LAPLAND. 107 



get/her to get ready for breakfast, I thought, as I 

 have many a time before done in the Australian 

 forests, that one hour in such a spot and at such 

 a time, was worth a whole year spent in cities. 



This evening I left my lad on the fells, and set 

 off home by myself. "We were then about fifteen 

 miles from Quickiock, and although most of my 

 road lay through a pathless forest, still, with the 

 sun clear in the heavens, and a perfect knowledge 

 in which direction the village lay, it seemed next 

 to impossible for me to go wrong ; but so easy is 

 it for us in this world to stray from the right path, 

 that I did manage to lose iny way, and midnight 

 found me wandering in a dense forest at the foot 

 of the fells, without a landmark to guide me which 

 way I should steer. And here I may add, that it 

 is almost impossible for a man to lose himself on a 

 clear day for long in this neighbourhood. He 

 may, perhaps, wander a few hours in the forest, 

 perhaps even a day, but the fells round the village 

 are so well defined, and such sure landmarks, that 

 they must bring him up sooner or later. We used 

 to adopt a very good plan when camping out on 

 the fells, which was to hoist a white flag upon a 

 long pole on the top of a fell, at the bottom of 

 which we camped, and when the day was clear we 

 could see this landmark an astonishing way. Far 

 different is it on the fells in a mist, or when a 



