16 TEAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



The station we now found ourselves in was a 

 very agreeable and cosy little place. Everything 

 was clean and nice ; our beds were simply shelves 

 covered with dry birch-sprays, upon which were laid 

 a reindeer-skin or two. This formed a comfortable, 

 though very hard couch, which was most assuredly 

 very welcome after a day's exertions in a ^W/-, 

 where the bones suffer so much from the continual 

 jolting. "Well, to these birch couches we retired 

 after our snug supper, well tired -out by our drive, 

 but not forgetting to first take a look at the weather 

 outside, so as to have some idea of our next day's 

 probable trials. Though the snow was not now 

 falling so thickly, it was still with gloomy forebod- 

 ings that we laid ourselves down, and were soon in 

 the arms of "Nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep." 

 While the others are sleeping, it may be interesting 

 to tell a little of the fjeld-stue and its inhabitants. 



Situated between two somewhat extensive lakes, 

 separated only by a very narrow strip of ground, this 

 station is exactly thirty miles from the nearest house 

 on one side, and fifty-six to sixty miles on the other, 

 the country between being untraversed by regular 

 roads, so that the distance is much more formidable 

 than the mileage would seem to indicate. Jotka 

 Javre, in common with the other fjeld-stties, was 

 erected by Government some years ago, and the 

 keeper is salaried by the State. As it is very 

 difficult to get the soil to yield anything so far north, 



