CHAP.

VI.

were old women; whither bound we know not; but a poet might have imagined them to be Gods in disguise, proving the hospitality of Baucis and Philemon. They had been, they said, to the priest, to crave a little charity; but were dismissed by the reverend pastor with a load of reproaches and the most abusive language. In the evening we arrived at Elstad, situate upon a Elstad. natural mound, or rampart, above the river, at the southern extremity of one of the finest valleys in Norway. Here our former companions, Malthus and Otter, had halted in their journey, being struck by the beauty of the scenery; that they might enjoy the pleasures of bathing in the Louven, and of rambling about the mountains. The valley itself is perfectly level, highly cultivated, and surrounded by very high mountains, seeming to close it in on every side. The sides of those mountains are covered by farms and farm-houses. Their bleak and lofty summits were now capped with snow. Had we visited this valley, as our friends did, from the south, we should doubtless have felt the sensations which they experienced in viewing it; but having beheld so many finer scenes in Norway, we were no otherwise struck by the appearance of Elstad, than as a continuation of

VI.

CHAP. that series of beautiful landscapes which we have already so often described, in following the course of the Louven. In fact, the river here did not present itself with its usual effect; being, at this season, full of shallows and sand-banks, which, by dividing its current into several separate streams, diminish its general grandeur. The Church of Elstad,

regarded. In the style and materials of the architecture, these wooden churches remind one of Switzerland; and many customs in which the two countries seem to agree have been already noticed. There are many circumstances in which the features of the landscape are in both countries the same; but in Norway a finer effect is produced by the abrupter elevation of the mountains, the bolder character of the precipices, and the varying features caused by a mixture of green pasture and cultivated fields, amidst towering forests and the most barren rocks. Mountains, with many a precipice and many a smiling settlement, amidst broken cliffs and rising woods, presented their innumerable varieties of form, and colour, behind the Church of Elstad, as we were engaged in making a hasty sketch of this building; one of the most inadequate to represent the real scene, which we have yet ventured to introduce; because wanting all the characteristic touches necessary to delineate every rude and fantastic form, every brilliancy of light and colour, the breadth and depth of shadow, the hoary rocks and glittering heights, "all that the mountain's sheltering bosom shields," and all the dread magnificence of Nature.

CHAP.
VI.

Lake
Missen.'

Lösnes.

Remark

able Chasm

Leaving Elstad, we had to climb one of the mountains that surround the valley; and we had no sooner gained the summit, than another valley, not less enchanting, presented itself: and this succession of beautiful landscapes, characterizing all the country in the descent from Dovrefield, is exhibited to the traveller the whole way to Christiania. Well, therefore, may it meet with the encomiums that have been lavished

upon it by every foreigner of taste that has yet visited this hitherto-neglected land. The river, now widened, had formed itself into a lake, which soon afterwards, extending more than seventy English miles in length, is called the Miösen Söe. Our carriage broke, upon this mountain; and we walked to Lösnes. About

half-way we passed over a remarkable bridge, nd Bridge thrown, with a degree of boldness that quite astonished us, across a fearful chasm, at the bottom of which rushes an impetuous cataract. An inscription placed upon this bridge, mentions the history of it, in the following words:

DU REISENDE SOM WANDRER HER BETRACT NATTURENS UNDER AGT NOYE PAA GUDS GIERNINGER, DU SEER DEM ALLE STUNDER Han har beredet veŸ oge stü paa lanD PAA VAN MED MEERE AT MENESKER KAN VANDRE FRIT VOR

GUDE SCHEE TACK OCH ÆRE.

This inscription is written in the Norwegian language, which is neither Danish nor Swedish, but resembles the former more than the latter. It was evidently the work of some illiterate person, if we may judge from its orthography, &c. The last lines were intended for poetry, but of a very humble kind. No attempt, therefore, will be made to render these lines into verse, but merely to translate the whole literally.