GREAT RIVERS OF FINLAND. 197 



club, with a club-house just at the exit of the river 

 from Lake Saima, the salmon being taken below the 

 celebrated Imatra cataract afterwards mentioned, and 

 the larger trout above. In the public gardens at 

 Helsingfors a military band was playing in a kiosque 

 opposite a large cafe. Eows of stout countrywomen 

 were to be seen seated and listening to the music, 

 while almost every second male seemed to be in 

 uniform broad-shouldered peasants, soldiers in long 

 cloaks, naval and military officers, and students with 

 white caps. The only daily through train to Uleaborg, 

 the present terminus northwards since last year, of 

 the Finnish railway, a two days' journey, left Hel- 

 singfors at eight in the morning, so we had barely 

 time to buy a most excellent and detailed map of 

 Finland, with almost every house, stream, and path 

 given, and far superior to the Eussian chart, which 

 we had already seen in London, its title being 

 "Jernvags och reskarta ofver Finland; I. J. Inberg." 

 The line will be completed later on to the Swedish 

 frontier at Torneo, and will then reach to within a few 

 miles of the Arctic circle ; at present the difficulty is 

 the bridging over of two enormous rivers, the li and 

 the Kemi. The Uleo at Ulu, or Uleaborg, has already 

 been spanned by a magnificent iron bridge. 



One might well imagine oneself in Sweden while 

 traversing the southern part of the Grand Duchy of 

 Finland, once one of the possessions of the Swedish 

 Crown. Swedish is still universally understood and 

 generally talked, and most of the theatrical repre- 



