COXE’s TRAVELS IN NORWAY.

37°

came on, and I was fuddenly ftruck with a phenomenon, which never occurred to meexcept in Switzerland , and which I at firft miftook for a meteor. It was a gleam of thefetting fun, illuminating the fnow-capped fummits of the diftant mountains, and appear-ing like a flame of fire Ikirting the diftant horizon. The air was clear, the ftars Ihoneuncommonly bright, and feemed nearer to the eye than I had ever obferved them before,except on the Swifs alps.

"We took up our abode during the night at Van, a village feated on an eminence,,and overlooking the Rands-Sion, a lake near fifty miles long, and fcarcely more thantwo miles broad, embofomed in the mountains ; the Hoping banks fringed with wood,and chequered with fcattered cottages. The next morning we ferried over the lake, andcoafted it about fix miles, the road afcending and defcending the precipices which over-hang the water. We afterwards rowed over feveral fmaller lakes, which fupply ftreamsthat fall into the Rands-Sion. I obferved much peafe and foine corn ftili (funding, whichthe peafants were cutting, and feveral fmall patches of hops; goats were browfing onthe fides of the rocks, and flocks of fheep pafturing in the vallies, among which manywere black.

In thefe parts the price of a milch cow is from feven to nine rix-dollars, (il. 8s. toil. ibs.) and in winter, when fodder is fcarce and dear, one may be purchafed for 16s..We met during this day’s journey numerous bullocks and horfes driving for fale toChriftiana. The bullocks fell from al. to 2!. 8s. per head ; and the horfes, which arefrom thirteen to fourteen hands high, and remarkably aftive and lively, from 4!. to 81.a-piece.

We next reached Gran or Granewolden, Handing on an eminence in the midft ofan extenfive plain, looking down on feveral conical rocks, covered with firs, and re-markable for two churches in the fame church-yard, called the Two Sifters. Thefebuildings feem of the fame date, and at a fmall diftance nearly referable each other ;one is built of ftone, the other white-wafhed. In one, dedicated to the Virgin, divinefervice is performed only in Lent; in the other, facred to St. Nicholas , during the re-mainder of the year. I could not learn by whom, or at what period, thefe twin churcheswere conftrucfed.

The ftony roads having Ihattered the wheels of my cart, we ftopped to repair it atDahlin, near the northern extremity of the Rands-Sion, backed by a well cultivated andwell-inhabited mountain. This part of Norway is greatly infefted with bears and wolves.The bears do much harm, not only killing cattle, but deftroying corn : the inftances arevery rare, which induce them to attack the human fpecies. The fhepherds are ufuallyfollowed by large dogs of the Newfoundland fpecies, armed with .collars of iron fpikes,to preferve them againft the wolves, who frequently attack them, and endeavour to feizethem by the neck. The bears ufually fly from them.

The roads of Norway had hitherto appeared to us, long ufed to the Swedifh roads,exceedingly rugged, and fcarcely paffable with carriages, and both my companion and Ihad been occafionally overturned ; but that we now pafled over mount Kiolway was foexecrable, that the others were in comparifon fuper-excellent. I much queftion indeedif any cart had ever pafled before we ventured to traverfe it. We afcended four Englifhmiles, and then defcended about the fame diftance, and were obliged to difmount^ndfupport our carriages, in order to prevent them from overfetting, which, notwithftand-ing all our precautions, occafionally happened.. During the firft part of the way wepafled a few cottages; but further on all was wild and defolate, rocks clothed with pinesand firs, a dreary but fublime fcenery, commanding from the fummit a moft extenfiveprofpedl; to the fouth of the delightful country we had traverfed in our way to Dahlin,

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