262 SIK WILLIAM KAMSAY 



the days were mostly filled up with visits to one or other 

 of these islands and making acquaintance of the various 

 branches of the family. Sweaborg, an island fortress, 

 is or was the headquarters of the Eussian army in 

 Finland, and more closely guarded from civilian intrusion 

 than our arsenals and naval dockyards. Any boat 

 going within about a quarter of a mile of the shores 

 was warned off by a gun, and had it persisted would 

 have been fired upon. The summer before there had 

 been a mutiny among the troops, and the numbers 

 being nearly equal warships had to be called in before 

 it was quelled. So near is it to Helsingfors that the 

 groans of the wounded and dying could be distinctly 

 heard, and the cannon balls that overshot their mark 

 lodged among the homes in the islands. " C'etait bien 

 desagreable, il m'a fallu me remuer chez mon fils," as 

 one old lady put the fact that her house had been 

 struck and her garden devastated by these shots, in 

 much the tone she would have used in speaking of a 

 specially heavy shower of rain. It was rather a poly- 

 glot existence. Ramsay knew enough Swedish for all 

 travelling necessities, but among their friends French, 

 German or English was spoken. The older people 

 all spoke French, but some of the middle-aged were 

 more familiar with German. The younger generation 

 were all learning English in preference to German, and 

 were delighted to have an occasion to speak it. A 

 year or so before their government had made Finnish a 

 compulsory language in schools, and as the list already 



