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THE ORKEDAL.
161
and rounded pebbles in some of the hollows of the floor
of the tunnel or the crevices of the rock. Had I
thought of this when upon the spot, I should have
made an effort to go ashore and examine the tunnel,
of which we have only such vague descriptions; and
which might thus afford the most direct and clenching
evidence, not only of the fact, but of the measure of
this Scandinavian upheaval.
The Orkedal is a warm and sunny valley in the
summer season, and by no means suggestive of the far
north. The little lake in which I took my bath to-day
was at one end quite carpeted with water-lilies; its
beauty being suggestive of many a pattern for our
carpet makers. The blue dragon-flies were fluttering
over the surface of the water, laying their eggs, and
making the most of their short life in the air, while
their ferocious larvae below were devouring everything
within reach. On the banks there were growing in
great profusion two species* of those curious plants,
the Droseræ, or sun-dew, their leaves bristled over with
the gluey hairs, upon which small flies were struggling
or lying dead. Botanists are still puzzled to decide
whether these plants, and their southern relatives, the
Dionce, or Venus flytrap, really catch the flies to feed
on them, or whether they merely perform the functions
of the " catch-’em-alive " papers that abound in London
at the same season.
* One, the Drosera rotundifolia; the other having a long oval or
nearly lanceolate leaf with a long footstalk, and whose specific name
I am not acquainted with.
M
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