polar
circle. At first, he appeared like a square turret crowning an irregular
mass of island-rock, but, as we approached a colossal head rounded
itself at the top, and a sweeping cloak fell from the broad shoulder,
flowing backward to the horse's flanks. Still, there was no horse; but
here again our captain took the steamer considerably out of her course,
so that, at a distance of a mile the whole enormous figure, 1500 feet in
height, lay clearly before us. A heavy beard fell from the grand,
Jupitolian head; the horse, with sharp ears erect and head bent down,
seemed to be plunging into the sea, which was already above his belly;
the saddle had slipped forward, so that the rider sat upon his
shoulders, but with his head proudly lifted, as if conscious of his
fate, and taking a last look at the world. Was it not All-Father Odin,
on his horse Sleipner, forsaking the new race which had ceased to
worship him? The colossi of the Orient--Rameses and Brahma and
Boodh--dwindle into insignificance before this sublime natural monument
to the lost gods of the North.

At the little fishing-village of Anklakken, near the Horseman, a fair
was being held, and a score or more of coasting craft, gay with
Norwegian flags, lay at anchor. These _jaegts_, as they are called, have
a single mast, with a large square sail, precisely like those of the
Japanese fishing junks, and their hulls are scarcely less heavy and
clumsy. They are the Norwegian boats of a thousand years ago; all
attempt to introduce a better form of ship-building having been in
vain. But the romantic traveller should not suppose that he beholds the
"dragons" of the Vikings, which were a very different craft, and have
long since disappeared. The _jaegts_ are slow, but good seaboats, and as
the article haste is not in demand anywhere in Norway, they probably
answer every purpose as well as more rational vessels. Those we saw
belonged to traders who cruise along the coast during the summer,
attending the various fairs, which appear to be the principal recreation
of the people. At any rate, they bring some life and activity into these
silent solitudes. We had on board the effects of an Englishman who went
on shore to see a fair and was left behind by a previous steamer. He had
nothing with him but the clothes on his back, and spoke no Norsk: so the
captain anxiously looked out for a melancholy, dilapidated individual at
every station we touched at--but he looked in vain, for w