NATURE AND LIFE IN LAPLAND. 453 



is provided with an official residence and a salary of 12,000 Swedish 

 crowns, or about 650 per annum. 



On arriving at the inn, which is good and clean, and makes up 

 some forty beds, one is struck with a peculiarity of all similar places 

 in Sweden, namely, the apparent indifference to visitors exhibited by 

 the proprietor. No head-waiter, with attendant circle of porters and 

 chambermaids, awaits the arrival of the guest. The luggage is put 

 down at the entrance, and the traveler must seek for himself his 

 rooms and the information lie requires ; while the landlord, with his 

 hands in his pockets, regards his efforts from a window with languid 

 curiosity. There is no intentional incivility, but it appears not to be 

 the custom to welcome the coming guest, although to speed the part- 

 ing guest there is abundance of hand-shaking and hearty good wishes. 

 The curious custom of the Smorgos prevails at these inns, and indeed 

 everywhere throughout Sweden; it consists in a standing refreshment 

 ' provided at a side-table free of charge, and comprising bread and 

 butter, cheese, caviare, dried fish and reindeer-flesh, sausages, and 

 other similar delicacies, to be taken immediately before each regular 

 meal, and washed down with branvin and other neat spirits. In con- 

 nection with this performance the Sw r edes have an objectionable habit, 

 which may be called the community of forks, as the same implement 

 passes rapidly from mouth to mouth and from dish to dish ; the rights 

 of private property are flagrantly disregarded. 



From Lulea a succession of three small steamers, each making its 

 passage to the bottom of considerable rapids, carry the traveler some 

 ninety miles up the Lulea, River to its junction with the Little Luleii 

 at Storbachen, and across the frontier of Sweden into Lapland, which 

 commences about ten miles below the confluence. The scenery is 

 extremely striking, especially toward the end of the road. The river 

 is a noble stream, never narrower than the Thames at Westminster, 

 and expanding at intervals into broad stretches of water which, shut 

 in by the windings of the river, present the appearance of consid- 

 erable lakes. The banks are lined w 7 ith the pine-forests for many 

 miles, and the dark green of the firs and larches is varied by the 

 brighter foliage and silver bark of the birches, which grow in consid- 

 erable numbers among the other trees. At intervals, gradually 

 getting longer as the distance from Luleii increases, the villages or 

 settlements of the Swedish farmers break the uniformity of the scene, 

 and the wooden houses and out-buildings, painted bright red, with the 

 windows and doors picked out in white, and surrounded by small 

 clearings with patches of yellow barley and green pasture, stand out 

 brightly against the sombre background of the forests, and give 

 animation and warmth to the landscape. It is difficult to convey the 

 peculiar fascination of this scenery. It is due especially to the 

 sharpness and contrast of color, the bright clear blue of the sky 

 giving definiteness to the outlines of the trees and hills, and bringing 



