LACHESIS LAPPONICA ' 171 



ceiling is of birch bark, with a roof of wood and stone 

 above it. It is scarcely possible to conceive how the 

 owner can creep into this building, the door being so 

 small, and wherein he is like a bird in a tree. The 

 birch bark is extremely useful to the Laplanders : they 

 make their plates or trenchers of it, and boat-scoops, 

 shoes, tubs to salt fish in, and baskets. They also tan 

 their leather with birch bark, like the Russians. 1 



t June 1 . We pursued our journey by water with 

 considerable labour and difficulty all night long if it 

 might be called night, which was as light as day, the 

 sun disappearing for about half an hour only, and the 

 temperature of the air being rather cold. Fir trees 

 were thinly scattered, but they were extremely lofty. 

 Here were spacious tracts producing the finest timber 

 I ever beheld. The ground was covered with ling, red 

 whortleberries, 2 and mosses. In the low grounds grew 

 smaller firs, amongst abundance of birch, and red 

 whortleberries, which grew larger as he travelled north- 

 ward, as well as the common black kind. 3 On the dry 

 hills, which most abounded with large pines, the finest 

 timber was strewed around, felled by the force of the 

 tempests. The Laplanders formed their huts of these. 

 The huts were at this time mostly deserted. We found 

 guides in various Laplanders, and proceeded up the 



1 The oil from this bark gives the peculiar odour to Russia leather. 



2 Vaccinium Vitis Idcea. Idaean vine, as Scott called it in the 

 * Lady of the Lake.' Idaean, relating to Mount Ida in Crete. 



* Vaccinium Myrtillv/s. 



