XI 



select spots, often while the snow is still covering large tracts, 

 where they may hatch out their young, during our short but 

 sunny summer. 



Finally, from the inmost heads of the fjords, the land rises up 

 to the monotonous wastes of Finmarken, or Lapland proper, 

 clothed with sparse birch-forest, and pierced by rivers and lakes, 

 regions which have great attractions for the sportsman and 

 naturalist, but less so for the ordinary tourist, who only seeks 

 after diversified scenery, and has not patience enough to wage 

 throughout the short polar summer, a semi-hopeless war against 

 the mosquitoes which swarm here. 



We shall in what follows, treat of some few traits of the Bird- 

 life in that portion of our land. Let us therefore make in imag- 

 ination a rapid flight to this north-westernmost corner of Europe, 

 wander through the three natural zones, whereof Arctic Norway 

 consists, and each of which shows quite peculiar characteristics, 

 and in the meanwhile seize by degrees, whatever particularly 

 strikes our attention on the way. The three natural divisions re- 

 ferred to are : 



I. The coast district and the belt of islands girding the 

 coast up to North Cape. 



II. The deep fjords of the Arctic Ocean and the adjacent 

 river basins in East Finmarken. 



III. The interior plateaux of Finmarken, or Lapland proper. 



