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THE NORTHERN FIORDS.
97
out to dry in the sun. Like the bodies in the vaults at
Trondhjem Cathedral, the mummification of the fish is
effected by simple drying, and "stock fish" so much
demanded for fast days in inland Catholic countries is
the result. When the drying is complete, they are
stacked into heaps, which may easily be mistaken at a
distance for hayricks. Near to these stacks and drying
acres—generally close upon the shore—are huge boilers,
where the cod-livers were stewing most odoriferously.
We stopped at many of these reeking stations, and
steamed between wild granite mountains starting so
abruptly from the sea that in some parts we passed through
walled-up channels not wider than the windings of the
Thames about Richmond, and winding as much or more
than that river winds, but with sharp angular bends.
On approaching these the vessel appears to be running
hopelessly aground, and not until the bowsprit seems
almost crashing upon tall rocks ahead, does the
helmsman pull furiously at the wheel; when the ship swings
round into the suddenly discovered opening.
It must be remembered that during this journey we
were not always progressing to the northward, but
sometimes sailing westward, eastward, or even due
southward; through channels, up and down fiords and
branches of fiords ; stopping at coast and island stations
to pick up and set down passengers and goods; and
landlocked apparently at every turn by fresh islands
and promontories and shores of fiords; so that the
whole journey is like sailing through a tortuous chain
of ten thousand glorious lakes.
H
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