FAREWELL TO NORWAY 123 



most cases not more than a couple of inches high, but 

 they are all the more exquisite on that account, and in 

 such surroundings their beauty is singularly attractive. 

 Wliile the eye vainly seeks for a resting-place over the 

 boundless plain, these modest blooms smile at you and 

 take the fancy captive. 



And over these mighty tundra-plains of Asia, stretch- 

 ing infinitely onward from one sky-line to the other, the 

 nomad wanders with his reindeer herds, a glorious, free 

 life ! Where he wills he pitches his tent, his reindeer 

 around him; and at his will again he goes on his way. 

 I almost envied him. He has no 2:oal to strusfole tow- 

 ards, no anxieties to endure — he has merely to live! 

 I wellnigh wished that I could live his peaceful life, 

 with wife and child, on these boundless, open plains, un- 

 fettered, happy. 



After we had proceeded a short distance, we became 

 aware of a white object sitting on a stone heap beneath 

 a little ridge, and soon noticed more in other directions. 

 They looked quite ghostly as they sat there silent and 

 motionless. With the help of my field-glass I discovered 

 that they were snow-owls. We set out after them, but 

 they took care to keep out of the range of a fowling- 

 piece. Sverdrup, however, shot one or two with his rifle. 

 There was a o-reat number of them ; I could count as 

 many as eight or ten at once. They sat motionless on 

 tussocks of grass or stones, watching, no doubt, for 

 lemmings, of which, judging from their tracks, there 



