the days becomes more
and more obvious. At Lund, in the extreme south of Sweden, the
longest day experienced is seventeen hours and a half; at Stockholm,
two hundred miles farther north, the longest day of the year is
eighteen hours and a half; at Bergen, in Norway, three hundred miles
north of Lund, the longest day is nineteen hours; and at Trondhjem,
five hundred miles north of Lund, the longest day is twenty-one
hours. Above this point of latitude to the North Cape there is
virtually no night at all during the brief summer season, as the sun
is visible, or nearly so, for the whole twenty-four hours. From early
in May until about the first of August, north of Trondhjem, the stars
take a vacation, or at least they are not visible, while the moon is
so pale as to give no light, the Great Bear puts by his seven
lustres, and the diamond belt of Orion is unseen. But the heavenly
lamps revive by the first of September, and after a short period are
supplemented by the marvellous and beautiful radiations of the Aurora
Borealis. Winter now sets in, the sun disappears entirely from sight,
and night reigns supreme, the heavens shining only with subdued
light. Were it not for the brilliancy of the Auroral light, the
fishermen could hardly pursue their winter vocation, that being the
harvest-time with them, and midnight is considered to be the best
period of the twenty-four hours for successful fishing in these
frosty regions. In and about the Lofoden Islands alone five thousand
boats are thus regularly employed at the height of the season, giving
occupation to from twenty to twenty-five thousand men. These people
are mostly Scandinavians, properly so designated; but other countries
also contribute their quota to swell the number, many coming
especially from northern Russia and northern Finland east of the
Bothnian Gulf.

Though Lund is not in the direct route over which we propose to take
the reader, still having mentioned this ancient and most interesting
locality, a few words in relation to it will not be out of place.
To-day it has a population of some twelve or fifteen thousand only,
but according to popular tradition it was once a city of two hundred
thousand inhabitants, and was a famous and flourishing capital two
thousand years ago, long before the birth of Christ. Its former
churches and monasteries have crumbled to dust, the grounds and
neighborhood being now only remarkable for the beautiful trees which
have sprung