Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 3.djvu/67

 KINGS OF NOKWAY. 55 inmost bight, there is but a narrow neck of land di- "^aga ix. viding the fiord from the West sea.^ Thither King Harald rowed with his men towards evening ; and at night when it was dark he unloaded his ships, drew them over the neck of land into the West sea, loaded them again, and was ready with all this before day. He then steered northwards along the Jutland coast. People then said that Harald had escaped from the hands of the Danes. Harald said that he would come to Denmark next time with more people and larger vessels. King Harald then proceeded north to Drontheim. Kinsr Harald remained all winter at Nidaros, and Chapter . . LXI had a vessel built out upon the strand, and it was a King Ha- buss.f The ship was built of the same size as the ^^^^ ^"^^^^ Long Serpent, and every part of her was finished with the greatest care. On the stem was a dragon- head, and on the stern a dragon-tail, and the sides of the bows of the ship were gilt. The vessel was of thirty -five rowers' benches, and was large for that size, and was remarkably handsome ; for the king had every thing belonging to the ship's equipment of the best, both sails and rigging, anchors and cables. King Harald sent a message in winter south to Chapter Denmark to King Swend, that he should come north- King wards in spring ; that they should meet at the Gotha ^"^[f^^^^ river and fight, and so settle the division of the coun- tries that the one who gained the victory should have both kingdoms. King Harald during this winter called out a general levy of all the people of Norway, broken across by the North Sea; and there is now a navigable passage into the Baltic, besides that of the Sound and of the Belts, for small vessels. It has eight or ten feet water, and is used by small vessels. •j" Bussu-skip. A buss is a word still used for a fishing- vessel. It appears to have been applied to ships of burden of greater breadth than the war-ships. (See Spelman and Du Fresne.) The buss was a three masted ship. E 4
 * This narrow neck of land has, within these few years, been