64 THE FOREST LANDS OF NORTHERN RUSSIA. 



'I have paid many visits to Scandinavia, but cannot 

 remember any forest ramble so replete with all the 

 numerous beauties of nature and scenery as that taken by 

 Mr D. and myself on our expedition to the Falls of Njom- 

 melsaska in September last. These superb falls are distant 

 thirty -five miles from Jokkmokk, and lying as they do far 

 to the north of the route from Lulea to Quikkjokk, and 

 entailing on the traveller a seventy mile walk through a 

 wild forest country, are but seldom visited. In the entire 

 Continent of Europe there is no cataract of equal volume 

 and grandeur ; and yet so remote is it from the haunts of 

 man, that we learned at Jokkmokk that no one had visited 

 Njommelsaska for two years prior to our arrival. The lion 

 of European waterfalls cannot complain that the solitudes 

 in which he lies hidden are ever disturbed by the incursion 

 of " specially-conducted parties." 



* Having despatched some hours previously a sturdy 

 young Swede with our ulsters and hammocks, to give 

 warning of our advent at the half-way house, where we 

 were to obtain quarters for the night, we started at mid- 

 day, knapsacks on backs, for Vajkijaur, the first of the long 

 string of superb lakes which stretch away westward for 

 sixty miles to Quikkjokk. Whilst rowing across its blue 

 waters, the grand snowy peaks of the Kabbla mountains 

 charm the traveller with their picturesque outline, and 

 indicate the distant spot where Suoloitjelma, king of 

 northern ranges, lifts it proud peak above untrodden snows. 

 We land at a little hamlet at the foot of a southern slope 

 covered with small fields of grain and potatoes, and without 

 loss of time strike into the forest to the northward. The 

 trail leads through a dense growth of Scots fir for several 

 miles, the trees being of small girth, and in but few 

 instances exceeding eighty feet in height. So thick is 

 the forest that the branches overhead form almost a com- 

 plete ceiling, and the ground is so plentifully strewn with 

 the fallen needles that the path is barely traceable. A 

 great stillness reigns, the only sound noticeable being the 

 low murmur of the breeze through the foliage far above 



