144 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



softened by the warm hues of the midnight sky, 

 while the distant snow-peaks shone brilliantly in the 

 rays of the sun, which was hidden from us by the 

 high land to the north. Here we took a pilot, who 

 conducted us without mishap to Hamerfest, enlarging 

 the while upon the desirability of the barren land we 

 saw as a place of residence, and on the grandeur of 

 the city we were approaching. What a charming 

 provision of Nature is it that the great majority of 

 men, of whatsoever race they be, should be convinced 

 that their own country and no other, is the very 

 finest place in the world ; and how pleasant it was to 

 see our honest Norseman's face light up with pride 

 and pleasure as we praised his bleak hillsides and 

 wooden houses nestling beneath them ! This town, 

 the most northern in the world, is but 1160 miles 

 from the North Pole, a distance over which an express 

 train might pass in twenty-four hours, could the rails 

 only be laid. It contains about 2000 inhabitants, 

 who live on the products of the sea ; for those who 

 do not catch fish either cure them, trade in them, or 

 keep stores for the supply of clothes, &c., to the 

 fishing people. The little town is now pretty well 

 known to the British tourist bent upon " doing " the 

 midnight sun and doubling the North Cape ; for it is 

 the last port of call of the tourist steamers on their 

 way north. The island of Varo, on the west side of 

 which Hamerfest stands, is nearly circular, and about 

 ten miles in diameter, rising in the interior to a height 



