BOATING ADVENTURES. 41 



low and covered with forest, unless cleared for a farm ' 

 of river-banks 'low and covered with birch, fir, and 

 young moss' of entering the true Torneo, coming from 

 the west, a larger river than was the branch they had 

 descended. 



'Sept. 14. At twelve we reached Gatiloski rapid. It is 

 magnificent. The throat of the pool is very rocky, narrow, 

 and deep. I could have thrown a stone over it. In the 

 middle the river gets wider, and the boat shoots into 

 glorious boiling pools, with still casts made for salmon. 

 Near the tail the river divides. The smaller branch takes 

 a leap of 10 or 12 feet; the main stream thunders down 

 with a terrific roar, and in the middle rises in waves 10 

 feet high at least. Our boat slipped down the side, 

 scraping salmon-stages, from which the Finns spear great 

 numbers of running fish. We got down safe and sound, 

 but well drenched as usual. 



' At 1.50 we landed the pilot of the rapid, and I tried a 

 cast for a salmon, but all in vain. From the rapid the 

 river is smooth and broad for a long way. 



'Sept. 15. The river is like a great lake, three miles 

 wide At 10.30 we reached Matagoski, the last and 

 largest rapid. The whole river, which had a good stream 

 where three miles wide, pours, with the speed of a mill- 

 race, through a gap in a rock step 300 yards wide. The 

 throat of the pool is like the escape of the Ness from Loch 

 Ness, but everything about it is magnificent, except the 

 hills. It was frightful to look back at some of the places 

 we passed. The rapid is about five miles long. About as 

 much water as flows past Bonn runs like a mill-race most 

 of the way, amongst boulders of the usual pattern. 



' The steersman was very old, and sent us slap over one 

 big stone, but we slid quietly into the river on the other 

 side, and were none the worse. That night we got to 

 Haparanda, close to the Gulf of Bothnia, and found our- 

 selves at the end of a road which leads to Stockholm/ 

 Thither he and his fellow-traveller proceeded by land. 



