peasant Labour Candidates in the costume of their country, being Members
of the Storthing. He also met Count Videll, a 'most fascinating person'
who, being asked as to the purchase of a carriage, replied politely, 'I
will give you one'; and he sent it, saying, 'It is nothing, I have
plenty.' The valley of the Drammen he beheld from the mountain of their
descent, 'charm and awe' by turns are the sensations of the travellers,
and this led them on to Kongsberg, at one time famous for its silver
mines, but the mines not being worked and the timber trade also
decreasing, the population went with it and was then only 4000. The
travellers went down the only silver mine then worked, in the dress of a
miner, walked through a horizontal gallery a mile long till they came to
the shaft, and descended two storeys but could not proceed, the fire
being just lit below.

'This mine returns about L1250 sterling of silver per ann. Sixty miners
are employed at L14 a year each! Bears, wolves and reindeer abound in
this vicinity. There is plenty of iron, not worked, and gold has also
been found in Kongsberg. From thence to Topam(?) we were surprised to
find ourselves driven up to the door of a gentleman's place, out came
Jack Butler, and the master of the house, pressing us to walk in; after
excuses and proper hesitation we accepted, and found ourselves in a room
with people at supper, ladies pretty ones too, who spoke English!

'The fact is that Topam, of which we had heard so much, is a gentleman's
place; after dinner we were shown to our room (one only was vacant).
Walrond had a bed and I slept in my cloak.'

Next day they engaged a well-organised _chasse_. My father
pronounces Topam (?) the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. 'Mr.
Benker of Berlin, their host, purchased it from the King of Sweden for