THROUGH LAPLAND. 
1J 7 
are two or three merchants and a clergyman, with a few other 
/ 
families. All thofe little fettlements on this coaft bear a very near 
refemblance to each other: around them is the fame fterility, the 
fame nakednefs, the fame rocks. 
Near Hammerfeft flows a fmall river which paffes through a 
pleafing glen, fhaded by fome birch-trees : in this river there are 
fome excellent falmon caught. Direftly oppofite to Hammerfeft 
is a peninfula called Hwalmyfling, abounding very much with 
hares, for the fkins of which the proprietor draws from two to 
three hundred rix dollars a year. One of the merchants at Ham¬ 
merfeft gave us a confufed account of an Englifh frigate, about 
feven or eight years before, having come to thofe coafts, in the 
time of his predeceftors, with two aftronomers, one of whom built 
an obfervatory for himfelf on a neighbouring mountain, and the 
other went to fix his refidence for fome time at the North Gape. 
He neither recolledled the particular year, nor the names of the 
aftronomers; but only that the appearance of the flip made fuch 
an impreftion on the people on thofe coafts, that they all came to 
fee her, and went away with terrible apprehenfions that fhe had 
come to carry war and deftrueftion into their country. The cler¬ 
gyman of Hammerfeft was fo fquare and ftout a man, and of fo 
gigantic a feature, that if the extent of his underftanding had borne 
any proportion to that of his corporeal frame, he would have been 
the ableft divine of our age. He fpoke both Latin and German, and 
was very inquifttive about news and politics. He was mightily re¬ 
joiced at feeing us, being convinced that we fhould be able to give 
him 
