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 in., 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 is obtained from the Bratsberg Kiev, S .

E. of the town, with ruins of a

chapel .