A HOME ON THE HIGH FJELD 189 



request among the natives for the manufacture 

 of sleigh runners, as their method of growth on the 

 sides of the braes gives them naturally the necessary 

 curve. 



As we approached the summit level the vegetation 

 altered in character. We had reached the home of 

 the reindeer, and the ground was covered with the 

 various lichens which, although of many different 

 species, all go by the generic name of reindeer-moss, 

 and supply these hardy creatures with food. We also 

 noticed two varieties of ranunculus a purple and a 

 white of which the reindeer are so particularly fond 

 that their presence in abundance was considered to be 

 a proof that no herds had been recently frequenting 

 the neighbourhood. A little after seven we reached 

 " Svart Snuta" (Black Beak), a remarkable precipice 

 fifteen hundred feet above our starting-place. The 

 rock literally overhangs the upper valley so directly 

 that a stone dropped over its edge falls to the bottom 

 without touching. Here our host imitated Sisyphus 

 with more success than his prototype, rolling up a huge 

 rock and toppling it over the edge, while we lay peer- 

 ing down from the giddy height to watch its headlong 

 descent and thundering fall when it shivered into a 

 hundred fragments at the foot of the precipice. 



To our left stretched a vast extent of corrie, nearly 

 all covered with snow, and we looked without success 

 for the deer which often frequent it. Beyond us was a 

 still higher summit, nicknamed the roof of the world, 

 from which, as we were told, the whole mountain table- 

 land could be seen. A sort of instinct implanted in 

 the human breast makes one always long to get to the 

 top of everything, and we decided to proceed, although 



