Farm Houses Scattered About Animated, Nay, Graced A Scene Which Still Retained So Much Of Its Native Wildness, That The Art Which Appeared Seemed So Necessary, It Was Scarcely Perceived.

Cattle were grazing in the shaven meadows; and the lively green on their swelling sides contrasted with the ripening corn and rye.

The corn that grew on the slopes had not, indeed, the laughing luxuriance of plenty, which I have seen in more genial climes. A fresh breeze swept across the grain, parting its slender stalks, but the wheat did not wave its head with its wonted careless dignity, as if nature had crowned it the king of plants.

The view, immediately on the left, as we drove down the mountain, was almost spoilt by the depredations committed on the rocks to make alum. I do not know the process. I only saw that the rocks looked red after they had been burnt, and regretted that the operation should leave a quantity of rubbish to introduce an image of human industry in the shape of destruction. The situation of Christiania is certainly uncommonly fine, and I never saw a bay that so forcibly gave me an idea of a place of safety from the storms of the ocean; all the surrounding objects were beautiful and even grand. But neither the rocky mountains, nor the woods that graced them, could be compared with the sublime prospects I had seen to the westward; and as for the hills, "capped with ETERNAL snow," Mr. Coxe's description led me to look for them, but they had flown, for I looked vainly around for this noble background.

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