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222 THROUGH NORWAY WITII A KNAPSACK.
standing against the blue sky just where it pours over
the precipice, is very beautiful. There are no birds up
here, no roaring torrent, no rustling of trees, or buzzing
of insects; not even the ripple of a thin stream, as
heard on the Swiss glaciers; but a silence that is almost
absolute, and adds vastly to the effect of such a scene,
especially on the mind of the solitary pedestrian. A
guide is a positive nuisance under such circumstances:
the tourist is so dependent upon him that the chief
excitement of the walk is gone when there is no effort
required to find one’s way and no possibility of losing
it; then he interferes with the enjoyment of the scene by
hurrying one on with the sole motive of getting over
the ground. Even a congenial friend, however
desirable in general travelling, interferes with the feelings
and reflections which such overwhelming solitude and
silence awaken.
The snow plains which are here seen bending over in
cascades above the lake, are terminations of the great
table-land of snow forming the "fond " or " sneefond"
of the Justedal’s Bræen; a great untrodden desert of
perpetual snow, extending for about fifty miles to the
S.W. with a varying width, and covering altogether a
space of about 400 square miles: it is one vast field of
ice and snow. Every valley of favourable
configuration that branches from this great reservoir of ice is
filled with a glacier, or ice-torrent, replacing the
water-torrent of the valleys that descend from the Dovre and
other fjelds that are not snow-covered.
1 now descended over similar ground to that on the
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