102 A SPRING AND SUMMER IN LAPLAND. 



most of the game is shot in the night by the settlers 

 here. I shall never forget the night of June 24, 

 when we lay out on the fells in search of the nest 

 of the Lapland bunting. The sky was remark- 

 ably clear, and, as I much wished to have a better 

 view of the sun himself, we climbed up to the top 

 of " Porti Fellen," the highest mountain in this 

 fell range, the summit of which is covered with 

 snow throughout the year ; and the sublime gran- 

 deur of the scene which then met my view I shall 

 never forget. I meant to have been up on the 

 top by midnight, but the road was more difficult 

 than we had expected, and it was half-past twelve 

 before we reached its summit. There are some 

 things, as the Clockmaker says, " too big to lift, 

 some too big to carry after they are lifted, and 

 some too grand for the tongue to describe," and 

 this was one. When we had reached the highest 

 peak of the fells we stood, perhaps, 5,000 feet 

 above the level of Quickiock. Far as the eye could 

 reach, nothing was to be seen but a wide expanse 

 of fells of different shapes and sizes shelving out 

 on all sides, the snow-fells towering like immense 

 glaciers above the others, their silvery peaks, 

 gilded with the rays of the midnight sun, con- 

 trasting prettily with the dark, sombre appearance 

 of those that were bare. " Lakes and rivers 

 beneath me gleamed misty and wide" in the deep 



