10 FOREST BAUBLES. [Nov., 



Amongst the many scenes of beauty surrounding our temporary 

 home, there was one which had a special charm for me. Some four 

 hundred yards below the spot where the Vuoksa issues from Lake 

 Saima, the river expands in the form of a bow, the main body of 

 ■water hurrying down the chord in huge foam-crested billows, whilst 

 in the arc is a gentle current up-stream, across which the tiny 

 wavelets from ]n id-river roll gently to the forest-clad shore, and break 

 in ]5lashes of foam on a beach of yellow sand and bright pebbles. 

 As the afternoon draws on the sun sinks gradually behind the dark 

 belt of forest on the western bank, leaving it and the rushing waves 

 of the main current in sombre shade, but still flooding with hot glow- 

 ing rays the gentle curve of the sandy bay, the foamy ripples on the 

 miniature strand, and the flower-sprinkled forest bank on which I 

 loved to recline. Many a lazy, happy hour I passed here, dreaming 

 over a book, and enjoying to the full the grand rush of the rapids and 

 the exquisite view round a tiny headland over iniles of blue lake to 

 the wooded slopes of the northern shore. Here I realized completely 

 that charming picture in ' Westwood Ho ! ' of the meeting of Amyas 

 Leigh with Ayacanora, saving only that stately Spruces and the glow- 

 ing hues of the fading Birch foliage replaced the palms and flowering 

 trailers of a tropic clime. 



En route again, we proceeded by steamer up Lake Saima to 

 Nyslott and its picturesque old ' shot-shattered castle, and thence 

 through the northern lakes, ascending by a well-constructed series of 

 locks to Kuopio, a town of 7,000 inhabitants in the heart of the 

 country, celebrated by reason of its trade in timber. Here we were 

 at a distance of nearly three hundred miles from the Gulf of Finland, 

 and the lake scenery through which we had passed was indescribably 

 beautiful, especially when viewed, as in our case, in autumn, when 

 the early frosts had set the Birches aflame with varying tints of 

 orange, scarlet, and gold. In every direction, one gazes up long 

 reaches of blue water studded with forest -clad sedge-girt islands, and 

 all that one can desire to complete the beauty of the scenery is 

 a background of lofty mountains. And southern Finland has no 

 mountains. Some three miles to the north of Kuopio we ascended 

 the highest eminence of the district, a hill of some 700 feet, covered 

 with magnificent Spruces, many of them approaching a hundred feet 

 in height. On the summit is a lofty wooden tower, whence it is said 

 that seven hundred islands can be seen on a clear day. We were 

 there at sunset, and enjoyed the glorious panorama to the full. There 

 was certainly far more water than land within the scope of our vision, 

 and we accepted the geographer's dictum already referred to without 

 question. Also, when we had counted a hundred islands, we were 

 quite content to beUeve that the natives had not over-estimated the 



