A JOURNEY TO FIXMARK. 15 



not till the end of July that the last patches of snow dis- 

 appeared. 



The Reipasvara, which borders the Altenthal on the south, 

 falls on its western side very abruptly from a height of 1000 

 feet, and is here washed by the Altenelv, coming from the 

 south. The northern slopes, towards the Altenthal, also fall 

 rather abruptly, and the extreme eastern portion, where the 

 copper-mines are situated, is rather rugged and bare. On 

 the other hand, the upper western portion, as well as the 

 entire hinder part of this mountain, shows a softer outline, 

 and is almost throughout covered with a soft carpet of vege- 

 gation. Lakes also as well as marshes are liere numerous, 

 and in sheltered places birch trees grow very well : we even 

 found up here some little trees of Sorbus auciqmria. There 

 v/ere a few small places which almost resembled the Alpine 

 meadows of Switzerland, and showed a luxuriant vegetation 

 of grasses and delicate Alpine flowers. I estim.ate the highest 

 v/estern peak of the Reipasvara at 1400 — 1500 feet high. 

 From this spot one has an extensive view to the south and 

 west, where everywhere appears a high table-land, with crags 

 more or less lofty protruding, and deep valleys or fissures in 

 which the streams flow. The A-ltenelv can be traced upwards 

 for a long distance ; and on this river, more than 100 English 

 miles above Bossekop, near the Swedish frontier, in latitude 

 69° north, is the Lapp village Kautokeino, whence we ob- 

 tained several very interesting Lepidoptera. 



On the 1st August we went by the steamer *' Nord Cap" 

 in about 6 hours to Hammerfest, the most northern town in 

 the world (in latitude 70° 40' N.), and we found on the 

 mountains of the island Kvalo (on which island Hammerfest 

 is situated), which are from 200 to 600 feet high, nearly the 

 same character of landscape and vegetation as on the moun- 

 tains towards Bossekop. Also several of the Lepidoptera 



