would have been glad
if a score of other passengers had not been with you, and still more
glad if you had come here half a century earlier, before the hand of
man had marked the spot, and before all your distant friends expected
you to post them a postcard from the North Cape.

Still, something of romance remains as, gazing northwards, you
remember that, except, perhaps, for a corner of Spitzbergen, nothing
intervenes between you and the North Pole--only that barrier of ice
which, so far, has defied all penetration. But this is mere sentiment,
and you have come to see something else--the merging of sunset with
sunrise. Du Chaillu well describes the scene: "The brilliancy of the
splendid orb varies in intensity, like that of sunset and sunrise,
according to the state of moisture of the atmosphere. One day it will
be of a deep red colour, tingeing everything with a roseate hue,
and producing a drowsy effect. There are times when the changes in
the colour between the sunset and sunrise might be compared to the
variations of a charcoal fire, now burning with a fierce red glow,
then fading away, and rekindling with greater brightness.

"There are days when the sun has a pale, whitish appearance, and when
even it can be looked at for six or seven hours before midnight. As
this hour approaches the sun becomes less glaring, gradually changing
into more brilliant shades as it dips towards the lowest point of its
course. Its motion is very slow, and for quite a while it apparently
follows the line of the horizon, during which there seems to be a
pause, as when the sun reaches noon. This is midnight. For a few
minutes the glow of sunset mingles with that of sunrise, and one
cannot tell which prevails; but soon the light becomes slowly and
gradually more brilliant, announcing the birth of another day, and
often before an hour has elapsed the sun becomes so dazzling that
one cannot look at it with the natural eye."

Such is the wondrous sight, and all through the summer, even before
and after the period of the non-setting of the sun, the nights are
almost as light as day. Indeed, all over Norway, far to the south
of the Arctic Circle, the summer nights are remarkably short--not
altogether an unmixed blessing to those who find it difficult to
sleep in daylight.

But what a change comes over these northern lands in winter! At
the North Cape the sun sets on November 18, not to rise again until
January 24, and everywhere within th