and thence precipitating down large maffes of ftone. Thefe in
their fall made a tertible craih, as they ftruck againft every thing
that oppofed their way to the ocean. The rocks on thofe coafts
are for the moil part compofed of granite. The North Cape itj-
felf is a mafs of granite, interfperfed with fome veins of quartz,
lying in the diredion of fouth and north. In the femicircle
o f rocks which form the Cape, is a point or prominence towards
the weft, where we found fnow on a fpot not more than
two fathoms above the level of the fea; a circumftance which appears,
in fome meafure, to confound the French theory refpeding
fnow at a certain height in the atmofphere, and indeed the whole
iyftem of Mairan, liufFon, and Baillie, reipeding central heat.
The only lpecies of birds that we could difcover on thofe rocks
was one of the genus motacilla. But at a ftnall diftance from the
Cape, out at fea, the uria grille, fome fpecies o f larus, and the
alca arSlic'd were very common; and I fucceeded in bringing
down feveral of thofe birds.
A gentle breeze fetting in from towards the north invited us to
leave the Cape, and enabled us to make ufe of our fa il: but we
had fcarcely proceeded five or fix Engliih miles, when we were
overtaken by a calm, which obliged our people to have recourfe
to their oars. W e did not return to Alten by the fame courfe,
but vifited whatever we underftood to be in any way worthy of
our notice on the iflands th a t fringe the coaft. W e came firft to
the lile of Maafo, which is inhabited by a clergyman, a merchant,
and thirty families befides. The merchant received us with the
higheft
higheft marks of diftinftion : he offered us different kinds of liquor;
he made us a prefent of fome fponges, which are found in thofe
parts, together with fome fea-ihells; among the latter was a cancer
Bernhardus eremita, in a buccinum glaciale : he gave us alfo a fpeci-
men of an alca alee, which his fon had fluffed; he ihewed us the
environs of his habitation; thefe confifted fimply of rocks and fome
caverns, where they hunted the o tte r: and at our departure, he
lioifted the Daniih flag, and faluted us with three difcharges of
his cannon. All thefe exceflive marks of refpedt and veneration
were not, perhaps,.' the effect of mere hofpitality, b u t more probably
of the delufive fancy that we were two princes travelling in
diilcuiie. This delufion was founded in a circumftance that had
previoufly happened. A fon of the late duke o f Orleans, after travelling
through Norway, came from thence to this coaft in a ibip.
From the ifle he proceeded to Alten, from Alten he traverfed on
horieback nearly the fame ground th a t we had done, in company
with a young man of the name o f Montjoye; Both travelled
under borrowed names: the firft under th a t of Müller, the fecond
under that of Froberg, which Is o f the fame import in the German
as his own name in French. The year after .thefe gentlemen
had been here, the merchants on the coaft were informed
by their correfpondents that one o f them was the Prince of Orleans
: and from that time they believed in Norway, as well as on
the coaft of Lapland, that every ftranger, accompanied by another,
and one or two fervants, was fome prince on his travels, either for
inftruction or amufement. In order to form a ju ft eftimate of
Q 2 the