LAPLAND, AND LAND OF THE SAMOIDES. 63 



Mr Guillemard and a fellow traveller fixed on Jokkmokk 

 as their headquarters, and thence made daily excursions 

 into the forest, visiting the neighbouring lake and river in 

 quest of trout and grayling. 



' Between us,' says he, ' we had travelled in all the four 

 quarters of the globe, and, with eyes for the picturesque, 

 were of opinion that a fairer landscape than that viewed 

 from the road a mile or so south-east of this little Lapp 

 village, could not be desired even by a Ruskin. A low 

 wooden bridge spans a brawling torrent, eddying in rapids 

 through peaty brown pools, and mingling its waters with 

 those of the Lilla Lule, which here expands into a broad 

 reach, a mile across, studded with two or three islets 

 fringed with reeds, and crowned with crests of pine and 

 yellow birch. Its waters are of a deep glowing blue, 

 reflected from the brilliant sky overhead, and contrasting 

 vividly with the flame-colour of the birch leaves and the 

 sombre dark green of the pines. To the right is a tiny 

 clearing, on which a crop of oats is fast ripening under the 

 hot suns of autumn, but this alcne gives sign of the handi- 

 work of man. From the opposite bank of the river rises a 

 steep slope of forest, and each headland and curve of bay 

 is thickly covered with pine and fir, and birch and alder, 

 which, touched by the sharp frosts of the September nights, 

 already warn us of the waning of the year. In the pools 

 beneath the bridge, on the placid surface of which the sun 

 strikes hotly, we can plainly see a hundred tiny fish hold- 

 ing high revel amongst the boulders which form the bed 

 of this Devonshire-like trout- stream ; but away in the 

 great river before us, running in swirling eddies round the 

 headlands, and wildly tossing tall rainbow-tinted jets of 

 spray high into the sunny air amongst the rapids between 

 the islands, the speckled trout and grayling have their 

 home, and the lordly salmon cruises regardless of fly or 

 minnow. Whether seen under the full blaze of noon-tide 

 sunshine, or the wondrous brilliance of the Northern 

 Lights, this panorama of river and forest scenery never 

 foiled to charm us. 



