Many consider this the grandest scenery of the whole Norwegian coast, and affirm that nothing in Europe surpasses it.
Small local steamers make the circuit of the Lofoden Islands, calling at all the little hamlets; but to fully enjoy the journey one should be a good sailor, for along the west side of the islands one is exposed to the full sweep of the waves of the Atlantic.
To the south of the islands is the celebrated Malström, a cataract formed by the tide pouring through a narrow strait, where the water foams and seethes over deep sunken ledges, and presents an imposing scene when a contrary wind strikes the angry billows.
As we steamed along a fjord in the midst of superb scenery, we remained on deck watching again for a view of the midnight sun. The sun was behind a high mass of rock jutting out into the fjord; across the water the snow mountains glistened and glowed in the sunlight, and the water sparkled beneath the midnight sunbeams. It was half an hour before we passed the rocky hill hiding the sun’s disk, and when we arrived at the point where we should have seen it, the sun was obscured by clouds. The stilly hour of midnight was as light as day, and even without bright sunshine the effect was indescribably lovely, as the mountains, islands, and sea were bathed in the mellow light.
In the far North, millions of sea gulls whirl around their rocky eyries, and circling over the steamer dart downward to skim over the water, bearing away a fish as their prey; wild ducks and sea fowl of various kinds fly through the air, and the greyish-brown eider ducks are seen on the reefs and rocky islets.
There is a law prohibiting the shooting of the eider ducks, from which a large revenue is obtained. The ducks congregate on the little islands, where they build their nests, lining them with the soft fluffy feathers which they pluck from the breast. The natives visit the islands gathering the feathers from the nests, which the birds proceed to reline, thus furnishing the eider down of commerce, that is so extremely light and warm, and is used so extensively for the filling of quilts, pillows, and the small square feather beds under which the Germans especially delight to sleep. The finest of the feathers are made into wraps and garments that are marvels of lightness and warmth.
We had some eider ducks’ eggs boiled for breakfast; they were four inches long, with a beautiful bluish-green shell, but their taste was too strong to be palatable.
Among the cabin passengers was a young Englishman, who stammered so badly that at times he was wholly unintelligible. He could speak but a few words of Norwegian, yet he left the steamer at a little out-of-the-way place intending to go into the interior to fish for salmon, being very confident that with the aid of his phrase book he could make himself understood.
As he would stand, apparently for several minutes, helplessly struggling with his l’s before he could say l-l-l-l-l-l-lax, we wondered if the short Norwegian summer would be long enough for him to pronounce such simple little words as gjæstgiveri, bekvemmeligheder, or gjennomgangsbilletter, and others of like length, that go to make up a Norwegian conversation, and which it would seem to require the nimblest of tongues to glide over.
What his fate was we never learned, but perhaps the unfortunate stutterer fell a victim to his own temerity, choked by the first mouthful of Norwegian consonants, and lies buried beneath a lofty pyramid of cods’ heads.