i 
ie 2 
NOTES ON A SUMMER TOUR IN NORWAY. 87 
opening in the top for the exit of smoke and admission of light.” 
These Lapps possess from four to five thousand reindeer. 
From Tromso we pass through magnificent coast scenery until 
we reach Hammerfest, a small town of from 2,000 to 3,000 
inhabitants, in latitude 70° 40’ N., and which enjoys the 
privilege of being the northernmost town in the world. Hammer- 
fest is the centre of the cod-liver oil manufacture, and for the 
great fish-curing and whaling industry of Northern Scandinavia. 
The curious old warehouses and shops on its wooden quays are 
full of polar bear skins, tusks and heads of the walrus, and many 
rarities of the Arctic regions, for it is from Hammerfest that the 
walrus hunters, who go yearly to Spitzbergen, and even farther 
north, commence their expeditions. Its harbour is crowded with 
curious, clumsy Russian vessels, which come every summer from 
Archangel for fish, which are cured on board; and the quays 
of the town are thronged with Russians, Lapps, and Finns, 
making a picturesque and polyglot crowd. 
Here, in this remote spot, we are still within immediate touch 
with the more civilised portions of Europe by means of the 
telegraph, and the public spirit of this little town may be under- 
stood from the fact that when we were there rapid progress was 
being made in the installation of the electric light for illuminating 
the streets and houses during the !ong and dark winters, for from 
the middle of November to the end of January the sun never 
rises above the horizon. 
How far the great fire, which occurred a very short time after 
we were there, has affected this work, I am unable to say. The 
dynamos were to be driven by a waterfall some little distance on 
the heights. The amount of power running to waste in the 
waterfalls of Norway is enormous, and, properly applied, a very 
small fraction of it would be sufficient to supply all the industries 
of the world with motive power. It is highly probable that, as 
our coal becomes exhausted, we shall invoke the aid of these 
natural sources of power, and that the energy derived from the 
Stupendous waterfalls of Norway will one day be transmitted by 
cables under the North Sea to supply our factories of the future. 
