NORWAY ON FIFTY DOLLARS

By Syd- ney A. Clark 'l2. Robert M. Mcßride & Company, New York.

Sydney A. Clark's "Fifty Dollar Series" of travel books have proved so popular that this last month his publishers issued three of these volumes simultaneously. The other two are also being reviewed in this issue of the MAGAZINE. Eleven in all of this series have been published.

The Norway volume was announced some time ago and as it was my good fortune to spend part of two summers in that country I have been eagerly waiting the publication of this volume. I believe that Norway is one of the most fascinating countries in Europe. Mr. Clark likewise finds it so and I had wondered how he was going to give his travel friends a comprehensive tour of Norway for fifty dollars. He does give us for this amount an c teresting trip through a part of the country showing his readers the Oslo-Bergen- Trondheim triangle but suggests that another fifty dollars be allowed for a trip to the North Cape, and if still more money is available that this trip be taken on the Stellar Polaris, that marvelous motor yacht which plies along the Norwegian fiords, and up to Spitzbergen during the summer months. Fifty dollars will allow eight comfortable days in Norway and by skimping a bit, ten or twelve days. As all hotels in Norway are of the very cleanest and the food simple but good, one may be willing to stay at the less expensive hotels and thus prolong the stay. There are few incidental expenses besides hotels, meals, and transportation for, as Mr. Clark says, the main thing to be seen in Norway is nature. He allows a day each to the three largest cities, Oslo, Bergen, and Trondheim, and the choice of one fiord trip. He suggests Hardanger "for a bit of everything." My own personal preference would be the Sognefiord with Gudvangen and the trip to Stalheim from which the view is unexcelled. Although the author recommends the Hardanger he states "My midsummer- night trip from Merok at the Geiranger's end out through the bi-oadening Storfjord will probably remain throughout my life the ne plus ultra of my travels, the one absolute superlative best."

This book, as well as the others in the series, is well written, comprehensive, and will appeal to the seasoned traveler as well as to the novice. I trust that many people will be induced to visit Norway because of this volume.