File:View near Krageröe (JW Edy plate 25).jpg

At the west end of this town an arm of the sea forms a bay, in which are many picturesque islands. The adjacent country bears the appearance of richness and beauty; farms, cottages, cultivated fields and bilis, crowned with forests, combine to produce the most gladdening and striking eflTects, while distant mountains mingling with the clouds, terminate the view.

Norway, it has already been remarked, has, on the first approach, the most forbidding aspect. The soil every where is of rocky substance, covered in low places with earth of more or less depth. Some vallies are of such extent, that they become fertile plains ; for instance Hedemarken ; others are so very narrow, that they can only be called defiles. The vallies, far up in the mountains, for instance, Österdal and others, are not fit for the production of grain, the cold being too intense, but they yield abundance of grass. Guldbransdale forms one of the most populous and best cultivated parts of Norway; and the extensive plains of Toten, and the counties of Laurvig and Jarlsberg, possess great fertility and beauty. The greater the distance from the sea, the greater is the elevation of the mountains, the highest of which are constantly covered with snow. When it rains in summer, snow may at the same time be perceived to fall on the summits of the mountains. The snow-clad mountains of Norway gleam in the air to a distance of 108 miles. Innumerable rivers take their rise in the mountains, swelling as they descend with rain and dissolved snow, and being joined by vast numbers of rivulets pursue their course through the vallies. The rivers afford the greatest benefits in regard to the conveyance of timber and the accomplishment of purposes connected with mechanism. They likewise form some of the noblest waterfalls in nature.

The climate of Norway varies greatly, and is not solely influenced by the distance from the Pole. Frost and snow are less frequent than rain, fogs, and storms, on the whole of the western coast of Norway. The reverse is the case in the mountains. In the eastern vallies and on the southern coast of Norway the cold is of the purest and most wholesome kind. A severe winter is the Norwegian's delight, and is highly conducive to his prosperity; a great deal of labour being then done, which could not be accomplished if the season were mild. Beneficial as the physical properties of Norway are, they frequently produce disastrous effects. In the spring, when the thaw sets in, the snow gathers into balls, and, in its course carries with it houses and every other impediment. The earth likewise, at times, gives way, and the rivers, as is the case in other mountainous countries, overflow, thus causing great devastation.

The rigours of the Norwegian climate chiefly consist in the frost being more intense and lasting, than in southern countries. The cold being, however, seldom accom panied by high winds, is less piercing than an inferior degree of cold in Denmark. According to observations made by Professor Wilse, during a series of thirteen years, by means of Reaumur's thermometer, the degrees of cold in the day-time appear to have been, on an average : in January, 5⅓ below 0; February, 3⅓ and March, 1⅘ below 0; in April, 4½; May, 9⅓; June, 15⅕; July, 16⅙; August, 13⅐; September, 9⅔; October, 5⅔ above 0; November, 2⅔, and December 3 below 0. In the summer the heat is greatest between the 15th of June and 20th of July, being then frequently at 25 degrees above 0. The nights in midsummer are too short entirely to dispel the heat of the days. In winter the cold is most peircing when the air is filled with small icy particles, which may be observed to glitter in the sun with northerly and easterly winds, or in calms. During a lapse of 18 years the cold in Norway appears to have been most severe on the 1st of January, 1782, in the morning, when the quicksilver fell 26½ degrees below 0 on Reaumur's thermometer. At Eger, Professor Ström found the cold to be 30 degrees; and at Kongsberg the thermometer stood at 32. The greatest portion of snow falls in December and in the middle of January; in April and October the heaviest rains descend. August is likewise a rainy month. The greatest drought takes place between the 15th of June and 15th of July. The month of March comes next in succession to midsummer for the greatest number of clear days. The highest winds arise in the months of April, May and October. The beginning of June is likewise occasionally turbulent. Calms are most frequent during the whole of the month of January, from the 1Oth of June, to the 11th of July, and in the middle of August. During the last period calms are singularly beneficial to the oats, which constitute the most common kind of grain in Norway, and are very liable to drop off when ripe. The greatest injury done to the soil of Norway arises from night-frosts ; for while the cold still remains in the air and earth, it is very beneficial and promising of an abundant harvest that the snow covers the ground. But from a dread of night-frosts, it is not adviseable to sow open beds in gardens before the 12th of May. Those crops which are not ripe by the latter part of August are, at times, injured by night-frosts, which, at this period, the Norwegians, in common with the Swedes, term iron-nights. The sound of thunder is very loud in Norway, owing to the reverberation from the mountains. Hail falls rarely, and is but small grained; some which fell in July, 1781, of the size of pidgeons' eggs, appeared miraculous.

On an average of sixteen years, the Norwegians set the plough at work on the 1st of May; the cattle was turned on grass on the 15th of May. On the 27th of the same month the plough was put by. On the 14th of July they began to cut grass, and had finished making hay by the 19th of August. On the same day they began cutting oats ; on the 23d of September the corn harvest was at an end ; the cattle was taken in on the 25th of October, and on the 12th of November sledges were used for the first time. With regard to changes in nature, during the period above stated, the thermometer rose above the freezing point on the 2lst of March ; the snow disappeared from the fields on the lOth of April, but from the forests not until the 15th of May. The pnds were clear of ice on the 22d of April. The wagtail appeared on the 12th of April; but the first swallow not until the 12th of May. Gooseberry bushes budded on the 25th of April; and primula veris bloomed on the 6th of May. The hawthorn put forth leaves on the 7th of May; the asp on the 20th. In the autumns potatoe leaves froze on the 28th of September. The hawthorn dropt leaves on the 7th of October: but the cherry tree not till the 14th of November. The thermometer fell on the 30th of October in the day-time below the freezing point; snow fell on the 4th of November, and the pounds were covered with ice on the 5th.