3-012-024 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Hammerfest, in Norway, lately visited by Prince Alfred, 1864. View of the town and harbour. 'The town of Hammerfest, the most northerly in the world, is situated in latitude 70 deg. 39 min...[It] has a population of 1100 or 1200 souls...In the winter, for two months there is perpetual night...For a corresponding period in summer the sun never sinks below the horizon. During this time the port of Hammerfest is generally full of vessels, and a lively trade is carried on with Russia, England, and France, principally in dried codfish. The Spitzbergen trade also forms an important branch of industry at Hammerfest, reindeer, walrus, and eiderdown being the principal objects there sought for. Even in the coldest winter the sea never freezes along the northern coast of Norway. This is due to the Gulf stream, which, as is known, impinges on the western coast of Norway and sweeps along its shores till it loses itself in the Arctic Ocean. It is, indeed, by no means a rare occurrence that parts of trees and other produce of a tropical clime are washed ashore near Hammerfest. The influence of the Gulf stream alone renders it possible for human beings to live at this place, and makes the temperature endurable'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.