The Northernmost Extremity of Europe

Abstract

YOUR correspondent, Mr. Mattieu Williams, says, on p. 54. that Tönsberg “is admitted by all as a high authority” on Nor way. May I be permitted to ask who these “all” are? I knew this gentleman very well, and he never claimed the least geographical authority for a faulty and crude “Guide for Tourists,” which is all that his work is. I beg to refer your correspondent to the preface, where the author himself says that, for reasons explained, it has many faults. To set Tönsberg up as a geographical authority would indeed be an insult to Norwegian geographers. Your correspondent further says that he saw with his own eyes, ten years ago, that Knivsjjærodden jutted further north than the North Cape. Had I happened to meet him before he started on his excursion, I, then but a school-boy, could have informed him of this startling fact. What I said was, that we had assumed it, but it had only been proved by measurements this summer. That was all. As regards the height of the promontories on the coast of Arctic Norway, I am sorry to have to repeat my contradiction that there is no single one which is higher than the North Cape. Your correspondent again quotes Tönsberg. If quoting this “high authority” at all, the statement should be correct. Your readers are informed that this guide-book says that Sværholtklubben “is twenty-four Norwegian (why Norsk ?) if Norwegian it should be Norske) feet higher than the North Cape.” Tönsberg says nothing of the kind. What he says is simply that it is upwards of (henved) 1000 feet, and from this vague guess your correspondent evolves a fresh discovery and figures. Had he taken the trouble to consult the poorest of our geographies, he would have learned that the North Cape is indisputably the highest headland in Finmarken. His concluding statement that there are a dozen others is merely an imaginative one.