66 THE FOREST LANDS OF NORTHERN RUSSIA. 



ing under our feet. Hence a gradual descent through 

 thick birch shrubbery leads us to Anajaur, a lake some 

 four miles round, embosomed in forest, and famous for the 

 size of its pike, which, however, are but seldom disturbed 

 by the drag-nets of the Ligga farmer. Having crossed 

 this in a crazy boat, an hour's walk through spruce forest 

 brings us to the tiny clearing we seek. 



( Ligga is a small farm inhabited by a hardy Swede, 

 who has cleared away some twenty acres of forest on a 

 plateau about five hundred feet above the Stora Lule 

 river, which, having left at its junction with the Lilla Lule 

 at Posi-forssen, we now strike some forty miles nearer its 

 source. The farm-house consists of the customary weather- 

 board building of two rooms, and is prettily placed close to 

 the bank of a mountain stream rushing down in cascades 

 to join the big river at the foot of the mountain slope. 

 One of these rooms is allotted to us, and in this we sling 

 our hammocks, and, in spite of the cold, for chinks are 

 numerous in the walls, and it is freezing hard outside, pass 

 a fairly comfortable night. The ground is sparkling with 

 hoar-frost when we turn out next morning, and, greatly to 

 the amusement of a couple of Lapps, the labourers at the 

 farm, proceed to make our ablutions in a big pool of the 

 torrent. A hearty breakfast of Chicago beef, biscuits, and 

 coffee the latter always excellent in Scandinavia and at 

 nine we start for the falls. This part of the country is 

 almost uninhabited we are deep in the recesses of the 

 forest primaeval, with a plethora of the beauties of nature 

 round us, rendered doubly beautiful by the aspect of all- 

 pervading repose and solitude. Save at Ligga we see not 

 a single human being in the course of our seventy mile 

 walk. We are on higher ground this second day, and some 

 of the firs and spruces are of noble dimensions, but the 

 under-growth is scantier, owing to the more exposed nature 

 of the country and the shallowness of the soil. Every- 

 where huge boulders lie in picturesque confusion, and the 

 gnarled roots of the trees twist and curl here and there 

 seeking in vain for sufficient depth of soil to cover them. 



