Next morning the passengers are up in time to see the entrance to Stavanger in south-western Norway. This city has a magnificent position, in a wonderful setting of blue sea and island scenery — a pretty smiling prospect, and in the far distance the wild mountain scenery of Ryfylke. The venerable old cathedral of Stavanger pro- claims the ancient origin of this city. At the present day it is also the centre of the canning trade, one of the staple industries of the country. From Stavanger the tour continues northward through the «lead» — the channel treading the sheltered waters of the belt of skerries. In Karm- sund, south of Haugesund, we observe the ancient royal seat of Avaldsnes with its large stone church dating from the 11th century. We pass Haugesund, the principal centre of the great herring fisheries — an attractive, smiling town. On an eminence to the north of the town we can discern «Haralds- haugen», with its obelisk-like monolith, erected over the tomb of Harald Haarfagre, the king who welded Norway into one kingdom more than a thousand years ago. The inner channel we now follow from Hauge- sund to Bergen is one of the most charming in Norway. The ship glides between large islands and small holms, blue fjords cleave the mountain mass, and far away inland we see the Folgefonn glacier and the snown-capped fijell of Hardanger. Bergen, the old residential city of the Middle 185