longest line--three hundred and fifty miles--is from Christiania to
Trondhjem through Hamar. There is also a relatively long line--one
hundred and ninety miles--from Christiania up the Gudbrandsdal by Lake
Mjosen and through Lillehammer to Otta. In 1906, the Valders railway,
connecting Christiania with Fagernaes--a distance of one hundred and
thirty-one miles--was opened. This connects with the most important of
the new roads being built, the one from Christiania to Bergen. This
road will reach entirely across the country, from Christiania on
the Swedish frontier to Bergen on the Atlantic coast, thus making
connection between the two largest cities of Norway, journeys between
which are now only possible by steamships and carriages, consuming
from three to six days.

The new road goes through the mountains and presents many engineering
difficulties. Two-thirds of the way the roadbed must be cut out of the
mountain side, and there is a tunnel three miles long at a height of
two thousand eight hundred and twenty feet above the sea level. The
snow in the winter is so heavy that it will be necessary to cover
the tracks with sheds for a distance of nearly sixty miles. The
construction is not only difficult, but expensive, and although the
distance is but three hundred and ten miles, it will be one of the
most costly railroads ever built. Sixty-seven miles of the line
between Bergen and Vose, on the western coast, is already in
operation, and it is a favorite journey of tourists, for the scenery
is superb, although the traveler is in a tunnel one-tenth of the
entire distance. There are forty-eight tunnels in all. A shelf has
been hewn and blasted along the side of the mountains that encloses
the celebrated Sorfjord.

The Norwegians call a railway a _jernbane_, literally "an iron path."