NATURE AND LIFE IN LAPLAND. 457 



in their short season. The cultivation is restricted to the actual wants 

 of the settlement, as the difficulty of transit precludes the possibility 

 of a market for the surplus. Cattle and ponies, and sometimes sheep 

 and poultry, are kept at each station, but the food of the family is 

 limited to fish which is dried for winter use milk, black or rather 

 brown fiat bread, and dried reinflesh, with an occasional change in the 

 shape of game or wild-fowl killed on the hills or lakes. Everywhere, 

 even in the poorest houses, the most excellent coffee is obtainable ; the 

 green berries being roasted over the fire and ground whenever a cup- 

 ful or more is wanted. 



In the winter, when the lakes and rivers are all frozen, and the 

 ground is covered three or four feet deep with hard snow, the settlers 

 go long distances on snow-shoes and in sledges, and bring up from 

 Lulea what stores they may require. The money for such purchases 

 is gained by winter labor in the forests, where the trees are felled 

 and dragged to the water's edge, to be thrown in and floated down to 

 Lulea when the ice breaks up. At this work a team of one horse and 

 two men can earn about 40s. a week, which is considered large wages 

 in this part of the world. The legal tariff for a boat in summer is one 

 kronor (Is. l^d. English) for each man for seven miles, with no allow- 

 ance for back fare ; and a small dricks penning ar. or pour-boire, added 

 to this will make them supremely grateful, and insure the generous 

 donor many hearty shakes of the hand. 



The settlers cannot afford to be ill, as the nearest doctor lives at 

 Lulea, almost a week's journey from Quickjock. In ordinary cases 

 they depend on their own resources, but in any serious illness the Lu- 

 lea medico is sent for and is obliged to attend, being paid a small sal- 

 ary of 200 a year by the Government on this condition. Midwifery 

 is performed by women. Crimes of any kind seem to be very rare ; 

 and though every settler carries a most ugly-looking dagger-knife 

 suspended from his belt, its use appears to be confined to purely pa- 

 cific purposes. The most common offenses are against the forest regu- 

 lations, and the observance of these is superintended by an officer 

 who has his headquarters at Jockmock. On fete days, at this latter 

 village, a patrol is selected by the Governor of Lulea from among 

 the steadiest of the settlers, and to him the preservation of order is 

 intrusted. 



The men are physically a fine race, and are generally honest and 

 industrious, with an air of independence and straightforwardness. 

 Like the poorer Swedes elsewhere, they are greatly given to the use 

 of tobacco in all forms ; and besides smoking and chewing in the usu- 

 al approved methods, they actually eat large quantities of snuff, help- 

 ing themselves, as the Highlanders do, with a horn spoon from a box. 

 The women have pleasant faces, with rather refined expression. There 

 is a strong family resemblance among them, and the type consists in 

 large gray eyes, brown hair, rather fair complexions, a free carriage, 



