Denmark, which is monotonously flat and fruitful, was greatly admired and its beauty extolled in prose and verse.

It is not to be denied that Norway, from the utilitarian point of view, has been treated by nature with scant favour, and whatever has been accomplished there has been done in the face of heavy odds. The sterility of the soil compels the peasants in the northern and north

A VILLAGE BELLE IN NORWAY.

western provinces to cultivate large areas, or to pick up the small patches capable of cultivation which may be scattered, with long intervals, over wide stretches of country. Under such conditions the rural village, with its clusters of farmhouses, such as we know them in England, Denmark, and Germany, becomes an impossibility; and the peculiar features of life which village communities foster

are conspicuous by their absence. The nearest approach to them is to be found in the more fertile southand south-eastern districts where the farms lie close together, and neighbourly intercourse is easy and frequent. Moreover, the excellent roads, in the building of which the Government has employed the best engineering talent, encourage the social impulses of the people by obviating the difficulties which the distances would otherwise place in their way.

Another circumstance which militates against the formation of rural villages is the absence of a nobility and feudal land tenure. The Norwegian peasants own the soil which they cultivate, and have no rent to pay to landlords; but they frequently let out portions of it to small tenants, called housemen, who pay their rent by working a certain number of days or weeks every year at the farm. These housemen, who belong to the poorest class, correspond in economic regard to the agricultural labourers in England; though they are in point of education, intelligence, and general worth usually superior to the latter; for the religious instruction, preparatory to the first communion, which until recently was compulsory in Norway, had the wholesome effect of preventing any part of the population from sinking into absolute ignorance and sloth. The State not only supplies an elementary education, scant though it may be; but it compels each one to avail himself of the opportunity to obtain it.

In giving the reasons for the absence of the rural village in Norway, I have taken care not to deny altogether the existence of village life, but it is worthy of note that the Norwegian village is not rural It consists usubut commercial. ally of a single street with a score

of mechanics' and tradesmen's houses, a squat little church, with a tower like a candle-snuffer, and perhaps a cemetery, with decrepit wooden crosses and moss-grown head-stones. The people who live here are not peasants, but mostly hucksters and small dealers in dry goods, drugs, and groceries, who eke out a scanty living by trade and barter with the peasants for the most indispensable commodities.

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If the village is on the coast, the great staple of commerce is, of course, fish, particularly cod and herring. The merchant, having perhaps saved up a modest capital, equips boat guilds for the annual cod and herring fisheries, and either pays the crew's wages, or (what is more common) agrees to take their haul at a specific price, and to grant them a share of the proceeds. certain amount of speculation necessarily enters into these bargains; for the catch of a fishing season is as uncertain as next year's weather, and the risk which it entails has to be so distributed that loss as well as gain may be equitably proportioned. But for all that, it is always the merchant who grows rich on fish, and never, in a single instance that I know of, the fisherman. The former may also be beggared, to be sure, if he is rash and sanguine, and fails to take into account all the factors that may and will affect the market; for the silvery herring is the most slippery fish that swims the sea, and glides up and down the financial scale with a dexterity and speed which are ruinous to the man who is on the wrong side of the market. Many

of the tactics of the Chicago Chamber of Commerce and the New York Stock Exchange are familiar, on a smaller scale, to the Norwegian fish speculator, who buys the herring in the sea that may never be caught, and gambles on the chance of a scant or an abundant supply,

A COUNTRY FIDDLER, NORWAY.

being "long" or "short" of herring and cod, as our brokers are of wheat or "industrials" or railway shares. Expedients of more than doubtful morality are often resorted to to cripple a rival, or send a competing boat guild on a wild-goose chase.

The favourite device for this purpose is the "herring lie" (Sildelogn). It is a well-known fact that the herring is far less regular in its habits than, for instance, the cod, and is by no means sure to return to last year's spawning grounds. About the time when it is expected, the whole population is on the alert watching for herring visions, i.e., indications of the approach of the schools. Spouting whales and dolphins and a screaming cloud of gulls and cormorants whirling over the water constitute

a

reliable "vision."

But in a country where dolphins, whales, and sea birds of all kinds are abundant, it is easy to make a mistake. Like fire in withered grass the report that the herring has come spreads up and down the coast, and presently the sea is covered with boats scudding along, with every rag of sail unfurled to the breeze. Every one is anxious to be first on the spot; and the feverish rivalry often results in accidents.

Before the extension of the telegraph to the extreme north, the herring lie flourished; and it was no uncommon thing for a fleet of boatguilds, numbering many hundred people, to be sent on a wild-goose chase in the very opposite direction. from where the herring had actually arrived, while the well-informed (who had probably started the lie) stole away under cover of night to the fishing grounds and reaped a silvery harvest. The very fact that so many people were concerned in the rumour, each man having eagerly repeated it without thought of harm, made it next to impossible to trace a herring lie to its source; and the immunity which "herring liars" enjoyed made the practice disastrously common. Now, however, the telegraph and the official government fish inspec

tors have sadly interfered with the business. Of course, it is still possible to lie by telegraph, though not without putting one's self on record and risking official tradiction.

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The life in a Norwegian coast village during the fishing season is unique and interesting. On the sea beach are enormous mountains of the fish-heads and other remains, which before they are removed exhale a most unpleasant odour. This odour, however, in greater or less potency pervades the air everywhere and appertains to everybody and everything. The girls smell of fish, the wind is laden with the same penetrating perfume, and you yourself, whether you know it or not, have not remained twenty-four hours in the village before you are redolent, like the rest, of cod and herring. And it is not only the nose but the eye as well which is assailed by perpetual suggestions of the fishing industry. Miles and miles of nets are festooned on stakes along the beach; and all along the water front sea-booths and salting establishments receive the cargoes of the returning fishermen, and every man, woman, and child who is not otherwise engaged is pressed into service to cleanse the fish, deposit it in brine, and nail up the barrels for foreign export. is particularly half-grown girls (the so-called Ganepiger) who are employed in the cleansing, and their pay used to be, in my childhood, ten cents a day, without board. Of recent years, I am told, wages have been increased in this as well as in all other branches of labour; though, I fancy, those of the Ganepiger do not exceed twenty cents..

It

The herring fisheries, of which I have been speaking, occur in the summer and autumn, and women as well as men participate in them. For the herring always seeks sheltered water for spawning, and is caught in the fiords and straits between the western islands. I have often seen the sea so thickly jammed with herring that the boats could only

with difficulty make its way through the schools, and you could stand in the bow, and with a landing net scoop up the fish until your cargo reached to the gunwale. But, at the cod-fisheries, I have been told. (though I have never seen it), it occurs at times that the boat actually does stick on mountains of fish, and the nets break like spider webs under the enormous weight of their drafts. There are, however, cod lies as well as herring lies, and this may be one of them.

The prosperity of the whole coast population is more or less dependent upon the cod fisheries, the financial value of which usually exceeds that of the herring fisheries. But, on the other hand, the hardships and dangers connected with the former also exceed, in a far higher degree, those of the latter. For, in the first place, the cod arrives in the stormiest season of the year (usually late in January), and secondly, he does not run into the fiords to be caught, but has to be sought far out in the open ocean.

The Loffoden Islands, on the north-western coast of Norway, have the richest cod fisheries in Europe, and probably in the world; and there the peasantry from all the surrounding districts and from

THE ROMSDALHORN, NORWAY.

remote parishes as well, rendezvous in the middle of winter. Temporary villages, consisting of rude booths for the shelter of the men, spring up in every convenient harbour. They are not luxuriously appointed, these low, turf-thatched huts; for existence is here reduced to the most primitive conditions. The earthen floor is trampled hard by iron-heeled sea-boots, and exhibits no other furniture than a bench in front of the berths, which are built in tiers, as on a ship. The hearth is often chimneyless, and smoke escapes through a hole in the roof. A dense composite odour, the chief ingredients of which are tarred boots, wet clothes, and various human exhalations, makes the air well-nigh unbreathable; and it gives one the measure of the hardiness of these people that they are able, not only to support existence, but to be healthy and cheerful amid such surroundings.

It is a beautiful sight to see the fishing fleet start out to sea in the early morning. Singly, or in companies of three, four, or half a dozen, the boats come scudding along with the one square sail set, until the whole sea seems covered, and a jagged line of masts defines the western horizon. When they