Two hours more brought us to the celebrated North Cape, rising boldly and precipitously out of the sea to a height of nearly a thousand feet. North Cape.Europe terminated here, and the billows of the cold and sublime Arctic Ocean stretched from the foot of this noble hill far, far into those Polar regions which man knoweth not and has not seen! As one gazes and gazes over this sublime and limitless ocean,—beyond the last frontier of human habitation—beyond the last traces of man's handiwork,—he almost feels himself removed from the round of human actions and feelings, and remembers human life but as a troubled dream, and he contemplates this vast earth as a speck in the limitless universe spreading through limitless space and through endless time.
I shall never forget the feeling of enthusiasm and exultation with which, after finishing a substantial supper, we all began our ascent of the North Cape by daylight at 10 p.m. on the 29th July, 1886. One or two passengers only remained in the ship. One of the ex-members of Parliament of whom I have spoken above condemned the attempt as foolish, and with very good reason too, (because he weighed about 18 stone!) and his wife also remained behind. One of my Indian friends also felt too lazy after the supper to attempt the task at first, but he changed his mind suddenly as if moved by an electric impulse, and the impulse carried him on fairly to the top of the North Cape!
Behold us then all scrambling up the famous North Cape—(famous in our school day Geographies!) by a
