NORWEGIAN LAPLAND. 323 



mountain, we were often so violently driven 

 along by the force of the wind, that we 

 were taken off our feet, and rolled a con- 

 siderable way down the hill. This once 

 happened to me in so dangerous a place, 

 that, after rolling to the distance of a gun- 

 shot, I arrived near the brink of a precipice, 

 and thus my part in the drama had very 

 nearly come to an end. The rain, which 

 fell in torrents on all sides, froze on our 

 shoes and backs into a crust of ice. This 

 journey would have been long and tiresome 

 enough without any such additional incon- 

 venience. At length, after having travelled 

 betwixt three and four miles, the moun- 

 tains appeared before us, bare of snow 

 though only sterile rocks, and between them 

 we caught a view of the western ocean. The 

 only bird I had seen in this icy tract, was 

 what the Laplanders call Pago [Chara- 

 drtiis Hiaticula). Its breast is black, throat 

 white, feet orange. 



Having thus traversed the alps, we ar- 

 rived about noon upon their bold and pre- 

 Y 2 



