S50 
the other world instead of the North 
Cape. 
These seas are frequented by great 
nenabers of whales, but Fate had decreed 
that we should not enjoy the sight of any 
of them. To make amends, the boatmen 
entertained us with many wonderful 
stories of those animals. A fisherman 
being pursued by a whale, and perceiving 
tHat flight was impossible, fired a musket 
at the monster, who, terrified by the ex- 
losion, checked his career, and changed 
L course. Had it not been for this for- 
tunate expedient, like another Jonas, he 
would have been swallowed up, without 
the hope of being so seasonably relieved 
from his confinement as was the pro- 
phet. Another was fishing with a line 
m very fair and calm weather, when a 
whale suddenly rising from the bosom 
of the deep, lifted the boat on his 
back, dashed it to pieces and the fisher- 
man perished in the waves. In short, 
had all the events which they related 
really happened, our enterprize would 
have been rather rash, and few fishermen 
would have ventured to approach those 
arts. 
We, however, sailed without accident 
all night, and arrived m the morning at 
Havosund, the habitation of a merchant, 
who was then from home. We were 
kindly received by bis wife and mother, 
who gave us anexcellent breakfast; after 
which we hastened our departure, in the 
hope of arriving before midnight at the 
North Cape, which was still two good 
Norwegian (twenty-one English) miles 
distant. 
We soon came in sight of the islands 
of Stapperne or Stappender, which are 
also called the Mother with Two Daugh- 
ters. They are nothing but barren 
rocks, that in the middie being the largest 
of the three. Some caverns at the foot 
of these rocks resounded with the cries 
of the Eider-fawls, which furrish the 
down known by the same appellation, 
We had, to the west, apromonrtory of the 
island of Mageré, to which the North 
Cape adjoins. It was a perfect calm, 
but the sea was covered with surges, and 
vast clouds, which might have beea mis- 
taken for snow-covered Alps, rose above 
the horizon. We were afterwards in- 
formed at Maso, that there is the carcase 
of a whale on the summit of the largest 
ef the Stapperne islands. To us this ap- 
eared almost incredible, for the waves 
could not have cast it such a height, and 
the rock is so steep that a man withouta 
Account of a recent Voyage to the North Cape. 
(July 2, 
burden cannot climb it but with great 
difficulty. 
Before we passed the islands of Stap- 
perne, we had for some time coasted 
along the island of Maso, atter which no 
object bounded our view over that tre- 
mendous ocean, which extending from 
the polar ices, washes the extremities of 
Europe, Asia, and America. The little 
wind we had was oiten contrary, as well 
as the current, s0 that we advanced but 
slowly, sometimes by the aid of the sail, 
at others by dint of rowing; and the first 
mile* took us seven hours, during which 
our boatmen, worn out with fatigue, went 
several times on shore to get a little rest. 
On one of these occasions we found upon 
a rock, from ten to fifteen fathoms in 
height, spawn of shell-fish, and sponges as 
, white as snow, and much more easily bro- 
ken than ordinary sponges. The rocks 
close to the water’s edger.were covered 
with the buccinum glaciale, a shell-fish, 
somewhat larger than a nut, and the wa-. 
ter itself was full of plants of a prodigious 
vegetation; the most numerous, I believe, 
were the fucus vesiculosus, inflatus, and 
aculeatus. Ae at 
We were extremely fortunate in the 
fair weather and calm which prevailed s 
for the least wind raises very lofty waves . 
in these seas, and the coasts of Magero, 
which lay to the right, are in general mac- 
cessible. The sea, however, was still 
rough, and rocked us continually, so that 
having kept awake all the preceding night, 
to observe the ¢triking objects which pre- 
sented themselves to our view, we were 
now unable to resist the invitation of 
sleep. All at once a wave, breaking 
agaist the. vessel, dashed its spray over 
our heads and abruptly awaked us. The 
boatmen then told us in a confused way, 
that, during our long sleep, we had pass- 
ed some promontories, and recently a 
small gulph, on the shores of which were 
fishermen’s hugs, with a point of rocks 
in front, very nearly resembling the North 
Cape; we could still discern it to the 
south west. Ie was new between the 
hours of five and six in the evening, 
and the wind changed in our favour, 
Vhe land secmed to trend away ta 
the east, and left us on that side a 
more unobstructed view of the ocean, 
At length, a little before midnight, we 
perceived this formidable Cape, whose 
rocks appeared to us at a distance 
* A Norwegian mile is equal to ten and 
half English, hae 
¥e 
