The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

NORWEGIAN TOWNS. 121their culture from theScandinavians, who have taught them the art of domesticatinganimals. In Lappish the dog alone has an original name, the horse, ox,sheep, goat, cat, pig, being known only by their Norse names. Even the reindeerwas known only as game ; but they have now learnt to train him, and have alsoacquired a knowledge of fishing and of the various industrial pursuits of a settledlife from their neighbours. On the other hand, the Quan, and even the Norseimmigrants, have been largely " Laponised," diminishing in stature, and showingevident signs of racial mixture. They have taken to the " blood soup ; " theirdress differs little from that of the aborigines ; and they speak Lappish not onlywith the natives, but often even in their own homes. About one-fifth of theFinmark TJgrians may now be regarded as of mixed race, and in Sweden alsothere are a few hundred half-castes, chiefly of Lapp fathers and Swedish mothers.Here the schools may be said to be the great levellers. Children, obliged to attendinstruction mostly far from the paternal tents, contract habits they find it difficultafterwards to lay aside. They never resume the nomad life absolutely, and thosewho remain in the Swedish villages end by believing themselves Swedes, theiroffspring naturally blending with the dominant race.Topography :Norwegian Towns.The site of the Norwegian towns has been determined by the climate andorographic conditions of the land. Except those of the mining districts of theinterior, all were necessarily founded on the sea-coast, or on the banks of creekssheltered from the north wind, and easily accessible to shipping. Even villagesare seldom found at any distance from these inlets. But each peasant has his guard,or group of wooden huts forming the farmstead, while the churches, municipalbuildings, and post-offices stand apart on some prominent site, or at the crossways.In the days when the Norse seafarers cast eager glances towards the BritishIsles and Western Europe, the western fiords, such as those of Trondhjem andBergen, were the most convenient for their purpose, and here accordingly theysettled. But after the roving expeditions had ceased the southern slopes, facingthe shores of Denmark, Scania, and Germany, became the most attractive, and oftwenty-one Norwegian towns with upwards of 4,000 inhabitants, no less thanfourteen are situated in this relatively small tract.With the exception of Christiania, a modern city, and Bergen, the oldHanseatic emporium, all the towns of the Norwegian seaboard are much alike.Standing at the extremity of a fiord accessible to large vessels, they rise generallyin amphitheatre form on the hillside, and are composed exclusively of woodenhouses, painted in white, grey, yellow, pink, or more commonly blood-red colours.Here are no carvings or external ornaments, as on the Swiss chalets—nothingbeyond a painted casement enclosing each window. The houses, in fact, aremerely large boxes resting on stone foundations. But they are embellishedwithin, and the window-sills are gay with roses, vervain, and geraniums. The