57 



place being small, and situated close under a barren looking ridge, with 

 large patches of dirty snow within a stone's throw of the houses. 

 This snow had all but disappeared when we finally left the place about 

 three weeks later. The staple trade of Hammerfest, and indeed of all 

 Finmark, is stock-fish ; all the sea beach near the town is occupied 

 with groves of poles across which they are suspended to dry, tied 

 two together by the tails. All the warehouses appeared to be full, and 

 all the ships in the port loaded, or being loaded with the same com- 

 modity. The smell which strongly pervades the anchorage, and even 

 the neighbouring heights, according to the direction of the wind, is of 

 fish, fishy. 



The point which runs out from the east shore, affording shelter to 

 the harbour, is occupied by a fort, but dismantled ; near it has been 

 erected an elegant monument, marking the northern termination of the 

 great arc of the meridian, measured from the Danube to the Arctic 

 Ocean, an enterprise executed under the auspices and with the co- 

 operation of the governments of Russia, Sweden and Norway. The 

 erection consists of a pillar, the pedestal of carved granite, the shaft of 

 the same material polished, and the capital of bronze, surmounted by 

 a bronze globe representing the world, with the land, mountains, &c. 

 in relief. The workmanship was executed in Russia, and it has an 

 inscription in the Scandinavian and Latin languages, stating some 

 particulars of the great work of such importance to science, which it 

 is intended to commemorate. 



The climate of these regions appears to be particularly favourable to 

 the preservation of animal and vegetable substances. It is well known 

 that 'stock-fish is cured by simple drying in the air, and at the house of 

 Mr. Robinson, the British consul, I tasted reindeer meat in the third 

 week of July, perfectly sweet and savoury, after having been hung for 

 eight months without salt, or having undergone any process of curing. 

 The wooden buildings are hkewise of extraordinary durability, and 

 even the posts driven into the bottom of the sea on which warehouses 

 are supported, appear to be entirely free from the attacks of those 

 minute animals which are so destructive in many, if not all of our own 

 ports, and the mishief occasioned by which may be seen by inspecting 

 at low water the wooden piers at Southampton and Beaumaris. 



The climate in summer is by all accounts subject to great variations 

 of temperature, the heat being o'-casionally extremely oppressive, when 

 the mosquitoes are represented to be almost insupportable ; but during 

 the whole time, about tln-ee weeks, which we spent in Hammerfest and 

 the neighbourhood, the weather was cold, the temperature very rarely 

 above o'l" i^'ahrenhfit. Notwithstanding the high latitude (near 71°), 



