LAPLAND, AND LAND OF THE SAMOIDES. 65 
us. The trail then gradually rises, the fir forest is left 
behind, and we pass through scant birch and alder shrub- 
bery, varied occasionally by long stretches of marsh, 
hemmed in by tracts of reeds from six to eight feet in 
height, from out of which the unwonted sound of our 
voices scares a small string of duck. These marshy tracts 
are common all over Scandinavia, which is merely a vast 
substratum of rock covered with a shallow soil. tluge 
tussocks of coarse grass, rushes, and diminutive shrubs 
afford precarious foothold: these are covered in many 
places with the foliage of water-plants, whilst the boulders, 
which crop up in every direction, are overgrown with deli- 
cate mosses and lichens of a hundred tints of green, gray, 
and brown. 
‘We then re-enter the forest and dive into a lovely 
valley, the floor of which is emerald green, with a thick 
carpet of grass, from out of which springs here and there 
a tiny specimen of the oak fern, a rarity in these high 
latitudes. Here we come across some grand spruce firs, 
ranging to a hundred feet in height and of perfect sym- 
metry, and the sylvan beauty of the scene is enhanced by 
a tiny brook coursing away over a boulder-strewn bed 
between banks of tall grasses and the fleecy white seed- 
spikes of the cotton plant. A steep slope of some five 
hundred feet of ascent closes in the dell to the north, and 
as we are toiling up the rugged path a couple of caper- 
cailzie soar slowly upwards into the blue sky and are lost to 
sight over the tops of the firs) The summit gained, a 
magnificent prospect is before us, the broad blue expanses 
of Lakes Vajkijaur, Purkijaur, and Randijaur lying as it 
were at our feet, with the rapids of the Lilla Lule plainly 
visible amongst the dark forest round Jokkmokk, and the 
Kabbla snows glistening white on the far horizon. Around 
us rise the ruddy trunks of pine and fir, the sombre foliage 
of which is abundantly diversified by the flaming yellow 
and scarlet of the birches and aspens, and the brilliant 
crimson. of the shrubs of rowan, whilst the mosses, lichens, 
and tiny forest-plants form a perfect mosaic of rich colour- 
F 
