CHAPTER IX
August 30th.
At seven o'clock this morning I left Christiania, accompanied by the
good wishes of my countrywoman and her husband, and went back to
Gottenburg by the same steamer which had brought me thence ten days
before. I need only mention the splendid view of a portion of
Christian's Sound - also called Fiord - which I lost on the former
journey from the darkness of the night. We passed it in the
afternoon. The situation of the little town of Lauervig is superb.
It is built on a natural terrace, bordered in the background by
beautiful mountains. In front, the fortress of Friedrichsver lies
on a mountain surrounded by rocks, on which little watch-towers are
erected; to the left lies the vast expanse of sea.
We were delayed an hour at Friedrichsver to transfer the travellers
for Bergen {50} to a vessel waiting for them, as we had stopped on
our previous journey at Sandesund for the same purpose.
This is the last view in the fiord; for now we steered into the open
sea, and in a few hours we had lost sight of land. We saw nothing
but land and water till we arrived the next morning at the Scheren,
and steered for Gottenburg.
August 31st.
The sea had been rough all night, and we therefore reached
Gottenburg three hours later than usual. In this agitated sea, the
surging of the breakers against the many rocks and islets near
Gottenburg has a very curious effect.
The few travellers who could keep on their feet, who did not suffer
from sea-sickness, and remained on deck, spoke much of the dangerous
storm. I had frequently marvelled to hear people who had made a
journey, if it were even only a short one of forty to sixty leagues,
relate of some fearful storm they had witnessed. Now I comprehended
the reason, when I heard the travellers beside me call the brisk
breeze, which only occasioned what seamen call a little swell, a
dreadful storm; and they will probably tell at home of the dangers
they have passed. Storms are, fortunately, not so frequent. I have
travelled many thousand leagues, and have often met with stormy
weather, especially on the passage from Copenhagen to Iceland; but I
only experienced one real storm, but a violent and dangerous one, as
I was crossing the Black Sea to Constantinople in April 1842.
We arrived at Gottenburg at nine instead of at six o'clock in the
morning. I landed at once, to make the celebrated trip through the
locks, over the waterfalls of Trollhatta, with the next Stockholm
steamer.
