2(5 



forms nightly illumines their hemisphere. The cold 

 is intense, sufficient to frighten and drive us foreigners 

 from their happy woods. No part of our bodies is so 

 liable to be destroyed by cold, as the extremities, 

 which are situated farthest from the heart ; the chil- 

 blains of the hands and feet, so frequent with us in 

 Sweden, sufficiently indicate this. In no part of Lap- 

 land do we find the inhabitants affected with chil- 

 blains, though in respect to the country one would 

 expect them to be peculiarly subject to this disease, 

 especially as they wear no stockings, while we clothe 

 ourselves in one, two, and even three pair. 



" A Laplander preserves himself from the vio- 

 lence of cold in the following manner; he wears 

 trowsers, made of the rough skin of the rein-deer, 

 which reach to his ankles, and shoes made of the same 

 material, the hair turned outward; this grass, cut 

 down in the summer, dried, rubbed betwixt the hands, 

 and afterwards combed and carded, he puts into his 

 shoes, so as not only wholly to enwrap his feet, but 

 the lower part of his legs also, which, thus de- 

 fended, never suffer from the severest cold; with this 

 grass he also fills his hairy gloves to preserve his 

 hands; and thus are those hardy people enabled to 

 bear the frost. 



" As this grass in the winter drives away cold, so 

 in the summer it checks the perspiration of the feet, 

 and preserves them from being injured by stones 

 in travelling, for their shoes are extremely thin, being 

 made of untanned skins. It is difficult to learn, on 



