226 
LETTERS FROM SIGH LATITUDES. 
midnight, we had regained the open sea, and were 
standing away 
“ to Norroway, 
To Norroway, over the faem.” 
In the forenoon I had been too busy to have our usual 
Sunday church; but as soon as we were pretty clear of 
the ice, I managed to have a short service in the cabin. 
Of our run to Hammerfest I have nothing particular 
to say. The distance is eight hundred miles, and we 
did it in eight days. On the whole, the weather was 
pretty fair, though cold, and often foggy. One day 
indeed was perfectly lovely,—the one before we made 
the coast of Lapland,—without a cloud to be seen for 
the space of twenty-four hours; giving me an oppor¬ 
tunity of watching the sun performing his complete 
circle overhead, and taking a meridian altitude at 
midnight. We were then in 70° 25' North latitude; 
i. e. almost as far north as the North Cape; yet the 
thermometer had been up to 80° during the afternoon. 
Shortly afterwards the fog came on again, and 
next morning it was blowing very hard from the east¬ 
ward. This was the more disagreeable, as it is always 
very difficult, under the most favourable circumstances, 
