1814.] Li7nits of perpetual Snow in the Norih. 339 



firs cover the neiglibouring Kongshavnfieldt to the very top, and it 

 is 560 English feet high. In this place we first succeed in finding 

 the limit of the firs. On Skaanevara, which is 140S English feet 

 in height, and on Borrisvara, this tree first disappears when we 

 liave got to tlie height of rather more than 746 English feet. 

 But before this mountain can be covered with perpetual snow, it 

 must rise to a greater height than it does. Snow is not to be seen 

 in summer upon any of the mountains in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood of Altengaard. 



The mountains of Talvig are higher. They lie two German 

 miles from Altengaard. For Talvig is situated at the foot of the 

 last branch of the great Kiolevgebirge, which running over a great 

 tract of country separates Sweden from Norway ; but at this place 

 breaks into fragments, and passing from Svei-holt and Nordkyn on 

 the main land, goes to the North Cape in Mageroe and the Cape of 

 Por.'ianges. 



The first rocks above the creek of Talvig rise with uncommon 

 rapidity, and the brooks flowing from above form foaming water- 

 falls ; but after ascending about a thousand feet, mountain valleys 

 make their appearance, and we ascend for some miles very slowly. 

 As the elevation increases, the Lapland vegetation, with which we 

 had become familiar in the valleys, disappears under our feet. The 

 firs soon vanish altogether, and the birches become continually 

 smaller. At last they disappear entirely, and between tufts of 

 mountain grass and dwarf birches we perceive prodigious quantities 

 of berry bushes spreading themselves ; bilberries {vaccinium myr- 

 tillm) on the dry heights, and cloudberries {rulm chamcemerus) in 

 marshy places. When we ascend higher, the bilberries cease to 

 bear fruit, they stand single with few leaves, and no longer col- 

 lected together in the form of bushes. They disappear at last, and 

 the mountain grass soon follows them. Mow the dwarf birches 

 brave the height and the cold ; but they also disappear before we 

 reach the line of perpetual snow, and there remains a broad border 

 surrounding this line, on which, if we except mosses, only a few 

 small plants support themselves with difficulty. The reindeer moss 

 itself, which in the woods rivals the bilberry inluxuriancy of growth, 

 springs up but sparingly at such heights. On the top of the moun- 

 tain, which is almost a plain, there is no ice and no glacier to be 

 seen. But the snow never leaves these heights. For a few weeks 

 only may some of the summits be seen free from their snowy 

 covering 



Akku-Solkl is one of the most remarkable of these summits, 

 though it rises but a little way above the mountain [)lain. Only 

 two or three other conical summits in this neighbourhood mter- 

 rupt the extensive prospect. On the 16th of August, 1HC7, the 

 snow had left this height for a few days only, and the black sol 

 u|>oti the declivity of the mountain could be distinguibhcd. The 

 barometer st<x)d 



T2 



