128 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



small island of Tromso, where about fifty years since only a few fishermen re- 

 sided, whose huts have gradually expanded into a thriving little town of about 

 3000 inhabitants, along the shore opposite the mainland. Its staple exports 

 are dried and salted cod, and train-oil. The livers. of the cod are put in open 

 barrels and placed in the sun, and the melted portion which rises to the sur- 

 face is skimmed off, being the purest oil. The coarse refuse is boiled in great 

 iron pots by the side of the sea, and yields the common " train-oil." The mus- 

 cular matter which remains is collected into barrels and exported as a powerful 

 manure ; some of it is sent to England. 



The town consists mainly of one long straggling street, following the wind- 

 ings of the shore, and has a picturesque appearance from the harbor. The 

 houses are all of wood painted with lively colors, and the roofs, mostly covered 

 with grass, diversified with bright clusters of yellow and white flowers, look 

 pretty in summer. Tromso has a Latin school, and even boasts of a news- 

 paper, the Tromso _ Tidende et Blan for Nordland og Finmarken ("The 

 Tromso Gazette, a paper for IN'ordland and Finmark "). This paper is j^ublish- 

 ed twice a week ; and as only one mail arrives at Tromso every three weeks, 

 the foreign news is given by instalments, spreading over six successive num- 

 bers, until a fresh dispatch arrives. 



The island of Tromso is beautifully situated, being on all sides environed 

 by mountains, so that it seems to lie in the midst of a huge salt lake. Its sur- 

 face rises in gentle slopes to a tolerable elevation, and no other Arctic isle con- 

 tains richer pasturage, or dwarf plantations of greater luxuriance. Many 

 meadows are yellow with buttercups and picturesque underwood, and the 

 heathy hills are covered with shrubs, bearing bright berries of many hues. 

 The pride of the Tromsoites in their island and town, and their profound at- 

 tachment to it, are remarkable. No Swiss can be more enthusiastically bound 

 to his mountains and vales, than they are to their circumscribed domain. 



To the north of Tromso lies the broad and deep Altenfjord, whose borders 

 are studded with numerous dwellings, and where the botanist meets with a 

 vegetation that may well raise his astonishment in so high a latitude. Here 

 the common birch-tree grows 1450 feet, and the Vaccinium myrtillus 2030 

 feet above the level of the sea; the dwarf birch {Betula nana) still vegetates 

 at a height of 2740 feet, and the Arctic willow is even found as high as 3500 

 feet, up to the limits of perennial snow. 



Alten is moreover celebrated through its copper-mines. A piece of ore hav- 

 ing been found by a Lap-woman in the year 1825, accidentally fell into the hands 

 of Mr. Crowe, an English merchant in Hammerfest. This gentleman immediate- 

 ly took measures for obtaining a privilege from Government for the working of 

 the mines, and all preliminaries being arranged, set oif for London, where he 

 founded a company, with a capital of £75,000. When Marmier visited the Al- 

 tenfjord in 1842, more than 1100 workmen were employed in these most north- 

 erly mining-worhs of the world, and not seldom more than ten English vessels 

 at a time were busy unloading coals at Kaafjord for the smelting of the ores. 

 New copper-works had recently been opened on the opposite side of the bay at 

 Raipass, and since then the establishment has considerably increased. 



