Bergen

berg'en, a city on the western coast of Norway, 186 miles northwest of Christiania. It occupies an amphitheater at the head of a deep fiord twenty-five miles from the open sea, and is surrounded by rocky hills from 500 to 2,000 feet high. This city is sheltered. The climate is mild, with an annual rainfall of over seventy inches. Most of the houses are built of hewed logs, giving the town quite an alpine appearance. A market place, several churches, and a cathedral are worth seeing. A library of 50,000 volumes, a theater, a museum, and other institutions afford pleasure and instruction during the long winter months. The shipbuilders of the Clyde obtain timber from Bergen. Its merchants ship dried fish, herrings, tar, lumber, fish oil, and hides in exchange for flour, groceries, and clothing. At one time the Hanseatic League had an agency here and monopolized trade until expelled by the Norwegians in 1558. Their old building is still used as a warehouse. Bergen is the second city of Norway. The population in 1901 was reported officially at 72,179; 80,000 was claimed in 1905. In the latter year the Bergen fleet numbered 281 steamships and 76 sailing vessels. See Norway