AN ARCTIC RESIDENCE 261 



the sale of which I regret to say they often buy 

 cogent spirit with which to get drunk. I was 

 wandering up into the mountains one night when 

 I heard sounds of carousal coming from behind a 

 stone wall, and, looking over, saw three funny 

 little Hill Lapps celebrating the occasion in a 

 state of hilarity. They were not very drunk and 

 only merry, so I induced them to allow me to 

 accompany them into their hill camp, where I 

 spent some hours studying them and their rein- 

 deer, and enjoyed some excellent reindeer milk 

 and coffee. 



The Hill Lapps spend the whole winter in the 

 mountain station of Kara j ok, near the Russian 

 frontier, where reindeer moss is abundant, and then 

 migrate slowly in little parties, as the summer 

 advances, towards the coast-line between Tromso 

 and Hammerfest. Here in October they do a big 

 " killing," and sell the carcases and hides on the 

 coast, and then return into the interior, reaching 

 Karaj ok again before Christmas. 



The Lapps are generally regarded as purely 

 nomadic people, living exclusively on the reindeer, 

 but as a matter of fact a great number of small 

 communities of them are settled on the fjords, 

 lakes and rivers of northern Norway, and have no 

 ostensible connection with reindeer, although in 

 many cases they have a sort of vested interest in 

 them. Some members of every tribe are genuine 

 Fjeld Lapps, whilst others are fishermen, and some- 

 what dependent on the pure Norwegians and the 

 Finns. Correctly speaking, the last-named race 

 are inhabitants of Russian Finland and also the 

 land on the Norwegian side of the Tana which 



