TROUT-FISHING IN SWEDISH LAPLAND. 79 



Eesisting the attractions of an easier and shorter 

 way seawards to the Gulf of Bothnia by a village 

 some twenty miles distant named Malo, where the 

 post-road commenced, I continued to follow the 

 stream, although it was no longer possible to 

 descend in a boat owing to the numerous rapids, 

 accompanied by Olaf and by Eric Landgren, through 

 thick pine forests, where at every step the ground 

 was encumbered with fallen trees and undergrowth; 

 keeping always beside the river, across stony tracts 

 and marshy ground covered with grey reindeer moss 

 and berries, where the banks were strewed with 

 stranded logs, or at times shooting down on boats 

 belonging to little hamlets on the banks, and de- 

 scending by this means no fewer than fifteen rapids. 

 Some of these cataracts caused us some painfully 

 exciting work, as the men had not explored them 

 before, and it was necessary to stand up constantly 

 to keep a look-out for large rocks over the crests 

 of the rollers or large waves caused by the current. 



Notwithstanding all these precautions, a grating 

 sound or a jerk every now and again caused me 

 many an unpleasant thrill. 



An enormous amount of timber lay piled near the 

 banks, apparently cut and left to rot, probably from 

 inability to drag it to the water owing to a warm 

 winter and the premature disappearance of the snow. 

 Such as it is, the timber trade of Sweden seems mo- 

 nopolised by the great merchants of Gothenburg. 



At the farm of Eonas we were hospitably enter- 



