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To the Fjeld, then, to the Fjeld! with its beautiful flora and mosses, its sport, its avalanches and landslips, its balmy air and soothing zephyrs. To the Fjeld—off to the Fjeld!
R. T. P.
I.
CHRISTIANSAND AND CHRISTIANIA.
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GAMLE NORGE—AN EARLY MURRAY—UNEXPLORED STATE OF THE COUNTRY—THE PIONEERS OF SPORT—CROSSING THE NORTH SEA—NOT THEN AS NOW—CONTENT OF THE PEASANTS—CHARM OF THE FJELD—CHRISTIANSAND—CHRISTIANIA—THE EMIGRANT’S VICISSITUDES—THE VICTORIA HOTEL AND OSCAR HALL.
Forty-five years ago Norway and its salmon fisheries were unknown luxuries. Even as late as 1839 Murray published a post-octavo Handbook for Travellers in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, in the preface to which occur the subjoined passages:—
“The principal object of the following pages is to afford such of my travelling countrymen as are disposed to quit the more beaten paths of Southern Europe, and explore the less known, but equally romantic, regions of the north, some useful information as to time and distance, which at present they can only obtain by time and experience. Beyond Hamburg all is unknown land; no guide-book contains any account of the Baltic steamboats, still less of the means of travelling, either by land or water, in the more distant lands of Norway and Sweden. At the steam-packet offices in London you may learn that an English steamer sails three times a month from Lubec to Stockholm, but no further information can be obtained.