92 A SPEING AND SUMMER IN LAPLAND. 



children receive education from the priest, it is 

 reasonable to suppose that at a future day they 

 will become settled ; but as to the present genera- 

 tion, you might as well try to wean the wolf from 

 his bloodthirsty habits as to change the wandering 

 nature of the true Lap. Nevertheless, for savages 

 they certainly are a most harmless, inoffensive 

 race, and even in the stronghold of their native 

 fells a stranger has little to fear from them. 



I was much amused lately by two things. The 

 first was the perusal of a little journey through 

 Lapland, in which the writer dwells long and 

 eloquently on the great benefits which might 

 accrue to Sweden by bringing the Lap mosses or 

 morasses into cultivation ; and the other was an 

 advertisement for working-men for the Great 

 Gellivare iron mines (which lie perhaps 120 miles 

 N.E. of Quickiock) , in which, as an inducement, 

 a little patch of land was offered to each man 

 who would settle and bring it into cultivation. 

 And, as a further incitement to settle, it was 

 stated that the potato disease was unknown in 

 this district. No more is the grouse disease, but 

 I hardly fancy that would be any inducement for 

 an English sportsman to come and settle so far 

 up as this for the sake of grouse shooting alone. 

 And as to the potatoes, I can only say, if the 

 Gellivare potatoes are no better than those which 



