34 THE FOREST LANDS OF FINLAND. 



boat shoots them beautifully, now rushing apparently 

 against a projecting rock, but passing it safely ; now 

 rushing upon broken water, but only to rise on it like a 

 sea-gull on a wave, and pass on safely beyond. 



At length Uleaborg on the coast was reached, and by a 

 coasting steamer touching at all the more important ports 

 on the Finnish coast of the Gulf of Bothnia, the traveller 

 reached Abo and Helsingfors in safety. He did not state 

 in a letter that he wrote to me giving an account of his 

 tour, but I afterwards learned in conversation with him, 

 that at one place the fragile bark and its whole cargo was 

 submerged and broken up ; but all floated, the cargo was 

 soon collected again, and the boat, if boat it could be called, 

 reconstructed, and they resumed their voyage after a brief 

 delay. 



I know something from experience of the nervous 

 excitement produced by the descent of the rapids of the 

 St. Lawrence, and from conversation with those who have 

 had like experience in connection with the descent of the 

 rapids of the Zambesi, of which adventure Dr Livingstone 

 has left us a graphic account, I gather that their feelings 

 must have been similar; and like feelings appear to be 

 generally produced in like circumstances. The incident 

 has been mentioned, less with a view to awaken a sympa- 

 thetic feeling by leading the reader to fancy what his 

 feelings would have been, than with a view to making the 

 personal narrative subservient to the production of a vivid 

 realisation of the physical aspects of the country. With a 

 like view I proceed to cite an account given by the author 

 of Frost and Fire, of a descent made by himself and a brother 

 tourist of the Torneo, the river constituting the boundary 

 on the extreme north of Finland, between the Russian 

 territory and Sweden. 



Describing the Torneo boats, the writer says : ' The bow 

 rises about three feet from the water, and is very sharp ; 

 the boat gets rapidly broader and lower for about five feet 

 to the place where the first rower sits upon the bottom 

 boards and works two broad paddles. These work in 



