Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1939-02-02
NATURE PROVIDES
daylight SAVING"
Midnight Sun on Job All
Summer in Norway.

Oslo.-In Norway nature provides
a daylight saving" system which
should be the envy of all Ameri-
cans who seek to prolong the days
of summer.
Americans in many states set
their clocks ahead an hour during
summer, to capture enough addi-
tional daylight for a golf match, a
swim, an evening drive after work.
Norwegians, on the other hand
simply let nature take its course,
for here the midnight sun gives
the northern part of the country per-
petual daylight in summer and
makes all but two or three hours Of
the entire twenty-four light even
far to the south in Oslo.
At North Cape, for example, the
midnight sun rises May IL and
keeps right on shining until August
l. At Tromso it becomes visible
May Is and continues until July Is,
and at Bodo it shines from June
to July Is.
Magnificent Spectacle.
The regions of this great spec
tacle were long off the beaten track
of tourists and were considered a
land of Lapps, of crude hunters
and fisher folk. Few travellers ven
tured further north than Trondheim,
ancient capital of Norway. Modern
transportation, however, has
changed all that, and today voy-
age to North Cape is almost a
''must" of a trip to Norway and
northern Europe. Because Of the
great Oslo Exhibition of Norwegian
Life, which will open May IL and
continue to September Is, Norway
expects a great increase in Amer
lean and Canadian travellers, and
consequently in visitors to North
Cape.
Most travellers begin their voyage
into the region of the midnight sun
at Trondheim, sailing through a
placid sea which mirrors massive
cliffs and mountains. AS the cruise
vessel crosses the Arctic circle, it
usually fires cannon shot and the
crew points out the location of this
imaginary line, which passes over
the island mountain Hestmanden, or
the 'Horseman." At the great Vest
ford the Lofoten islands come into
view, a magnificent spectacle in
deed, with their colorful fishing
hamlets and towns. This archipel-
ago is home of the greatest cod fish
cries in the world, and yet so lovely
that artists have come here for gen.
creations to paint it. r
Carlyle's Porch Lamp.
Tromso, travellers find, is a busy
town, the center of a vast fishing
industry and the so-called capital of
the, Arctic. Ships leaving it often
time their departure so that pas
sengers may see the midnight sun
between the islands of Vannoy and
Annoy, just before midnight. At this
spot the sea horizon is broken by a
solitary summit, the Fugloy, SO that
travellers have an unobstructed
view as the sun traces a path of
FURNISHED gold over the shining
sea.
To the surprise of many people,
Hammerfest, most northerly city
of the world, has all the comforts
of civilization-electricity, movies,
telephones, and newspapers. There
is little about it to remind one that
one is 300 or more miles north of the
Arctic circle, except that trees have
grown smaller and somewhat
scarce. Even there, however, tiny
forest struggles pluckily for exist
ence.
The North Cape and the midnight
sun as seen from it must thrill even
the least emotional of travellers.
Whoever stands on that limit of the
world and looks out over the polar
ocean and the silent North can
never forget the barbaric splendor
of its desolate solitude, which
Thomas Carlyle described as "the
silent immensely and palace of the
eternal, whereof our sun is but a
porch lamp"