In the Dolomites, over to Innsbruck, and on to Mount Rigi

Abstract

Many of the stories that people later told about Niels Henrik Abel must have occurred during the summer of 1822: that he happily and with ease called upon all the farms, that he was good at predicting the weather, that he had these instruments with which he was trying to measure the distance to the sun. Moreover, there was a great deal of sun that summer. The spring had come early; the farmers had begun to plough their fields at the end of April. It looked as though it would be one of the rare dry summers. Maybe that was why people got the impression that Niels Henrik could predict the rain clouds that eventually came. It is likely that it was also this summer that, in order to show his respect for this young man of science, and with hat in hand, Pastor John Aas met with Niels Henrik and they solemnly and politely walked the hills overlooking Gjerstad Lake.