ow the cows can find sustenance here is an
unsolved riddle. They also make a business of robbing the
birds'-nests of the eggs, by means of ladders, but do not injure the
birds themselves. Of course there are but comparatively few of the
nests which they can manage to reach at all.

The North Cape is in reality an island projecting itself far into the
Polar Sea, and which is separated from the main-land by a narrow
strait. The highest point which has ever been reached by the daring
Arctic explorer was eighty-three degrees twenty-four minutes, north
latitude; this Cape is in latitude seventy-one degrees ten minutes.
The island is named Mageroee, which signifies a barren place; and it
is certainly well named, for a wilder, bleaker, or more desolate spot
cannot be found on the face of the earth. Only a few hares, ermine,
and sea-birds manage to subsist upon its sterile soil. The western
and northern sides are absolutely inaccessible from their rough and
precipitous character. The Arctic Sea thundered hoarsely against its
base as we approached the windswept, weather-worn cliff of the North
Cape in a small landing-boat. It was near the midnight hour, yet the
warm light of the sun's clear, direct rays enveloped us. A few
sea-birds uttered dismal and discordant cries as they flew lazily in
circles overhead. The landing was soon accomplished amid the half
impassable rocks, and then began, the struggle to reach the top of
the Cape, which rises in its only accessible part at an angle of
nearly forty-five degrees. For half an hour we plodded wearily
through the debris of rubble-stones, wet soil, and rolling rocks,
until finally the top was reached, after which a walk of about a
third of a mile upon gently rising ground brings one to the point of
observation,--that is, to the verge of the cliff. We were now fully
one thousand feet above the level of the sea, standing literally
upon the threshold of the unknown.

No difference was observed between the broad light of this Polar
night and the noon of a sunny summer's day in the low latitudes. The
sky was all aglow and the rays of the sun warm and penetrating,
though a certain chill in the atmosphere at this exposed elevation
rendered thick clothing quite indispensable. This was the objective
point to reach which we had voyaged thousands of miles from another
hemisphere. We looked about us in silent wonder and awe. To the
northward was that unknown region to solve the mysteries of whi