n the northern side of Hindoe, a beautiful bay with green and wooded
shores, and then, leaving the Lofodens behind us, entered the
archipelago of large islands which lines the coast of Finmark. Though
built on the same grand and imposing scale as the Lofodens, these
islands are somewhat less jagged and abrupt in their forms, and exhibit
a much more luxuriant vegetation. In fact, after leaving the Namsen
Fjord, near Drontheim, one sees very little timber until he reaches the
parallel of 69 deg.. The long straits between Senjen and Qvalo and the
mainland are covered with forests of birch and turfy slopes greener than
England has ever shown. At the same time the snow level was not more
than 500 feet above the sea, and broad patches lay melting on all the
lower hills. This abundance of snow seems a singular incongruity, when
you look upon the warm summer sky and the dark, mellow, juicy green of
the shores. One fancies that he is either sailing upon some lofty inland
lake, or that the ocean-level in these latitudes must be many thousand
feet higher than in the temperate zone. He cannot believe that he is on
the same platform with Sicily and Ceylon.

After a trip up the magnificent Maans Fjord, and the sight of some
sea-green glaciers, we approached Tromsoe, the capital of Finmark. This
is a town of nearly 3000 inhabitants, on a small island in the strait
between Qvalo and the mainland. It was just midnight when we dropped
anchor, but, although the sun was hidden by a range of snowy hills in
the north, the daylight was almost perfect. I immediately commenced
making a sketch of the harbour, with its fleet of coasting vessels. Some
Russian craft from Archangel, and a Norwegian cutter carrying six guns,
were also at anchor before the town. Our French traveller, after amusing
himself with the idea of my commencing a picture at sunset and finishing
it at sunrise, started for a morning ramble over the hills. Boats
swarmed around the steamer; the coal-lighters came off, our crew
commenced their work, and when the sun's disc appeared, before one
o'clock, there was another day inaugurated. The night had vanished
mysteriously, no one could tell how.

CHAPTER XXV.

FINMARK AND HAMMERFEST.

The steamer lay at Tromsoe all day, affording us an opportunity to visit
an encampment of Lapps in Tromsdal, about four miles to the eastward. So
far as the Lapps were concerned, I had seen enough of them, but I joined
the party for the sa