BOATING ADVENTURES. 37 
‘The character of the river-banks to-day was not pic- 
turesque.. The country was low, and covered with forests 
of birch and fir that seemed endless. There were rocks, 
occasionally, and grey moss seemed the covering of the 
ground. The river bed between the rapids was generally 
sandy, with large boulders here and there. In the rapids 
the ground is a pile of enormous stones all rounded; they 
are ten or twelve feet in diameter, and at times ’ much 
more. They are about the size of hay-ricks and hay-cocks 
in a hay-field ; and they are like those which are scattered 
about on the fjeld. These, rise high, or barely reach the 
surface, betraying their position in the stream by a curlin 
the water; or they may be out of sight, and barely raise , 
a wave, 
‘ The steersman has to avoid them all, while the boat is 
going “hard all” down. a rapid stream, so as to keep 
steerage way. 
‘ ‘I calculated that.we had gone fifty miles in the twelve 
ours. 
‘Sept. 9.—Rose at six, and found a.white world; snow 
afoot deep, and more falling; wind blowing hard, anda 
very uninviting temperature. . 
“After breakfast our host smoked his pipe, and read his 
Finsk Bible; and his wife haying put. the house in order, 
and having ‘washed the dishes, sat down beside her hus- 
band. There was an air of Sunday quiet about them all 
that put me strongly in mind of the Highlands; and 
their marked features, brown faces, and bony hands, their 
coarse woollen garments, and long hair, called up visions 
of: Covenanters, as painters love to depict them. 
‘At 11 it got finer, so we started, wrapped in all the 
clothes we could muster. 
‘It was soon evident why our men would not go on in 
the dark. Rapids were bad and numerous. The first 
came at 11.38, and was succeeded by a magnificent pool. 
The second came at 12, with a still finer pool below it ; a. 
third was reached at. 12.15, which we got down in tan 
minutes. I should think it was two English miles long, 
