li I'fj
11
I jM
II s
'I£
' --t r
t
ti. ■ H M
i f
The Aarsberg fi-eld, partially covered with snow,
bounded the view on our left. In about four
hours’ travelling we arrived at a little hamlet on the
Oresund Soe, called Bekosen; and here we left our
horses to remain till our return, crossing the lake
in a small crazy boat, which leaked not a little, to
a place named Myrhmoe, the distance being about
five English miles, which our boatmen, one of
whom was our guide, contrived to accomplish in
about an hour and a-half. Here I passed the
night m a small cottage, which was very neat and
clean.
Our kind hostess was full of apologies for being
taken unawares, not having expected any travellers,
especially strangers, so suddenly coming upon her!
She was just then busily employed in scouring a
room, m which it happened I was destined to sleep,
hilt which she had so deluged, that it would have
taken at least four-and-tiyenty hours before it would
he dry, and I was obliged to decline occupying it.
She had no other apartment except a closet, full of
clothes and other household articles, and in this I
contrived, being somewhat fatigued, to doze away
a few hours.
The cottage was surrounded with a considerable
extent of rich pasture ground, and the good lady
of the house, who happened to be the sister of our
guide, possessed no less than fourteen coivs, so that
I was well provided during my stay with butter,
milk, and cream, of which I have seldom seen a
more abundant or neat supply, in any of the peasants’
houses in Norway. In addition to this stock
of cattle, she could boast of three fine oxen, and
five calves, two horses, twenty-two goats, and a few
sheep, which made up the sum total of her livestock,
and of which she seemed, as well she might,
to be exceedingly proud. She was much pleased
with the praises I bestowed upon the dairy, and
still more so, on my requesting to he allowed to
have a look at her live-stock. The cows, which
were of a very small breed, and mostly without
horns, were arranged in neat order, in a well-constructed
shed, having seven or eight stalls on either
side, and the calves were kept distinct at the
end. The oxen were tied up in a separate shed,
and having exhibited these, the flower of the flock,
she wished me to see the goats also, and for this
purpose she took the trouble to have them all
assembled in a field near the house. This good
woman apologized for the absence of her husband,
who, she said, was gone into the mountain to cut
wood for winter fuel; he would otherwise have
been happy to procure me some good fish, with
which the lake is said to he well stocked, but more
particularly with fine salmon-trout.
She was, however, able to supply me with some
dried beef, called, I believe, “ Speget K jo d j’ ivhich
is salted and hung up to dry either in the sun only,
or smoked in the chimney-corner. H er young
family was sm a ll; it consisted of a boy and a girl.
lb