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THE CORMORANTS OF UDROST. Bright, 'mid [he skerries of the Western sea * An island rides upon the wave. Yet none May know its beauty ; for if mortal ship By chance should drift too near th' enchanted shore A curtain of dark mist enshrouds the isle. No eye can see its brightness, and no foot May leave its print upon the golden fields. 'Tis but in fancy he who dwells ashore May picture, in the longings of his dreams, This fairy jewel of the Western sea. When the fishermen in the north of Norway come to land, they often find straw stuck between the rudder and the stem-post, or grain in the stomach of the fish. It is then said, that they have sailed over Udrost or some of the other fairy-lands, about which so
