Skien

Skien, a seaport of southern Norway, in Bratsberg amt (county), on the river Skien, 5 m. below its issue from Lake Nord, and 6 m. above its outflow into Frier Fjord. Pop. (1900) 11,343. It was mostly rebuilt after a fire in 1886. Here Henrik Ibsen, the dramatist, was born in 1828. In 1892 a canal ascending 189 ft. by means of 17 locks was made between lakes Bandak and Nord, giving access to the Telemark district by way of Dalen. The whole distance between the lakes is 40 m., and several fine falls, as the Ulefos, Eidsfos, and Vrangfos, are passed. The engineering is noteworthy. In the town and district are numerous saw-mills, planing, cotton-spinning and flour-mills, factories for wood-pulp and domestic commodities, also a copper mine (at Omdal). The exports are ice, timber (including telegraph poles for the British government), wood-pulp and copper, and the imports coal and china-clay. The town (the ancient Skida) dates from the 14th century. A fine view iš obtained from the Bratsberg Klev, S. E. of the town, with ruins of a chapel.