224 TRAVELS IN THE EIGHTIES. 



bringing fresh specimens of the particular species he 

 happened to be engaged upon. 



Lahtis, or more properly "Wesijarva Station, four 

 hours from Helsingfors by train, was reached about 

 midnight. This line is continued to Uleaborg, and is 

 the most northerly railway system in the world. It is 

 intended to prolong the line round the head of the Gulf 

 of Bothnia and across Swedish Lapland to the Norwe- 

 gian coast, at a point opposite to the Lofoten Islands ; 

 and with this idea the line has already been thrown 

 across the Uleo Eiver by an immense iron bridge. 

 Lahtis lies at the southern extremity of the great 

 Paijanne Lake, the longest lake in Finland, and if 

 memory serves, the largest ; or, more strictly, it lies 

 near the end of the lake connected with it by a canal. 



A small steamer, or rather two steamers, started at 

 two (and four) in the morning for Jyvaskyla ; a twelve- 

 hour trip amongst the most picturesque rocky islands, 

 rather higher than we had hitherto been accustomed 

 to see in Finland, the flattest and at the same 

 time the greatest lake country in the world. At 

 Jyvaskyla, the great lake trout, up to 251bs. in weight, 

 used to be caught with rod and line and also netted, 

 but since the last few years, on the establishment of a 

 paper-mill, these fish have deserted this end of the 

 lake ; at Haapakoski, however, near by, where a tim- 

 ber merchant has some extensive buildings, and who 

 speaks English, a few Salmoferox are taken. We were 

 informed that they were being constantly angled for 

 by the natives, and, in consequence, did not go there, 



