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180
THREE YEARS IN EUROPE.

pilgrims used to come to this spot in those olden times, and the Kings of Norway used to be buried here. Under the present constitution of Norway (1814) all sovereigns are required to repair here to be crowned in this Cathedral. It is a fine building but has been undergoing restoration since 16 or 17 years past, and the process is likely to go on for 40 or 50 years more. The restorers are wisely preserving all the designs of the olden times, replacing the materials only where necessary.

3rd August. We left Trondjem for Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, a distance of 530 miles. For sometime after leaving Trondjem we went along the shores of the beautiful Fiord of Trondjem, From Norway to Sweden by Railway.and then entered into a narrow valley with high pine-covered hills on both sides of us, and with a mountain streamlet winding below. The western coasts of Norway, as I have already mentioned before, is more or less bleak and bare, but in the interior the whole Scandinavian peninsula may be said to be one magnificent forest of pine and fir which constitutes the beauty and the wealth of this kingdom. We threaded our way through these dark pine-covered mountains, until the valley widened itself at Merakar, the last station in Norway. The little town is prettily situated in the valley and on both sides of a meandering stream. Cultivated fields and low hills stretched on all sides and cheered the eye. Above and around them the dark pines shaded the sides of high mountains whose tops were bleak and