YACHT EXCURSION TO NORWAY IN THE WE sailed from Sunderland direct for Stavanger in the yacht Nereid, (150 tons), on the 2nd of the Seventh Month. We were six in number, with a crew, &c., of fifteen persons; twenty-one in all. Favourable breezes accompanied us, and after being but thirty-two hours out of sight of land, we made the coast opposite the island of Hvidingsö, at the entrance of the bay, or fjord, of Stavanger. Here we were becalmed for a few hours. The Norwegian hills looked lovely; for their colouring was of those dreamy tints of blue and delicate grey which give such a peculiar charm to distant mountain scenery. Hvidingsö lighthouse looked tall and white on its rocky island in front, while near us on our right was the craggy Feystenen, the first of the outlying islands, which, becoming more numerous as we approach the continent, ultimately almost land-lock Stavanger fjord. On the afternoon of the 4th we cast anchor in the harbour of Stavanger, in a small bay surrounded on three sides by the town; having been only fiftytwo hours from England. Reier Reiersen, one of our kind Norwegian Friends, quickly discovered us, and afforded us much assistance both then and afterwards. The town has nearly doubled in size during the last fifteen years, and now possesses more than 17,000 inhabitants. Like all other places in Norway, Stavanger is built almost entirely of wood, the houses being neatly painted, usually white or buff colour. The effect is pretty and clean. The market is near the landing place, not far from our anchorage; and beyond it is a small square, ornamented by rows of good old trees in front of the Collegiate Schools, which form the south side of it, and having the ancient Cathedral, dating from the It is not however so preten 11th century, on the north side. tious in its character as those we denominate squares in England usually are. A fine and tall edifice, called the Fire Tower, crowns an eminence above the harbour, and commands a view of the whole town, whence the sonorous voice of the watchman (against fire), calling each hour during the night, sounds harmoniously over the silent bay. We at this time remained but two or three days at Stavanger, paying social visits, and attending their Fifth-day Meeting, at which about fifty were present, and on the following morning were preparing to continue our northward voyage when our friends Joseph Buckley, William Edward Turner, and Endré Jacobsen Dahl arrived from Flekkefjord after their religious visit to the Friends at Qvinnesdal, who are, we believe, about fifty in number, and among them one or more who are ministers. Finding that our friends J. Buckley and W. E. Turner were very desirous to prosecute their religious service, and that no opportunity was likely to offer which would enable them to cross the fjord, a distance of forty English miles, for several days to come, we waited a few hours for them, and taking them, with Endré J. and Maria Dahl, on board, we weighed anchor and skirted the eastern shores of the bay. It was an exquisite day; ten miles from Stavanger the fine mountains called Bjorn's Scheften or "Bears chaps" towered majestically overhead; while the whole region to the east and north was one confused mass of tumbled mountains, excessively craggy and wild in their character, and from two to four or five thousand feet in height. The fjord was studded with a hundred islands, upon one or two of which were hills rising five hundred to a thousand feet above the water. Black guillemots (rare in England) and red-throated divers swam or flew close by our course, while lesser black-beaked gulls, herring gulls, and kittywakes were excessively tame, often flying within a few yards of the ship. As we sped over the calm waters with a delightful breeze, enjoying the picturesque scenery and the interesting company of our friends, Endré J. Dahl related anecdotes of the bears and wolves which are still occasionally met with, though not often so near to Stavanger as formerly. One or two of these accounts may amuse our readers. "A bear in that neighbourhood, having at different times slain nearly forty head of cattle, it was determined to have a 'scall,' and for that purpose the people of the district were assembled to the number of many hundreds, who, forming themselves into an immense semicircle (each man being at first perhaps one or two hundred yards distant from his neighbour), inclosed a wide extent of country in front of the almost inaccessible buttresses of the mountain chain. The hunters gradually advancing towards a common centre, at length found themselves face to face with an immense bear, their longsought enemy. Savage with his wounds caused by the bullets of his assailants, he could not break through the cordon of his enemies drawn every moment more closely around him; when, driven to extremity, he betook himself to the precipitous crags at the foot of which he was thus brought to bay. From ledge to ledge, higher and higher still climbed the bear, until at length a hunter, fearing he would escape, essayed to follow him up the precipice. It may well be supposed that the people below watched his course with breathless anxiety. His eagerness, however, led him incautiously to approach too near; the enraged animal suddenly turned and clutched him in his rough embrace; both lost their foot-hold, and fell sheer over the perpendicular wall of rock. Locked in the arms of the monstrous beast, as they fell through the air, the great weight of the bear of course caused it to be the undermost; and being dashed upon a pointed rock, it was killed on the spot, while the hunter, though roughly handled, escaped with life and ultimately recovered." It is understood that one of our Norwegian friends was present at this "scall.” Another adventure was that of a young woman, who, while sitting on a "boulder," knitting and watching her cattle as they fed on the scanty herbage upon the rock-covered space between the mountains and the shore of the bay, had her attention arrested by a violent commotion among the animals under her care, and looking up perceived that a bear had fastened his fangs in the flesh of one of her cows. Seizing a stout stick which lay by her side, she immediately flew to the rescue; and, hitting Bruin a vigorous blow upon his snout, the savage brute forsook his prey, rushed at the girl, and felled her to the earth with a stroke from his powerful paw. Happily she was only stunned, and in a few moments recovering her faculties, she had the presence of mind to remain perfectly motionless as if dead. Bruin imagined that she was so in reality, and (as is often the practice with these animals) he resolved to bury her in a neighbouring peat bog, and come at night to devour the savoury food. For a time he stood watching her intently; and at length, pretty well assured that she was dead, he trotted off towards the bog, but after every few steps, stopped, looked earnestly at the prostrate form, and then, appearing to be satisfied, proceeded. He now began to scratch a great hole, in effect a grave, anything but agreeable-looking to her who it was designed should be its occupant. Still the animal was suspicious, and at intervals paused and looked round, and did not again continue his operations until he had satisfied himself that all was right. Meanwhile the girl gradually unfastened her dress in the intervals when the bear was busily engaged about his own arrangements. If he looked up she lay perfectly still. But when all was ready, she seized her opportunity, slipped off her outer garment, and leaving it as her representative, darted behind a rock. Again the bear looked up, but seeing the dress apparently laid as when he left her, was content, and again applied himself to his work. Then the girl ran for shelter from rock to rock, never moving from one hiding place to another until she was sure the bear was preoccupied by his grave-digging; and ultimately gaining the farmstead where she lived, roused the inmates, who arming themselves with guns and pitchforks, rushed to the scene of action; but the bear was gone; he had found out how he had been cheated, and such was his fury at the discovery, that he tore the girl's clothes to shreds, so that, as the narrator said, "not one single piece was left of the size of his hand." In the evening we anchored under a huge isolated crag, probably a thousand feet in height, which divides Stangfjord into two portions, and is situated a few miles from Slodvig, the residence of our friends of that name. Joseph Buckley and W. E. Turner slept on the sofas of the saloon, while Endré J. and Maria Dahl went forward by boat to apprise their friends of our arrival. After breakfast we all proceeded in two boats to Slodvig, and partook of lunch, including delicious "sour milk." We dipped in the same dish, as in the times of old. Anders Slodvig's farm is in a delightful situation, in a region not very unlike the Trosachs, and numbers of butterflies were flitting in the meadow; among them Pearl-border Fritillaries, Blues, and others. We here parted with our friends J. Buckley, W. E. Turner, and the Dahls, and, returning to the ship, left Stangfjord with a spanking breeze. After remaining at Hoivarde over the First-day, we made sail very early the following morning, and dashed through a deep and narrow channel at a rate of 12 to 14 knots an hour (both wind and strong tide being in our favour), and so close to the houses on the rocks that border it, that our sailingmaster thought he could have leapt in at the window of one of them. We now entered Hardanger fjord, leaving "Stor Oe," or Great Island, with its snow-capped mountains upon our left; while on our right the outlying buttresses of the Fölgefund, a vast mountain range crowned by perpetual ice and snow, |