OCR Text |
Show NORWEGIAN TRAINS. In the slowness of their trains the Norwegians excel the Dutch, and yet the latter, for this merit or defect, according to the time, nerves and fancy of the individual traveler, may place themselves at the head of other European countries. But here all comparison ends, for while the Dutch possess but a small territory, sufficiently intersected by lines, Norway, with its great tract of country, has scarcely any railways at all. Nor is it probable that she will be much better off in this respect. The land is so thinly populated that railroads could never pay. From the hilly nature of the country their construction would cost much, while the people are poor. And lastly, the present mode of traveling is all they need. Time is of less consequence to the Norwegians than to other people, because they have less to do. They do not rush through life as we do, for instance, giving to one day the work of six. They breathe; the remainder of the civilized world is, for the most part, breathless. If they have a hundred miles to travel, they can as well devote a week to it as half a dozen hours; or, if they cannot, they wisely stay at home. So that traveling in Norway is very much what it was in England a century ago. A little slower and more leisurely, perhaps, now than then, for nowhere in Norway will you come across the fine sight of a coach and four come tearing up hill and down dale at express speed. The average rate of progress is about four miles an hour; and, do what you will, taking one thing with another, you cannot get much beyond this. Their railways, by comparison, are not much better - of stately speed, perhaps, but irritating. |