GREAT SLAUGHTER. 477 



from this place," writes M. Ekenstam from the town of Lulea 

 on the Bothnian Gulf, under date of the 6th of May, 1833, 

 "who a fortnight ago returned from the fair of Gellivaara, 

 speak of the extraordinary destruction the Lapps have made 

 amongst their inveterate enemies, the wolves, in the begin- 

 ning of last April, not only in that parish, but in the 

 adjoining ones of Qvickjock and Jockmock. In Gellivaara 

 alone no less than seventy of those beasts were killed in the 

 course of a week, and fifty more in the above parishes in the 

 same space of time. That great numbers of wolves have 

 actually fallen victims to the revenge of the Lapps, we may 

 safely infer from the price of the skins, which were sold as low 

 as five shillings each. The Lapps do not recollect for the past 

 twenty years such a concurrence of favourable circumstances 

 for their wolf slaughter. There were such alternations in the 

 weather sometimes frost, and at other times thaw that 

 the surface of the snow, which was deep in the woods, would 

 support their Skidor, but not the weight of the wolves." 



From actual experience, I myself can say nothing of the 

 Chasse in question ; for though during my wanderings in 

 the northern forests, I have frequently fallen in with 

 the tracks of wolves, the localities were always such, that 

 any attempt to overtake the beasts would have been worse 

 than useless. 



Little in the shape of wolf-hunting such at least as 

 accords with our notions of hunting is practised in 

 Sweden; and that little is, from necessity, always followed 

 on foot. From the difficult nature of the ground, and the 

 peculiar style of fence, it would be quite an impossibility 

 to pursue that beast on horseback. Even the wolf-hunts 



