Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Chapter II
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A RAILWAY THAT PAYS.
people must either travel cheaply and speedily or stay
at home.
There are some special peculiarities in this little line.
It is, to a great extent, the property of a few English
engineers and contractors; and Englishmen are astonished
at the amount of traffic that is done on a single line of
rails, and at the total absence of engineering and
architectural triumphs for the world to admire and the
shareholders to pay for. I am told that it is a most profitable
speculation, as may be expected; for this is the great
highway of Norway; and where people can travel at a
halfpenny per mile, at convenient hours, the whole
population become habitual railway travellers. What might
not the profits upon our railways be if a corresponding
proportion of our dense population made use of them?
This railway passes through a rich fertile valley with a
pretty river winding along it, and then plunges through
some dense forests of tall pines, with stems so straight
and uniformly taper that they appear like huge
fishing-rods. Their bark has a fine red colour, which reflects
the sunlight and fills the whole atmosphere between the
labyrinth of bare poles with a warm tinge, similar to
that produced by stained-glass windows in the aisles
of a Gothic cathedral.
Eidsvold, the northern terminal station, is beautifully
situated on the river which flows from the Miosen Lake
to the Glommen. After some inquiry, I found the inn,
or station: it consists of a number of wooden houses,
some containing hay, others adapted for the
entertainment of cattlc, and one being a stoi’e well stocked with
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