VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS OF NORWAY. 249 
a milder climate than any other country in the world 
lying between the same degrees of latitude ; and though 
proximity to the sea does undoubtedly prevent extremes 
of heat and cold, yet the comparative mildness of 
the climate is due to another cause, which shall now be 
alluded to. 
The Gulf Stream impinges on the western coast 
somewhere about lat. 62°. From this point of impact 
it takes a northerly direction, and follows the coast line 
to the Russian frontiers on the Arctic Ocean. In con- 
sequence of this the sea never freezes along the whole 
extent of the northern and western coasts ;* and, further, 
it is owing to this that the mean temperature at the 
North Cape, and at Christiania, during the. winter 
months, though these places are separated from each 
other by 12° of latitude, is the same. 
Arriving at the Russian frontier, the Gulf Stream 
flows into the White Sea, and, afterwards, taking a 
bend towards Nova Zembla, touches the Spitzbergen 
coast under lat. 80°, about. 
From observations made by Magister Torell in his 
expedition to Spitzbergen in 1861, it was proved beyond 
a doubt that this branch is a continuation of the one 
which impinges on Norway, for they discovered quanti- 
* Even within 100 miles of the North Cape no ice is to be an 
so that the navigation along the whole coast of Norway is open the 
whole year round. In fact, the chief fishery, which affords employ- 
ment to between 20,000 and 30,000 men, takes place during the 
severest portion of the winter, and between lat. 65° and lat. 70-. 
