814, both parties, the King of Sweden and the Norwegian nation, solemnly entered into a compact to the effect stated, under the sanction and guarantee of the allied powers, and of Great Britain amongst the rest.
By the treaty the entire independence of Norway as a kingdom was secured, the crowns alone being united, as in the case of Hanover and England. She had a constitution of her own framing, a legislature of her own electing, without being interfered with by any foreign authority in the exercise of her right, and laws of her own making and administering; in short, Norway remained a pure democracy in all but the name.
Since this union of Norway and Sweden under one sovereign, there have occurred only two events of any importance in the history of the former. The first was the abolition of hereditary nobility by the Storthing; and the second was an attempt of the Swedish cabinet in 1824 to force on the Norwegian people an entire amalgamation of their country with Sweden. But the firmness of the Storthing or Parliament, the honourable feelings of the sovereign, and, it is said, the interference of Russia on the part of the allied powers, prevented such an infamous attempt to violate the faith of treaties, and bring disgrace upon those who had guaranteed them. Great Britain, as a party to the treaty of 1813, and as having inflicted some injury on the country by her ships of war, was especially bound to protect the liberties and national independence of Norway, and to preserve her from becoming a mere province of Sweden, as Poland is now of Russia.
The facts relative to the abolition of hereditary nobility may be shortly stated. It is fixed that the executive power has not a final veto, but only a suspensive negative, till the law is passed by three successive Storthings. In the year 1815 both chambers of the Storthing proposed and passed a motion to abolish nobility for ever in Norway. The slender remains of this class were of foreign, and almost in every instance of recent origin; besides, few of them had enough of property to enable them to hold a dignified station in society. By the law of succession land is equally divided amongst all the children, so that large estates could not be entailed on the possessor of the family title; and hence, to maintain his rank and respectability, a nobleman must have become a placeman or a pensioner, or engaged in operations which would bring nobility into contempt. The existence of a hereditary nobility in a country where the law of primogeniture was unknown in the succession to real property, seemed therefore an anomaly, which, in any circumstances, could not long be tolerated, and which was altogether unsuitable to the state of things which had long obtained in Norway. The royal assent, however, was refused to the proposed enactment in 1816, and again in the year 1818, after it had passed through a second Storthing. To prevent it from passing a third time became the grand object of government; for then it would necessarily have become the law of the land, with or without the royal consent. In 1821, the year when the measure was to be again brought forward, the king in person repaired to Christiania, and used every means to induce the Storthing to abandon it; but in vain. Six thousand soldiers were marched to the neighbourhood of that city, to overawe both the legis-
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1 In the article containing the accession of England to the treaty, after various mutual stipulations, there is a provision containing the following words—"And his majesty the King of Sweden engages that this union shall take place with every possible regard and consideration for the happiness and liberty of the people of Norway."
2 It is a fact worthy of being recorded, that the committee which drew up this constitution, and laid it before the National Assembly, sat only four days, viz., from the 12th to the 16th of April. That so perfect a model of a free constitution should have been framed in so short a period is truly marvellous; especially as it was not a rough, unfinished outline, but a system of government complete in all its details. At this critical moment, when the flames of civil war were about to be kindled, both the Russian and American ministers interfered. What arguments or remonstrances they employed are unknown; but the fact is, that government lowered its tone, the troops were withdrawn, and the Swedish government gave way. The Storting having passed the measure abolishing hereditary nobility for the third time, it consequently became law. Norway therefore remains a pure democracy, federally united with the monarchy of Sweden. Its constitution has outlived two dangerous attacks upon it; and as the principles upon which it is based have been developed by practice, it has gained additional strength, and been further secured by the love and veneration of the people. The sudden disjunction of Denmark and Norway left, of course, much business to be adjusted between individuals of the two countries. It thus occasioned much distress and loss to persons having connections and property in both; and it still produces a constant intercourse. Few, we believe, will admire the manner in which the union between Sweden and Norway was effected; but as few will doubt the benefits which must result to both from the exchange of mutual hostility for mutual cordiality, and to a certain extent an identity of interests.
If the reader turn to the map of Europe, he will find that Norway extends from the 58th to the 71st degree of N. Lat., and at the broadest from the 5th to about the 31st degree of E. Long. On the E. it is bounded by Sweden and Russian Lapland, W. by the North Sea, S. by the Skagerrak, and N. by the Arctic Ocean. At the broadest part it is scarcely 300 miles across, and N. of the 63d degree of latitude the breadth is very inconsiderable, the country narrowing to a mere belt. Its shape is peculiar, and, in the main, it resembles that of a Florence flask,—the rounded bottom being presented to the south, and the long narrow neck stretching to the north. Norway thus begins about the parallel where Scotland ends. The most southerly headland in the former, that is the Naes, is nearly in the same parallel as the Pentland Frith, which divides the latter country from the Orkney Islands. The sea-coast presents many features similar to those which characterize Iceland, the north of Scotland, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and other islands and continental tracts of country exposed to the storms, the currents, and the perpetual buffettings of the Northern Ocean. The action of the sea alone, however, could not have formed such immense fissures as are found in the solid primary rock on the Norwegian coast. The theory of the elevation of the land by volcanic impulse from below seems alone sufficient to account for such phenomena.
The greater part of Norway may be said to have an outer and an inner coast, the former being a succession of rocky islands of all dimensions, from a mere point to more than a mile in length, and lying within about a mile of the mainland, thus circling all the coast as with a girdle. Boats and small vessels make their coasting voyages within the rocks; for, even when the ocean is strongly agitated, the outer barrier acts as a sort of breakwater, preventing the channel within from being thrown into violent commotion, except where directly open to the sea, when the wind rushes in with great force and agitates the waves.
Those immense arms of the sea which penetrate deep into the country are called fiords in Norway; a name in geographical nomenclature identifying them with the firths of Scotland, to which they bear a slight resemblance, and also to the maritime lochs so numerous on the west coast of that country; but the nearest approach to similarity, although it falls far short, is an inlet of the sea on the west coast of Ireland known as the Killeries. To enumerate these fiords were only to present a catalogue of names designating the same object in different situations and of different sizes. They vary from 60 to 200 miles in length, and from being several miles to less than a gunshot in breadth; and altogether they constitute one of the most remarkable physical features of the country. In many of these fiords the rocks rise precipitously on either side, and the water is of great depth. The inland streams generally empty themselves into the fiords; and, as in the case of the firths of Forth, Clyde, and others, in Scotland, it is often difficult to say where the river ends and the ocean begins. All along the rock-bound coast these arms of the sea succeed each other with much regularity. In penetrating within their sombre and sometimes dangerous mouths, the scene is all at once changed, presenting at the bottom of these bays, creeks, and other indentations, towns of a pleasant and cheerful aspect, and banks finely wooded with all the varieties of those forest trees which we are accustomed to meet in more temperate latitudes,—such as oak, ash, elder, and elm trees,—and studded with cottages, farmhouses, and country residences, indicating taste and comfort, if not luxury and wealth. The tide rushes into many of those fiords with great violence, especially on the north-westerly quarter of the peninsula. This is readily accounted for from the fact, that the interior basins are often very capacious, whilst the mouths by which the water flows in to fill them are frequently very confined. Opposite to Folden Fiord is the Maelstrom, or Moskoestrom, long celebrated as the most appalling whirlpool in Europe; but it owes much of its reputation to the exaggerated accounts of travellers. It is situated nearly at the extremity of the range of the Lofoden Islands, beginning between Moskoernes and Moskoe, and exhausting itself between Varoe and Rost, the last of which is the most westerly of the Lofodens. The whirlpool is simply caused by the rushing of the ocean, as the tide rises and falls, between this chain of islands, which impedes its course like the narrow mouths of the fiords. The relative position of the surrounding islands causes the Maelstrom to form a large circle; and the great inequalities of its bottom, which, from a few fathoms, deepens suddenly in many parts to 200, increase the violence of the current. A coast like that of Norway, so beset with irregular currents, islands, and rocks, many of the latter close under water, requires at all times to be approached with extreme care, but particularly so in westerly gales, when it becomes a lee-shore. The Norwegian government has recently completed a series of splendid charts, on a scale of 5 inches to the mile (with necessary sailing directions), of the whole coast, from the Christiania Fiord, round the North Cape, to the Russian frontier in the White Sea; a most important and valuable addition to hydrography, of which the lamented Sir Francis Beaufort, our hydrographer of the navy, did not fail to avail himself, and caused fifteen large sheets, together with an index chart, to be published therefrom in 1855, for the benefit of British mariners. Neither are there wanting admirable maps of the interior, prepared by Professor Munch, by Capt. Rosen of the Engineers, and by Cpts. Waligorski and Hergoland.
The interior of Norway is almost one immense mass of Mountains, rocky mountains and plateaux. It is mountainous, but it is Norway, so rather by reason of its general elevation than from the conspicuous altitude of its summits. The mountains do not form continuous chains or ridges; neither are they a series of detached elevations; but, especially in the S., they form plateaux or table-lands of great breadth, and generally more or less connected together, though occasionally separated by deep but always narrow valleys. These table-lands are the fjelds of Norway, and are usually distinguished by specific names, as the Dovre Fjeld, Seigne Fjeld, Stagen Fjeld, &c. Their summits are often so level that, did roads exist, a coach and four might be driven along and across them for many miles. The surface of the country may be distinguished into two distinct portions—the comparatively narrow district extending from near Trondhjem to the North Cape, a distance of more than 600 miles, and the more expanded portion, 400 miles in length, from Trondhjem to the Naes of Norway. Throughout the former portion the mountains cling, as it were, to the coast; and though Norway here occupies only one-fourth of the breadth of the peninsula, it contains all the more considerable elevations. They assume here more the form of a connected range than in the southern part of the country, and are known by the name of the Klölen Mountains. The highest land is the mass called Sulitelma, some of the summits of which rise to the height of more than 6000 feet above the level of the sea. South of Trondhjem (in Lat. 63° N.) the high ground occupies by far the greatest part of the breadth of Norway, and on the parallel of the Dovre Fjeld, fully half the breadth of the peninsula. "By a rude estimation," says Professor Forbes, "on Professor Keilhan's map, I find that the portion of the surface of Norway, S. of the Trondhjem Fiord, which exceeds 3000 feet above the sea, amounts to very nearly 40 per cent. of the whole; and when it is recollected that only one summit exceeds 8000, and that the spaces exceeding 6000 are almost indistinguishable on the map, it will be more clearly understood how completely the mountains have the character of table-lands, whose average height probably rather falls short of than exceeds 4000 feet." (Forbes.) The Dovre Fjeld, lying between 62° and 63° of N. Lat., is a table-land of an average height of rather more than 3000 feet above the sea, and having mountains rising, in the case of Sneeboette, and possibly one or two others, to the height of above 7000 feet. Ymer-Fjeld, the highest summit in Norway, in Lat. 61° 30' N., is estimated at 8400 feet above the level of the sea.
Travellers are proverbially prone to give exaggerated descriptions of the physical features of the countries which they traverse; and from this cause our ideas of the height of some of the Norwegian mountains, and the sublimity of the scenery which they present, have occasionally been pitched rather above the truth, which is the case with respect to the Dovre Fjeld. Mr Laing, in his excellent account of the country, thus describes this great natural feature of Norway:—The Dovre Fjeld here (at Jerkin, on the northern verge of the range) may be from 24 to 28 miles across. When we give things their real names we take away much of their imagined grandeur. The Dovre Fjeld sounds well, and we fancy it a vast and sublime natural feature. It really is no more than a fell, like those of Yorkshire or Cumberland; an elevated tract of ground, whence run waters in opposite directions, and which forms the base of a number of detached hills of moderate elevation. In fact, as a scene impressing the traveller with ideas of vast and lonely grandeur, the tract from the waters of the Tay to those of the Spey, by Dalnacardoch, Dalwhinnie, and Pitmain, greatly surpasses it. You are indeed 3000 feet above the level of the sea; but that is not seen; it is a matter of reflection and information. You look down upon nothing below you, and look up only to hills of moderate elevation. Sneeboette alone comes up to a mountain magnitude: it is 7300 feet above the sea; but this fell is 3000 feet at this farm-house (at Jerkin), which is about 12 miles from the base of Sneeboette. The actual height, therefore, of this mountain, for the eye, is about the same as that of Ben Nevis, about 4300 feet, with the disadvantage of gaining its apparent height by a slow rise from the fell. There is a considerable mass of snow in a hollow on the bosom of Sneeboette, but not more than remains for great part of the summer on hills in Aberdeenshire,—nothing like a glacier. The head and shoulder are clear of snow. The most extraordinary feature of this mountain tract is, that the surface of the fell, and of Sneeboette to its summit, is covered with, or, more properly, is composed of, rounded masses of gneiss and granite, from the size of a man's head to that of the hull of a ship. These loose rounded masses are covered with soil in some places; in others they are bare, just as they were left by the torrent which must have rounded them and deposited them in this region."
The glaciers of Norway are neither so numerous nor so remarkable, either in beauty or extent, as those in Alpine countries. The Norwegian mountains are, for the most part, continuous table-topped rocks, of an average height of from about 3000 to 6000 feet, intersected with deep fissures, forming the valleys, lakes, rivers, and fiords at their base. On the highest summit of these table-topped mountains the snow lodges, the point of perpetual congelation being between 4000 and 5000 feet above the sea-level. It lies very deep, and in some cases extends in almost one uniform mass for many miles. The largest of these snow-fields is that of Jostedalsbraen (sometimes called Sneebrunn), and Folgefonden; the latter an extensive plateau of some 30 miles long, by 6 to 18 miles in breadth. Professor Wittich, who ascended the Folgefonden, says, that at most places the snow-field extends to the steep precipices with which the mountainous mass on which it rests terminates on all sides; and that in those places where its edges could be observed, the snow had a thickness of about 40 feet.
Thanks to Professor Forbes, who visited Norway in 1851, we have now been made acquainted with the physical geography of that country, in connection with the snow-fields and glaciers, of which little or nothing was previously known. He describes the Nygaard Glacier, on the Jostedalsbraen, as in all probability the most regularly developed glacier in Norway. Like the glaciers of Bondhus and the Suphelle Glacier, it sweeps down into the very midst of the verdure of the valley. Professor Forbes's observations extended also along the entire coast, up which he proceeded in one of the Norwegian steamboats which every summer thread their way to the North Cape through the numerous islands which lie off the land. The glaciers are not so numerous as might be expected to the northwards, but in some cases they descend very close to the sea, as in the case of those of the Nus Fiord, "the northernmost glaciers on the continent of Europe which descend below the snow-line."
There are a number of lakes in Norway, the largest of which is the Myosen (now traversed by a steam-vessel), a river-splendid sheet of water, about 60 miles in length, and from 1 to 10 in breadth. Its scenery has been classed with the pastoral or beautiful, rather than with the sublime. Its shores are well cultivated; and with the exception of a few rough promontories dipping into the lake, the slopes are easy, and yield fine crops of oats, here, flax, pease, and potatoes. Its direction, like that of a great many of the lakes and rivers in Norway, is from N.W. to S.E., crossing the 61st parallel of N. Lat. The depth of the Myosen varies greatly, but it is considered shallower than most of
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1 Laing's Residence in Norway, p. 52-3. Norway, the other Norwegian lakes. The depth in the lower parts is not more than 40 fathoms; often it is much less; but in the upper part it has been found to exceed a hundred. Yet even this is nothing in comparison with the depth of the other lakes, particularly of the Fjeldm Soe, which is reputed to be unfathomable; a distinction always allotted to the deepest lake in every mountainous country. A large stream, called the Vormen Elv, issues from the southern limit of Lake Myosen; and at Lillehammer, which is its northern extremity, it forms a communication with Lake Losna by the River Lougen. Into this lake flows a river which rises in the Dovre Fjeld range of mountains, and appears to be the one alluded to by Mr Laing in the following passage:—"The stream which runs through Gudbrandsdal and the Myosen, and reaches the sea at Fredericksdal, being the same I left at Lien, comes down from the hills at or near Lessoe, and is there divided into two branches, one of which, as above stated, runs into the Myosen, and the other into the North Sea at the fiord in Romsdal amt, in which the town of Molde is situated; thus including in its delta between four and five degrees of latitude, and all the west and south of Norway. The course of this little river from Lessoe to the sea is very important, as it gives precision to our ideas of the shape and direction of the Dovre Fjeld, and its connection with the Hurunger, the Fille, and the Hardanger Mountains." This river must therefore have a course of probably 100 miles in a north-westerly, and above 250 in a south-easterly direction. It is in several parts of its course of considerable breadth, and at more than 100 miles from its embouchure is described as a large, dark-coloured, and rapid river. A still larger stream is the Glommen, called by way of distinction Stor Elven, or the Great River, from its being the largest in Norway. It rises in the government of Trondhjem, not far from Oresund Lake, through which it runs; and it afterwards traverses the extensive government of Christiania, flowing through Osterdalen and Hedemarken, passing Kongsvinger, and finally falling into the sea at Fredericksdal, after a course, reckoning its sinuosities, of probably more than 400 miles, all in Norway. From the heart of this continent it opens an easy communication with the ocean, and through its means the produce of the interior is brought down to the coast. At about 200 miles from the sea it is described as a fine majestic stream, 200 yards in breadth. Navigation, however, is obstructed by numerous falls, one of which, not far from its mouth, is called the cataract of Sarpen, the roar of which is heard at a great distance. There are other falls on the same river; but the most stupendous natural phenomenon of this description is situated upon the opposite side of the mountain range, on streams which flow into the North Sea. Mr Lloyd (and all subsequent travellers agree with him) describes the falls of Bjukanfoss and Voringsfoss as particularly grand, the first having a perpendicular descent of 450 feet, and the second of 900 feet, the body of water in both cases being very considerable. Mr Forsell, in giving some statistical information regarding Norway, mentions other falls even more stupendous than these. The waterfalls of Norway are, in fact, extremely numerous, and some of them are grand beyond description.
"Running water of a bright and sparkling green is seen on every side, at least in the valleys; it pours over cliffs often in a single leap, but more frequently and more effectively in a series of broken falls, spreading laterally as it descends, and riveting the imagination for a long time together in the attempt to trace its subtle ramifications. The sound is rather a murmur than a roar, so divided are the streams, and so numerous the shelves of rock tipped with foam; whilst a luxuriant vegetation of birch and alder overarches the whole, instead of being repelled by the wild tempest of air which accompanies the greater cataract. At other times single threads of snow-white water stretch down a steep of 2000 feet or more, connecting the Fjelde above and the valley below; they look so slender that we wonder at their absolute uniformity and perfect whiteness throughout so great a space, never dissipated in air, never disappearing under débris; but on approaching these seeming threads we are astonished at their volume, which is usually such as completely to stop communication from bank to bank." (Forbes.) There are many other lakes and rivers in Norway besides those which we have described, amongst which we may mention the Torris Elv, called the Odderen Elv during part of its upper course, a large stream, which enters the sea at Christianssand; the Topdals, which falls into the sea near the same place; the Louven Elv, which rises in the Hardanger Fjelde, traverses several long, narrow lakes, passes through Königsberg, and enters the sea near Navig, in Lat. 59.; and between this stream and the Lougen, which lies considerably to the N.E., there is more than one large river. A multitude of streams also run into the North Sea. The most important of these is the Namsen (now the favourite resort of our countrymen for salmon-fishing), which, from its exit out of the lakes that give rise to it, has a course of about 90 miles. From the ground sloping with more rapidity upon this side of the mountain chain than on the other, the water-courses must be considerably steeper. Mr Barrow, in his Excursions in the North of Europe, speaks in glowing terms of the "snow-capped mountains, the fir-clad hills, the lovely valleys, the clear and limpid streams, the clearer lakes, and unfathomable fiords." The extraordinary clearness of the water has been a subject of remark by all travellers, and has no parallel in any other country; neither has it been satisfactorily accounted for. It may possibly be owing to the purity of the water itself, the clear sky, and clear white sandy bottom which often prevails in the fiords. Sir Arthur De Capell Brooke makes the following observations upon the singular clearness of the water:—"As we passed slowly over the surface (of the fiords), the bottom, which was in general a white sand, was clearly visible, and its minutest objects, when the depth was from 20 to 25 fathoms. During the whole course of the tour I made, nothing appeared to me so extraordinary as the inmost recesses of the deep thus unveiled to the eye."
The forests of Norway, as is well known, are large and numerous; but they do not appear to be so extensive as those of Sweden. In the southern parts of Norway, indeed, and up as far as Trondhjem, the supplies of timber are considerable; but to the north of the latter place, and along the sea-coast, as well as on the mountain ranges, wood is not plentiful, many parts of the country being perfectly destitute of it. Norway, however, from the district of Trondhjem southwards, may be considered as a country abundantly supplied with gigantic forests of magnificent trees, amongst which the pine, birch, and aspen are the most celebrated and the most valuable to the inhabitants.
The prevailing rocks found in Norway belong to the Geology primitive and transition series. The west coast is wholly composed of primitive rocks, gneiss and mica-slate greatly predominating. Secondary rocks occur but rarely, and alluvial deposits are not so abundant as in many other less extensive regions. Granite is rare. When it appears, it is frequently in veins traversing the primitive stratified rocks, or running parallel with beds or strata; and sometimes it is found spread over the surface of mica-slate, as at Forvig; or irregularly associated with clay-slate and diabase rock, as in the island of Mageroe. But by far the most abundant rock in Norway is gneiss, all the others of the primitive series appearing to be subordinate to it. Extensive tracts of country, and long mountain ranges, seem to consist almost entirely of gneiss. In some parts it abounds in veins of rose and milk quartz, in iron ores, in garnets (sometimes the precious, but most frequently the common garnet), and other minerals. Mica-slate, however, which rests upon and alternates with the gneiss, is far from being so generally distributed; as is also the case with the clay-slate. In some places steatite occurs in beds, and is quarried in slabs to be used for different purposes. Quartz rock, various hornblende rocks, and limestone occur in beds subordinate to the gneiss and mica-slate. One side of the valley of Shalheim, situated between Bergen and Sognefjord, is bounded by hills of snow-white quartz, which are almost bare, and present mural precipices having a very singular appearance at a distance, from their shining white colour. Gabbro or diabase rock occurs in great quantities, connected with clay-slate, in the island of Mageoer and in other parts of Norway. The class of transition rocks contains, besides graywacke, alum, slate, limestone (sometimes combined with tremolite), and other rocks well known to mineralogists as belonging to the following eruptive series:— Granite, which sometimes contains hornblende; syenite, which contains a beautiful labradorite, and often crystals of the gem named zircon; porphyry, and associated with it various trap rocks allied to basalt and amygdaloid. All the mountains, and especially those of the south, contain a great number of minerals much prized in collections, and of metals valuable to man, amongst which may be mentioned gold, silver, iron, copper, cobalt, and lead. The mines of silver in Norway are situated at Königsberg; but although they once afforded rich returns, they now scarcely repay the labour bestowed on them. Large masses of native silver have been found here; one of them, about 6 feet long by 10 inches in diameter, is now in the museum of Copenhagen, weighing upwards of 500 lb. The Königsberg mines abound with mineralogical curiosities, of which the most remarkable is native electrum, a natural alloy of gold and silver. There is a gold mine at Edswold, in the district of Rommarge, and mines of lead and silver in that of Jarlsberg; but they have not been wrought to any extent. The copper mines of Norway are chiefly situated in the northern division of the kingdom. The most considerable are those at Alten, situated in the 70th parallel of latitude, and worked by a company of Englishmen; and at Röraas, on the Swedish frontier, in Lat. 62° 35' N.; the latter of which were discovered in 1644. These consist of three mines, called the Storvuitz, Röraas, and Ejd. The ore both of the Alten and Röraas copper mines is of the same character; the veins not rich, but numerous and powerful. Copper is supposed to exist to the northward of Röraas, in various parts of the mountain range which divides Sweden from Norway. The other copper mines are from 15 to 20 leagues from Trondhjem, at Quine, Lacken, Selboe, and in the district of Christiania at Fredericksgeve or Fødeled. The principal iron mines are situated in Southern Norway; and of these the most distinguished are those of Arundal and Krageroe. The mines of Arundal are celebrated for the richness of their mineralogical treasures. Many of these are rare, such as botryolite, dahlite, wernerite, scapolite, and morosite; besides abundance of epidote, actinolite, cocolite, and colophonite. The ore (magnetic iron ore) is found in beds of gneiss, of which the country is closely formed. The total quantity of iron ore obtained annually does not exceed 30,000 tons, but it is of the finest quality. The total produce of copper varies from 400 to 500 tons. The mines of cobalt, which are worked at Modum and Fossum, are extensive, but not very deep. There is a mine of plumbago and black lead at Engledal. The mines of alum, which are worked in the mountains of Egeberg, near to Christiania, afford not only a sufficiency for the consumption of the country, but some for exportation. Norway possesses quarries of granite, marble, millstone, whinstone, slate, and clay. Granite is exported to Holland, and marble and other minerals to Denmark.
Some valleys in Norway give abundant indications of ancient their having been lakes of fresh water, which were either lakes, &c., gradually drained as the land became elevated, or, bursting the barriers that confined them, suddenly laid their basins dry. Mr Laing describes one of these in the following passage:—"On ascending the steeps which bound the flat alluvial bottom of the valley on each side, and which consists generally of banks of gravelly soil, one is surprised to find a kind of upper terrace of excellent land, cultivated and inhabited like the bottom, and consisting of the same soil, a friable loam. This terrace rests against the primary rocks of the fjelde, which are here limestone, marble, and gneiss, or rock of the micaceous family, of which the laminae are singularly twisted and contorted; and the terrace has evidently been the bottom of an ancient lake, which has been bounded by these fjelde ridges." The same traveller gives an account of one of those ancient sea-beaches, which, in other countries besides Norway, are calculated to arrest the attention and excite the wonder of the observer of nature. He is speaking of the Snassen Vand, a lake some 60 or 70 miles, north from Trondhjem. "About 7 miles inland from the present sea-strand, at the head of the fiord, and about 60 feet above the present high-water level, there is an ancient sea-beach of a very remarkable character. About the house of Fossum, and 40 feet higher than the lake of that name, the sea-shells are so abundant that they might be applied to agricultural purposes, and they lie close to the surface." At another place in the neighbourhood there is a large bed of shells, which have been used in mending the road for a considerable distance towards Snassen Vand. "They are entire; the upper and under ones of the mussel, cockle, and clam are united, and the mussels grouped together, as in the living state; so that this bed has clearly been the spot upon which the animals lived." From these and other indications, it is concluded that a shore, in a direction nearly parallel to that of the present one of the Trondhjem Gulf, and on a level at least 60 feet higher, has existed at a recent geological period. These beds are not covered with any thickness of decayed vegetable soil, and the shells retain in part their natural hue and enamel. The land, therefore, has been elevated at no very distant period; at what rate per century has not been determined as to this side; but the Swedish philosophers assert that the change of level in the Gulf of Finland is at the rate of 4½ feet in a hundred years. Such could not have been the case on the shores of Norway washed by the North Sea, for the relative positions of known points upon the line of the seashore, to the present level of the sea, are by historical evidence ascertained to have changed little if any during a thousand years. The change of level may have been local, or it may have gone on more rapidly at one time than at another.
Earthquakes have been repeatedly experienced in Norway. History records one which occurred at Trondhjem on the 18th of July 1686, and another on the 1st of April 1692. On the 14th of September 1344, the River Gaul disappeared in the earth; and on its bursting out again destroyed forty-eight farms and 250 human beings. About the same time a great earthquake took place in Iceland. Indeed the whole aspect of this country bears evidence to the fact, that at some period, or more probably at different periods, its surface has been elevated, depressed, and shattered by great convulsions.
From the general elevation of the land, the climate of course rendered more severe than would naturally be- and sell. long to a country under the same parallel, the general elevation of which was more nearly on a level with the ocean. The winters are long and very cold; but, as in all northern climates, their length and severity are in some measure compensated by the great heat, and consequently rapid vegetation, in summer. Towards the east, and in the interior, the winter is longest; the cold, generally speaking, always increasing towards the north. The effects of the sea-breezes upon the general temperature of the coasts of all countries are well known. Winter, however, is very pleasant and salubrious; for although the air is cold, it is dry and bracing, not damp and raw. But the western part, especially about Bergen and along the coast, is proverbially rainy, owing probably to the high mountains, which attract the clouds wafted from the ocean. But the country behind this barrier is on that account particularly dry, perhaps somewhat too much so. In Norway the weather is in general more steady than in Britain; it is either good or bad for considerable periods. The summer season is delightful, and very warm. In narrow glens it is too hot during the middle of the day; but the morning, evening, and midnight hours are charming, and peculiar to this country. The sun is below the horizon for so short a time that the sky retains the glow, and the air the warmth and dryness, which are as grateful to the eye as they are pleasing to the feelings. A little north of Trondhjem it continues above the horizon for the twenty-four hours in the height of summer. Summer lingers long in this country; and, in general, it is an unbroken series of beautiful days. The disagreeable season is the spring (April and May), when, in the transition from winter to summer, the snows are suddenly melted, and the ground is rendered uncomfortable for travelling. Damage is sometimes done in this season by the rapid swelling of the torrents and rivers. When the white covering of winter disappears, vegetation bursts forth at once, and advances with astonishing rapidity.
The mean annual temperature at Christiania is $41^\circ$5, the winter being $23^\circ$2, the summer $59^\circ$8. At Bergen the mean annual temperature is above $5^\circ$ higher than at Christiania, being $46^\circ$8; and while in the summer months the temperature is nearly the same, the winter months at Bergen are, on an average, not less than $13^\circ$ warmer. At Trondhjem, in Lat. $63^\circ$26', N., the mean annual temperature for the year $1826-7$ was $40^\circ$8, being in each month as follows:—November, $33^\circ$1; December, $31^\circ$3; January, $18^\circ$5; February, $16^\circ$7; March, $27^\circ$5; April, $42^\circ$3; May, $56^\circ$8; June, $62^\circ$4; July, $57^\circ$9; August, $54^\circ$7; September, $51^\circ$1; October, $38^\circ$7. At Alten, in Lat. $69.\ 57'$, the average temperature for eleven years ($1837-1848$) was at $9\ a.m.$ $34^\circ$50, and at $9\ p.m.$ $32^\circ$83; mean, $33^\circ$66. The mean temperature of February, which is decidedly the coldest month, is $15^\circ$8; and of August, which is usually the hottest, $54^\circ$3. This range, however, is small compared with the actual extremes on particular days; for we find in $1848$ the maximum at $86^\circ$9, the minimum at $-20^\circ$2. It is rarely, however, that the mercury falls below zero; whilst there is not perhaps another part of the earth's surface on this parallel where the mercury does not freeze in winter. The fall of rain and snow here in $1848$ was $17$'19 inches. The gulf-stream exercises an important influence upon the climate of Norway. Taking its rise in the Gulf of Florida, it proceeds northwards and eastwards, until it breaks on the shores of Europe and Northern Africa, a portion of it striking the western coasts of the British Isles, and being prolonged to the coast of Norway, imparting warmth to water and to land, and effectually repelling the invasion of floating ice, with which the coast of Norway would otherwise be continually menaced. It is a remarkable fact, that the smallest piece of drift ice is unknown on any part of the Norwegian coast, though it extends to Lat. $71$. N.; while off the coast of North America they are occasionally seen as far south as Lat. $41$. N.
The luxuriance of vegetation being abridged by the length and severity of the winter, the soil is thus indirectly rendered comparatively sterile. In America the immense forests are continually enriching the mould with their decaying foliage; but in Norway the paucity of alluvial tracts, the prevalence of rock, seldom far beneath, and often forming the surface, together with the want of vegetable decomposition, materially detract from the quantity as well as the quality of the soil. In some parts it is very rich; and the valleys, in particular, are celebrated for their luxuriant fertility. But much of the soil is thin, and obstructed by rocky knobs rising above its surface, and interfering with the labours of the husbandman. "I have not, indeed," says Mr Laing, "seen in Norway twenty acres of arable land in one field, without some obstruction from knobs of stone." The vegetation of the west coast of Norway is very similar to that of Britain, but in the south and east there is found a completely different flora, approximating to that of Denmark and Germany. The cause of the remarkable difference between the flora, and also the fauna, of the two coasts, may probably in part be referred to the absence of tides on the south coast. This circumstance seems to exercise an important influence on the character of the natural productions of the country; and we the more especially refer to it, as it seems to have been hitherto entirely overlooked by naturalists. At Bergen the tide falls $6$ or $8$ feet, but on the south coast it does not fall $6$ inches.
"In Norway," says Mr Laing, "the trees of the pine tribe are called furu and gran. Furu is our pine (Pinus silvestris), and gran is our fir (Pinus abies); the one is the red wood, and the other the white wood of our carpenters. There are whole districts which produce only furu, others only gran; and this seems not exactly regulated by latitude or elevation. The zones at which different trees cease to grow appear to be a theory to which the exceptions are as numerous as the examples. In Romsdal amt, at Fanne Fiord, near Molde, in Lat. $62.\ 47'$. N., and with a medium temperature of only $4^\circ$ of Reaumur ($41^\circ$ of Fahrenheit), pears, the bergamot, gravestein, and imperial, and also plums, come to perfection; and the walnut tree often bears ripe fruit. Hazel and elm in the same amt form continuous woods, as at Egedal. Yet the gran disappears altogether, although in the same degree of latitude it grows at an elevation of $1000$ feet above the sea in the interior of Norway, and even in Lat. $69$. in Lapmark. It has been found a vain attempt to raise it in Romsdal amt, a locality in which the following trees and bushes grow readily:—Canadian poplar, balsam poplar, horse chestnut, larch, elder, yew, roses of various sorts, lavender, box, laburnum, white thorn, and ivy. Larch brought from Scotland appears to thrive. There must be something in the nature of the plants, not connected with elevation or latitude, that determines the growth of the gran and furu." Wood grows in sheltered situations in Nordland and Finnmark, as far north as Alten Fiord (Lat. $70$.), but of diminutive size, and in limited quantity. Trees in the valley of the Namsen are large enough for building material and the masts of ships. Laing remarks, that he "did not expect certainly to be charmed with the crops in the sixty-fifth degree of north latitude; but the vegetative power, whatever be the cause, is more vigorous here than in the north of Scotland. Some of the largest establishments of saw-mills in Norway are supplied with trees from the forests around the Snasen Vind. Of ordinary productions,—as rye, oats, bere, flax, hops,—there appeared to be great crops. This may well be in a soil and climate which raises such noble forests. Behind the house I inhabited is a standard cherry-tree bearing ripe fruit. It would be a rarity in Scotland to raise them unless against a wall, even eight degrees of latitude south of this." Here Mr Laing found hops cultivated as a crop, while flax ripened so as to be fit for seed. The mountain and common ash are here scarce; the aspen, wild cherry, birch, and the pine tribes, being the trees, and the juniper, wild raspberry, and wild rose, the bushes which generally prevail.
The country south of the Namsen may be considered as capable of producing, in favourable situations, the grains and fruits of England, and these, too, often in the highest degree of perfection. Most kinds of fruit are abundant, but the greatest favourite is the cherry. The crop of cherries is scarcely ever known to fail; and in proof of the abundance of this fruit, it may be mentioned that the Norwegians preserve it in great quantities, and use it in many culinary operations. Amongst the fruits growing wild are strawberries, raspberries, cloudberries, cranberries, and various other kinds of berries. The three first mentioned are considered as delicious, and they are eaten both when freshly gathered, like cultivated strawberries, and after being preserved.
The animal kingdom of Norway requires some notice. As population has increased, the wild animals have of course gradually disappeared, and the bear and the wolf are no longer the terror of the traveller, as they were wont to be. In November the bear retires to some sheltered hole in the rocks of the Fjeld, and remains in a state of inactivity, without food, it is said, until April. Indeed many of the smaller animals—the field-mice, the lemmings, and, Mr Laing conjectures, many of the birds—pass the winter in this climate in a state of occasional torpidity. The wolves are not so dangerous animals as those of the south of Europe. They rarely attack a man, but they will carry off a dog at his side; and they often commit serious havoc amongst the domestic animals. The loss of sheep, calves, cows, and foals, in certain parishes, during the season when they are at pasture, is sometimes immense. Bears also commit depredations of the same kind, but not nearly to the same extent as the wolf, which, when he gets into a herd, bites and tears all that he can overtake. Many horses may be seen scarred by them. The elk is now rarely met with, and in all likelihood has entirely disappeared from this part of Europe. It is described in former times as a magnificent animal, being often seventeen hands in height, and sometimes exceeding in size the largest horse. The glutton or wolverine, so called in America, is reckoned a Norwegian animal. Its total length is not more than two feet and a half, and it flies from the face of man. It feeds chiefly upon beasts which have been accidentally killed; but it will hunt small animals, such as meadow-mice, marmots, and the like, and occasionally attack disabled animals of a larger size. Although not fleet, it is very industrious, and does great injury to the small fur trade in the northern parts of Europe. The rein-deer, which is found in considerable numbers on the Hardanger Fjeld and the Sogne Fjeld, and the diversified qualities of which are so beautifully adapted to the bleak and inhospitable regions in the north of Norway, will be found described in the article Lapland. The author of Notes on a Yacht Voyage to Hardanger Fiord mentions falling in with a herd of from three to four hundred rein-deer when descending from the Folgefonden. "The whole herd was soon out of sight. In the distance it resembled a vast moving cloud against the snow, with a small dark mote in front. The guide said they were not often seen congregated in such large numbers." The beaver, although not extinct, is rare, and lives solitary, not, like the American beaver, in society. A particular kind of dog, with a remarkably fine, soft, and glossy fur, is bred for its skin, which is made into pelisses for winter wear. Besides the wild and tame rein-deer, red deer are pretty numerous in some districts. The fox and the lemming are abundant in some parts, particularly in the north. A multitude of birds inhabit the coasts of the ocean, and Norway furnishes a considerable part of the eider-down, so well known to the luxurious in couches. Game is plentiful; the principal birds being called the tydler, roer, ryper, and jerper. The tydler is the bird known of old in Scotland by the name of capercailzie, and which became extinct in that country, but has been introduced again of late years by the Marquis of Breadalbane and other noblemen. The cock is a noble bird, of the size of a turkey-cock, with a bill and claws of great strength. The roer is the female, and in size, plumage, and appearance so different from the male, that it has received a different name in the language. The ryper is the same as the Scottish ptarmigan, but larger and better clothed. Its flavour, however, is inferior to the game of the Scottish hills. But the jerper is a more delicate bird for the table than any of our game. It is of the grouse species, and about the size of a full-grown pigeon. The silence of the forest solitudes is occasionally broken by the sweep of the eagle's or the heron's wing; but the traveller in Norway is generally struck with the limited number of small birds which he meets in the course of his ramblings. Magpies, the Rota-ton crow, and swallows, are common; but the lark, linnet, thrush, blackbird, robin, and some others common to Great Britain, are little known here. Mr Barrow mentions hearing the cuckoo, not far from Röraas, at an elevation of 3000 feet above the level of the sea. Hares and squirrels are in considerable abundance; and there are some other quadrupeds and birds no strangers in the country, but they are of too little importance to require any particular mention. Amongst domestic animals may be mentioned the horse, goat, sheep, and cow; the goose, the duck, and the turkey, which are also found wild. Of horses there is a small breed very general in Norway, and another of a larger size, which is much esteemed for its swiftness and sureness of foot. "These Norwegian horse are beyond all praise," says Mr Laing; "they scamper down hills as steep as a house roof, and in going up hill actually scramble. They have no objection whatever, if you have none, to any path or any pace; they are the bravest of horse kind." All travellers speak of them in similar terms. They are fed entirely upon hay, which, although merely withered grass, appears to be more substantial than ours, from the wind and powers of the horses, which live upon nothing else. The sheep are shaped like deer, having long legs and small muzzles. Numbers of goats and cows are kept, the milk which they yield being very rich and highly esteemed. Fish abound in the seas, lakes, and rivers of Norway; and the inhabitants not only derive a considerable portion of their subsistence from fishing, but it also forms an important article of export. Salmon-fishing in Norway has become a favourite pastime with many of our countrymen. Amongst the insects, the gnat, or rather mosquito, is found exceedingly annoying. They are in greatest abundance and most venomous in the north. The Furia infernalis, so called from the dreadful effects which follow from its bite, frequents the marshes or boggy grounds. The acute pain and inflammatory swelling which its bite produces are removed by a curd poultice, which is said to be an infallible cure. The entomology of the south of Norway is very similar to that of the south of England, whilst that of the west resembles the entomology of Scotland.
The principal products of the Norwegian farm are—oats, Agridrye, wheat, bere, hops, flax, a kind of bearded spring grain, turfs with potatoes; and a large portion of every farm is set apart to grow grass for the cattle and horses. The grass for the most part is natural, sown grasses for hay being very little cultivated. The land, after a bere crop following potatoes, is left to sward itself with natural grasses for four years, and to form the hay land; so that the proportion of grass to Norway, arable land is much greater than in our farms. The natural grasses do not attain any length, and they are shaven as close to the ground as a bowling-green. The fields are not what is called top-dressed, as with us. The scythe in use is much shorter in the blade than that of Great Britain, and it answers the purpose much better. Potatoes have been much cultivated since 1812 and 1814, when bad crops, and the war then raging, reduced many to the use of bark-bread. A small inclosure for hops is attached to every farm-house; but garden vegetables are little used. Probably the short interval between winter and summer allows little time for attending to any but the essential crops. The hop flourishes with little attention under the sixty-fourth parallel; a striking fact, seeing that this plant is delicate and precarious in the south of England. In farming operations, ditching, draining, and clearing land of vegetable and other obstructions, are prosecuted with great spirit and success. Agriculturists are continually adding to the quantity of arable land in the country by thus redeeming the soil from its original wild state. However, from causes already mentioned, Norway is not capable of furnishing the means of subsistence to any considerable population. Generally speaking, only the glens of the country are inhabited. On the dividing ridges there is little or no cultivation, and, indeed, no soil to cultivate, but only rounded masses of gneiss and micaceous rocks, with juniper, fir, aspen, birch, and beech, growing where they can amongst the stones.
Mr Laing gives a minute account of a Norwegian farm rented by a Scotchman; and as he considers it "fitted to be the representative of a large portion of the estates into which this country is divided," we shall abridge his description. Each farm may be considered as consisting of three divisions. The first is the infield, or what we should call the mains, or home acres, inclosed for the crops and the best hay. The next is the mark or outfield, also inclosed, and affording the out-pasture for the cattle. Parts of it are occasionally fenced off, and broken up for grain, and, when exhausted, are left to sword themselves; so that when the cattle are sent to the fjelde in summer, some hay is got from the mark. There is often a still rougher piece of ground divided from the mark, as a range for goats and young cattle, called the out-mark. The third division is the seater. This is a pasture or grass farm, often at the distance of 30 or 40 miles up in the fjelde, to which the whole of the cattle and dairymaids are sent for three or four months in summer. The huts on these seaters are substantial buildings, with every accommodation necessary for the dairy, and butter and cheese are accordingly made in very considerable quantities. "The farm of my countryman," says Mr Laing, "consists of 1276 maelings, or 290 English acres; but this does not include the seater, which happens here to be on the hills immediately behind the farm, is covered with fine trees, and is of a defined boundary, extending about a Norwegian mile (7 English miles) in circuit. On the measured land, 148 acres are cleared; but, being farmed in the Norwegian style, one-third only bears crops of corn and potatoes. The remainder is always in grass or hay, for the winter support of the cattle. It is natural grass, not top-dressed with manure, and is mown when not above the length of one's finger, so that the proportion of arable land that must be given up to keep the cattle in winter is enormous. It is the system of farming in this quarter; 142 acres outside of the 148 infield are half cleared, being fenced off and ploughed in patches. It bears good grass, but is encumbered in some places with brushwood and stones."
"This farm supports twenty cows, seven horses, and a score or two of sheep and goats. The accommodation for cattle is excellent. They stand in a single row in the middle of a wide house, with partitions between each, and room before and behind greater than is occupied by the animal itself. The cow-house is lighted by glass-windows on each side. The cattle stand on a wooden floor, below which is a vault, into which the dung is swept by a grated opening at the end of each stall." All the cow-houses in Norway are constructed on this large and convenient scale; and neither cows nor horses require litter, which is a great saving of fodder. Besides, they are kept perfectly clean with comparatively little trouble. The value of a farm in Norway depends very much upon the locality. In Foster's Norway (Appendix), one containing about 300 acres of cultivated land, besides some bogs capable of cultivation, and a good little forest of different kinds of wood, is mentioned as having cost about 12,000 dollars, or about £2200 sterling. Twenty years were allowed to discharge the purchase-money, the tenant in the meantime paying a rent of £4 per cent. Many farms, however, of like extent, may be had for one-half, or even one-third of this sum. The one mentioned by Laing was considered worth about 4000 dollars.
"The harvest-work here," says Mr Laing, "and I believe all over Norway, is well done; and parts of their management might be adopted with advantage in our late districts, where so much grain is lost or damaged almost every autumn by wind or rain. For every ten sheaves, a pole of light strong wood, about the thickness of the handle of a garden-rake, and about 9 feet in length, is fixed in the ground by an iron-shod borer; it costs here almost nothing. A man sets two sheaves on the ground against the stem, and impales all the rest upon the pole, one above the other, with the heads hanging downwards." This is certainly a mode very superior to ours; and they have likewise a better way of cutting it, by which little of the grain is lost. But for an account of this process, and other farming operations, we must refer to Mr Laing's work (pp. 96, 106).
The breed of cattle in Norway is fine-boned, thin-skinned, and kindly-looking; the colour is generally white, sometimes mixed with red, but seldom entirely black. The head and muzzle are as fine as in our Devonshire breed. There is so little coarseness about the head or neck of the bull, that the difference between him and the ox is less observable than in our breeds. The cattle are all very carefully attended to, and form an important branch of the husbandry, as dairy produce enters much into the food of every family, and is more certain in this climate than that of grain. The cows, sheep, and goats are more tame and docile than they are in Britain, from the constant care and attendance bestowed on them during the long period which they must stand within doors; and the Norwegians are remarkably kind to their domestic animals. Goats are a favourite stock, and on every farm appear to be much more numerous than sheep. The goat will eat and thrive on the shoots of the dwarf birch, beech, and young fir; but the sheep will not, and in winter it requires some hay. The goat then gets dried leaves and shoots of the beech, which only cost the trouble of collecting and drying them.
Irrigation is carried on in many parts to an extent quite unknown in this country. Hay being the principal winter support of live stock, and both it and corn, as well as potatoes, being liable, from the shallow soil and powerful reflection of the sun's rays from the rocks, to be burned and withered up, the greatest exertions are made to bring water from the head of each glen, along such a level as will give the command of it to each farmer at the head of his fields. This is done by conducting water in troughs made of the half of a tree roughly scooped out, from the highest perennial stream amongst the hills, through woods, across ravines, along the rocky and often perpendicular sides of the glens; and from this main trough lateral branches shoot off to each farm. The farmer distributes this supply by moveable troughs amongst his fields, watering each rig successively. The quantity of land traversed by these artificial water-courses is very great, In winter, when agricultural operations are suspended, the Norwegian employs himself in making all the implements, furniture, and clothing, which his family may require; thrashing out the crop, attending to the cattle, driving about to fairs, or paying visits. The heaviest of his occupations is driving wood out of the forests, or bog-hay from the field where it is made in summer by those who attend the cattle. The distillation of potato-brandy was, until very lately, general all over Norway, every common bonde or peasant proprietor distilling his own few barrels. The vice of drunkenness, however, had become so flagrant, that it was considered necessary by the Storting to place very stringent restrictions on the sale and manufacture of spirits; and now private stills are strictly forbidden, and spirits are only allowed to be sold in the towns. The improvement in public morals, in consequence, has been very marked. In the valley of the Miosen Mr Brage made inquiries as to the general morality of the bonders of the province, and learned that intoxication was certainly very much diminished since government had made it so difficult to get brandy, and that altogether there was a great progress; which doubtless is the case in all other districts.
The thrashing machines in general use amongst agriculturists are similar in construction to those of Scotland; and some have grinding machinery attached to them. There is an institution of a very peculiar nature, which is quite common all over Norway. In this country there are no merchants equivalent to our corn-dealers, nor are there any weekly markets held for the sale of grain. There are no middle-men between the grower and the consumer, and any surplus grain which the farmer may have is stored up in what may be called corn magazines, which are just large warehouses erected in various parts of the country, as the necessities of the inhabitants require them. What grain the farmer thinks he will not require he conveys in sledges to these places, and for every eight bushels which he deposits, he receives nine at the end of twelve months; in short, he lays it out at interest, and has an increase of one-eighth per annum. If, however, he has none deposited, or overdrews, he pays for the quantity received in loan at the rate of one-fourth of increase per annum; so that for every eight bushels which he takes he pays back ten at the end of twelve months, or at that rate for whatever time he may have the loan. This is, in fact, a savings-bank for corn, and is probably the most ancient of these institutions. The small profit which occurs upon these transactions defrays the necessary expenses of building and keeping up the magazines, which are entirely under the management of the bonder or peasant proprietors. In Norway the bulk of the farmers have no rent to pay, the property being their own; the articles which their farms produce constitute nearly the whole of the food or raiment which they and their people require; and there are not, as in other countries, considerable masses of population in towns and villages, who, not being producers of food themselves, must obtain it from those who are; so that the farmer is less dependent upon money-bringing crops than is the case with us. If he raise what is sufficient for his own household consumption, with a little surplus for sale to purchase a few luxuries, all the purposes of farming are served with him.
*Property in Norway is held by what is called the udal or odal system of rights, not from any superior, not even from the king, but, as the possessors proudly express it, by the same right by which the crown itself is held; consequently there is no acknowledgment, real or nominal, as feu-duty or reddends, paid. In this country all lands are theoretically said to be held from the king; and, according to Sir Edward Coke, we have no allodial lands. In Norway estates are allodial, the absolute property of the owner; they are therefore possessed without charter, and are subject to none of the burdens and casualties affecting land held by feudal tenure direct from the sovereign, or from his superior vassal. There is, in short, a total negation of the feudal principle; there is neither superior nor vassal; so that the military service which the latter paid to the former in consideration of the land which was granted appears never to have existed in Norway; and as this constituted the foundation of the law of primogeniture, so where such service was entirely unknown, there was no necessity for that law, which consequently remained equally unknown. In all feudal countries the eldest male heir has to pay an acknowledgment to the feudal superior on his entering as vassal in the land. But udal, or noble land, as the word signifies, not being held for military service to a superior, no *delectus persone* as to who should inherit it was competent to any authority, and consequently no preference of the eldest male heir could grow into the law of succession to land. Hence the land came to be equally divided amongst all the surviving children, male and female. There appears, however, to be a species of entail connected with the udal tenure. If the udalman in possession should alienate to a stranger, the next of kin has a right of redemption on paying the price of the land. This is called the Odelaar's Ret, and all the kindred of the udalman in possession are what is called Odelsbarn to his land, or, in other words, have a certain right in the order of consanguinity. By recent enactments, this right of redemption has been limited in its exercise to a period of five years; and it is provided that all improvements, as well as the original price, must be paid for.
The equal partition of property amongst children by the udal tenure has prevented the accumulation of property in large masses; but, as might have been expected by theorists, it has not led to subdivisions of estates to an injurious extent. "The division of the land appears not," says Mr Laing, "during the thousand years it has been in operation, to have had the effect of reducing the landed properties to the minimum size that will barely support human existence. I have counted from five-and-twenty to forty cows upon farms, and that in a country in which the farmer must, for at least seven months in the year, have winter-houses and provender provided for all the cattle. It is evident that some cause or other, operating on aggregation of landed property, counteracts the dividing effects of partition among children." In another place Mr Laing says, "The estates of individuals are generally small; and the houses, furniture, food, comfort, ways and means of living among all classes, appear to me to approach more nearly to an equality to one standard than in any country in Europe. This standard is far removed from any want or discomfort on the one hand, or any luxury or display on the other. The actual partition of the land itself seems, in practice, not to go below such a portion of land as will support a family comfortably, according to the habits and notions of the country; and it is indeed evident that a piece of ground without houses upon it, and too small to keep a family according to the national estimation of what is requisite, would be of no value as a separate property. The heirs accordingly either sell to each other, or sell the whole to a stranger, and divide the proceeds. The duty of the Sorenskrivere, or district judge, consists chiefly in arranging this kind of chancery business, and all debts and deeds affecting property are registered with him."
The cause which, according to Mr Laing, has prevented excessive subdivision is, "that in a country where land is held, not in tenantry merely, as in Ireland, but in full ownership, its aggregation by the deaths of co-heirs and by the marriages of female heirs among the body of landowners, will balance its subdivision by the equal succession of children." This is undoubtedly true; and when taken in connection with other facts, may sufficiently explain the case. Mr Laing informs us that the standard of living is Norway; high in Norway; or that the population is much better clothed, lodged, fed, and generally provided for, than our labouring and middling classes in the south of Scotland. The dwelling-houses of the meanest labourers are divided into several apartments, and have wooden floors and a sufficient number of good windows, with some kind of outhouse for cattle and lumber. Their food and clothing are equally good and substantial. Now it seems quite clear that a people habituated to such a standard of subsistence and comfort will not only not suffer their condition to sink indefinitely below it, but by prudence and foresight in the contraction of marriage and the raising of a family, will keep down their numbers considerably within their means of subsistence. In Norway, that condition which secures respectability to a common man is one in which he commands not only all the comforts, but most of the luxuries of life common to the country; and the natural desire of all mankind to keep up caste, to maintain themselves in that station in which they were born, not to decline from it, and fall, as it were, out of the ranks, will operate as a most powerful check upon the minute subdivision of land. There are other causes in operation, to which our circumscribed limits will only admit of our adverting. These are the ancient and confirmed habits of the people, which may be taken into account as a corollary of the preceding proposition; and the absence of impediments, such as fines or alienation, or imposts of any kind, in the way of sale or conveyance. Where such fines exist, the difficulties of re-uniting land which has been subdivided are great and annoying.
The bulk of the population in Norway consists of two classes of landholders: those who have farms larger than they themselves can cultivate, and those who exclusively farm their own estates. The first are called proprietors, a sort of conventional term, equivalent to our esquire; the smaller landholders, who work upon their own estates, are called bonder, a term, as appears, nearly equivalent to feuar in Scotland. The incomes of the former seldom exceed L150 or L200, although there are some who possess as much as L3000 or L4000 sterling per annum. The Norwegian valleys are crowded with bonder farms, which are very numerous throughout the country, and, with their look of plenty and completeness, may compete with the richest and most beautiful in Scotland. Mr Laing draws a very pleasing and interesting picture of this class of people, whose comfort and happiness may indeed be inferred from a short statement of facts. They are owners of their own little estates, which produce all the necessaries of life, and afford a surplus for the payment of taxes and the purchase of luxuries. They are exceedingly well lodged, and the families live abundantly; the manner of living, indeed, is pretty much the same amongst all classes. These, and the comfortable assurance that in case of death the udalman leaves his wife and family provided for, are certainly calculated materially to promote human happiness. "This class," says Mr Laing, "are the kernel of the nation. They are in general fine athletic men, as their properties are not so large as to exempt them from work; but large enough to afford them and their households abundance, and even a superfluity, of the best food."
Besides the bonder, or agricultural class, properly so called, who occupy all the most fertile lands in the country "from the shore-side to the hill-foot," whereon corn will grow, there is another class called fjeld bonder, who form a connecting link, as it were, between the class above described and the wandering Laplander. They also possess land, and have houses which, although small, are comfortable; but being above the level of the corn-growing country, their situation is not so favourable, nor is their condition equal to that of the other small proprietors. The fjeld bonders are "the hewers of wood and drawers of water" in Norway; but they still possess property in cattle as well as in land, and they are described as extremely hardy and active, and as having more robust frames than the agricultural bonder. There is yet another class of the population which is altogether distinct from any of the preceding, consisting entirely of fishermen, whose social condition must be considerably inferior to that of the others.
In the provinces of Nordland and Finnmark, which occupy the northern part of Norway, beyond the River Nam-sen, agriculture is but a secondary business, and fishing may be said to occupy most of the attention of the inhabitants. Indeed, a Norwegian writer says, that were it not for the Norwegian fishery, the whole of Finnmark and a part of Nordland would be inhabited only by nomad Finns, and the towns all along the coast would languish and disappear. The crops of grain are too inconsiderable and precarious to afford them the means of subsistence, and the riches of the deep are brought in as a compensation for the poverty of the land. The winter fishery in the Lofoten Islands, from the middle of January to the middle of April, and the summer fishery over all the coast, which in some branch or other gives employment for the remainder of the year, furnish the inhabitants with the means of purchasing the necessaries which they require.
The Oxonian in Norway, by the Rev. F. Metcalfe, published in 1856, gives a very complete account of the Lofoten fishery; and from that work we extract the following particulars:—The fishermen begin to arrive in open boats from all parts of Norway soon after New Year's Day, and take up their positions along the coast, from Balstad on the W., to Bretessøen on the island of Great Molle on the E. In each boat there are generally five men, one of whom commands and takes the helm. At Henningsvær, a favourite station, as many as 900 boats congregate; and it is computed that there are at least 3500 boats, giving an aggregate of 21,000 men, employed exclusively in fishing. Besides these, there are numberless jaegts and jugs, belonging to merchants from far and near along the coast, which come to buy oil and fish, and sell groceries, &c. At Svolvær alone there were no fewer than 140 of these vessels. The fishermen live in huts along the shore, which, together with the permission to fish, they hire of the proprietors of the adjoining land at certain rates fixed by government. If the morning is fine and the weather suitable, the government officers appointed for that purpose hoist the requisite signal, and the boats go out and set their nets and lines generally at right angles to the run of the coast. If the weather is bad, no signal is hoisted; and every one venturing out under those circumstances is liable to a fine of $5 dollars, and to have all his fish seized. Most of the day is consumed in fishing with a hand-line, and in taking up the nets and long lines. On getting to shore, the fish are gutted and hung up to dry on poles and cross-bars, which they hire of the proprietors along the coast. These are stock-fish (so called because they are dried on stocks or poles), and are unsplit. Others, which are sold to the owners of the jaegts, are split open, salted down, and packed flat in the holds of these vessels. On obtaining a cargo, they leave for home; and on arriving there, the fish are taken out of the vessel, washed, and dried upon the rocks. These are klip-fish—i.e., rock-fish. The laws of Norway are very stringent regarding the preparation of the stock-fish. None are allowed to be taken down before the 12th of June, nor are any allowed to be hung up after the 14th of April. There is a fine of 2 dollars on every hundred fish taken down or hung up before or after the above dates respectively. Everything is managed according to strict rule, and under the surveillance of government officers. During the period of the fishery no steamer is allowed to come near, for fear of driving away the fish. All the fish caught after the 14th of April are prepared as klip- Norway. fish; but the fishing is virtually over then, and the men leave the Lofodens, returning, however, in the course of the summer to take away the stock-fish. The cod-liver oil so extensively used in medicine is prepared from the livers, which are put into barrels brought from home for the purpose, or sometimes sold to merchants on the spot. The best oil is that which exudes from the natural fermentation of the liver. Cod-liver oil is not obtained solely from the cod-fish, but also from others, as the shark, the ling, and especially the sei or coal-fish, its liver being richer in oil than that of the cod. It is caught in large quantities in summer, especially in the Bay of Varanger. Cod-liver oil costs on the spot from 5 to 6 dollars the barrel of 120 pots, and a wine-bottle holds about three-fourths of a pot; so that, in round numbers, at the highest price, it costs about 1s. the imperial gallon.
All the towns export fish. Bergen exports more than one-half the stock-fish; but of late the Romsdal towns, as they are called, have become dangerous rivals to it in the klop-fish trade. Half the oil goes from Bergen. There is still a heavy export duty on all kinds of fishery products. About £6000 are also raised annually by the duty on salt, the greater part of which is used in curing the fish. Until 1831, a tithe of all the fish and oil was paid to the church of the district; but instead of this tax, which was very vexatious, and led to numerous disputes and much dishonesty, an extra tax of two shillings per waag (36 lb.) is levied on all fish exported; while on oil the additional duty is 12 shillings (5d.) per tonne (30 gallons). The value of the different kinds of fish annually exported is estimated at about one million sterling. The quantities are given in a subsequent table.
Besides these important general fisheries, there is in every creek of the fiords, even at a hundred miles up from the ocean, abundance of cod, whitings, haddock, flounders, sea-bream, and herrings, caught for daily use and for sale by the seafaring peasantry. The rivers and lakes are likewise well supplied with fish (the former with salmon), which may indeed be said to constitute the basis of a Norwegian repast. Dried and salted fish is sent in great abundance to the Mediterranean, and also to Hamburg and Holland. Lobsters are caught among the rocky islands in immense numbers for the supply of the London market. Anchovies are also caught in prodigious quantities.
The manufactures of Norway are too unimportant to detain us long. Wood and fish are the chief produce of the country; and these find their way to every part of Europe, chiefly in Norwegian vessels, which in return bring home whatever foreign articles are required, at the cheapest possible rate of freight. The import duties are very moderate. Before the importer pays his duties, he is allowed to take his goods to his own warehouse and shop, upon giving security for the amount of the duties ascertained by the custom-house officers at landing; he also keeps an account of his sales, and pays the duty every three months upon the quantity which appears to have been sold. This must be of great advantage to the dealer in a country so poor as Norway, since it leaves his capital entirely free for active employment. Coffee, sugar, tea, French brandy, and French and Spanish wines, tobacco, and a limited quantity of spiceries, are the principal articles for which the housekeeper has to disburse money. The other necessaries of life are produced by themselves. Shoes, furniture, clothes, and the like, are all made at home. Looms are at work in almost every house in the country; carding, spinning, and weaving forming constant occupations of the female part of the household. Woollen cloth, substantial but coarse, excellent bed and table linen, and checked or striped cotton or linen for female apparel, are the ordinary fabrics produced. These homemade stuffs, including boots, gloves, and in bad weather great-coats, clothe the greater part of the inhabitants, and more comfortably than is the case with the lower and middle classes of people in most other countries. The upper ranks, or the people of condition, dress as in other parts of Europe; and as living and lodging are nearly on a level amongst all the respectable classes, the peasant proprietor, and those more wealthy than he is, this wearing of foreign articles by the latter, and home-made stuffs by the former, would seem to constitute a kind of conventional distinction between them.
The principal articles of export are timber, bark, iron, copper, fish, and some others. The principal articles of import are corn; colonial produce; woollen, linen, and cotton goods; wine; brandy, &c. The following is the quantity of fish exported from Norway in the year 1855, viz.:
| Fish Type | Quantity | |-----------------|----------| | Stock-fish | 10,274 | | Cod-Liver Oil | 78,894 | | Klop-fish | 22,318 | | Anchovies | 11,337 | | Cod Roe | 30,668 | | Salmon, smoked | 4,551 | | Herrings, salted| 519,868 | | Salmon, salted | 77 | | Other Fish, salted| 3,040 |
In the year 1854, 31,000 quarters of oats were exported, which Mr Crowe states is unparalleled in the annals of the trade of Norway, but is likely to be repeated, as the province of Hedemarken, which is now brought into connection with the capital and sea-coast, is pre-eminently suited for the growth of that cereal. The total amount of cereals imported in 1851 was 631,390 imperial quarters; in 1852, 602,110 do.; in 1853, 567,192 do.; in 1854, 425,975 do.; and in 1855, 492,591 do.
Mr Crowe further remarks that there has been a general increased importation of many articles, attributable to the prosperity of the country and the reduction of duties on a variety of articles entering largely into their domestic economy.
The deals of Christiania have always been held in the highest estimation; a consequence of the excellence of the timber, and of the care with which the sap-wood and other defective parts are cut away. Like many other branches of the trade of Norway, that of preparing wood was formerly fettered by pernicious restrictions; the sawmills being licensed to cut a certain quantity only, and the proprietors bound to make oath that it was not exceeded. But this absurd regulation no longer exists.
The following is a return of timber and deals of every description, exclusive of deal-ends for splitwood under 20 inches long, lathwood, &c., exported from Norway in the years specified, viz.:
| Year | Quantity | |------|----------| | 1851 | 632,727 | | 1852 | 701,462 | | 1853 | 776,845 | | 1854 | 743,468 | | 1855 | 737,557 |
The amount of wood under 20 inches, called splitwood, exported to Great Britain in 1855 was 40,980 loads.
British manufactured goods are admitted into Norway on moderate duties, and are very generally made use of.
The weights and measures of Norway are the same as those of Denmark. With regard to money, the principal and most common silver coin in circulation (for there are none of gold) is called a species dollar, which is divided into one hundred and twenty shillings. There are also half species, one-fifth species, one-tenth species, one-twentieth, and what is denominated skillemynt, or small change—that is, four and two shilling pieces of silver, and also one-half, one, and two shilling pieces of copper. The dollar is worth four shillings and fourpence three farthings sterling at the present rate of exchange. There are, besides, notes of one dollar, half a dollar, and twenty-four shillings, all printed on white paper. The notes of five dollars' value are on blue paper, those of ten dollars on yellow paper, those of fifty on green paper, and those of one hundred on red paper.
The Norwegian finances are in a flourishing condition, the revenue having latterly increased considerably. The Bank of Norway, which was founded in 1816, has its head-office in Trondhjem, with branches in the principal towns, and is under the direction of five stockholders, with a council of fifteen representatives of the other proprietors. The transactions of this bank are conducted upon a principle totally opposite to that of the Scotch and other banking establishments. It is there considered as a first principle that the bank should hold only available securities, as bills or bonds at a short date, or payable at a short notice, for its issues or advances. The national bank of Norway is therefore a bank for landed property, and discounts mercantile bills and personal securities only as a secondary branch. Its chief business is advancing its own notes, upon first securities over land, any sum not exceeding two-thirds of the value of the property, according to a general valuation made in the year 1812. The borrower pays four per cent. for what he draws, and is bound to pay also five per cent. of the principal yearly. This kind of bank is exceedingly well adapted for the wants of the country; and their paper can scarcely be considered as less secure than their silver.
The Norwegian army consists of some 24,000 troops of all arms. Two companies belonging to each regiment in the Norwegian service are trained to the use of the skidor or skate. This corps, called the skidöbere, move with singular agility and speed, and, whilst skating along with the greatest velocity, perform their military evolutions with uncommon precision. The army is at the disposal of the king, as far as its services can be rendered available in Scandinavia; it cannot, however, be sent beyond the limits of the peninsula without the special permission of the Storting. The king has the nomination of the superior officers of the army, as well as of some few of the first civil officers under the government; that of others rests with the Storting. Norway is governed by a viceroy, appointed by the King of Sweden; Christiania, the capital of the country, being the seat of government. She contributes nothing towards the expense of the Swedish government, beyond a trifling annual allowance to the royal family; but she supports all her own civil and military institutions.
The Norwegian navy consists of 3 frigates, 5 corvettes, 4 brigs, and 124 gun-boats. They have also 13 steam-vessels of war, of, in all, 1,490 horse-power, the largest being of 200 horse-power. Nine of these are employed in the royal mail service, under the command of naval officers. During the summer months three ships are usually commissioned for a summer's cruise with cadets.
The officers of the Norwegian navy consist of a rear-admiral and 6 commodores, 12 captains, 12 lieutenant-captains, 24 first lieutenants, 35 second lieutenants, and 64 petty officers; besides 100 cadets, and 120 artillery cadets. In case of war, every male is bound to serve a certain period either in the army or navy; and there are about 50,000 seamen, whose names are on the registers, liable to serve.
There is a great difference in the pay of the navy and merchant service, the latter being more than double; but, as in our own case, the seamen are far better fed and provided for in the naval service. The merchant seamen are generally engaged either in the transatlantic or North Sea and Mediterranean timber trade, or in the fisheries. They are described as amongst the hardiest and best race of seamen in the world, and accustomed to live on coarse fare, and put up with many hardships to gain their livelihood.
The mercantile marine of Norway has greatly increased within the last few years, as appears by the following return:
| Year | No. of Vessels | Tonnage | Crews | |------|---------------|---------|------| | 1851 | 4496 | 412,437 | 24,057 | | 1852 | 4742 | 427,234 | 23,388 | | 1853 | 4893 | 454,856 | 26,545 | | 1854 | 5129 | 501,860 | 28,063 | | 1855 | 5241 | 538,964 | 28,638 |
Vessels of all nations now trade with Norway, and her ships are to be met with in every foreign port. Mr Crowe, the intelligent consul-general at Christiania, remarks that "a few years ago, the Norwegian flag was scarcely ever seen beyond the confines of Europe; now it waves in every part of the globe."
Some very interesting and elaborate statistical tables connected with the population and productions of Norway, compiled from government sources, was published in Christiania in 1857. From these it would appear that the following is the total amount of the population in 1855, viz.—
| Province of Christiania | 643,135 | | Christiansand | 244,413 | | Bergen | 242,914 | | Tromshjem | 237,313 | | Tromsoe | 132,212 | | **Total** | **1,400,047** |
The following is the amount of the population at various former periods:—1769, 723,141; 1801, 883,038; 1815, 885,431; 1825, 1,056,318; 1835, 1,194,827; 1845, 1,328,471; and 1855, 1,490,047.
The increase of population has chiefly taken place amongst the agricultural classes; and the additional food raised for their support, together with the advance of the people, is to be attributed partly to additional tracts of land having been taken in, and partly to improved methods of cultivating the old soil.
The kingdom of Norway is divided into five sees or stifts, each of which is divided into a certain number of districts, divisions corresponding to its size and importance, and these again into parishes, of which there are 336 in the country. The dioceses are—Christiania, containing Christiania, the capital; Christiansand, the largest town in which bears the same name; Bergen, containing the large and important city of the same name; Trondhjem, which contains the city of Trondhjem, situated on the south shore of a great fiord of the same name; and Tromsoe, comprising the northern territories of Nordland and Finnmark. The stifts are thus distributed:—Christiansand occupies the southern extremity of the country; Bergen and Christiania occupy, the former the western, and the latter the eastern side of Norway, where it is widest, extending over its whole breadth in that quarter, and being separated by the great mountain chain; still further north lies Trondhjem, which is succeeded by Tromsoe, the most northerly region of Norway, and of which the reader will find some account in the article LAPLAND. Each district, called a fogderie or bailiwick, is under a foged, who has charge of the collection of taxes, police, and all executive functions in his district. Besides this public functionary, there are military officers, who have official residences in the district; and the amtmann, and sorenskrivere or judge ordinary. Christiania, Bergen, Trondhjem, and the other large towns in Norway, will be found described under their own respective heads.
The Norwegians enjoy more political liberty than any other European nation. The parliament, called the Storting, is chosen by the owners or life-renters of the land, who have attained the age of twenty-five years complete. The minimum value which gives a vote is 150 dollars, or L33; a value which, from the large diffusion of property, renders the suffrage nearly universal. To render the elector himself eligible as a representative, it is only necessary that he should be thirty years of age, have resided ten years in Norway, and be altogether unconnected with the state. The voters choose electing men, 1 to every 50 voters in towns, and 1 to every 100 voters in counties. The electing men, on a day fixed by law, choose their representatives, and the body thus elected forms the Storting. The proportions of members chosen is founded on the principle that the towns in Norway should as nearly Norway. as possible return one-third, and the country two-thirds of the whole body, which must not consist of less than 75, nor of more than 100 members. Each district elects as many substitutes as it elects representatives, to provide against death and other casualties. The Storting is chosen every three years, and is assembled only once in three years, when it sits for three months, or until the business be despatched. The 1st of February is the day of meeting fixed by law.
An extraordinary Storting may be convened by the king, but its acts must be confirmed by the next regular Storting. After some preliminary business, such as electing a president, speaker, and secretary, the Storting divides itself into two chambers. One-fourth of its whole number is formed into a second chamber, called a Lagting, or division, in which the deliberative functions of the legislative body are vested. No bill can be introduced there; it must come from the other house, which is called the Odelsting, or House of Commons. The Lagting can only deliberate upon what is sent to it, and approve, reject, or send back the bill with proposed amendments. It is also the court before which, aided by the Hoieste Ret Court, an independent branch of the state, the lower house may impeach ministers of state. The Storting consists, in fact, of three houses—the Lagting, the Odelsting, and the entire Storting. In this latter all motions are made and discussed; and, if entertained, are referred to committees to report upon to the Storting. The report, when received back from a committee, is debated and voted upon; and, if approved, a bill in terms of the report is ordered to be brought into the Odelsting. This house entertains or rejects the proposed bill, frames and discusses the enactments, if it is not rejected in toto, and sends it up to the Lagting or upper house, to be deliberated upon, approved, rejected, or amended. In regard to the passage of bills through these two houses, the practice of the Norwegian Parliament does not differ materially from that of our own, except in the more limited functions of the Lagting, the king having only a suspensive veto. But if a bill pass through three successive Stortings, it becomes the law of the land without the royal assent. This was exemplified in the case of the bill, already mentioned, for the abolition of hereditary nobility.
The duties of the Storting need not be minutely specified; they may easily be inferred. The members are paid for their services; and no executive officer of government can sit in either house. The clearest and most concise account of the constitution of Norway will be found in Mr Forester's Rambles in Norway, published in 1850, and in Mr Brace's Norse-Polk, published in 1857.
For legal purposes, the whole country is divided into five stifts or provinces, and these are farther subdivided into 17 amts and 64 judicial districts, each of which last comprehends several prestigids or parishes. To each of these divisions there is a distinct tribunal, with a supreme court of ultimate appeal for the whole kingdom, established at Christiania. The lowest court, which is strictly one of equity, not of law, is the court of mutual reconciliation or agreement held in every parish, and over which presides a commissioner, who is elected every three years by the householders, and holds his court once a month, receiving a small fee. Every case or lawsuit whatsoever must pass through this preliminary court, where no lawyer or attorney is permitted to practise. Each party states his own case; and if by the judgment or advice of the commissioner the parties are brought to agree, his opinion is duly registered in another court held in the parish, and it has all the validity of a final decision. If, however, the litigants are not satisfied, they carry their case to the lowest legal court, that of the sorenskrivere, or sworn writer, which is held in every parish of each district once in every quarter. The sorenskrivere's court is of great importance. Besides judging civil and criminal matters, it is the court of registration affecting property in the district, and also of ascertaining the value of, and succession to, the property of deceased persons. The court next above is the stift-amt court, or that of the province, and is thus constituted: It consists of three judges with assessors, is stationary in the chief town of each province, and is the court of appeal from all the lower tribunals of the province, having at the same time the revision of their administration. It must likewise sanction their decision in criminal matters before sentence can be pronounced. There is, lastly, the Hoieste Ret Court of final appeal. It consists of seven judges, and, by the ground law, is one of the three estates of the constitution, being independent of the executive and legislative branches. To this court appeals are carried in the last resort, from the stift-amt courts, in criminal as well as civil cases.
The Norwegian system of jurisprudence presents some remarkable features, not the least important of which is, that the judge is responsible for his legal decision; and in a case of appeal to a higher court, he must there defend his judgment, being liable in damages for a wrong decision. This principle involves a high responsibility, and must occasion some individual annoyance, as well as expense; but it does not prevent able lawyers from becoming candidates for judicial functions; and beyond all doubt it is of great advantage to the public in giving certainty to the law, and in preventing as well as remedying erroneous decisions. The punishment of death was abolished by the Danish government about the latter end of the last century, a measure of questionable expediency in this country, at least where the secondary punishments are by no means perfect. But the punishment which is found the most effective, and which forms one of the most distinguishing characteristics of the country, is that of the "loss of honour." From the earliest times this has been a specific punishment in the criminal law of Norway, standing next in degree to the loss of life. There is, and always has been, much more of the real business of the country in the hands of the people of Norway, and transacted by themselves, than is possessed by the inhabitants of any other European nation. Now, as the "loss of honour" involves exclusion from all the functions which naturally devolve upon them, the punishment is very severely felt, and looked upon, even by the humblest peasant, with the greatest dread.
The Norwegian Church is in principle and doctrine Lutheran, and remains as it was originally moulded after the subversion of the ancient faith, unaltered by the spirit of innovation, and unviolated by the hand of power. It is essentially ceremonial, and has been considered by some almost as much so as the Roman Catholic. Mr Forester, however, justly observes, that such persons look only at the surface of things. "They have been startled," he says, "by the array of images on the altar, the display of rich vestments in the celebration of the eucharist, and the use of the unleavened wafer, together with a high degree of reverence, accompanying the administration of that sacrament; and from these appearances have been led to conclusions which are by no means justified." "It would be more correct to say that the public worship of the Lutheran Church essentially differs from the Roman Catholic, and has a close affinity to that of the Church of England. It is, indeed, ceremonial and liturgical. . . . But there is nothing superstitious in her ceremonial; and her ritual, like our own, contains nothing that is contrary to the Word of God." The altar of the Norwegian Church is decorated with crosses and images, and the priest, arrayed in embroidered robes of velvet, celebrates high mass under that name. There are in Norway 336 prestigids or parishes, and many of these are exceedingly large, extending in some parts from the sea-coast to the Swedish frontier, and containing from 5000 to 10,000 inhabitants. This is certainly a low provision for religious instruction; but the people, generally speaking, are scattered all over the country, not clustered in towns and villages; and although individually they are not affluent, they are at least respectable, notwithstanding that as a whole they are poor. Under such circumstances parishes must necessarily be large. There are five bishoprics in Norway, each of which has in it a number of inferior clergy. The patronage is in the hands of the five bishops and the council of state, a committee of which has charge of all the affairs of the church. The incomes of the clergy are derived from tithes, commuted into a payment of grain, glebe farms (one of which the widow has for her life), offerings, and dues. These incomes in country parishes vary from £150 to £350; but in large towns or thickly-settled parishes they are higher. The bishops have about £800 to £900 each. In proportion to the other professional classes in the country, the clergy are well paid, and the church has always been the first profession to which talent is naturally directed. The clergy are laborious and zealous in the discharge of their duty, the church service forming the smallest part of it. They have school examinations, Sunday schools, and other institutions for the promulgation of Christian knowledge. It is a peculiar characteristic of the Norwegian Church that there is no dissent from it; there are no sectarians in the country. In political rights and privileges the clergy are on a footing with the rest of the inhabitants, and are represented in the Storting like other citizens. One chief cause of the influence of the ministers of religion, and the absence of dissent, is the high consideration in which the right of confirmation is held. The person who has passed this ordeal is regarded as having received a moral as well as a religious diploma, which capacitates him for an office of trust and responsibility.
There are few countries, perhaps, where education has of late years been more attended to than in Norway. In all the large towns there are public schools, and academies and schools for mechanics and artisans. The latter are called drawing-schools, of which there are eight, where mechanics are instructed in modelling, drawing, mathematics, &c. In the diocese of Christiania alone, Mr Brace tells us, that there are no less than 197 stationary schools, besides a high school. In many of the towns there are charity schools, where the children of the poor remain during the day, while their parents are at work. These are supported by public and private contributions. Education is very generally diffused; but great difficulties exist, owing to the population, though not numerous, being so scattered. In the country parishes there are parochial schoolmasters, of whom some have fixed residences, and others live for one-half of the year in one place, and for the other half in another. A small tax is levied from each householder, and every adult pays a small personal fee. There is a considerable degree of intelligence evinced in some of these communities; but the schools are too widely scattered over a thinly-peopled country to be equally beneficial to all. It may be mentioned, that the clergy pay particular attention to the diffusion of education. The higher department of university education at Christiania is expensive; and, besides, there is not such a demand for educated men in the medical, legal, and commercial professions, as in more densely peopled and commercial countries, the tendency of which undoubtedly is to raise the standard of intellectual proficiency amongst all classes of the community. Those belonging to the learned professions are not numerous, because the demand is not great, and the supply is adjusted accordingly. The restrictions on the free exercise of trade and industry also operate with great force in depressing general education. Before a person can enter upon any medical or legal employment, before he can manufacture, buy, or sell as a merchant, he must obtain peculiar privileges from a corporate body. "As the expense of preparation," says Mr Laing, "and the small number of prizes to be obtained, place the higher and learned professions out of the reach of the main body of the people, as objects of rational ambition, for which they might endeavour to bestow superior education upon their children; so the restrictions and monopoly system shut them out from various paths and employments for which ingenuity, with ordinary useful education, might qualify them."
From the general diffusion of periodical publications, the Norwegians are a reading people. What is of great importance to the community is, that the press is by law perfectly free. There is no duty on newspapers. Every little town has its local newspaper; and from the importance attached to local subjects there discussed, the bulk of the community are the purchasers, not the educated few. In type and paper they are superior to the French or German papers, and much ability is shown in conducting them. There is no scurrility nor personal abuse displayed by those who write in them; yet the most entire freedom of discussion exists, public men and public measures being handled freely but decorously, and with a strict eye to the general good. Several monthly journals are devoted to literature, antiquarian, agricultural, and military subjects; and in almost every newspaper there is the announcement of some new work or translation. Yet the literature which ought strictly to be considered as Norwegian is not yet of a very high order, compared with that of other countries. But the mind of the country is advancing, and literature, which is young in Norway, will advance along with it.
The inhabitants of Norway are very polite in their manners, as well to each other as to strangers. There is a natural bonhomnie among the peasantry which is very agreeable to meet with; shaking your hand for the smallest benefit conferred upon them, even for the payment of what is their due. They are partial to theatrical representations, so that the drama holds a high place in their estimation; and, besides the public theatres, there are societies of amateur performers in all the larger towns, and even in some of the villages. In music, dancing, and dress, the Norwegian females are by no means deficient. They have pleasing voices, and in every family of every station singing and dancing are constantly practised in the long winter evenings. Music is taught in the country by the organist attached to each parish. In the winter regular fairs are held, at which Swedes and Laplanders attend for disposing of goods. Mr Bayard Taylor tells us, in his Northern Travels, that at Raabyen, which is a large village, with a stately church, the people were putting up booths for a fair in Lat. 65° N., in the open air, with the mercury freezing. Christmas is kept in great style, and there are other festivals and various amusements which serve to relieve the tedium of winter and spring. The 17th of May, also, being the anniversary of their independence, is celebrated both at home and abroad by every Norwegian, and with marked propriety. Mr Laing gives a favourable account of the state of morals in Norway; but, without impugning so high an authority, if we are to take bastardy as a test, the statement is not borne out by the facts. The proportion of illegitimate to legitimate children is as 1 to 10; but the evils entailed upon society by illegitimacy are partially alleviated by the state of the law in respect to this. Children are not only rendered legitimate by the subsequent marriage of the parents, as in Scotland, but the father, previously to his contracting a marriage with another party, may, by a particular act, legitimize them. The Norwegians are, at all events, a very hospitable, honest, industrious, peaceable people, and the great mass virtuous in the opinion of all travellers.
Norway is not deficient in her charitable institutions. Mr Charitable Brace, in his work entitled The Norse-Folk, or a Visit to the Homes of Norway and Sweden, considers Bergen as the most conspicuous town for its institutions of charity. He states, that with a population of 28,000, it appropriates Norway. L6500 per annum to the poor and sick, besides the sums for public institutions. There are the Old Sailors' Asylum, 120 inmates; the Widows', 31 inmates; the Old Warders', 30; the Old Citizens', 60; Leprous Hospital, 600; Hospital, 120; Insane Asylum, 50 inmates. The mode of disposing of the vagrant and criminal children is similar, says Mr. Brace, to that adopted by private organization in his own country (America),—"the sending them to individual homes in the country, where responsible parties are bound to support and educate them." There seems to be a very regular and exact visiting of the poor by public inspectors, who are bound to serve without pay for four years. These report if the children do not attend school, or are vagrant, or falling into criminal habits; they also dispense assistance, and give permits for the different asylums and institutions."
At Christiania there is an institution for vagrant and houseless girls, the Eugenia Stift, which, the same author tells us, seems excellently managed; and a new insane asylum, "a large building arranged on the best modern principles. There is no wall about the asylum, and the view is exquisite, enough in itself to be a cure for the diseased mind."
The government of Norway, aware of the value and importance of steam navigation, has made great and judicious exertions to promote it. This is a country where it is calculated to produce its greatest benefits, from the manner in which the peninsula is traversed by long arms of the sea, penetrating sometimes to its very centre. Steam-vessels are now seen plying on these fiords, and during the summer months they navigate the whole coast from Christiania to the North Cape. They are commanded by naval officers; the fares are moderate; and in all that regards the comfort of passengers they rival our own. Roads and bridges are kept in a state of excellent order; a circumstance likely to happen in a country of proprietors, whose common interest it is to keep them in repair. There are no tolls in Norway; the principle of the farmers and others is to work in concert, and to keep up establishments for the common benefit. A railway, the only one in Norway, not long since opened, runs from Christiania to Eidsvold, and will be continued to Minde, at the foot of the Møsefjord Lake, a distance of 50 or 60 miles. A steamboat thence plies to Lillehammer, at the head of the lake, a further distance of about 70 miles, thus opening a direct communication to the sea with one of the most productive parts of the interior. The easiest approach from England to Norway is from Hull, whence there is a weekly steam communication with Christiania during the summer months; but to those not fond of the sea, the best route is by Calais, and, taking the rail through Hanover, Hamburg, and Kiel, proceed by steamboat to Korsos, and again by rail through Zealand to Copenhagen, whence there are steamers through the Cattegat to Gottenburg and Christiania. Many of our countrymen now visit this delightful country.
The worst feature, perhaps the only thoroughly bad one in the institutions of Norway, is that the trade is not free. Each trade is monopolized by a sort of guild or fraternity, by which even country dealers are licensed. The pernicious effects of such a system are sufficiently manifest, and we shall close our account of this interesting country with the following observations, extracted from a work of great authority on such subjects:
"The principle of equal partition of land among all the children, retained in Norway from the earliest period, prevailed also in England before the Conquest. A relic of it remains in the law of gavelkind, still existing in Kent. The different effects produced on society by the retention of that law in the one country, and its general disuse in the other, are remarkable. In Norway, chiefly by its operation, a high standard of sufficiency has been preserved among the middle and labouring classes. Population has been prevented from increasing too rapidly by the fear which people have of falling below the general standard. There has, therefore, been a continual prevalence and diffusion of ease and wellbeing. But on account of the absence of great inequalities of condition, and therefore of many of the usual stimulants to exertion, society has been kept at a low level. Great social freedom has indeed always existed, in consequence of the land being in the hands of the mass of the people; but there has been a want of ability, until a very recent period, to combine for the preservation of their political independence. During their earlier history, their political liberties were often variable and uncertain. After the union of their crown with that of Denmark in 1880, it appears that the Danish nobility gradually encroached upon their privileges; for when, in 1660, the crown and the people combined against the nobility, and abolished the states in Denmark, a similar revolution also took place in Norway; and that country continued under absolute government until the establishment of its constitution in 1814. Their udal laws trained them in the management of their own affairs, and produced that feeling of self-respect which the possession of property, and of land in particular, is calculated to give. These, together with the civil institutions preserved or introduced whilst they were under the Danish crown, prepared them for the large measure of freedom to which they have now attained. The evil of their udal system is its tendency to obstruct the development of intellect, and to keep society stationary. But since 1814 they have made great progress. Stimulants to mental activity are now no longer wanting. Their continual collision with Sweden, the pressure of their internal restrictions on trade and commerce, the routine of their government, and the wholesome struggles always arising in a free state, will supply them. Their land will become more productive, by the application of science to its cultivation; their trade will also be expanded." (Edinb. Review, No. cxxxii, p. 60.)
(J. F. S.)—(J.—N B.—W.)