374 A Visit to Lapland. 



simple-minded king, but we cannot help the desire to witness a 

 spectacle so startling and sublime, and to make ourselves ac- 

 quainted with the life of a locality so widely different from our 

 own. 



The " Old Bushman" is a pleasant guide to these scenes 

 of wild fascination; a certain ruggedness about him is in 

 harmony with their uncultivated grandeur ; their loneliness and 

 remoteness from the tame conditions of civilization rouse his 

 imagination, and he studies their fauna as a naturalist, as well 

 as pursues them for his sport. 



He tells us that the tourist who visits Lapland merely to see 

 the country can do so without difficulty. " He will not require 

 to leave England before the end of May ; he can perform the 

 whole journey from Hull to Happaranda (the most northerly 

 town in the Bothnian Gulf) via Gothenburg and Stockholm by 

 steam." There is no certainty that steamers can run the whole 

 way till June, but when Happaranda is reached, " the journey 

 will be performed in boats or on foot, and he will find far less 

 difficulty in reaching the wildest spot in Lapland than he would 

 anticipate." The naturalist, or egg collector cannot, however, 

 manage so easily; he must be at his head-quarters in April, and 

 must therefore steam up in the autumn before the frost sets in, 

 and " brave the rigours and mouotony of a Lap winter •" or he 

 may adopt the ' ' Old Bushman's plan, ' c and sledge up during 

 the winter, taking care that he is not too late, for the snow melts 

 all at once when the thaw sets in, and just at this time travelling 

 is dangerous, troublesome, and laborious." Our "Old Bush- 

 man" left Gardsjo on March 24th, and reached Quickiock on 

 April 16th, having good sledging all the way except for six 

 English miles. Sledging he describes as a very comfortable 

 mode of progression, as good as a first-class railway carriage; 

 but, like other travellers, he indulges in a hearty growl at 

 the peasant carts, which are little shallow boxes stuck upon 

 wheels, and destitute of springs. The driver hurries along 

 over holes and ruts, and the traveller seated on a little plank is 

 obliged " to hold on like grim Death, otherwise he is sure to be 

 shot off his perch, every bone in his skin aching with pain." If 

 not exactly luxurious, the locomotive arrangements in this 

 country have the merit of being cheap, and the people are very 

 honest, and anxious to earn a penny by rendering what aid may 

 be required. The journey to Quickiock occupied about three 

 weeks, during which a thousand mil^s were traversed, and 

 comfortable quarters found each night. The cost for three 

 persons and a dog W&fl six shillings a day, and one and ten- 

 pence posting, making in tlio wholo about £25. Tho scenery 

 through which ho passed is summed up in two words, "snow 

 and pines," and very few birds of any description were seen — 



