File:Haoe Fall (JW Edy plate 57).jpg

This view was taken on board a ship, in the Fiord of Christiania, a little above the town of Drobak. It shows the narrowest and most important pass of the Fiord, between the mountains in its vicinity on the way up to Christiania. It may properly be denominated the key to that city by water, and might easily be fortified with a castle, or battery of a few guns, which would prove inevitably destructive to an enemy's fleet, or a single ship, that might have the temerity to attempt the pass. Why this important place has been overlooked, or neglected, may possibly be attributed to the confidence placed in the hazardous navigation to and beyond it, which certainly renders Christiania inaccessible to an enemy. The water is salt, and so excessively deep, that instances are known of ships that have been hurried through this strait, from their holding ground opposite Drobak, before they could get their anchors up, and which have retained them hanging from their bows at cable's length, without touching, or being impeded by the bottom. The anchoring places, of which there are hut few, are composed of a fat blue clay of no great extent, ending in many places abruptly, like a wall, through which, the anchor in blowing weather sometimes draws, and when arrived at its extremity, falls perpendicularly down into deep water called bottomless. At these moments all attention is called to the safety of the ship, to prevent it from being dashed against the rocks or islands; and the anchors are suffered to hang down neglected, until they arrive at a convenient place for getting them on board. The rocks on the left hand side are a continuation of the Drobak shore. The large conical mountain is called Haoe ; it is an insulated mass of rock, covered almost wholly from the water's edge to its summit with firs. Its altitude is considerable and there is much difficulty in ascending to its apex ; its rocks are of a red or purple hue. Between it and its gigantic neighbour, a cascade or rill of water is continually falling down its sides into the Fiord, from a lake above, which when swollen, distributes its superabundance in many murmuring channels, in an unwonted and picturesque manner, as may indistinctly be seen, between the rocks and trees. This shore being bold, and abounding with precipices, the ships rub the rocks and trees with their yardarms in passing. Although at certain times of the day these places seem a most agreeable paradise, such is the variable state of the autumnal atmosphere in Norway, that an hour may involve you in a hurricane, deluge you with ram, or immerse you in so dense a fog, as to prevent you from seeing the ground at your feet, and often in those forlorn cases you are in a forest, and obliged in pursuing your way. to depend more on your faithful little horse, than on yourself or your guide. The hills in the distance, are at the sides of the Fiord on the way up to Christiania. A little below this pass, at Fitved, stands a small customhouse, where probably they take cognizance of all ships, to and from Christiania, Drobak, Osterstrand, &c. The hills behind it are of singular forms, and the Fiord in general presents at every point, a variety of pleasing or astonishing objects rarely excelled in Norway.