What rare times all the birds and beasts of prey will have for the next few days in Memurudalen! only to be equalled by the early days of the Australian gold fever. Nuggets of inestimable value in the shape of heads, tails, and other portions of reindeer, ryper, duck, and trout—intermingled with other delicacies, such as potato skins, jam and marmalade pots, and whisky bottles—will from time to time be unearthed amidst shrieks of triumph. ‘Claims’ will be run up to a fabulous price, and many a battle royal will be fought in that happy valley where we have spent a month of peace. As we depart in mournful silence, brooding over the days that are no more, we see in fancy the numerous bright eyes which from lairs and eyries are watching our every move, their owners all ready to swoop down on our débris as soon as we have passed out of sight.
The lake was very rough, and we were quite afraid of being swamped and losing our baggage from the magnitude of the big little waves; but luckily the boat took our heaviest things, or we should not have been able to venture; and so the canoes, lightly loaded and with all sail set, rode gallantly o’er the foaming billows, and we all got safe to Gjendesheim. The cheery fire in the room, with its bare wooden walls and benches, made a picture which seemed the perfection of comfort after the chilly tent and the freezing N.W. wind.
‘It is the black north-wester
That makes brave Englishmen
Use very naughty words, and wish
Themselves at home again.’
One of the party is always telling us that he intends to inflict on the British public a narration of our experiences on this expedition, and although he has not yet begun to collect materials for the work, we have begun to invent titles for the book that is to be. One is ‘England, Canada, and Norway,’ being a description of Englishmen travelling in Norway with Canadian canoes; and we think this title might induce schoolmasters to buy it, under the impression that it is a geographical treatise on those countries.
The Skipper proposed ‘The Fool with the Fowling-piece, or Fishing and Flyblows.’ John’s title was ‘Mems. from Memurudalen, or Jottings from the Jotunfjeld;’ and Esau suggested ‘Glopit, top it, and mop it,’ alluding, he said, to the state of John’s forehead whenever he arrived at the summit of that mountain; but the explanation was received with such a chorus of
| ‘Oh! | { | drop stop | } | it!’ from the others that he gave up the idea. |
One notion is to make the book a collection of cooking recipes for camp life, and call it ‘Grunts from a Gourmand in Gulbrandsdalen, or Paragraphs from the Pen of a Pig;’ but we think we should promote a more active sale among respectable people if it were called ‘Self-Improvement, or Lights thrown on Good Living.’