﻿812 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



of captures is detailed in the ' Stettin Eutomologische Zeitung,' 

 1861. In 1896 Dr. Chapman and Mr. Lloyd paid a visit, and 

 in 1906 Mr. Eowland-Brown was there. 



My chief reason for visiting Alten was to see a place so 

 famous entomologically and botanically, for the flora for the 

 latitude is very rich, but also I hoped to get specimens of 

 Colias hecla and Erebia disa, both of which occur there. I did 

 not see the former species, but was fortunate, after several days' 

 search, to stumble across a locality in which the latter occurred 

 in some abundance. 



In the small hours of June 26th, the strike having by this 

 time fortunately ended, I left Hammerfest on board the small 

 forty-year old trading steamer * Kong Eystein,' on what turned 

 out to be the rolliest and yet the most enjoyable voyage I have 

 ever made. We steered first north-west to the island of Soro, 

 then north-east to Rolfso, Ingo, Hjelmso, and Maaso, going 

 outside these islands and calling at innumerable quaint little 

 fishing stations, dropping here a little cargo, or a few passengers, 

 taking up there some dried fish, a horse, or a cow, or some 

 hardy fisher folk on travel intent. At Hjelmso we passed close 

 under a cliff haunted by millions of fowl of different species, and 

 as the syren was sounded by the orders of the obliging captain 

 for my edification, the air was darkened by their countless 

 numbers. The swell of the Arctic Ocean, accentuated by the 

 currents between the islands, made the little vessel rock fearfully 

 and wonderfully, but she took the seas like a duck, and it was 

 delightful to be on her deck amongst the marvellous surroundings 

 the whole of the day. 



About 9 p.m. we rounded that wonderful headland, the North 

 Cape, where so many tourists go to see the midnight sun, and 

 from which so few actually behold it, for this district is notorious 

 for cloud and haze, even during midsummer. We steamed close 

 under the gigantic cliffs, sheer and over one thousand feet in 

 height, and passed Hornviken Bay into what is, in a sense, un- 

 known Norway ; that is to say, unknown to the tourist, who 

 almost invariably stops at the North Cape, or who occasionally 

 journeys in the large steamers through the Magerp Sound to 

 Vadso, in the Varanger Fjord, where the voyage of these 

 ships ends. 



Baedeker is silent respecting the intervening fjords, and, 

 except for a solitary traveller journeying at intervals of years up 

 the Porsanger Fjord to Karasjok, the capital of Norwegian Lap- 

 land, which is situated some hundred miles in the interior, or 

 an occasional salmon fisher, the only people are those who dwell 

 on their shores. 



The inhabitants are chiefly Lapps or Finns, or a mixture of 

 these races, with a very few Norwegian families. 



The Porsanger Fjord, which was the one I proposed to visit. 



