A Summer Holiday in Scandinavia

23rd August. -- It was quite astonishing how punctually we were all awake in the morning, and in what a brief space of time we dispatched our breakfast. We were, in truth, heartily glad to be off; and when P. had paid the hotel bill, and M. -- now nearly recovered -- had been tucked up with plenty of her wraps in the best cariole, we strapped on the guns and rods, and fixed the portmanteaus behind the different conveyances in about half the interval usually expended. The greater part of the inhabitants of the houses in our quarter of the town had turned out to see us, and they manifested the liveliest interest in all our preparations. As I at last got into my cariole, I wondered, in fact, whether our departure was more exciting to those who stayed or those who started.

It was a fresh autumn morning, and the air delightfully clear and bright after the storms of the previous days; so we bowled along the smooth, well-kept road, towards Haeg -- the same route as that by which we had come to Laerdalsoroen of gloomy memory. We reached and changed horses at neat little Blaflaten, about eleven o'clock; and then on again to Haeg, where we lunched, and were kept waiting, as usual, a quite disgraceful time for horses. Soon after passing Haeg we crossed the Elv River; but., taking now the south road, commenced the ascent of a frightful hill. We toiled and struggled up it under the hot afternoon sun -- all but M. walking -- for hours as it seemed; and the steep incline above us still went on climbing higher and higher. Just, however, when we were doubting whether there was any top to this long hill, the faces of our skyds-carls brightened; we all made a great effort, and in another moment we were panting victoriously, and straightening the angles out of our aching backs, on the hard-won edge of a plateau of mountain land. Five or six minutes were silently passed in regaining our spent energies, and then we mounted the carioles once more, and proceeded at a much better pace -- but still ascending rapidly -- until we reached the half-way station of Brejstol, a bitterly cold spot, where, however, we found to our astonishment that H., an enthusiastic fisherman, had been stopping for several days! He was very loud in his praise of the people of the inn, but he had been disappointed with the fishing and shooting.

This post-house seemed a very lonely, bleak place, being surrounded on all sides by boundless wastes of moorland and mountain side. The biggest flocks of sheep we had met with were seen here. They often numbered from three hundred to four hundred animals, many of these black. They were great jumpers -- taking extraordinary bounds and leaps over rocks and ditches -- thick-wooled, and very wild. They kept remarkably close together, as a protection, perhaps, from bears and wolves; and in this habit they were followed by the cattle -- also abundant in this district -- large, rather coarsely-made beasts, which seemed well qualified to take care of themselves.

Neither cattle nor sheep appeared inconvenienced by the intensely cold winds that howled in these regions, and from which we all suffered smartly. Having waited the necessary half-hour to refresh our tired horses (for it is only one stage from Haeg to Bjoberg, the next point), P. went out to see that the animals were ready; but there were no horses in the carioles, and when the station-master was asked the meaning of this, he explained that our Haeg skyds-carls had had enough work for one day, and they had determined to go back. However, he added, they were kindly catching us some more cattle before they started, and he pointed to two men chasing a herd of yellow ponies over a hill-side, about half a mile off. We subsequently had reason to be thankful for these new nags, for we were able to put them on their mettle, and so reach the next station in half the time we should have taken with our tired Haeg beasts. After an elaborate wrapping up of legs in rugs, and careful fastening of every button on our overcoats, we at last started from Brejstol, looking somewhat like an expedition bound to the North Pole. I led the way, and was enabled to keep up an excellent pace, through the maternal affections of my mare who had a foal running at her side. By occasionally giving the little animal a touch in the ribs with the butt end of my whip I got him to go cantering on ahead, upon which the dam made her best endeavors to overtake him, with a very happy result.