4^ y:^EJi. [Proc. B. N. F.C, 



together not below 60 Fahrenheit, the maximum being 71. 

 Though too late for the midnight sun, he saw some ,of the 

 gorgeous and enchanting sunsets for which Norway is so famous. 

 The North Cape, which is in lat. 71 N., long. 25 E., is a strik- 

 ingly bold, precipitous mountain, about i,ooo feet high, but is 

 wrongly named, a neighbouring headland, named Knivskjier- 

 rodden, being more northerly. Although the evening was raw 

 and strong, yet the thermometer did not fall below 45. Return- 

 ing to Hammerfest, the most northerly town in the world, 

 situate in lat. 70-30 N., and containing 2,200 inhabitants, the 

 olfactory nerves prove it to be the metropolis of cod-liver oil 

 making. The desolation of all this far northland is extreme. 

 Instead of the natural green grass colour to which we are accus- 

 tomed, the vast barren and extremely desolate table lands and 

 hills, are occasionally tinged with what appears like verdigris, 

 and everywhere patched with remains of the winter snow, not 

 a tree or habitation visible for miles and miles. Here the 

 barometer is not reliable, and frequently rises before rain, and 

 falls on approach of fine weather. Near Tromso, a French-like 

 town of 6,000 inhabitants, in lat. 69-40 N., beautifully situated 

 on a sunny slope, rising gently from the water's edge, and 

 where groves of trees again appear, he visited an encampment 

 of Laplanders, who in summer inhabit miserable earthen huts. 

 They had about 500 reindeer in a paddock close by. These 

 nomads are a repulsive and diminutive race, about 4ft. pin. 

 high, dressed in skins trimmed with blue and red, and are 

 thought to be descended from the same race as the Magyars. 

 Several times during the voyage the mirage, with its surprising 

 changes, was noticed. From Drontheim he went by rail to 

 Christiania, a distance of 350 miles. There is only one train 

 starts each way daily ; but the line being usually narrow gauge, 

 the speed slow, and stoppages long and frequent, two days are 

 occupied. Instead of travelling on continuously, the trains stop 

 for the night half-way at a hamlet of hotels called Koppang. 

 The scenery for the first one hundred miles is charming. The 

 line runs along through valleys, whose sides are diversified with 



