No. Lv. View from egeberg. The present view was taken on the same spot as the last, which when placed on the right of this, comprehends the general appearance of the whole fiord with its islands, as seen from the top of egeberg, a mountain in the immediate vicinity of christiania. Two of the crown islands are continued from the right, and the third is on a line with them, more to the left. The ships sailing up the regular channel between them, are pursuing their course round the point into the harbour. The passage between the islands, when certain winds prevail, is attended with many difficulties, and requires great skill in pilotage, as indeed does every part of the fiord. It has no tides; and great perils are to be apprehended from sunken rocks, bad anchorage, and sudden gusts of winds, issuing from between the mountains and islands. If the ships miss a pass between the latter, or do not attain their next anchoring place, they invariably return before night to that which they left in the morning. This necessary precaution, at times renders the navigation extremely tedious to the impatient voyager; and the obstacles are such, that it is utterly impossible for an enemy to reach christiania by water; nor can the best and most experienced pilots ever be prevailed on to attempt the passage by night. The great promontory on the left, nas oddin, connects with a vast congregation of woody mountains, extending down the fiord to grisebue, drobak, &c, and on its east side, forming the extensive bay of biorning, the entrance to which is seen behind the weatherbeaten tree on the foreground. The hills, in the extreme distance, are in the west of norway. By placing on a table views, nos. 56, 55, 54, 49, 50, and 53 successively, by the side of each other, beginning with 56 on the left, a tolerably panoramic exhibition may be formed of the situation of christiania, in the midst of its superb environs; and i presume that the scene will then be allowed very far to excel the much admired lake of geneva, with all its beauties. From the heights of egeberg only, the bay, harbour, and circumjacent country appear in all their glorious splendor. The fiord is decorated with islands, and animated with ships and boats; accessories which geneva cannot boast, and which are here presented at one view, in a most interesting and enchanting living picture, not inferior to the finest italian scenery. The placid serenity of the water's silvery surface, its wild fowl skimming the midway air, and the gentle murmurs of the trees overhead, incline the imagination to believe that the repose is eternal; but alas it is transitory and precarious ! and seasons occur when the awful and tremendous visitations of bosera and his fatal attendants, tear up, and lay waste all that is exposed to their fury. Then the picture is horrible in the extreme; the very mountains seem in motion, and appear to be assembling, and again forming in the lake beneath, which is agitated like a foaming and boiling cauldron. Not a ship, boat, or bird is in view, the trees are bent to the earth, their fragments flying in the air; the small water-falls and rills are no more seen on the sides of the mountains, being torn from them, and dissipated before they can reach the bottom. If the hapless ship cannot in time retreat behind a rock, she is inevitably wrecked, and all on board perish, as anchors then become useless. The natives, well aware of these sudden visitations, have wisely and humanely placed on the sides of the perpendicular rocks, iron rings, to which the mariner confidently moors, sheltered by a tower of strength over his mast head, although in imminent peril from the large fragments which occasionally fall from above. Date: 1800. View from Egeberg (JW Edy plate 55)
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