130 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



thousand feet high, is frequently difficult and precai'ious, nor can it be scaled 

 without considerable fatigue ; but the view from the summit amply rewards 

 the trouble, and it is no small satisfaction to stand on the brink of the most 

 northern promontory of Europe. 



"It is impossible," says Mr. W. Hurton, " adequately to describe the emo- 

 tion experienced by me as I stepped up to the dizzy verge. I only know that I 

 devoutly returned thanks to the Almighty for thus permitting me to realize one 

 darling dream of my boyhood. Despite the wind, which here blew violently 

 and bitterly cold, I sat down, and wrapping my cloak around me, long contem- 

 plated the spectacle of Nature in one of her sublimest aspects. I was truly 

 alone. Not a living object was in sight; beneath my feet was the boundless 

 expanse of ocean, with a sail or two on its bosom at an immense distance ; 

 above me was the canopy of heaven, flecked with fleecy cloudlets ; the sun was 

 luridly gleaming over a broad belt of blood-red mist ; the only sounds were the 

 whistling of the wandering winds and the occasional plaintive scream of the 

 hovering sea-fowl. The -only living creature which came near me was a bee, 

 which hummed merrily by. What did the busy insect seek there ? Not a 

 blade of grass grew, and the only vegetable matter on this point was a cluster 

 of withered moss at the very edge of the awful precipice, and this I gathered, at 

 considerable risk, as a memorial of the visit." 



