CAMP AT LEANING-STONE, SJIRIAGLNS.
A party of English travellers passed towards Veblungsnœs, and another towards Christiania. One young lady, who saw Noah fishing, asked if he had caught any. Our gipsies returned to tea at eight o’clock. Plenty of fried trout, tea, fladbröd, and butter formed our meal. Zachariah was very cold, and unwell at tea, with severe pain in his shoulders. We sent him to bed, and rubbed him with brandy, and gave him some to drink. One young peasant came, and seemed to have ridden some distance to see the donkeys. The valley of our camp was beautiful. Like Rasselas, we seemed completely shut in from the outer world; that portion of the valley towards Veblungsnœs, by the Sjiriaglns Fjeld, which forms a barrier of three lofty bastions of rock, jutting forth in rugged outline, and rounded summit, marked with streaks of snow.
Sterile crags of dark and green rock have here and there cascades, falling through the air, from the highest summits of these mural precipices. No egress seems possible from below. White fleecy clouds of mist gather on the upper cliffs, relieved by the green verdure which clothes the sides of the valley. The foliage creeps and feathers up the high ramparts of rock, till lost in the regions of desolation and sterility. What magnificent waterfalls leap forth from the hidden recesses of mist and cloud. They fall in thick white foam, are scattered in floating spray, glittering in a myriad of spangles, when illumined by the passing gleams of sun. Down, down, the white foam falls to depths far beneath. Birch-woods mingled with the fir stand forth from their mossy beds, and line the valley with the richest colouring. The gurgling waters of the Rauma wind their course along, fringed at the sides with birch and alder[63], wild flowers, grass, and fern. Unceasing moisture gives the freshest green, and a luxuriant ground of varied colour carves forth a natural setting, to the romantic woods of birch, the juniper, and the Norwegian pine, unrivalled in conception, and inimitable by the art of man.
About eleven o’clock at night we were writing these notes by the leaning-stone, near the remains of our camp fire, when the old man from the nearest log cottage came up, and asked what o’clock it was. As he came noiselessly round the leaning-stone, we motioned him to take a seat, on a loose piece of rock near to us. When he sat down we noticed that he was one of those deep-lined featured men, who seem worn by exposure and hard living. Telling him the hour, he looked curiously at our gold watch, which we at once showed to him. This was supplemented by a glass of brandy, and some tobacco, with which he filled his pipe. As he sat by the embers of our fire, in answer to some questions about the winters in Norway, the peasant looked fixedly, and earnestly at us, and said, “Meget kalt, meget ice, meget snee,” and he raised his hand high above the ground. The tone in which he slowly said these words, in deep-marked emphasis, we shall not easily forget. Many of his countrymen, he said, went to America. The peasant then asked about England, and its climate. He told us there were many reindeer, and he went after them into the mountains. No one was allowed to shoot them from the 1st April to the 1st August. He remained sitting with us, and talking by the large stone. At last he suddenly asked what o’clock it was, and when we told him the hour, he wished us good night, and departed. It was nearly twelve o’clock when we went to bed.
During the night Zachariah was groaning and complaining; his head was very bad, and his stomach. Noah was up at twenty minutes past four o’clock, and he had breakfast ready at twenty minutes to five o’clock. We gave Zachariah a hot glass of brandy-and-water with sugar. Our breakfast consisted of the remainder of our trout and grayling. Zachariah could take very little to eat or drink. The morning was fine, the sun just tipped the edge of the mountains above the valley. We decided to go if Zachariah could be removed, when the sun had reached us in the valley. We got Zachariah out, and placed him in a snug corner under the leaning-stone, whilst the tents were struck, for it was about eight o’clock. When near the river, a tall young English traveller passed, who was anxious to catch the steamer at Veblungsnœs, and, saying the scenery was the finest he had seen, asked if we had caught many fish. He was soon after followed by a traveller in another carriole, whom we took to be his friend. The donkeys being loaded, we placed Zachariah on the packs of one, and were leaving, when a man came up just in time to see the donkeys, with which he was much delighted. We left him sitting on a rock watching us as we went out of sight.
The sun became clouded before we had proceeded far down the valley. The two first cottages we passed were shut up, but at the third we saw a peasant woman, who seemed much pleased when we gave her an empty bottle. The three small homesteads of this part of the valley were of the most humble description—far inferior to an out-building, or hovel of some of our second-rate farms in England. Ventilation is scarcely ever thought of, and cleanliness much neglected. We were told that a clever scientific Norwegian gentleman had lately given especial attention to this subject, and had written upon the sanitary condition of the Norwegian people. It rained heavily as we passed through a succession of narrow and romantic glens, of the valley of the Rauma. The peasants collected as usual with unabated interest to see our donkeys. Purchasing a mark of fladbröd and butter at one place, and a mark’s worth of butter at another, we passed “Kors,” and at a large house which we believed to be the Fladmark Post Station, they came up to the road, and grass was placed for the donkeys to refresh themselves. They all seemed to give us a friendly welcome. The Rauma formed most picturesque falls and torrents along its rough and broken course. Sometimes we passed through pine woods on its rocky shelving banks, and at other times through the cultivated land of some Bondegaard. As we travelled onwards all was enclosed from the road, and though inclined to halt for dinner, we could not find one convenient place. Our gipsies, notwithstanding the dismal weather, were as lively as usual, and wandered at times from the road in search of wild strawberries, cranberries, and bilberries. They had a plentiful harvest of bilberries, and even Zachariah’s voice lost much of the melancholy of its tone. At length we entered a wild valley shut in on the left by Troldtinderne, commonly translated into English as the “witches’ peaks,” but we were informed by an excellent authority that the translation should be the “magician’s peaks.” Nothing could be more wild and picturesque in outline. In front, as we advanced, rose the magnificent single peak of steep gray rock called the Romsdalshorn, rising to its lofty height from the hanging crags which formed a massive wall of rock to the valley in the distance below. On our right the dark precipices of the Mangehöe rendered the valley narrow and secluded. It was impossible not to feel the wild grandeur of the scene. The broken barren ground forming a hillock below the precipice of the Mangehöe seemed just suited for our camp. At a house beyond, the peasants were collecting in the road to see us pass, and, taking Noah, we asked if we could camp. A man said, “Ya, ya.” The donkeys were at once turned from the road across some rough ground. The hillock in sight of the road was gained, and our tents pitched in the heavy rain. Peasants—men, women, and children—collected to see us. Some well-dressed boys also came, and may have belonged to a pleasant residence, across the Rauma, which we had seen before coming to our camp. It was with difficulty we could moderate the loud energy of our gipsy housekeeper; indeed she required a very heavy curb to repress, at times, the too boisterous spirits of her wild free heart. Our tents being pitched, our middag’s mad was prepared. The Australian meat was excellent as usual, and fladbröd and butter completed the meal. The butter we had bought at the farm en route was not good. Our gipsies pronounced it bad, and it was ordered to be used for frying purposes. This was the only instance when we had met with indifferent butter; at other times we found the Norwegian butter exceedingly good.
The woman of the nearest house showed Zachariah where he could get water for our tea, and we bought from her two pounds of very good butter for two marks, six eggs for twelve skillings, some milk eight skillings, cream six skillings, and from another woman a small goats’ cheese eighteen skillings.
In the evening we had tea, and fladbröd, and the goats’ cheese. The cheese was good of the kind, but the gipsies pronounced it “ramulous.” It is not unusual to find in those classes of people, who may be said to be poor, proneness to criticise what is placed before them, and often to have a greater want of economy than many who have been accustomed to plenty. In this instance we spoke in its favour, and said it was good enough for our camp, and in a day or two the gipsies took a great fancy to it, and in a very short time it was all eaten.
After tea we gave the peasants, who collected at our tents, some music. How we enjoyed the picturesque scene; wild nature seems to give singular inspiration. The music of a mountain land has a melody peculiar to itself. It seems to come forth from the deepest recesses of the heart,—those fine vibrations in nature, which seem but the echoes of other worlds. First we sang them our gipsy song with violin and guitar accompaniment; then the “Mocking Bird.” Afterwards we played a number of airs. Sometimes we played the tambourine with the gipsies, sometimes the castanets. It rained, but what cared the Norwegian peasants for rain? There they sat till about ten o’clock, when we told them that after two more tunes we should go to bed. The music ceased; a kindly good night, and they left our camp. Then we watched the splendid outlines of the magician’s peaks above us, in the silent night, the stillness was only broken by the loud rumbling sound of falling snow from some shelving ledge, to the rocks beneath. As we surveyed the lofty “Skulnablet” above the Rauma, we decided to try some part of the Romsdalshorn or adjacent mountains if the next morning was fine. We retired to our tent, with all the pleasure of one who enjoys refreshing repose in the midst of nature.