Omaha daily bee., 1886-09-19
IN THE FAR NORTH.
Scenes Around Hammerfcst, the Nor
thcrnmost Town in the World.

tnernmOSt IOwn in the world.
Norway Letter in st. Louis Globe Dem
ocrat: 1t was still Il gray and cheerlcss
morning II few hours later " hen we came
. INTO Hammerfest Harbor, and saw this
"northernmost town in the world, -
stretching line of bare gray and white
houses along the shore, at the foot of
desolate gray hills of broken rock, where
not spear of grass tlourished. Every
thing about Hammerfest is superlatlve.
and near this northernmost town in the
world" are the ''nurthcrnmost birch
woods in the world" Tne church, the
postofiice, the hotel, and the chrio shops
all have the same antique fame, and there
is u SO telegraph office Bare and for
bidding as the hills are around Hammer
fest, the turf roofs of many of the houses
which grow daisies and blue bells and
buttcrcups. The houses that line one
side of the street facing the in
evitable yellow warehouses are
models of cleanliness, without and
within, and the presence of blooming
geraniums, tall callas, and other house
plants tell that the northernmost citizens
other people. In the church ut the head
of the street coffin was lying under u
wealth of flowers that made the place
fragrant. Women are busy decorating
the bare interior of the church with
wreaths of evergreens and STRIPS of black
drapery, and to show their kindlincss and
interest to the visitors they made motions
to them and the men began to take off
the cover of the coffin to show them the
dead man within.
The hotel Woropolen stands on little
open square IN which fountain sends up
an icy jet basin, and in the raw air of a
cloudy morning in latitude 10 degrees, Al
minutes north, the music of that drip
ping fountain made ones teeth chatter
and his blood run cold. Dreary us Ham
merfest seems on summer morning
without sunshine to cnhven its bare OUT
lines, one shudders to think of it closed
in the endless night of winter. All the
shops had n small department of curios
attached where Laplanders caps, dolls,
sledges and cradles, knives with walrus-
pelts were heaped up on counters and in
windows.
After the fishing there was the bonn
bardment of the Syaerholtklubben, or
"bird-rock," " to help while away the after
noon in order that we might reach the
north cape in time for a midnight ascent.
We had been fishing in the Magro sound
which separates the island from which
the north cape projects from the main
land of Europe, and the Svaerholt lay at
the eastern entrance away beyond that
final point. AS we steamed toward the
Svaerholr,i it appeared only a very abrupt,
preclpitous cliff rising some one thou
sand two hundred feet straight up from
the water, but when we drew nearer and
the ship was fairly under it the whole cliff
seemed to be dotted with points in mo-
ton. One bang from the cannon sent
thousands of sea gulls whirling franti-
cally in the air, and they swept along the
face of the cliff in clouds. Their piping
fairly drowned any echoes after the first
crash of the cannon-shot, and succeeding
shots kept the birds whirling and crying
in the air. While the big birds were
sweeping about on the wing, the face of
the cliff was all a iutter with little birds
unable to take flight, and many tiedgling
tries its wings for the first time on these
semi weekly bombardments from the
tourist steamers in midsummer. Tho
ladders of the egg hunters could be seen
here and there on the face of the cliff,
and around the corner of the cliff lived
come from the sale of gull's eggs.
As we climbed upward our steamer
dwindled and seemed 10 lie directly un-
der us, atloat on water SO still and green
as to seem more like glass. Within 100
feet of the top of the cliff we went into
the cloud, and when we reached the
bare, wind swept plain at the summit we
COulu HOI bcc tWchuS icCb away. We
walked on for mile over level eX-
panse OF stony groundcovered with moss
and reindeer lichens, following path
marked out by stakes and wires. At last
chasm opened before us; we looked
down great crevice set with ragged
needles of rock and then went on to n
mountain of a single shaft of granite that
marks the brow and furthest point of the
North cape and commentaries the visit
of King Oscar III, the I'd of July, 1873. 1t
was IL $50 when we reached the brow of
the cape, and if all had gone well we
should have sat there bathed in the light
of the midnight sun, and perhaps felt all
those grand and sublime things that
Carlyle, Bayard Taylor, Longfellow, Du
Chaillu and even "Sunset" Cox have ut
tered concerning the spectacle. As it
was, we could not even quote them. We
were band of irreyerent, everyday peo.
Pile, breathless, weary, drenched, and
only inclined to make the best of our dis
appointment At the base of King
Oscars column a shrewd employe of the
company had set up table with a snowy
cloth, and from it he sold champagne
and the beverages of all nations to the
cloud-soaked pilgrims. While the young
Americans Skinned up the smooth
granite column to its top and there gave
three cheers and tiger for our mighty
eagle, the Britishers below were drinking
10 tho haalfh of tha nl1pan and nVarV ono