of the water, and then burst with a slight sound.

The purple dye of blood tinged the water, and immediately afterwards the
wounded seal, with lacerated fin, buoyed itself sluggishly to sight. Its
heavy breathing, expressive of pain, could be heard by all of us in the
boat; and levelling both their pieces, R---- and P---- fired together.
The seal rolled over with a moan, not unlike the faint lowing of a calf,
and floating in a pool of blood, rather than water, expired without a
struggle. Rowing the boat to the spot, the cockswain and his messmate
used their whole strength to pull the animal on board, its dimensions
not being contemptible. We reached the yacht about midnight, proud of
our day's sport.

Although it was the noon of night, it was light as at six o'clock in the
afternoon; and, indeed it is not an easy thing to tell the hour of the
day without referring to a time-piece; for there is but a very slight
difference in this part of the globe, during the summer months, between
the darkness of night and the transparency of day. This may sound
paradoxical enough; but the fact is no less true for all that. It would
be hardly necessary to observe, that the heat during the night in Norway
is sometimes more oppressive than during the day; and simply, I should
imagine, because, before the setting and rising of the sun, sufficient
time is not given to allow the ascending vapours to carry off the
fervour retained by the earth; and added to which the sun does not sink
at any period during the summer eighteen degrees below the horizon. His
rays therefore assist in keeping up the hot temperature until two or
three hours have elapsed, and then his great red face again begins to
parch every thing that dares come within its range. Norway being also a
very rocky country, absorbs the heat with wonderful facility, and as
every one may know, is disinclined to part with it. Returning home at
half-past twelve, or one, just before sunrise as I sometimes did, by
some shadowed path along the mountains, I have placed my hand on the
rocks, and found them still warm. The day, on the contrary, though
exposed to the direct power of the sun, has the atmosphere always cooled
by the wind, which is kept in motion more actively the hotter become the
sun's rays, the heat being a circulating medium of itself. Indeed the
departure of the sun is the signal for the wind's flight likewise; and
the night is generally painfully calm.

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