Show written for this paper WAKEMANS wanderings LONDON nov 23 1893 to the traveler in norway the impression is constantly recurring that the country possesses the greatest amount of majestic scenery and the fewest people of any habitable land on the face of the globe perhaps this feeling is strongest with the wanderer on foot along the mountain highways what might be termed the superabundance of natures tremendous spectacles often saddens and even appals appala the spectator who finds scant relief in human contact or even in that scenic contrast which provides repose from awe inspired emotions these panoramas of nature have been provided in such vast proportions and are so endless in number that something like headache head ache and heartache heart ache follow the unrelieved emotional tension one involuntarily cries out in the surfeit of it all for respite just as one who has passed with mind through the mountain height spiritual and sound tornadoes of wagners magners Wag ners at bayreuth feels that reason might b e easily dethroned dethroner if the human gaieties of berlin and paris were not conveniently near to assist in speedy restoration without a companion i om panion I 1 should have despaired of tramping more than from one dreary station to another indeed I 1 find I 1 love best the lands of peoples ot of activities and homes the mile posts as would be remarked in dear old ireland are too lar jar apart in norway there are too much of frozen fjeld and glacier peaked mountain between clusters of li homes omes and when after always journeying long and far you come upon human kind while you certainly meet honest folk hospitable folk and universally folk possessing extraordinary virtues of mind and character you still detect the ineffable sadness and appalling in loneliness of surrounding nature reflected rel acted in their faces as you will find the world over vacuous meagerness mess transmitted from changeless surroundings into the natures and faces of all human stand stills and stay at homes whenever I 1 close my eyes and see norway and her people in retrospect both seem to blend in solidified strata of perspective down there almost on the sea level in the lower valleys are the scant folk with solemn faces and solemn ways so measured and exacting in toil or pleasure that they suggest huge lichens which have clung through the storms of ages to the mountain bases of stone the next stratum is an intermingling in of forest rock moraine and waterfall water f y 1 the latter so stupendous and fleecy that they seem like shattered descending sc ending glaciers arrested in their headlong course and frozen into a white so wondrous that no earthly art can attain its purity above this is a thin layer ot of humans and herds the very color of the snow streaks and rock grays rays interspersed the saeter folk and their air flocks that pass the brief summer thousands of feet above their kin and kind then come the measureless fields rock and ice fields of utter solitude and desolation the whole crowned by countless ghostly peaks of ice far above the clouds an awful realm of frozen silence between the last vestige of natural life and the eternal infinite I 1 had penetrated to the mysterious eagle nest farms above the clouds and now I 1 desired to see something of saeter life in the same lofty regions descending the lordly the most wonderful of all norwegian valleys partly by car and partly on toot loot from balaker to I 1 came upon the jolliest jol liest or postboy post boy I 1 had found in all norway towheaded tow headed big eyed open mouth lars peterson or peter larsen I 1 am not sure which tramping alone had become insufferable for a trifling consideration I 1 purchased the companionship and willing services of lars for a period of ten days lie he had been taught english at school had been four years ears a postboy post boy coming in contact in jat that period with thousands of englishmen and americans though not sixteen years of age he was as strong as an ox and nimble as a deer and while rip rippling p lin g and running over with a gurgling lin a and nd boundless good nature had bad a mg mark ark tapley sort sort of philosophy for all unpleasant emer emergencies enches and a ready back door out if of every exasperating difficulty the is a tremendous gorge or gully irom from 2000 to feet deep and from fifty to sixty miles in length cutting through some of the high st mountains and the greatest snow and ice fields of norway along most of its length walls rise on either side precipitously upwards ot feet and over these pitch waterfalls not by the half dozen or dozen but by the score most of them having a sheer fall for their entire descent these feed and increase the volume of bf the beuma river along which winds the highway that nearly the whole distance foams and tumbles and roars in noisy turbulence on its northwest course to the fiord of molde and the sea it should be called the somber vale ot waterfalls there is nothing to compare with it in any part of the explored globe we loitered at the sletta foss where the beuma itself tumbles into th the valley between flallen and armein stations t at the triple Ver medals foss and passed days of pleasure and wonder between and horgheim where there are hundreds of these water marvels varying from to leet feet in fall and w where at one place I 1 counted fifty three in full view at one time saw the filmy Donte fossen which directly at the roadside tumbles feet and when opposite the giant horn or peak near the picturesque station of led by merry lars we took a mountain path towards the upland Al district still above which lars promised to bring me to some of the wildest and loneliest saegers of norway it is no easy task to climb to these saegers sa eters some are from twenty to sixty miles from the valley hamlets and farms those we sought were perhaps no more than twelve mile distant from the highway but certainly more than twice that distance by the circuitous and tortuous way the ehe path was plain enough to lars as to all these norwegian alpine climbers and to the ponies used to carry supplies to the saegers and bring back again their pack loads of butter and cheese but a stranger to these ravines and crags would have been irretrievably lost after a half days wandering A As s it was we were obliged to pass a night beside a lonely tarn shut in by black walls with snow clad peaks for the only outlook beyond here lars genius for surmounting surmounting difficulties was illustrated we ha had brought a little food during the last two hours ascent lars had gathered here ond and there every dead branch of wood that came in sight as well as bunches of juniper branches these with his which every peasant carries and some bits of strong cord which every postboy post boy possesses with which to mend broken harness he had arranged in compact branches bestowing them on his head shoulders and body body until he was completely hidden from r m sight with the dry wood he built a cheer cheery fire the juniper branches provided provided pro videw our bed which was laid in a snug angle of a projecting rock A traveling rug and a stout car blanket formed our covering and here hare beneath the glittering stars we slept rings round our heads as the irish mother would say of her healthfully sleeping child the next morning our ascent was resumed through hollows over ridges where ice and snow lay concealed beneath thin layers of black sediment and slime around soundless tarns still and dark as the walls enclosing them past copses of stunted fire and with never a sight bight of a living thing the most amazing sight s tome to me in these upper regions was the frequent patches in sunny hollows of strawberries in some places the ground was literally red with them I 1 noticed too that in these spots the heat beat even at this high altitude was almost stifling all the way lars had been telling me in answer to my inquiries about saegers and saeter folk Some things thus learned were very interesting in the first place about the middle of june until the tenth of september which brief period comprises the entire norwegian summer every cow in in norway not needed for a scant home supply of milk is sent to the mountain saeter with the cows go all other cattle all goats and sheep ana occasionally these will be accompanied by swine which are quite as much a home among the crags as the sheep and goats the themselves yes comprise huts or cabins and rude dairies combined where the saeter folk who are il invariably women and girls live entirely alone in this desolate isolation while caring for the herds milking the cows goats and even ewes and converting the milk into butter and cheese for the winter store in the valley homes often scores of miles away there is great commotion throughout norway when the annual june exodus of the saeter girls and their herds begins every farm is in utmost confusion the entire household is busied getting together and packing up what will be necessary for use in in the temporary mountain home there are churns and milk pails pots and moulds frying pans and odds and ends of cheap crockery and scant cutlery for food there is a bit of sugar and coffee much flour and meal crates and flad brod some bacon perhaps some dried or pickled fish and more in weight than in all else salt for the cattle the girls themselves find room for odd bits of embroidery and a few nick backs while a bible and ome worn volumes of old norse tales are never forgotten besides these things there are pounds of wool to be spun or other pounds of yarn to be knit A few blankets or sheepskin for bedding and but little more than the clothing upon their backs completes the meagre outfit when all is in readiness these strange processions professions process ions something like the annual outgoing of the flocks and their herders gerders of the plains of southern italy set forth from every gaard or farm in norway the belongings for the saeter are slung in baskets upon the backs of sure footed ponies or old horses that have known the same journey for decades the farmer marches in advance blowing unearthly blasts from the lur a not over musical horn made from birch bark then come the cattle no neo need to drive these like the gipsies who cannot be kept from the road and the tent at the first bursting of spring i time buds they have tired of their rein deer moss fodder of the winter have scented the juice blades that are springing to life in the tiny far vales above them and with genuine manifestations of joy crowd close upon the farmer and his blaring lur then follow the saeter girls picturesque in their bright bod dices white caps and short skirts but each bearing upon her shoulders a yoke from which depend baskets kettles ana and all manner of paraphernalia almost equaling in bulk and weight the packs upon the ponies backs towards evening of the second day we came to the saeter of kron from a distance nothing could be distinguished but a low wide hut but at the side of a gentle ravine here and there between the rocks splotched with bits of verdure the horizon line was close and serrated with masses of stone here and there intersected by other gullies and ravines through these lars said the herds wandered long distances in their daily grazing jaunts no human beings were at first in sight about the saeter shortly a flaxen haired maiden huge of girth and limb stood at the hut door and shading her eyes with her great bare arm and not her hand looked long and earnestly at us lars gurgled at this and made wonderful gestures in return suddenly the girl tillie lars called her rushed at us in a sort of bounding gallop and seizing my postboy guide hugged him ling with him turning him round and about and again hugging him while tears of joy flowed down her honest face a perfect torrent of questions tind and interjections intersections interject ions meantime being poured upon him the rascal lars who had previously kept me in ignorance of the fact then told me that the saeter girl tulie tillie was his only sister A cousin christine as little as tillie was big was her companion for two women were required at the kron aron saeter there being altogether thirty cattle three fourths of which were cows and as many more sheep and goats to care for and and so in in a few moments no stranger was there but all were best of friends so glorious a treat to these lonely folk is the arrival of friends or kin frota from the world below that all manner of hospitality is lavished upon them all they hive have is yours without the asking the cows might come or stay in the moun tain fastnesses fast nesses until we were given our drink of milk and drink and drink again we must water for washing some curious old half wooden shoes to replace our heavy boots and such an or supper as was never before piled up before me partaken partaker par taken of greed grad or stir about enough for the sa eters pigs cream by the gallon butter by the hundred weight milk by the barrel barre I 1 great wooden bowls of jord barr or strawberries coffee and black bread and bacon while we were plied ceaselessly with importunate commands to eat and never stop eating and beset with mournful re proofs because we could not eat it all the saeter house or cabin itself was rudely constructed of pine logs though comfortable enough for the purpose required d its root roof was of pine beams sheathed hed with birch bark in many layers and this overlaid by turf and sod in the latter several species of mountain brambles and wild flowers were growing luxuriously there were two large rooms perhaps twenty feet in length and nearly as wide and against the whole of one side of the structure was a huge low shed where the herds huddled in time of long continued storm one of the two rooms was kitchen living and sleeping room combined two holes in the house wall and the open door served for admitting light and there were no candles lamps or lanterns about the place as bed time always comes long before night time in the almost norwegian summer the table was simply a huge high bench stools and short benches answered for chairs a few shelves resting on pegs and a large rough rouge cupboard for holding food and provisions with a bunk bed built in one corner comer comprised all the furniture of the living room aside from a large sk orsten or fire place in in another corner opposite the with its accompaniment of iron utensils and a little crockery ranged upon shelves at it its side the other room was the dairy in this was a fireplace fire place suspends suspend t d above which was a huge cauldron cauldren caul dron kettle and fear near this was a boiler built in the wall in in which the milk is heated to a curd and is finally in the most primitive fashion by stone weights into or cheese the whey being fed to the avin or pigs or ca carried aried in drukker or kegs and flasks flacks when not too remote to the valley homes below vessels containing milk and cream were ranged along high strong benches two high keg like churns a number of whey flasks flacks cheese in the the process of curing and empty molds kegs filled with butter and empty kegs milking pails the krak or milking stool skimmers and numerous other rude but ample appliances of the dairy were cumbrously but conveniently disposed and everything was cool dry sweet and clean icher in her innocent and boundless ho vitality pita lity lars sister was determined that we should occupy the girls bed while they slept upon the floor beside us but we compromised by making our own couch of reindeer moss upon the sae saeter ter floor and passed three nights in this peculiarly informal manner the girle using every artifice and entreaty to persuade us to longer remain remain in the meantime in company with tillie and christine we visited a few neighboring sa eters the arrangement belongings and customs at all were precisely alike at night the girls call the herds |