A summer in northern lands; the journal of a trip to Scandinavia . , little settlement in a most desolateregion: nothing but rocks, that rise likesaw-teeth from the stormy sea and arenaked, save for a few patches of greenish-brown moss. I say naked, but that meansof soil or verdure, for even this late in thesummer the north flank of each mountain,where it is not too steep, is covered withsnow and ice. As the evening was cold anddisagreeable, I went to bed. Wednesday, July IS bright and sunny this morning, so Ifeel better. As soon as we made fast tothe wharf at Svolvaer I took a short wal
A summer in northern lands; the journal of a trip to Scandinavia . , little settlement in a most desolateregion: nothing but rocks, that rise likesaw-teeth from the stormy sea and arenaked, save for a few patches of greenish-brown moss. I say naked, but that meansof soil or verdure, for even this late in thesummer the north flank of each mountain,where it is not too steep, is covered withsnow and ice. As the evening was cold anddisagreeable, I went to bed. Wednesday, July IS bright and sunny this morning, so Ifeel better. As soon as we made fast tothe wharf at Svolvaer I took a short walkabout the town. There are some quite nicehouses here and even several gardens withshrubs and a few small trees in them, but Ido not think it will ever amount to much asa place to raise fruit or even as a popularsummer resort. These islands owe theirprosperity, I might almost say their habita-bility, to the fisheries, which are mentionedby writers as early as nine hundred yearsago. The fishing is carried on from mid-January till April in the Vestf jord, to which. A SUMMER IN NORTHERN LANDS 51 the cod, from the depths of the Atlantic,come to spawn. So dense are the schools,as they move in serried ranks one hundredfeet or more below the surface of the water,that the lead, when thrown, actually restson the bodies of the fishes and does not sinkto the bottom. In good years as high asforty-six millions of fish are caught that areworth over eight million krones. Towardsthe middle of the afternoon we entered theRaftsund, the grandest of the Lofotenstraits, flanked with huge mountains, thatare furrowed by deep ravines. After pro-ceeding up this magnificent water-way for afew miles we turned into the Troldfjord, anarrow bay enclosed by abrupt rocks thatrise to a stupendous height. It ends beneathseveral snow-filled gorges and there wasbarely room for our steamer to turn old captain, with evident pride, toldme there was only one Troldfjord in Nor-way and nothing like it in the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, bookidsummerinnort, bookyear1922
