JOURNEY THROUGH LAPLAND 19 



salmon, whilst Newton accused himself of being the only 

 Englishman who ever visited that famous river without 

 the desire to cast a fly. 



After investigating the remarkable raised beaches of 

 the Varanger Fjord, they returned to Hammerfest and 

 thence went by steamer up the Lyngen Fjord to Skibotn. 

 That region had been very seldom visited by Englishmen 

 in those days, and their journey across the peninsula to 

 the Gulf of Bothnia was considered a very creditable 

 feat.* After crossing the watershed they found boats 

 awaiting them at Kilpis-jarvi, and in these they descended 

 the Muonio River to Wolley's headquarters at Muonio- 

 vara. Nearly a month was spent in collecting and pack- 

 ing the eggs which Wolley's collectors had obtained for 

 him. Newton traversed the famous swamp — ^no light 

 undertaking for a lame man — ^to see the spot where the 

 first Crane's nest had been discovered two years before 

 and Simpson had good sport with the wild- fowl with 

 which the Muonio abounds. In September they con- 

 tinued their journey in boats down the river to Hapa- 

 randa, whence they returned by way of Stockholm to 

 England. 



Though he was able only once to visit Lapland, 

 Newton always spoke of it as a sort of ornithological 

 paradise, and years afterwards, as the present writer can 

 gratefully testify, he was ready to help and advise 

 younger naturahsts who proposed to follow in his steps. 



When Mr. Harvie-Brown returned from a Norwegian 

 trip in 1871, he advised him to go farther east into a 

 country which at that time was almost unknown territory 

 to naturalists. 



I met Mr. Alston in London and was very glad to find 



* An excellent account of this part of their joumey was written by 

 Simpson for Fraser's Magazine, April, 1856. 



