GREAT RIVERS OF FINLAND. 201 



particular word wished for, and which is not the 

 dialogue of every-day travel, but partly imaginary. 

 Finnish being a most discouraging language to 

 attempt to grasp, we experienced some difficulty 

 in making it understood that we wished at once to 

 fish with a rod, and found afterwards that it was 

 not the farmer we were addressing. He was under- 

 stood to reply, " How much shall it be ? " The next 

 morning, however, the real owner made no difficulty 

 about rowing us for half an hour or more across the 

 current while we trolled with a small phantom below 

 the weirs. It was a pure experiment, and we had 

 not struck upon the right spot, for nothing resulted 

 except the capture of a sea trout and a small jack. 

 It was hard rowing against the powerful stream, 

 while the wind was too chill to make sitting cross- 

 legged upon the bottom boards of a boat agreeable, 

 blowing, as it seemed, like a blast from the frozen 

 wastes of the White Sea. 



It was a long day's posting which now had to be 

 accomplished. Hitherto the road had been admirably 

 good and almost level throughout, with a hard, sandy 

 surface, but beyond the lijoki it commenced to become 

 more hilly and considerably rougher, and, to make 

 matters worse, the travellers immediately preceding us 

 had taken all the carts which boasted springs, making 

 it necessary to endure over more than one stage the 

 most abominable jolting, and a matter for thankfulness 

 that everything breakable had been left at Uleaborg. 

 The character of the conveyances varies at every 



