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48 THROUGH NORWAY WITII A KNAPSACK.
knew that I should pay him nothing for licking the
knife; hut in doing so he did his best, according to his
notions, to make it luxuriously clean and agreeable to
me. I paid for supper, bed, and breakfast twelve
skillings, or about 5\cl.; then walked on through a wild
alpine gorge with a roaring torrent far in the depth
below. After passing this gorge, which terminates at
the next station, the valley widens again and the scenery
changes entirely.
Below Laurgaard the rich verdant slopes form the
leading characteristic. This verdure is sustained by
very careful irrigation, which is one of the most
remarkable features of the farming operations hereabouts.
Long troughs are made by scooping a hollow in the
stem of a pine-tree ; one of these is laid with its thicker
end close to a mountain stream, and the water directed
into it. This trough is laid along the ground with a
slight inclination towards its thinner end, which rests
in the hollow at the thick end of the next trough, so
that the water flows over from the first into the second.
This arrangement is continued, and a little aqueduct
formed: one of these aqueducts runs along the upper
part of every field, or range of fields. To use it, the
farmer, or one of his housemen, brings a wooden trough,
not channelled through as the aqueduct logs are, but
with a ledge all round, so that it can form a little pool
of water. He places this just above the part he is about
to irrigate, breaks the aqueduct by lifting the channelled
log nearest to his pool trough, and directs the stream
into it. Usually he has to shift several logs in order
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