CHAPTER X 



AN ARCTIC RESIDENCE, 1916 



Hammerfest is the most northern town in the 

 world, further to the north, in fact, even than the 

 Bering Straits, and for seven months in the year 

 it lies silent in the grip of the Arctic winter. It 

 is a gloomy spot, locked in on the northern Finmark 

 coast, and sheltered by a barrier of islands which 

 do little to check the constant snow-storms that 

 sweep down from Spitzbergen, only a short distance 

 to the north, in the Polar Sea. In ordinary times 

 the place is far beyond the ken of the average 

 tourist. But in the year 1916 Hammerfest was 

 of some importance, being the central point of the 

 main cod industry of Norway. Day and night 

 from April till October the " chuff -chuff " of the 

 petrol engines of the fishing-fleet echoed through 

 the mountain walls that enclosed the little harbour. 

 Though so small a port, as many as 5000 oil-driven 

 sea-going fishing-boats make Hammerfest their 

 base, and to-day it is the chief distributing centre 

 of Northern Europe, where numerous coasting 

 boats come to collect the salted fish and carry 

 it away to the various markets of the south, as 

 well as to Russia. In early spring Solvaer, the 

 base of the great Lofoden cod fishery, is a greater 

 hive of industry, but from early May onwards 

 Hammerfest teems with Hfe and work. 



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