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86 THROUGH NORWAY WITII A KNAPSACK.
from these are filled with magnificent glaciers, the great
crevices of which and the hlue ice being visible from
the steamer with telescopes. These glaciers appear as
extensive as the glaciers of the Alps: Yon Buch states
that some of them touch the sea; but he speaks from
hearsay: there is no record of any traveller having
visited and examined them. The whole region—the
Fondalen—is uninhabited; a snowy waste, extending
away to the Swedish frontier.
At about eight in the evening, as we approached the
Satten fiord, lat. 67°, I observed a curiously-shaped
ship, and tried to define it with the telescope. Presently
it diminished to half its former size, then rose again,
but was then seemingly undermined by a sort of notch,
or open angle formed by one portion of it with the
surface of the horizon. Further examination showed that
it could not be a ship, and many opinions were expressed
concerning it; but at last I discovered its real nature.
It was the head of the veritable " Kraken," the great
Scandinavian sea-serpent; the angle being the monster’s
mouth, his upper jaw only being above water. The
folds of his enormously long body were seen stretching
along the horizon, now rising, now sinking, all in
continuous motion. At the most moderate calculation, its
length must have been tliree or four miles, from the
uplifted head to the last visible fold; and how far the point
of its tail might be from that I will not venture to
conjecture. It continued moving, and sometimes the greater
part of it disappeared all at once : at, one moment the
head disappeared almost entirely, at another time only the
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