piercing an atmosphere of the intensest blue.

I sat down on the after-lockers, and looked with swelling heart on the sublime scene. As far as the eye could reach inland, mountain over mountain, extending round half the horizon, the land of old Norway, I had read of in my earliest years, expanded itself. On my left hand the Naze hung, frowning, over the Northern Ocean. How memory, in a moment, rushed back to the quaint schoolroom at Ditton, and its still quainter little bookcases huddled up in one corner, where and whence I first began to pronounce and find the "Lindsnes!"

Just at this instant, poor old "Sailor," who had been poking his nose over the vessel's side, and snuffing and whining, rushed up to me, and, placing his head in my lap, turned his eyes towards my face, and looked as much as to say, "Are we not near our journey's end; and don't I smell the land?" Little Jacko, too, came out of his crib, and chirped, and chattered, and scratched himself, and rolled about on the deck in the sunniest corners; and then, all of a sudden, up he would jump, and, seizing hold of "Sailor's" tail, pull it as if he was hauling taut the weather runner. How everything was replete with life; and how happiness, without the heart's reservation, was written on every face! I cannot conceive anything more exhilarating than a beautiful morning at sea, and land in sight; I could have passed the remaining portion of my life without a pang of sorrow, or a gush of joy, but with equanimity, on this dark blue wave, surpassed only in its dark dye and eternity by the dome on which it looked.

When I returned upon deck after breakfast, the first object that attracted my attention was the helmsman. He smiled as soon as his eye met mine, and raised, in recognition, his Spanish-looking hat. He was a stout, tall, fair-complexioned man, with a mild expression of countenance, blue eyes, a long, straight-pointed nose, high cheekbones, and light flaxen hair flowing down almost to his shoulders. He made some observation to me in a dialect which sounded as being a mixture of German, Celtic, and English; but the sense of it was incomprehensible.

"Norway?" I said in reply, pointing to the land now not three miles from us.

"Ja, ja," he answered; and, turning to King, our interpreter, begged, in the Norwegian language, that some of the sails might be trimmed.

I need not say he was the pilot who had come on board to take us up to Christiansand. His dress differed not from the ordinary costume of our own pilots; but I could not help gazing on him with a feeling of mystery and interest which cannot easily be described. His whole appearance bore a close resemblance to all I had read and seen in pictures of the Esquimaux; and now I have formed their acquaintance personally, I feel assured that the Norwegians are a branch of that family.

The scenery, the nearer we approached the shore, heightened in grandeur. Though we were now not a mile from the most bold and formidable rocks, no harbour or creek of any kind could be seen where we might find shelter; yet our northern guide continued to point out with his finger and explain as well as he could in his strange but harmonious idiom, the mouth of the Fiord, up which we were to proceed to Christiansand.

The rocks along this coast of Norway are terrific, the sea breaking and rushing upon them with tremendous noise and fury. Nor do the waves ever rest peaceably here: for the tides of the North Sea and of the Cattegat both meet together at this point of the "Sleeve," and cause a fearful swell, which, when aided at times by the wind, rises to such a great height that vessels are obliged to run for protection into some of the smaller fiords abounding in this quarter.

It was now mid-day, and the sun shone with more heat than I had felt in the tropics. Indeed, everything around us reminded one so vividly of a tropical climate, that it required some resolution to keep imagination in subserviency. The thermometer was at 80 on deck; and our good-tempered pilot told us it was "manga varm" in August.

At one o'clock, the gallant Iris might be seen gliding along, with her accustomed speed and elegance, in smooth water, up the Christiansand Fiord. As we sailed along we would now and then catch a glimpse of large and small vessels in all directions, in full sail, wending their way through the tributary fiords to some town in the interior. On each side of us rose from the surface of the water, perpendicularly into the clear sky, mountains of solid stone, covered to their very summits with no other vegetation than the fir, which springs out of the crevices of the rocks. We pursued our course for many miles amidst the grandest scenery, changing like a panorama, at every point of land round which the vessel wound, and amidst the most profound silence, which is a peculiarity of these fiords. Ever and anon the gulls, in flocks of thousands, would soar into the air, only the flapping of their wings echoing through these silent mountains.

At three o'clock, as we sailed round an enormous rock about a mile high, with not a tree or shrub of any sort on its surface, the town of Christiansand burst upon the view.

We had no sooner anchored, and the sails were not yet furled, when Captain P——, who was an inveterate sportsman, went ashore to gather what intelligence he could about the salmon fishing, it being for that amusement Lord R—— had been induced to visit Norway.

During the absence of P——, R—— and I lay down on the deck, and feasted our eyes with the beautiful prospect around us. The novelty of every object which met the view acted in broad contrast to England. The cutter was soon surrounded by boats without number, of the most primitive construction and fantastic form. One old man, wearing a bear's-skin cap and a black frock coat, rowed off to us in the family "pram," for the purpose of recommending his hotel to our notice, the cleanliness and comfort of which, he said, were unquestionable; since, to test the verity of his assertions, he handed to us a piece of paper, not larger than the palm of my hand, containing the names of those persons who had lodged under his roof; and the Earl of Selkirk, Sir John Ross, Sir Hyde Parker, and one or two other eminent men stood in bold relief and large Norwegian type. This was the only deed approximating to British we had yet witnessed.

Christiansand is considered as a tolerably important town, and is about half the extent of Dover. The houses are all painted a pure white colour, which has a fine effect when brought so immediately in contrast with the surrounding scenery. There being no ebb or flow of the sea in this part of the earth, no beach exists, and the houses are built on piles close to the water's edge, ships of 500 or 600 tons being moored at the very doors of the warehouses.

I could discover only one church within the precincts of Christiansand, and close to it a dancing academy; for the Norwegians, though they are pious, are as partial to the recreation of a dance as any of our Gallic neighbours; and, during the long and dark days of winter, the merchants and other persons employed in business of any description, close their offices, and devote their time to sleighing and dancing. The town is clean and romantically situated, being girt on the E. and the S. by the picturesque fiord, dotted with islands, which bears its name, and on the N. and W. by mountains rising one above the other until the eye loses them in the mist of distance.

The sun had already sunk beyond the mountains, when P—— returned on board; and, near as the day seemed to its end, it was determined to start for the Toptdal River, and proceed as far as Boom, a small village about twelve miles from Christiansand, where a