Norway is the most northerly populated country in the world. It is hard to believe that, extending as it does from a latitude of about 58°N at Lindesnes to 81°N at the northern tip of Svalbard (Spitsbergen), it could be suitable for human habitation. Indeed, a comparison with other regions in the same latitudes reveals that the ice-covered southern point of Greenland is on the same latitude as Oslo and that the magnetic North Pole is actually south of Svalbard, being on about the same latitude as Bear Island. Thanks to the Gulf Stream, however, which conveys warm water from the Gulf of Mexico right across the Atlantic and up the entire length of the Norwegian coast, Norway enjoys a climate not unlike that of the other countries of Western Europe.