strange than to have a sudden insight into the hitherto undiscovered and ordinarily invisible regions of the ocean laid bare to the eye of the spectator, with a view of the multifarious tribes of fishes that are there to be found? What can be gathered from a novel half so strange as that sun which is high up in the heavens at midnight, staring you in the face so rudely, and in such a manner that his continual glances prevent you from sleeping; where night is turned into day, and day into night?

What novel writer ever made so broad a statement as the following, given to me by the clergyman of the North Cape?-viz., that his parish extended over an area of three hundred miles, and that many of his parishioners were frequently two and three days in coming to church! If any novel contained the statement, that in certain countries the cattle made use of as post horses was also the principal food of the inhabitants; whose tongue was considered the greatest possible delicacy; whose skin was the principal substitute for cloth worn in other countries; whose muscles, sinews, and ligaments, formed the common twine of commerce, or, at all events, very frequently employed when the other was not to be had-the reader would naturally say, of course it's a romance. It is almost needless to add, that the animal I allude to is the reindeer.

What more remarkable than to hear of a country where the carriages resemble boats? The common carriole of the country is an example of this kind. What more strange than to hear of a country -and a most mountainous one, too-where the driver and the driven go down mountains, and mount such hills as would frighten the boldest English coachman of olden time, when in his most courageous humour with all the additional stimulus of his favourite alcohol, to boot,, with a set of

harness without breeching, tugs, or traces, which is the case in Norway and Lapland.

me,

Among other strange things that occurred to I may mention one which even startled me at the time that it happened. I was dining at the house of a British consul who was married to a Norwegian lady. The latter stood at my back as a common waiter would do in England, I at the same time not being aware of the custom. One of the party perceiving the horror of expression which sat upon my doleful countenance, and which Mr. Punch would know how to delineate to perfection, fancying I might be attacked with a fit of epilepsy or apoplexy, suddenly relieved all my anxieties with a full explanation of the matter, whilst I, to tell the truth, notwithstanding my attachment to a good dinner, felt extremely uncomfortable, and even glanced out of my eye corners in the same way that a timid boy would do towards the locality where his terror-stricken imagination may have pictured to itself the habitat of a ghost. However, I got over the fright as well as the dinner. I must remind my reader that this scene occurred at Kaffiord, in Lapland, within a few miles of the North Cape.

Before dinner I had been fishing with a gentleman who was then seated with me at the table, who had just before dinner killed a salmon with that despicable trout rod of mine, previously mentioned, which was so effectually excommunicated and anathematized by the greatest angler in existence. The fish, although killed only a few minutes before dinner, was cut into small and thin slices swimming in oil, and dished up without being cooked in such a manner as to present a most agreeable appearance to the eye of one even well versed in the gastronomic art. That is a little romantic, I think, is it not?

E

I partook of it, not being at all time of what I was eating, for the found it so exquisitely delicious. angler remarked:

"How do you like that fish?"

aware at the reason that I

My fellow

I said, "I never ate anything better in my life.” He continued, "That is the salmon we caught just before dinner perfectly raw. That is not a Norwegian method, but was taught us by Sir James Ross, the circumnavigator, who paid us a visit here, in one of his expeditions."

In journeying along the coast I fell in with a gentleman with a vasculum well strapped to his shoulder, giving a sure indication that he was a practical botanist. We soon got to chatting about botany and a variety of other subjects, when I ascertained that he was a Professor B-tt, of Christiana, proceeding on a tour along the coast as far as Kaffiord. He remarked :

I

"At Kaffiord you will find the British Consul, who is married to a Norwegian lady. The Consul besides is at the head of a great mining corps. am going to pay him a visit, and I am sure he will be equally glad to see you."

I said, "I have no introduction to him, consequently I cannot think of obtruding myself upon him." Feeling all that true independence, which is ever the characteristic of an Englishman, and very frequently an uncomfortable characteristic, inasmuch as it deprives many a one of a great deal of delightful intercourse with his fellow-men, I said, "Is there no inn to go to?"

The Professor, instead of giving me an answer, laughed heartily at the idea of my truly English notions at hesitating to put myself under the hospitable roof of the British Consul at Kaffiord, and further remarked, "There is only one place that you can go to, and that is the Consul's house. There is no

.66

hotel," he continued, or any other place you can go to, unless you prefer taking a lodging with some of the miners."

Well, on we went, and at last arrived at Kaffiord, the residence of some fiften hundred people, whose principal occupation was directly or indirectly connected with mining. As we landed, I felt I must say very uncomfortable at the idea of being compelled to go to a private gentleman's house unintroduced, and above all, horrible thought, to one who had never heard of me in regard to those most essential points, which are gone into with the utmost minutiæ, and most extensively in certain quarters, when strangers meet for the first time in England-such as, Who is he? Is he a man of good family? Has he got property? Is he an entertaining fellow? Can he amuse you? Does he talk very agreeably, and that in a manner which may render him presentable in what is called good society? Is he vulgar? &c.

In the middle of these cogitations, a very respectable and good-humoured English gentleman, the Consul, advanced towards the Professor, and shook him by the hand. Professor B—— then said, pointing to me, "Here is a countryman of yours. I then joined them, and away we walked up to a well-built house, where I was honoured with being very politely bowed in first, a compliment I did not relish much, as there was a house full of people, some guests, others visitors, to face, comprehending a very numerous and well-behaved group of people from all parts of Europe, to look hard at a John Bull cutting his first capers, which in those days, from my own experience as an old traveller, after fairly weighing the question, were very frequently cut not in the most agreeable manner, especially in the presence of foreigners, who many years ago were much better hands at manoeuvring themselves

into each others' good graces much sooner than the ordinary members of John Bull's extensive travelling family.

However, I refused further complimentary bowings, took the lead, and felt, as the thing was to be done, it might as well be decently performed. Then summoning up all the courage I had for the attack, I said to myself, sotto roce, of course, as it would not have done to have talked very loud upon such a particulur occasion, "Allons! courage, mon enfant! after the true continental fashion, bowing to everybody that I met, and talking with everybody that I approached, and so scaled the ramparts, and obtained the victory over that usuallittle bit of shyness of the Bull family, which only wants the necessary stimulus, sometimes of alcohol to the body in certain constitutions, and of others a sufficiency of mental stimulus, which latter is the only rational, and reasonable, and justifiable one. Professor B- then said, addressing me, I met with two frisky young fellows some time ago in Norway, one of them named Forbes, the other Latham. Do you know them?"

66

The latter was the lamented Professor Edward Forbes, now deceased, of the University of Edinborough. 1 replied, that I was a fellow student with Professor Forbes in the University of Paris and of Edinborough also; that I was particularly well acquainted with him, and had left him in the University of Edinborough only a few weeks since. The other was the well known ethnologist, Dr. Latham, from my own county, who has since in that branch of science sent his name far and wide before the ethnologists of all countries.

He continued, "Dr. Latham has written a very curious book about us."

People who assemble together in that distant locality, Kaffiord, within a few miles of the North