BRIEF ACCOUNT 
 
 OF A 
 
 TOUR FROM WESTMINSTER T0 THE EXTREME 
 NORTH OF NORWAY. 
 
 Written at Sea, within the Arctic Circle. 
 
 BY 
 
 R. P. SPICE, F.R.G.S. 
 
 _ LONDON: 
 METCHIM & SON, 20, PARLIAMENT STREET, WESTMINSTER, S.W. ; 
 AND 82, CLEMENT’S LANE, LOMBARD STREET, E.C. 
 
 "1878, 
 
 
 

 
CT a 2 + eee se 
 
 
 
 
 
 A BRIEF ACCOUNT 
 
 OFA 
 
 _ TOUR FROM WESTMINSTER TO THE EXTREME 
 
 NORTH OF NORWAY. 
 Written at Sea, within the Aretie Circle. 
 
 On the 5th July, 1878, the writer left London, in 
 
 search of changing scenes and bracing air, as a kind of 
 
 compensation balance to the continued strain of pro- 
 fessional work; and, taking the 12.30 p-m. Great 
 Northern Train at King’s Cross for Hull, with a friend, 
 like minded with himself, in due time arrived at that 
 well-known and highly important commercial town. - 
 The two, with some fellow travellers, dined there 
 comfortably at the Station Hotel, and, after a leisurely 
 stroll, went on board the steam ship “ Angelo,” one of 
 Messrs. Wilson’s line, bound for Christiania, and, weighing 
 
 _ anchor about 9 in the evening, entered fairly upon the 
 
 voyage at 10 o'clock. 
 
 Little need be said about the passage, which was fairly 
 good, the only matter to complain of being an apparently 
 strong tendency of the ship to roll, otherwise all the 
 appointments, and the attention received on board, 
 deserved commendation ; and, if those of the passengers 
 who could not be called “good sailors” be left, as they 
 should be, out of the account, all enjoyed the health- 
 inspiring breezes of the lively North Sea. 
 
 On Sunday morning between seven and eight o’clock, 
 we put into the harbour of Christiansand, for half-an- 
 hour or so, and, at night at 11 by Greenwich mean time, 
 we were alongside the landing stage at Christiania, and 
 
some of us were soon in our comfortable quarters at the 
 «“ Hotel Scandinavie.” 
 
 After a stay there of two days (the writer having 
 visited the good old town, with a congenial companion, 
 once before) enjoying walks and drives about it, and its 
 attractive and beautiful outskirts, we took the train to 
 « Hjdsvold,” a distance of some forty miles (English), 
 and there found a well appointed steamer waiting to 
 take us up the lake as far as Hamar. 
 
 The trip up this charming lake was delightful, the 
 day being bright, the sky clear, the water silvery, and 
 the scenery lovely. Hills rising from the water’s edge, 
 on either side, by gentle slopes to ever varying heights; 
 and in the distant background mountains; some, for a 
 short distance up their sides, with bright green verdure 
 clad, and others covered almost to their tops with pine 
 forests; the deeper tinted foliage of these vast masses of 
 trees affording an effective contrast to the brighter 
 
 
 
 colours prevailing in the cultivated districts of the lower 
 land, the tops of the mountains being bare and bleak. 
 Having arrived at Hamar, we took our places in a 
 train which we found ready, upon a new line extending 
 to the far-famed city of Trondhjem; this railway was 
 opened in October last by the King, and will be found 
 to be invaluable in opéning up the country northwards, 
 in saving time, and affording facilities to tourists and the 
 commercial community, which must tell favorably in the 
 
 
 
 future development of the almost unbounded resources 
 of the kingdom. 
 The line passes through some charming scenery, and 
 
 
 
 in its course rises to a level of 2,135 feet above the sea— 
 this elevation is at a point between the two stations of 
 Jensvold and Tyvold, which is about two-thirds of the 
 distance from Hamar to Trondhjem. We stopped at 
 « Koppang,” a station at which the train arrives at about 
 
 
 
ew 
 
 
 
 een ee eS a 
 
 5 
 
 mine in the evening; and put up at the “Central 
 Hotel,” where the passengers found an excellent supper 
 awaiting them, and comfortable accommodation for the 
 night, starting fresh on their way at 6.20 the following 
 morning; the latter half of the journey being by far 
 the most interesting, and may fairly be described as being 
 romantically beautiful, the wild and grand, the pretty 
 and the lovely, in nature’s various moods, being each 
 represented on the way; opening up scenes of marvellous 
 beauty and almost endless interest to the traveller, 
 whether a geologist or a naturalist, or a mere ordinary 
 observer of the face of nature, carrying his thoughts irre- 
 
 ' sistibly backwards into the unfathomable past, among the 
 
 vast eatthworks of the Great Architect of the Universe. 
 
 Arrived at the old city of Trondhjem, all is novel, 
 quaint, simple, and strange. 
 
 The two or three hotels where travellers find temporary 
 shelter and rest are respectively represented on the 
 arrival platform of the Railway Station, by intelligent 
 attendants, and, without any trouble to yourself, your 
 luggage is looked after for you by the porter of the 
 particular hostelry which you may have previously 
 chosen, and you are shown to a carriage, which will take 
 you there; the evening meal is ready by the time you 
 have had the indispensable wash, and then a stroll down 
 to the harbour or about the town and back to your hotel 
 may finish the day’s work; and at midnight you retire to 
 your dormitory without requiring the light of gas or 
 candles, there being no occasion for either in the middle _ 
 of July, the sun, if it goes down and set at all, being up 
 again directly, the night is nearly as light as the day; 
 but, whether daylight or twilight, exhausted nature 
 seeks and finds repose in balmy sleep, 
 
 The next day may very well be spent, as we spent it, 
 
 in looking over the city and its environs; and in par- 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 ticular, some time may be devoted to a visit to its ancient 
 eathedral, within the walls of which all the kings of 
 Norway must be crowned. 
 
 This venerable pile has been for some years in course 
 of restoration, and although much has been done, and 
 most effectively done, with a scrupulous regard to the 
 original design, much still remains to be accomplished ; 
 the work, however, is being steadily prosecuted, and 
 when completed will be a lasting monument to the zeal 
 and liberality of those who may have provided the means 
 and sustained the energies of those who have initiated 
 and directed the good work. 
 
 At nine in the evening, after having done justice to 
 the ample provisions placed before us, at the ‘several 
 meals of breakfast, dinner and supper, at the “ Britannia 
 Hotel,” the charges for which were very reasonable, we 
 went on board the S.S. “Jonas Lie,” and left our anchor- 
 age at midnight, bound for the North Cape, a voyage of — 
 some 1,200 English miles, requiring six days for its 
 accomplishment, and as many more for the return to 
 ‘Trondhjem, calling, both going and coming, at various 
 “stations,” as indicated on the sailing list of the Com- 
 ‘pany, whose head office is at Bergen, and at the three 
 important towns of Brod¢, Tromsd and Hammerfest. 
 
 These stoppages enable the traveller to form a more 
 definite impression as to the commercial resources and 
 prospects of the country than could be obtained by going 
 through it in the more usual tourist fashion, from station 
 to station, inland, by cariole ; in that way he would be 
 impressed, chiefly if not entirely, with the magnitude of 
 its forests and its timber trade, and with the extensive 
 production of its other principal articles of export, viz., 
 oats and barley; but, by taking what is called “ the coast 
 route ” on board one of these steamers, he will have his 
 eyes opened to the fact that the Norwegian population, 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 dwelling on the outskirts of the land, have the illimitable 
 riches of the sea almost constantly coming to their shores 
 in vast quantities, and to give a faint idea of the extent - 
 of the trade done by this hardy and industrious maritime 
 section of the inhabitants, we may mention, that at a 
 single fishing station we took on board, on our return 
 voyage, 26,000 dried cod fish, for delivery at Bergen, 
 whence they will be reshipped for Italy or Spain; and 
 at another, the herring-fishing season having just com- 
 menced, we were informed that 3,000 barrels of herrings 
 were then in one net on the shore, this being one of 
 several nets which had been successfully worked the 
 previous night, and as a barrel should contain 700 
 herrings, the number in this single net would be 
 2,100,000. 
 
 At this, and three or four other stations, we took on 
 board about 3,000 barrels of salted herrings, besides 
 many barrels of cod-liver oil. The freight of the | 
 herrings alone being about £300, and estimating the 
 value of the 3,000 barrels of these fish at the moderate 
 sum of 15s. each, we have an aggregate amount of 
 £2,250 of money to be imported into the country in cash 
 or its equivalent in return for this one freight of herrings 
 now on board the “Jonas Lie,” by how many scores or 
 hundreds this may be multiplied to represent the total 
 value of the herring-fishery of Norway for the. season I 
 have no means of judging, but that a magnificent 
 
 harvest is thus obtained by the people of Norway every 
 
 year from the ocean is certain. 
 
 One cannot help asking, parenthetically, if such 
 harvests can be reaped here, what might not be done for 
 * Old Ireland,” if the energies of the inhabitants of its 
 sea coasts were directed and animated by the same spirit 
 of enterprise and industry as that possessed and exercised 
 by these hardy Norsemen ? 
 

 
 
 
 But to return to our outward voyage. The first object 
 of interest pointed out to us by our obliging captain was 
 the grim old rock, “ Torghatten,” which has a natural 
 tunnel through it at a considerable height above the sea. 
 
 We passed a series of seven peaks called the “ Seven 
 
 - Sisters,” remarkably fine old maids, hundreds of thou- 
 
 sands of years old, giantesses, estimated by Von Buch to 
 be about 4,000 feet high, the scenery in their vicinity 
 being awfully sublime. 
 
 Here we see the southern extremity of the vast Sar- 
 vasten snow field, the largest in Norway next to the 
 Justedal, extending fifty miles. Glaciers streaming 
 down the sides of these mountains of gneiss and granite, 
 bleak, and grim, and weird, with fantastic outlines. The 
 most remarkable being Hestmand¢, commonly called 
 “The Horseman” from its shape, and lying exactly upon 
 the Arctic Circle, as we saw by a reference to a chart in 
 the captain’s cabin, and thus we were enabled to verify 
 the fact that we had passed from without to within the 
 Circle. Having thus entered the Arctic regions we were 
 favoured, later in the evening, with a view of two whales 
 not far from our ship; they appeared to be enjoying 
 their evening gambols, and certainly were “ blowing their 
 own trumpets.” We quietly remarked that we had heard 
 the same thing done nearer home, and retired for the 
 night. 
 
 Next we reached Bod¢, and then rounding the lofty 
 island of Landgode, crossed the vast Fjord, sixty miles 
 to Balstead, the south-western extremity of . the 
 Lofoten Islands, which we passed, and which have been 
 likened to an army of giants; these extend in a crescent 
 form to the outlying islet of Mosken, between which and 
 Moskenes is the far-famed “ Maelstrom.” 
 
 Within the curve of sixty miles rise hundreds of peaks 
 of rocks, twisted, streaked, gashed and furrowed into 
 
 - —— - -~—-- 
 
 
 
9 
 
 every conceivable variety of form, their hollows being 
 filled with snow, and their bases here and there being lit 
 up by bright green patches of verdure, and on nearly all 
 such spots of living green are to-be seen little home- 
 steads for the sparse population inhabiting these bleak 
 regions. 
 
 Steaming on we arrived at Troms¢, an interesting and 
 
 important town prettily situated on an island; and from 
 it, by crossing the channel to the mainland, we visited a 
 Lapp encampment, walking to the latter from the shore 
 up a romantic valley, a distance of about three miles. 
 It would be difficult to describe this encampment in 
 polite terms; the men, women and children being all 
 repulsive alike in form and feature, dirty, and infested 
 with fleas, clad in skins of reindeer, which, we judged, 
 they never took off, and suspected they knew nothing of 
 the luxury of a wash from the cradle to the grave, not- 
 withstanding that they live by the side of a mountain 
 stream, bright and clear as crystal; possibly they may 
 object to cleanliness on principle. For rest, and what 
 may be, euphemistically, called domestic comfort and 
 luxurious enjoyment, they retire to conically-shaped huts, 
 composed of sods of grass, with an aperture on one side 
 furnished with a rough wood door, and another on the 
 top of the cone, serving the double purpose of admitting 
 light and permitting the escape of the smoke of a fire 
 and the gases generated within. 
 
 These “ ladies and gentlemen,” with their bodies and 
 limbs enclosed in deer skins, and ornamented with dirt, 
 kindly allowed us for a “consideration” to see their herd 
 of reindeer, which were driven down from the snowfield 
 above, into an inclosure in the valley below, for our 
 inspection. We thus saw them in close proximity, and 
 witnessed the capture of two or three with the lasso, by 
 one of the family,—one of the herd being milked in our 
 
 
 
 
 
ee eR Se St 8 ee SS i ee ee 
 
 10 
 
 presence, and another thrown down and marked on the 
 ear; and after some commercial transactions: with the 
 squaws of the tribe, consisting of purchases by our party 
 of Lapp boots and carved bone spoons, we returned by 
 the same route we had traversed, and, with no worse 
 adventures than an occasional slip from a boulder into a 
 peat bog on the mountain side, we found our way to our 
 boat and the ship, and did justice to our mid-day meal. 
 
 Before dismissing Tromsd, however, we must refer to 
 a curious and ancient custom which is still maintained in 
 its strict integrity by the local authority of the town; 
 namely, the employment of a watchman to keep guard 
 against the approach of the most serious enemy known 
 in the towns of the far north, built as they are of wood, 
 namely, Fire. The watchman, or sentinel, is stationed 
 in the upper part of a church tower, and the custom is 
 for him to call out loudly—at stated periods— 
 
 “ Unless the Lord our city keep, 
 The watcher wakes in vain.” 
 
 At midnight we bade adieu to Troms¢, having there, 
 for the first time, seen the sun above the horizon at 
 midnight; and at noon next day arrived at Sdrvark, an 
 island at the entrance of the Arctic Ocean, presenting a 
 view of wonderful grandeur, extending from Fingld 
 and Arn@ Islands on the west, to Sieland Island, near 
 Hammerfest. on the east, an amphitheatre of mountain 
 peaks all streaked with snow; and in mid-distance the 
 large snowfield of the Bergsfjord mountains, with glaciers 
 coming nearly down to the sea. Beyond these, to the 
 right, were the peaks of the Kvenangstinder, and_to the 
 left Stjern¢ over the entrance to the Alten Fjord, where 
 the Duke of Roxburgh has his celebrated salmon river. 
 
 Then came Hammerfest, in its snug and well-sheltered 
 
 haven on the western shore of a desolate island called 
 
 Kvalo, here we madea stay of two hours or so, permitting 
 
 SASS 
 
 Rg 
 
 
 

 
 ll 
 
 a walk about the town to explore its streets, and here, in 
 the northernmost town of the world, we paid a visit to a 
 Norwegian post office, and feel bound to record our 
 admiration of its thorough business like appointments 
 and intelligent management. The shops of the town had 
 our attention inside and out, and we made a few purchases 
 therein, pleased, among other things, to note the signs 
 of the times, as indicated by stocks of Colman’s Mustard, 
 Huntley & Palmer’s Biscuits,and Lea & Perrin’s W orcester- 
 shire Sauce, some of which we bought, by way of sustaining 
 “* British interests,” and when we pay a visit to our new 
 Cyprian Island territory, we shall hope to find the same 
 or similar evidences of a high degree of civilisation there. 
 After this short visit of inspection, we steamed on towards 
 our ultimate destination—the North Cape. Mountains, 
 severely bleak, rough and huge, bare and defiant, were 
 numerous on our right, and on our left the Great Arctic 
 Ocean. 
 
 At 11.30 p.m, we arrived at the Cape, where grand 
 old “ Nordkap ” rises precipitously from the sea, a huge 
 bluff headland of nearly black, deeply seamed, and 
 gloomy rock, reminding one of the Ancient Mariner, and 
 of the untold thousands of years before a mariner 
 ploughed the main, myriads of years indeed before Adam 
 delved and Eve span. | 
 
 Into such reveries did one’s mind naturally wander 
 while viewing, for the first time, this geological and 
 historical Scandinavian landmark, which seemed to say, 
 in its majestic grandeur, to the ocean at its base, “thus 
 far shalt thou come and no further,” and with more effect 
 too than poor Canute uttered those words. Here, all was 
 cold and chill, but not dark ; it cannot be said of it, as it 
 may, and often is, of England in its greatness and power, 
 that “ the sun never sets upon its dominions,” but for a 
 Imnited period it is true of the North Cape that “ the sun 
 
 
 
12 3 
 
 does not set there,” and we mortals are reminded of that 
 better land of which we read, that, “there is no night 
 there.” 
 
 After a stay of two or three hours, discharging a 
 
 couple of ship’s guns three times, to wake up the 
 
 numerous Eider ducks and birds of various kinds com- 
 mon to the region, and the thundering echoes of the 
 stupendous mountains of rock in the background, and 
 on the right and left, and to afford an opportunity to 
 those disciples of Isaac Walton among us passengers on 
 board to ply the “gentle craft” under such novel cir- 
 cumstances as might never occur to us again, we turned 
 our ship’s head southward, and setting the screw in 
 motion steamed away, having succeeded in hooking and 
 landing on deck a good supply of cod fish and haddocks 
 for the ship’s use, avoiding the sarcasm so often good- 
 humouredly thrown in the teeth of anglers of having “a 
 
 worm at one end of a line,” and an unmentionable animal 
 
 at the other, by eschewing the worm or any kind of bait, 
 and simply pulling the fish up as they happened to form 
 a connection, voluntarily or involuntarily, with the hooks 
 lowered down considerately for their special convenience 
 by means of an iron weight. 
 
 We steamed homewards with feelings of satisfaction 
 which it would be difficult, to pourtray with adequate 
 force of language. Certainly our stock of knowledge 
 had been increased and impressions created, which can 
 but have good effect in enlarging our conceptions of 
 things past and present, and to come, and so helping us 
 the better to discharge those duties which will claim our 
 attention on our return to our several spheres of 
 usefulness at ‘‘ Home, sweet, sweet Home.” 
 
 . R. P. SPICE. 
 Steam Ship “Jonas Liz,” 
 Arctic Ocean, 
 July 22nd, 1878. 
 
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