Page:Three Years in Europe.djvu/207

Rh turned cloudy and misty again! The museum of Tromso specially interested us. We saw there stuffed specimens of the Polar Bear, the Northern Wolf, the White Fox, the Whale, the Shark, the Walrus, the Grampas, the Eagle, the Seagull, various kinds of Ducks and many other birds seen in the Arctic seas. We left Tromso in the evening. On our way we saw a splendid glacier all along the slope of a high hill.

29th July. Early in the morning we found ourselves in Hammerfest, the most northern town in the world. There are isolated huts or churches further north, but no town in this high latitude. I need hardly say that this place as well as Tromso and the whole of northern Norway, town and country, hill and dale, are covered with snow in the cold season, and sledges are then about the only means of conveyance. When we went snow rested only in patches on hills, and the thermometer this day was 50° F. at mid-day. We went down at Hammerfest, a place which smelt of fishing and dried fish, and which contains over 2000 inhabitants.

The day was cloudy and misty as before, and after leaving Hammerfest we steamed through Arctic seas and bleak hills to a place called Bird's Rock, because myriads of Seagulls inhabit and whiten its sides. The sound of cannon discharged from our steamer disturbed these birds and we saw clouds of them whirling all round the rock. I never saw such clouds of birds anywhere before, and it is wonderful they have made their habitation in this bleak remote point beyond the habitation of man.