3-053-702 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Levifos, near Trondhjem, Norway, 1873. 'Mr. G. H. Weeks, engineer of H.M.S. Agincourt, furnishes a sketch of the picturesque Levifos waterfall, on the river Nid..It is described in Mr. J. S. Shepard's "Over the Dovrefjelds,": "Unlike most of the Norwegian 'fosses,' which have great height with but a narrow stream of water, the Leerfoss...has a breadth of 120ft., with a height of, perhaps, 80 ft. The river at one bound abruptly throws itself over a perpendicular wall of rock, but it lacks that broken and picturesque outline which is the principal charm of a fall; so torn are the surrounding rocks and smoothly regular the downpour of the rushing waters." The buildings on each side are mills, which are worked by the current carried to and from this place by aqueducts. Those on the left are built upon a detached rock; and, although they would appear to the observer as extremely fragile in their construction, still their existence through many years proves that the foundations are stable, and they will doubtless only cease to exist when the timbers which support them become decayed. Mr. Weeks says "The falls are very grand, and in the soft twilight of a Norwegian summer's day present a scene to which only the pencil of a Turner could do justice".' From "Illustrated London News", 1873.