62 THE FOREST LANDS OF NORTHERN RUSSIA. 



civilisation. The scanty population of this part of the 

 country may be judged from the fact that in September 

 last I drove the entire distance without meeting a single 

 vehicle on the road. Most of the farms are to the right 

 of the road along the river bank ; to the left one might 

 strike into a pathless forest and wander aimlessly for days 

 together with but a slight chance of lighting upon a house 

 or even a sign of a human being. At one part of the road 

 I drove for three miles through a wilderness of gaunt 

 blackened trunks of pines, across which a forest fire had 

 swept some three years previously. In Tasmania, New 

 South Wales, and California, I had passed through similar 

 scenes of desolation, and the surroundings are always eerie 

 and depressing, but, like most gloomy things in this world, 

 they have redeeming features. The wondrous after-glow of 

 these high latitudes showed up in strong relief the naked 

 ruined trunks, and the havoc that had been wrought was 

 vividly portrayed ; but at the same time the growth of the 

 new forest, the young pines and birches, the largest of 

 them already from five to eight feet in height, and the 

 vigorous undergrowth, afforded ample evidence of the 

 recuperative properties of forest soil, only requiring time 

 to develop themselves in order to replace the old forest 

 that had been swept away.' 



We should err if we were to conclude from this that 

 Lapland, even in its wooded parts, is one continuous forest 

 such as M. JudraB traversed in the Government of Olonetz, 

 and Mr Hepworth Dixon in the Governments of Archangel 

 and Vologda. The soil of Lapland is generally sterile. The 

 greater part is covered with rocks, or moss, or gravelly 

 plains, or a kind of turf composed of mosses destroyed by 

 the frost, and impregnated with stagnant water ; the variety 

 of vegetation is more striking than its abundance. Wah- 

 lenberg's edition of the Flora Lapponica gives descriptions 

 of 1087 species of plants ; of which 496 are phanerogamous 

 and 591 are cryptogams. Of trees there are 26 kinds, 

 consisting af the Scots fir, spruce fir, birch, alder, mountain 

 ash, birdcherry, and nineteen species of willow. 



