130 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



thousand feet high, is frequently difficult and precarious, 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 m sight ; beneath my feet was the boundless 

 expanse of ocean, with a sail or tw^o 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 

 %vhistling of the wandering wdnds 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." 



