14 TKAVEL, ADVENTURE, AXD SPOET. 



with us, but they use entire bucks for domestic 

 purposes, an unheard-of thing in Lapland, where 

 even does are considered as too spirited to be safely 

 used. 



But to come back from this digression to our 

 journey. To avoid accidents it had been arranged 

 that the baggage-drivers should keep the rear, and on 

 no account pass those who, though driving alone, were 

 entirely inexperienced, and who therefore, in case of 

 bad weather, ran a certain amount of risk of losing 

 themselves. By this time a raging snowstorm had 

 commenced, and the cold was severe, the thermometer 

 being only 5 or 6 above zero. The flakes of snow 

 cut our faces as if they had been needles. Worst of 

 all, our cheeks took on a coating of ice and perfectly 

 blinded most of us, the hollows of our eyes being 

 entirely filled with frozen snow. At first I attempted 

 to pick this away, but soon found that that was 

 impossible, as it would not come away without the 

 skin or flesh coming to. In spite of all my endeav- 

 ours to keep ahead, every one of the baggage-deer 

 and icapooses had now passed me, and I at last found 

 myself in the midst of a wild snowstorm, with day- 

 light almost gone, alone and semi-blind in the centre 

 of a wide desert. All sorts of disagreeable visions rose 

 up before me : tales of the many who had disappeared 

 for ever on the fjeld ; of others whose glistening bones 

 were discovered to view by returning spring ; rumours 

 of the large hordes of wolves at present in the neigh- 



