Voyages to the North Cape by the tourist steamers are limited to a few weeks during the midsummer, when the sun is supposed to be visible at midnight in the arctic regions, but steamers run regularly all the year way around the Cape to Archangel, Vadsö, and Horningsvaag, the arctic ports of Russia. The fjords never freeze, so that navigation is always open, and there is more or less travel in midwinter between the civilized portions of the arctic regions.
If you will take your map and examine the north coast of Europe within the arctic circle, you will find several towns east of the North Cape on the White Sea which are wide open 365 days in the year, and do more business in the winter than during the summer months. They do not see the sun from December to February. At some places it is invisible for a longer period, but at Hammerfest the streets, houses, and business places are lighted with electric lights, and similar plants are being introduced into other cities of the polar section. It is stated, also, that the aurora borealis is so brilliant night after night as to make it easy to read ordinary newspaper print without artificial light, and by long experience people are prepared for the peculiar conditions that exist there. The passengers on the steamers in these waters in winter are mostly commercial travelers and men interested in the fisheries, which are more active from October to March than at any other time of the year.
There are also two canals in Norway that are used for passenger traffic—the Fredrikshald canal, connecting the Femsjöen and Skullerud lakes, and the Skien-Nordsjö-Bandak canal, connecting the Nordsjö lake with the Hitterdal and Bandak lakes. Between the Hitterdal and the Nordsjö lake there is a rise of fifty feet, which is overcome by two locks at Skien and four at Loveid; and between the Nordsjö and the Bandak lakes there is a rise of one hundred and eighty-seven feet, which is overcome by fourteen locks, five of which are around a waterfall, the Vrangfos, where the average rise for each lock is about thirteen feet. The postal, telegraph, and telephone systems, all under government control, are both cheaper and more efficient than in the United States, where the two latter are private monopolies. With the exception of Switzerland, Norway is more abundantly supplied with postoffices, in proportion to her size, than any other country in the international postal union. The length of her telegraph lines, in relation to the population of the country is greater than in any other country. There is no place in the world where telephones are so cheap or so numerous as in Stockholm. There are more telephones in Stockholm than in Berlin or London, and it is contended that there are more than in Paris, but that is doubtful. The total number of instruments in use is nearly 50,000 to a population of 300,000. You can find a telephone in every shop and in almost every house, and in the parks and on the street corners on lamp posts are little booths similar to those used for police boxes in the cities of the United States. They work automatically. You drop a little coin worth three cents into the slot, and then ring the bell. For several years every room in the principal hotels has had its own telephone, on the same system that has recently been introduced into the United States, and upon some of the steamers sailing from Stockholm there is a telephone in every stateroom. The long distance 'phones and all the lines outside of two or three of the principal cities belong to the government and are operated by the Postoffice Department. The rents vary from $10 to $28 a year.
The telegraph system is owned by the government, which charges a uniform rate of fifteen cents for ten words to any part of the country.
CHAPTER XV
THE PEOPLE: THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS
Because of its geographic isolation, the Scandinavian peninsula is the home of the purest Teutonic ethnic stock. The Norwegians, Icelanders, Swedes, and Danes are racially closely related, and they belong to the same branch of the Aryan family as the Germans, Flemish, English, and Anglo-Americans. Physically, these people are powerfully built and tall, of the pure Scandinavian type, with fair hair and blue eyes, and their healthy, intelligent look strikes the traveler. In addition to the physical characteristics held in common by these Scandinavian peoples, the Norwegians are to be specially noted for their long narrow heads, particularly is this so among the people in the interior of the country. Here, too, the stature is the greatest. During the Civil War in the United States, it was found that among the enlisted troops the Norwegians, after the Americans, had the greatest stature, and that in breadth of chest they were excelled by none. It is probably true, however, that the Norwegians who emigrate represent the finest physical types, and that they possess a higher average stature than one finds in Norway to-day, if the most northerly provinces are excepted.
The Norwegians are a very plain people—neither pretty nor handsome. The women are strong and square-built, and what beauty they have is of the solid and substantial sort. Of the two sexes, the men are the better proportioned, both in the matter of figures and features. They have light complexions,—barring the bronzing of the skin due to constant exposure,—light hair, blue eyes, and reasonably well-formed noses. Both men and women have frank and open countenances.
The most marked mental characteristics are clear insight, unconquerable pertinacity, dogged obstinacy, absolute honesty, and a sturdy sense of independence. Björnson has well remarked concerning his people: "Opinions are slowly formed and tenaciously held, and much independence is developed by the rigorous isolation of farm from farm each on its own freehold ground, unannoyed and uncontradicted by any one. The way the people work together in the fields, in the forests, and in their large rooms has given them a characteristic stamp of confidence in each other." It is perhaps this isolation that has perpetuated so many of the old customs and superstitions for which the Norwegians are noted.
William Eleroy Curtis tells of seeing the funeral of one of these
Norway farmers: