264 EFFECTS OF OCEAN GALES ON TREES. 



the Atlantic gales, whose biting blasts in northern 

 latitudes, as we know, injuriously affect the growth of 

 trees, even much more to the southwards. On the 

 west coast of Ireland, for instance, trees planted in 

 spots exposed to the full force of the sea breezes may 

 often be seen sheared off at the tops, as if dressed by 

 the pruning knife. 



On the west coast of Norway therefore, in like 

 manner, a sterile belt of rocky islands and headlands 

 generally occupies the coast line, whose stern and 

 rugged grandeur impart a beauty all their own to these 

 wild and storm-beaten shores ; it is only by degrees, as 

 a certain amount of shelter is obtained, that the pine 

 forest begins, and even then it is confined to ravines 

 and valleys, the higher portions of the hills always 

 assuming a more or less arctic aspect. 



It is at a little to the southward of Bodo that the 

 midnight sun first begins actually to be seen ; not that 

 this, however, very materially affects the aspects of 

 the midsummer's night, even considerably further to 

 the south, for perpetual day may then be said to reign 

 over pretty well the whole of the Scandinavian Penin- 

 sula; at Trondjem for instance an ordinary newspaper 

 can be read without difficulty in the open air at mid- 

 night, during the month of June, and part of July, the 

 upper edge of the sun being only just below the 

 northern horizon, where its afterglow still lingers, till 

 its rising again, in brilliant tints of red and orange. 

 Very beautiful effects are thus often to be seen at this 

 season, and if we might be pardoned for " making a 

 bull," we should say that the busiest part of the day 

 in these Norwegian ports is often at midnight, when 

 everybody seems to be at his work, and generally to 



