LAPLAND, AND LAND OF THE SAMOIDES. 61 



miles from Lulea, a lane cut through the forests down to 

 the river banks marks the boundary line of Lapland. 



' Throughout the passage up stream the fact that the 

 main product of the interior of Lapland is timber is plainly 

 evidenced by the vast number of pine logs floating down 

 with the current. Felled far away in the recesses of the 

 forest, and roughly trimmed of their branches, the trunks 

 are hauled to the nearest stream during the early spring, 

 so that when the summer suns have melted the snows on 

 the mountains, and unbound the icy fetters on lake and 

 river, the fruits of the winter's forestry are borne seaward 

 on the rushing flood. Throughout the summer and autumn, 

 and up to mid-November, by which date the Lule is gene- 

 rally frozen up, the endless procession of logs continues. 

 Although the floats of the paddles of steamers are guarded 

 by chains, the careful helmsman generally gives ths wheel 

 a spoke or two to avoid trunks immediately ahead, exer- 

 cising similar discretion to that evinced by the quarter- 

 master of a North Sea steamer in steering clear of the 

 far-spreading nets of the fishing fleet on the Dogger Bank. 

 These trunks are all marked, so that they can be properly 

 identified by gangs of out-lookers at the mouth of the 

 river, who are always on the alert to secure them, and con- 

 sign them to the respective saw-mill owners or shippers for 

 whom they have been despatched. All along the course of 

 the river, too, men are employed by the Government to 

 maintain the traffic unimpeded, to clear "jams" of logs in 

 the rapids, and to set afloat such as may have drifted 

 ashore and been left high and dry as the river decreased 

 in volume. 



'At Storbacken, a hundred miles up-stream, steamer 

 navigation comes to an end, the rapids of Porsi-forssen 

 presenting an insurmountable obstacle. Hence a drive of 

 thirty-two miles, following the course of the Lilla Lule 

 through undulating forest country, diverisfied here and 

 there by small clearings, where good crops of potatoes, 

 barley, and oats please the eye of the farmer, takes the 

 traveller to Jokkmokk, the nearest of Lapp villages to 



