The land's end was nearing, and erelong I stood on the edge of Cape Nordkyn, 71° 6' 50"—the most northern end of the continent of Europe, and rising majestically over seven hundred feet above the level of the sea. Before me was the Arctic Ocean, and beyond, a long way off and unseen by me, was the impenetrable wall of ice which the Long Night had built to guard the Pole.
From there I could see North Cape.
CHAPTER XXII
Leave Nordkyn.—Frantic Efforts of the Reindeer to Keep their Footing on the Ice.—The Bear's Night.—Foxes and Ermines.—Weird Cries of Foxes.—Building Snow Houses.—Shooting-boxes.—Killing Foxes.—Traps for Ermines.—A Snow Owl.
NORDKYN being the land's end, I could not go further north, so I retraced my steps southward. That afternoon we saw on the other side of a frozen lakelet the tent of some nomadic Lapps, and we made preparations to cross the lake to go and see them.
While we were in the midst of the lake the wind rose, and before we knew it the ice was left bare around us, and our reindeer could not run or walk over it, it was so slippery. They would fall at every step they made, making all kinds of contortions to try to stand on their legs; their hoofs could not possibly hold on fast to the ice. We got out of our sleighs to help them. I said to myself that reindeer ought to be shod, especially to go over the ice.
It was awful—the poor beasts made frantic efforts to get on, but could not. I thought we should never be able to cross the lake, and that we should be obliged to abandon the reindeer, or try to put them into our sleighs, and drag these ourselves to the shore. But we watched our opportunity, and when a layer of snow was blown in our way, we succeeded in making some headway. At last we reached the shore, after three or four hours of hard work.
The Lapps received us very kindly.