A SPEIM AND SUMMER IN LAPLAND. 



CHAPTER I. 



A FEW PBELIMINABY BEMARKS ON THE GENERAL 

 FAUNA AND LANDSCAPE OF SCANDINAVIA.* 



It is no easy task to give even a good general 

 account of the fauna, climate, or scenery of this 

 wide- stretched continent, which extends from 

 about 55° to 71° of north latitude, and covers an 

 area of nearly 300,000 English square miles, 

 diversified with every description of landscape, 

 from the low peat sandy plains and open turf 

 mosses of the south, and the dense pine forests of 

 the midland districts, to the barren fells of the 

 north, whose snow-capped summits afford a scanty 

 sustenance to scarcely any other living creature 

 than the reindeer and the ptarmigan. Over so 



wide a surface we shall expect to find soil and 



« 



* By Scandinavia is meant Sweden and Norway, not in- 

 cluding Denmark. 



B 



