LAPLAND, AND LAND OF THE SAMOTDES. 65 



us. The trail then gradually rises, the fir forest is left 

 behind, and we pass through scant birch and alder shrub- 

 bery, varied occasionally by long stretches of marsh, 

 hemmed in by tracts of reeds from six to eight feet in 

 height, from out of which the unwonted sound of our 

 voices scares a small string of duck. These marshy tracts 

 are common all over Scandinavia, which is merely a vast 

 substratum of rock covered with a shallow soil. Huge 

 tussocks of coarse grass, rushes, and diminutive shrubs 

 afford precarious foothold : these are covered in many 

 places with the foliage of water-plants, whilst the boulders, 

 which crop up in every direction, are overgrown with deli- 

 cate mosses and lichens of a hundred tints of green, gray, 

 and brown. 



t We then re-enter the forest and dive into a lovely 

 valley, the floor of which is emerald green, with a thick 

 carpet of grass, from out of which springs here and there 

 a tiny specimen of the oak fern, a rarity in these high 

 latitudes. Here we come across some grand spruce firs, 

 ranging to a hundred feet in height and of perfect sym- 

 metry, and the sylvan beauty of the scene is enhanced by 

 a tiny brook coursing away over a boulder-strewn bed 

 between banks of tall grasses and the fleecy white seed- 

 spikes of the cotton plant. A steep slope of some five 

 hundred feet of ascent closes in the dell to the north, and 

 as we are toiling up the rugged path a couple of caper- 

 cailzie soar slowly upwards into the blue sky and are lost to 

 sight over the tops of the firs. The summit gained, a 

 magnificent prospect is before us, the broad blue expanses 

 of Lakes Vajkijaur, Purkijaur, and Randijaur lying as it 

 were at our feet, with the rapids of the Lilla Lule plainly 

 visible amongst the dark forest round Jokkmokk, and the 

 Kabbla snows glistening white on the far horizon. Around 

 us rise the ruddy trunks of pine and fir, the sombre foliage 

 of which is abundantly diversified by the flaming yellow 

 and scarlet of the birches and aspens, and the brilliant 

 crimson of the shrubs of rowan, whilst the mosses, lichens, 

 and tiny forest -plants form a perfect mosaic of rich colour- 



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