regulation, that the cadets neither lodge nor eat in the house; they are boarded with respectable people of the town, for the purpose of avoiding the monkishness of a secluded education. They wish to bring the young people as much as possible into contact with the world, and to break them at an early period of the narrow-mindedness which so circumscribed an occupation as that of a soldier has a necessary tendency to produce. The correctness of these principles has been confirmed by experience, even in the short space of a few years. So long as the state of Denmark deems it necessary to keep up a great army, and to dedicate so much of its attention to that object, it were heartily to be wished that all the Danish officers found such a school for their formation as the military academy in Christiania.

"We may easily conceive that such a beautiful country as the environs of Christiania does not in vain display its charms to the wealthy inhabitants, and that they will be disposed to quit the town in summer for the health and pleasure of a country life. The multitudes of country-houses round the town is in reality so great, that their appearance puts us in mind of Marseilles. A country-house is an essential piece of luxury in Christiania; and as a merchant in Hamburg does not suppose he can appear without his coach and his horses, so the country-house is the first expense of a rising citizen here.

These small places are called Lükken in Christiania. Why they are so called I could never learn; and what is singular, this appellation is exclusively peculiar to this town. Many of their places are

indeed very diminutive-a little house with a small meadow; but they have all an enchanting situation: and there is a perpetual variety of prospect from the height of the amphitheatre, of the Fiord, the town, and the hills. Whatever may be the number of these Lükken, we may boldly, assert that there is not one of them without a prospect peculiar to itself Most of them have not much to recommend them except this prospect, as little has been done for the surrounding grounds. But this they cannot be blamed for. The great desire to possess a small piece of ground in the neighbourhood of the town has raised the price of them so immoderately high, that it is seldom in the power of the possessor one to ornament any part of it. A Lükke worth eight or twelve thousand dollars seldom exceeds the size of many a garden in Berlin; and a meadow worth a thousand rix-dollars may be over-looked at a glance. The occupation as a meadow is essentially necessary to the support of the town; for the country is not sufficiently inhabited to allow the market to be constantly supplied with every thing that house-keeping requires. Every family must keep their own cow; and the long winter requires great stores; hence a dry year, unusual warmth and drought in June and July, not unfrequently occasion great want and embarrassment; and although the upland vales of Ringerige or Walders send some hay to the capital, it is by no means equal to the consumption. Assistance is then looked to from abroad, and hay is commissioned from England and Ireland. I could hardly believe my eyes, when I saw in the harvest of 1806, a number

a number of ships loaded with hay in the mouth of the bay of Christiania. Is this hay exported to the Baltic or Jutland, to countries fertile in corn? No, I was answered, it is hay from England, commissioned to supply the wants of the householders in Christiania and Drammen. It is well with the country that possesses means and opportunities to supply its wants in such a manner; but it is still better with the country which by its own industry can produce what nature in the ordinary course of things refuses. And why should it not? When we see the Aggers Elv, a considerable stream close to the town, falling in noisy cascades from wheel to wheel, from saw mill to paper-mill, and again to saw-mill; when we see numerous little streams descending from the wood-covered hills; and when we view at Frogner a considerable rivulet running through the midst of these possessions, before it falls into the Fiord at the west end of the town, a stream which in the great est heat of summer is never dry, it is surprising that all these supplies of water have not been long ago made to fall from Lükke to Lükke, and to spread in a thousand various channels over the parched hills, as has been so beautifully done in the Emmenthal and Valais in Switzer Jand, and with so much art even in Norway itself, in the valley of Lessöe, and in Leerdalen below Filleficidt. For this an agreement of all the proprietors among themselves is no doubt necessary, and it may be attended with some difficulty; but are we not to consider it as a want of public spirit that such an agreement has never taken place? And are we not entitled to suspect some

error in the government, which, with such an excellent opportunity, prevents the inhabitants from finding their individual interest in the general good.

"The possessors, in truth, show no want of individual industry. Bare rocks are yearly thrown down and converted to meadows, and many a place is now attractive which was formerly repulsive from its sterility. The small possession of Frydenlund, about an English mile from the town, formerly nothing but dry slates hardly covered with moss, has become, through the incessant labours of the indefatigable lady of General Wackenitz, one of the sweetest and loveliest places imaginable. And what has been effected by the noble and active Collet on his possession of Ulevold, will, in point of agriculture, long serve as a model for Norway.

"Whoever takes a delight during his stay in Christiania in exploring the bearties of the surrounding country, must not neglect to visit the charming Skoyen, the country residence of Ploen the merchant; in point of situation, the crown of all the rural places in the neighbourhood of the town. The whole magnificence of nature is here unfolded to us: the Fiord, the town, and the hills, appear all entirely new, as if we had never be fore seen them. We never weary in looking down upon them, to follow the beautiful light spread over them, and to rivet our eyes on the picturesque forms of the hills of Bogstadt and Bärum. And again, what rural beauty, what charming solitary prospects, when we lose ourselves among the woods and dales that border on Skoyen! Here alone we live with nature! In Bogstadt,

Bogstadt, the magnificent seat of the chamberlain, Peder Ancker, we may please ourselves with viewing the way in which a rich individual may create and beautify a residence to give delight to a cultivated mind; and in Ulevold we may gratefully recognize the endeavours of the noble possessor to diffuse joy and benevolence around him,

"This high cultivation and beauty of the country around the town deceive us into a belief of a better climate than the place actually possesses. The appearance of the objects down the bay puts us so often in mind of Italy, that we would wilingly associate the idea of Italian heat with them. It is confidently, however, believed by many, that the climate of Christiania is at all events better than might be expected from its high latitude. But this is not actually the case. By much too unfavourable an idea is entertained in other countries of nature under the sixtieth degree of latitude. Where oaks thrive, fruitgardens may be cultivated with advantage and pleasure: and accordingly in Christiania not only apples and cherries, but even pears and apricots, grow in the open air: plums, however, do not succeed; and peaches and vines, as well as several sorts of pears, must be dispensed with. As to the trees, the high ash thrives admirably, and it is a peculiar ornament to the country. Limes grow vigorously and beautifully; and sycamores and elms are among the most common trees of the woods. The aspen tree, (Populus tremula), the alder, and the birch, grow always larger and finer; they are the true trees of the north; and the warmth of Christiania is even in some measure too great for their highest perfection: at least, the as

per and birch seem here to love the shade very much.

"Neither does the winter appear here much earlier than in the north of Germany: the snow is hardly expected to lie before the beginning of December; and continued frost is very rare in November. It is, however, sufficient to cover the barbour of Christiania with ice in the end of November, and the shipping is then for some months altogether at a stand. The inmost part of the bay, between the numerous islands and points, resembles a lake, and is therefore soon frozen. The Bonnefiord, an arm of more than fourteen English miles in length, is fully frozen, and in the main arm the ice extends frequently for nine English miles down the bay. The vessels are then frozen in, and lie in the harbour the whole winter through as if on land. People pass and repass between the yachts, galleys, and brigs, as through streets, and the land and water appear no longer separated. This continues for a long time. The fine season gradually makes its appearance. The snow has been long all melted on the hills of Christiania by the sun and the warm rains, and every thing has assumed a green and animated appearance, before the ships are disentangled from the thick ice. About the 24th of April the waves begin, at last, to beat against the moles of the harbour. The ship-owners then frequently lose all patience for a few miles farther out in the Fiord, the ships of Droback, Laurvig, and even Frederickstadt, have been long out at sea before the vessels at Christiania exhibit the smallest motion. They at last remove the obstacles by force, and break the ice. This is a most interesting moment. I

heard

heard once in February, that several ships wished to break through the ice, and I knew that they had at least a German mile to proceed through the hard ice to the nearest open water I immediately ran to witness the Herculean undertaking; but I was not a little astonished to see the ships advanced a great way through the ice, and still continuing in motion, though slowly, as if they were in open water. The whole work is, in fact, much easier than one would be led to imagine. About fifty men stand opposite one another like an alley; and the space they allow between them corresponds to the breadth of the ship which is to be moved through. They cut along the solid mass of ice as far as their line extends, and then they separate, by cuts across from the one line to the other, immense rectangles of ice, perhaps more than twenty feet in length. A wooden plank is next placed in the cut so opened: the men then all proceed over to the opposite side; some of them press the rectangle of ice with all their might below the water in the same moment, all the others lay hold of a number of ropes fastened to the board in the opposite cut, and shove the immense loosened mass of ice, with one effort, below the ice which is firm. They then begin to loosen another rectangle. The work proceeds so quickly, that the ship which fol

lows hardly ever stops, and in the space of a few hours makes its way through a covering of two feet of ice for almost five English miles from Christiania to the open water. In this way several English ships of the line wrought their way in the winter of 1808 from Gottenburg through the ice into the open sea. Hence we may easily see that where the art of working through ice is properly understood, ships which are frozen in, do not always necessarily fall into the hands of an advancing land army.

"When the ice has left the vi cinity of Christiania, the warmth increases with indescribable rapidity; and May, instead of being a spring month, is completely summer. On the 3d, 4th, and 5th of May, 1808, I observed that the thermometer at its highest rose to 70° Fahr. In the middle of the month all the trees were in leaf, except the ash (ask, fraxinus excelsior); and towards the end of the month the thermometer was daily at noon 19 or 20. In the beginning of July garden stuffs were every where to be had: the mean warmth of the month rose to upwards of 65°, and at noon it was generally 81, nay, even sometimes 80 degrees. They commenced their harvest before August, but September was not fully over before they began to think of stoves in the town."

LAPLAND

AUTOKEJNO, the 11th

eminent a degree. At the last ha

two rein-deer, with their driver, Mathes Michelsöon Sara, had agreeably to engagement come down from the Fieldts. These animals were loaded with the most necessary requisites for our journey, and with them, two Laplanders, a woman, and a child. I left Antelgaard as I would leave a home, on the evening of the third, and a few hours afterwards I reached Bosecop. This remote country, besides the attractions which it has received from nature, the grand and interesting style of the environs, the variety of new phenomena which strongly recommend it to our notice, possessed a superior charm for me in the highly distinguished and agreeable society which are here collected. Their repeated and incessant acts of kindness and benevolence continued for so many months towards a stranger whom they could never expect to see again, with the polish and the attraction of their conversation, could not fail to produce such an impression on my mind. Although strict justice, wisdom, and knowledge, are qualities which we ought not to look upon as extraordinary in any governor of a province, I felt a particular pleasure in the consideration that even the head of the most remote province of the Danish dominions possessed these qualities in so

Bosecop, I took my leave of them, when I began to think, for the first time, that I was three degrees beyond the Polar Circle, among wilds and deserts.

"We soon entered the wood: the rocks of Skaana Vara appeared nearer and nearer, narrowed the valley, and formed perpendicular precipices along its sides. All traces of habitation disappeared. The high and majestic Scotch firs stood thickly around, with excellent stems, and the small marshes in the wood were surrounded with alders and aspens. On entering deeper into the valley the view became suddenly frightful. The trees lay in heaps above one another, torn up by the roots almost in every direction for large spaces, and the few solitary stems which remained erect were quite lost among them: an image of the alarming, nature of the storms in winter. Most of the trees lay with their heads down the valley. The storm had swept down from the south, and when compressed between narrow ranges of rocks, the firs are not always able to withstand it.

"At the approach of evening the Laplanders took the rein deer up several cliffs which were covered with rein-deer moss like snow and there they tethered them. We passed the night ourselves content

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