' LAC HE 'SIS LAPPONICA* 187 



is uncommonly grateful to the palate. Since I set out 

 on my journey I have become able to walk four times as 

 far as I could at first, yet I could not but wonder at 

 my two Laplanders one of them upwards of seventy 

 who had accompanied me during the whole of this day's 

 tedious walk. While I was resting they played and 

 frisked about. This set me seriously to consider the 

 question put to me by Dr. Rosen : " Why are the Lap- 

 landers so swift-footed ? " To which I answer that it 

 arises not from any one cause, but from the co-operation 

 of many. 1. They wear no heels to their half-boots' 

 [2, 3, 4, and 5 are also very good reasons, but foreign to 

 our present purpose]. 



1 Every Laplander constantly carries a sort of pole, 

 tipped with a ferule, and furnished with a transverse 

 bar of wood. When he is tired he leans his arms and 

 nose against it to rest himself.' Linnaeus gives a drawing 

 of their snowshoes, as also of their chessboard, and 

 describes at length the rules of their elaborate game. 

 Their chess king has a castle and eight Swedes his 

 subjects ; sixteen Muscovites are their adversaries. 

 Several games are common among these people, who, 

 for all their hard climate and circumstances, are by no 

 means always at work. 



1 We turned our course towards the alps of TorneS, 

 which were described to me as about forty (Swedish) 

 miles distant' [270 English miles]. < What I endured 

 in the course of this journey is hardly to be described. 

 How many weary steps was I obliged to set to climb 



