mon consent is brought to a
close. During the height of the revels, street parades constitute a
part of the singular performances, when bride, bridegroom, family and
friends, preceded by a band of musicians, march gayly from point to
point; or a line of boats is formed, with the principals in the
first, the musicians in the second, and so on, all decked with
natural and artificial flowers and bright-colored streamers. As we
started out of Hammerfest harbor we chanced upon one of these aquatic
bridal parties, accompanied by instrumental music and a chorus of
many pleasant voices, the diaphanous dresses of bride and
bridesmaids looking like mist-wreaths settled about the boats. It was
easy to distinguish the bride from her attendants, by the tall,
sparkling gilt crown which she wore.

In sailing along the coast after leaving the point just described, it
is observed that vegetation grows more and more scarce. The land is
seen to be useless for agricultural purposes; habitations first
become rare, then almost entirely cease, bleakness reigning supreme,
while one seems to be creeping higher and higher on the earth. In
ascending lofty mountains, say in the Himalayan range, we realize
that there are heights still above us; but in approaching the North
Cape a feeling comes over us that we are gradually getting to the
very apex of the globe. Everything seems to be beneath our feet; the
broad, deep, unbounded ocean alone makes the horizon. Day and night
cease to be relative terms, while the strange effect and the magic
brightness of a Polar night utterly beggar description. As we rounded
one of the many abrupt rocky islets in our course, which came up
dark, steep, and inaccessible from an unknown depth, there flew up
from the smooth waters into which the steamer ploughed her way a
couple of small ducks, each with a young bird snugly ensconced upon
its back, between the broad-spread, narrow wings. This was to the
writer a novelty, though an officer of the ship said it was not
unusual to see certain species of Arctic ducks thus transporting
their ducklings. One reads of woodcock at times seizing their young
in their talons, and bearing them away from impending danger; but a
web-footed bird could not effectually adopt this mode in any
exigency. It seems however that Nature has taught the ducks another
fashion of transporting their helpless progeny. The birds we had
disturbed did not fly aloft with their tiny burdens, but skimmed ov