THE LAPLAND ALPS. 303 



every respect with the large-flowered one, 

 except the hairiness and hoary aspect of 

 the leaves. (C. alpinum, a smooth variety.) 



I observed every where about the sides 

 of the hills holes dug by the Lemming Rat. 

 (Mus Lemnius.) Hares are grey in sum- 

 mer upon the alps. 



No herb or tree on the highest parts of 

 these alps attains more than a quarter of 

 an ell in height, though in the valleys the 

 same species may perhaps be two or three 

 feet high. Birch trees, which however are 

 very scarce, creep in a manner under the 

 earth, throwing up the tips of their branches 

 here and there to the height of a quarter 

 of an ell. Tender shoots of this kind some- 

 times conceal a very knotty depressed stem. 



In the evening, and indeed till the night 

 was far advanced, we sought for one of 

 the Laplanders' huts, but to no purpose. 

 Tracts made by the reindeer were plentiful 

 enough in the marshy grounds, m hich we 

 followed sometimes in one direction, some- 

 times in another, without their leading us 



