A REINDEER RIDE THROUGH LAPLAND. 53 



miserable existence on the spoils of the ocean. Once 

 a sea Lapp he very seldom, if ever, regains his former 

 free life ; and his children having no other path open 

 to them, are forced to follow in his footsteps. Living 

 in houses more like pigsties than human habitations, 

 and on a diet of fish and nothing else, then 1 physique 

 is horrid. I saw several full-grown men whose legs 

 were as thin as those of children in other countries, 

 and very few attain even middle height. Their 

 physiognomy is extremely ugly, and skin diseases 

 seem very prevalent among them. Hardly a single 

 individual, too, but was affected by some eye com- 

 plaint. Of late years the fishing in the inner reaches 

 of the Yaranger Fjord has been very unproductive, in 

 fact almost entirely at a standstill, and the misery of 

 those beings whose whole means of sustenance de- 

 pend on the fishing has been extreme. The dress of 

 these people is the same as that of the " fjeld Lapps," 

 though here and there garments made of sheepskins 

 after the Eussian fashion may be seen. One or two 

 individuals who were fortunate enough to own a few 

 sheep were evidently considered by the others as very 

 wealthy, though to me they appeared not a whit less 

 poor or wretched than the rest of them. 



The sheep and other domestic animals roam in and 

 out of the dwellings at pleasure, and on the whole lead 

 as miserable a life as their owners. They are left to 

 shift for their food, and as a natural consequence they 

 eat everything, they are omnivorous ! Nothing is out 



