45o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



NATURE AND LIFE IN LAPLAND. 1 



By C. CHAMBERLAIN. 



~^T~ONE who have had experience of travel in Swedish Lapland are 

 -1-N likely to deny to it the charms of perfect freshness and origi- 

 nality. The almost primitive character and habits of the people, the 

 singular conditions of their life, the unique splendor of the scenery, 

 the bright intoxication of the air, and the glory of the arctic sunsets, 

 are all a constant source of pleasure and surprise. For the angler 

 there is almost unlimited trout and grayling fishing, with possibilities ' 

 of salmon ; and for the sportsman abundance of ptarmigan, willow 

 grouse, hares, and wild-fowl of all descriptions ; while the cost of liv- 

 ing, not indeed sumptuously, but sufficiently well, may be covered by 

 two or three shillings a day. Unfortunately, these advantages can 

 only be reached by routes so little tempting to the ordinary tourist 

 that it appears from the visitor's book at Quickjock that only three 

 hundred persons in twenty years have braved the discomforts of the 

 approach. Now, however, that Norway is becoming hackneyed 

 ground, and that all its available streams are rented and preserved, it 

 is possible that the attractions of Lapland may yet counterbalance 

 the well-founded objections to the gulf of Bothnia. At the present 

 time the trip cannot be recommended to ladies, unless they are will- 

 ing to put up with more than the usual inconvenience and discomfort 

 of out-of-the-way travel; but for men, willing to rough it a little, 

 there is no hardship or difficulty greater than those with which most 

 sportsmen must be already familiar. 



Stockholm, the starting-point of the expedition, may be reached 

 direct by Hull and Gothenburg ; or, if the land-route be preferred, 

 through Calais, Cologne, and Hamburg, and thence, either through 

 Jutland to Friedrickshavn, and across the Cattegat to Gothenburg, 

 or by Kiel and Ivorsoer to Copenhagen, and thence by Malmo to 

 Stockholm. For bad sailors the last route is to be preferred, as in 

 the other cases the traveler must make the acquaintance of either the 

 Skaggerack or the Cattegat, or of both ; and he will probably find 

 that their names are not rougher than their waters, and that they are 

 in fact the most diabolical cross-seas on the face of the globe. The 

 captain of the little steamer which plies between Gothenburg and 

 Friedrickshavn, who has spent the greater portion of his life in ocean- 

 ships, informed us that he never dared to go below when the Catte- 

 gat was rough, but found his only safety from sickness in the fresh 

 breeze on deck. 



1 From an article entitled " A Visit to Lapland, with Notes on Swedish Licensing," 

 Fortnightly Revieiv, December, 18*76. 



