‘LAPLAND, AND LAND OF THE SAMOIDES. : Bl 
miles from Lulea, a lane cut through the forests down to 
the river banks marks the boundary line of Lapland. 
‘Throughout the passage up stream the fact that the 
main product of the interior of Lapland is timber is plainly 
evidenced by the vast number of pine logs floating down 
with the current. Felled far away in the recesses of the 
forest, and roughly trimmed of their branches, the trunks 
are hauled to the nearest stream during the early spring, 
so that when the summer suns have melted the snows on 
the mountains, and unbound the icy fetters on lake and 
river, the fruits of the winter’s forestry are borne seaward 
on the rushing flood. Throughout the summer and autumn, 
and up to mid-November, by which date the Lule is gene- 
rally frozen up, the endless procession of logs continues, 
Although the floats of the paddles of steamers are guarded 
by chains, the careful -helmsman generally gives the wheel 
a spoke or two to avoid trunks immediately ahead, exer- 
cising similar discretion to that evinced by the quarter- 
master of a North Sea steamer in steering clear of the 
far-spreading nets of the fishing fleet on the Dogger Bank. 
These trunks are all marked, so that they can be properly 
identified by gangs of out-lookers at the mouth of the 
river, who are always on the alert to secure them, and con- 
sign them to the respective saw-mill owners or shippers for 
whom they have been despatched. All along the course of 
the river, too, men are employed by the Government to 
maintain the traffic unimpeded, to clear “jams” of logs in 
the rapids, and to set afloat such as may have drifted 
ashore and been left high and dry as the river decreased 
in volume. 
‘At Storbacken, a hundred miles up-stream, steamer 
navigation comes to an end, the rapids of Porsi-forssen 
presenting an insurmountable obstacle. Hence a drive of 
thirty-two miles, following the course of the Lilla Lule 
through undulating forest country, diverisfied here and 
there by small clearings, where good crops of potatoes, 
barley, and oats please the eye of the farmer, takes the 
traveller to Jokkmokk, the nearest of Lapp villages to 
