48 SIR VICTOR BROOKE CHAP. 



first view of the Lofodens, stretching as they do 



150 miles S.W. The sun was setting at the back 



of them, and the outline of their jagged peaks stood 



out in hard relief against the sky. 



To these islands he returned from Hammerfest and 



spent some days there with fellow-travellers whose 



acquaintance he had made on the road. Together 



they ascended many of the peaks in the neighbourhood, 



all of considerable difficulty, owing to their excessive 



steepness. But the highest, Vaugacullen, was still to be 



attempted, with what result the following account from 



his diary will tell. There is no doubt his immense 



muscular power and capacity for standing fatigue saved 



his life on that occasion. 



"NORWAY, 1862. 



Breakfasted and then rowed off to examine Vauga- 

 cullen, the highest peak in the Lofodens. What charmed 

 us so much about it was the reputation it bore for 

 danger among the Norwegians. Tradition said that one 

 man was killed on it, and that two Englishmen tried it 

 some time ago but without success ; they found it 

 utterly impracticable. No doubt, the supposed fatal 

 accident, coupled with the dark precipitous look of the 

 mountain or rock, for it was nothing but a huge rock, 

 gave it the name which it bears of 'the dangerous 

 old man/ It was seven English miles from Swolvear, 

 which distance we had to row of course. Clay and 

 Bicknall stopped about the foot of the mountain 

 sketching, while I set off on a voyage of discovery. I 

 was not able to see much of what I came to see viz. 

 some way that looked practicable from the bottom so 

 commenced with my glasses to climb a portion of the 

 shoulder as a kind of lookout from which I might make 

 some useful discovery, if there was such a thing to be 

 made, as to the line I should take when I attacked 



