earth. The whole land around it did not produce one tree or
ilirub ; no, nor fo much as a blade of grafs: there was nothing
to be feen but naked rocks. The inhabitant of that houfe had
not any thing but w hat he brought from a diftance, not even fuel.
T h e fun for three months of the year is not vifible; and if, during
th a t fpace o f time, the atmofphere were not illuminated by the
aurora borealis, he would be buried in profound darknefs—Dreadful
place to live a t ! The only attraction in thele abodes is fiihing,
and the love of gain. The nearer one approaches the North
Gape, the more nature feems to frown: vegetation dies, and leaves
behind it nothing but naked rocks.
Proceeding on our voyage, we left on our right the ftrait formed
by Mageron, or Bare Iiland, and the continent. T h e vaft ex-
panfe of the Frozen Ocean opened to our left, and we arrived at
laft at the extremeft point of Europe, known by the name of the
N o r t h C a p e , exactly at midnight.
Siltimus hie tandem, nobis ubi defuit orbis.*
The North Cape is an enormous rock, which projecting far into
the ocean, and being expofed to all the fury of the waves and the
outrage of tempefts, crumbles every year more and more into
ruins. Here every thing is folitary, every thing is fteril, every
thing fad and defpondent. T h e ihadowy foreft no longer adorns
the brow of the mountain; the fmging o f the birds, which enlivened
even the woods of Lapland, is no longer heard in this
* Here then we flood, and touch’d the earth’s laft point.
6 fcene
fcene of defolation; the ruggednefs of the dark gray rock is not
covered by a fingle Ih rub; the only mufic is the hoarfe murmuring
of the waves, ever and anon renewing their alfaults on
the huge malfes that oppofe them. The northern fun, creeping
at midnight at the diftance of five diameters along the horizon,
and the immeafurable ocean in apparent contaCt with the ikies,
form the grand outlines in the lublime picture preiented to the
aftonilhed fpeClator. The inceflant cares and purfuits of anxious
mortals are recolleCted as a dream; the various forms and energies
of animated nature are forgotten; the earth is contemplated only
in its elements, and as conftituting a part of the folar fyftem.