A JOURNEY TO FINMARK. 19 



on very dry sandy places. Besides the above, there occurred 

 a great many other flowering plants ; those named are, how- 

 ever, sufficiently characteristic of the neighbourhood. 



When we at 9 a.m., May 23rd, arrived at Bossekop, the 

 thermometer in front of the door of the house stood at the 

 freezing point. Some large patches of snow still lay almost 

 down to the shore of the Fjord, and snow fell not unfre- 

 quently up to the end of May, though it soon melted again. 

 The principal masses of snow had in the preceding year been 

 already melted during the unusually warm month of April. 

 At the beginning of June we frequently observed fresh ice 

 on the ground in the morning, and on our nocturnal excur- 

 sions we found it sensibly cool, although the midnight sun 

 shone on us with its peculiar but not warming rays. In the 

 first half of June we generally had fine weather, at least it 

 rained but little comparatively. On the 18th of June the 

 thermometer, at 7 a.m., stood at 70° Fahr. (17° R.). But 

 this was very unusual, since generally at the same time it 

 was only between 48° and 57° (7°—li° R.), often even less. 

 Excepting some few days, it rained almost continually from 

 the middle of June to near the middle of July, and the tem- 

 perature sank so low, we were often glad to have our room 

 heated. From the 13th to 17th July we had again beauti- 

 ful bright weather, which we devoted to excursions in the 

 higher mountains. Unfortunately, the wet weather soon 

 returned, and up to the end of July we had only a few days, 

 during which we could venture on the more extended excur- 

 sions. The 3rd August, when we made an excursion to 

 Reipasvara, was probably the hottest day in the whole sum- 

 mer, since the thermometer in the sun at Bossekop was up 

 to 104° (32° R.). On the Fjeld a strong south wind was 

 blowing. Up to the time of our departure, on the 10th of 

 August, there now followed several really warm days, when 



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