98 A SPEING AND SUMMER IN LAPLAND. 



lock stood, "like a funnel." Whenever it rained 

 in the valleys it appeared to snow on the fells ; 

 but so sheltered is the village that they say 

 neither the corn nor potatoes ever freeze away ; 

 and, strange to say, I have plucked both wild 

 raspberries and strawberries here ! 



As I said before, the situation of Quickiock is 

 romantic in the extreme, and in the summer it 

 would be hard to find a place in Lapland to beat 

 it for wild, natural scenery. Surrounded on all 

 sides by fells and forests, yet, lying as the village 

 does in a sheltered valley, every kind of ground is 

 met with here, and the naturalist could hardly 

 choose a better station. A large river — the Tarra 

 Elf — flows down from the fells close by the village; 

 the proximity of the village to the fells themselves 

 renders it peculiarly interesting to the collector ; 

 while meadows and swamps, choked with grass 

 and every species of aquatic plants, intersected 

 with numerous small natural channels and inland 

 lakes, afford shelter for many species of ducks ; 

 but, strange to say, there are fewer waders in this 

 district than in any I know. A boat here is as 

 necessary in the summer as skiddor in the winter, 

 for there is only one direction in which you can go a 

 mile out of Quickiock without a boat. The forests 

 just round the village are small, the trees blighted 

 and stunted, and covered with a loose hairy kind of 



