Porter (JW Edy plate 24) - Public domain engraving

No. XXIV. VIEW OF PORTER.



The coast between Öster Riisöer and Porter is hideous in the extreme. Wherever the eye turns, nothing is to be observed but dreariness or danger. While the shore exhibits an uninterrupted series of naked, frowning rocks, innumerable breakers and fragments of vessels impress the mmd with the most awful reflections on a seafaring life. Here the language of an able and correct writer is most strikingly applicable. "The coasts of Norway are accounted the most dangerous of any in Europe to run with in the night, or in a storm ; on which, if you chance to be driven, there is no escaping, the shore being all along high rocks, at the very foot of which one may find 200 fathoms water." 1
Safety may, however, be said to go hand in hand with danger on the coast of Norway. This is most beautifully exemplified by the romantic situation of Porter, which in common with Norwegian harbours, in general, presents to the mmd the most lively and striking images of security. Though not capacious, the harbour of Porter has sufficient depth of water for the largest ships to ride safely at anchor; the port being nearly surrounded by rocks, and of course well sheltered from storms. An enthusiastic admirer of nature, in her awful and solemn attitudes,might retire from this place, and declare that he had been on enchanted ground.
Norway abounds in scenery calculated to excite the most opposite emotions in the human breast. While her coast inspires terror, the interior of the country unfolds a great variety of rural scenes of most exquisite beauty. Little benelit has, however, hitherto been drawn from the picturesque treasures of this country ; they have been under-rated by natives, and scarcely valued by foreigners. An attempt was certainly made between twenty and thirty years ago by Professors Lorentzen and Pauelsen, two most excellent painters, to awaken the attention of their own country and the world at large to the grand, sublime, and beautiful scenery of Norway. A considerable number of their paintings were engraved by Professor Haas and Mr. Grosch ; but the undertaking, except in the case of one or two views, did not meet with that degree of success which would have justified perseverance or encouraged hope.

1.^ An Account of Denmark, as it was in the year 1692, by the Right Honourable Robert Lord Viscount Molesworth, sixth edition, Glasgow, 1752, page 3.