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TILE ARCTIC SUMMER.
101
of their petty Mediterranean lake which they attempted
to navigate, than did the Phoenicians and old
Scandinavians about the whole Atlantic. The passage between
Scylla and Charybdis is not more perilous than going
through the middle arch of Putney Bridge against tide:
it is just possible to get upset at Putney ; but the other
channel is so wide and currentless, that the idea of any
danger is simply absurd. I have bathed there several
times, and, though I swam about in every direction,
never found an eddy that could whirl me round. Of
course the travels of Æneas, &c., are only the dreams
of the poet; but they describe the traditions and terrors
of the mariners of the time: otherwise they would
have been laughed at when written.
On returning to the mainland next day, we seemed to
come upon a southern climate, though still proceeding
farther north. Here we saw rich verdure,
well-cultivated, comfortable-looking farms, and bright, smiling,
sunny landscapes, backed with luxuriant woods and
frowning crags. The channel from Havnvyk to Dypü,
and onward for several miles, presents as fine a
combination of luxuriance and grandeur as any of the
lakes of Switzerland. This, and the oppressive heat,
are quite subversive of one’s ordinary notions of the
arctic regions : for we were now above two degrees
0 O
north of the Arctic Circle. We passed several waterfalls,
coming from the snow-fields down to the sea: some of
them having evidently only a few weeks’ existence
during the hot summer, which lasts about a month.
The rapidity of arctic vegetation is here exhibited
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