10 A JOURNEY TO FINMARK. 



of the minister, with the adjoining buildings. Further 

 above stood several houses, among them that of the baker. 

 On the top of the hill, about 300 steps from our house, was 

 the new, rather important church, — naturally, like all the 

 other buildings, constructed of wood. Very interesting to 

 me was a visit I made there on Whit-sunday. The church 

 was full of people, who spoke three different languages. 

 Fins (or Lapps), Quains (or Finnlanders), and Norwegians, 

 and probably most of them understood nothing of the Nor- 

 wegian sermon. And yet had the great feeling of piety 

 drawn many Lapp families miles away from their Fjelds. 

 Could one blame these people if, notwithstanding their pious 

 feelings, they tired by the long distance, and, listening to 

 sounds that were strange to them, had sunk into a sweet 

 slumber? 



About a quarter of an hour's walk to the west, separated 

 by a fir wood, lay in the middle of a green meadow, Kongs- 

 hofmark, the abode of the honourable Foged (governor) Lie ; 

 not far beyond ^it that of the Lehnsmand. Further to the 

 west, at the foot of the mountain chain which borders the 

 valley of the Alten on the west, Skaaddavara (or Skaada- 

 vara, Skaaddevar, Skanavara), lay some huts or cabins of 

 Sofinns (Sea-Lapps, who are occupied in fishing, in contra- 

 distinction from the Fjeldfinns, or Reindeer Lapps). About 

 a quarter of an hour's walk to the east of Bossekop rises 

 the Kongshavnfjeld, jutting out like a promontory into the 

 fiord, the peculiarities of which have already been mentioned 

 by Leopold von Bach, who assigns to it a height of 526 

 feet. At the foot of the hill there runs in a southerly direc- 

 tion a broad bank of alluvial pebbles, which is half an 

 English mile long, and then with a very steep, naked slope, 

 the Landfall plunges down towards the Altenelv, to which, 

 probably, it in former times owed its origin. This bank is 



