LAPLAND. 93 



•we occasionally (but very seldom) got at Quickiock, 

 it would matter little whether they were diseased 

 or not. I take it the Gellivare district is about 

 as well adapted for agriculture as Quickiock, and 

 although certainly they can grow excellent barley 

 (but it is a great question whether it ever ripens), 

 and I have even seen rye up here, it does not 

 make it an agricultural country ; it only excites 

 wonder in the mind of the stranger that any 

 cereals can be got to grow in so rude a spot and 

 in such a climate. It is, not, however, the fault 

 of the land, for I have seen as good land on the 

 lower fells around the lakes as ever I would wish 

 to see ; and the meadow land round Quickiock is 

 excellent — a deep, rich, black loam, the accumu- 

 lation of centuries. But man cannot alter the 

 climate, and, clever as he is, there are certain 

 laws laid down by old Dame Nature which he 

 never can get over. They certainly do plough 

 their lands, and I should fancy, to look at their 

 ploughs, they must be after the same fashion as 

 in the old Mosaic days. Their mode of farming 

 up here is primitive in the extreme. They just 

 scratch in their barley early in June, and set the 

 potatoes about the same time. No fear of both 

 coming to a good head, for everything grows like 

 magic here in the summer ; but it ripens scarcely 

 one year in three. Two things, however, I re- 



