106 A SPRING AND SUMMER IN LAPLAND. 



why in this rude spot the little untaught Lap- 

 lander is worth a dozen of him. 



By the time we reached our camping-place, 

 all nature seemed to have awakened. Although 

 little more than 2 a.m., the sun was shining 

 fiercely and hot, while the hoarse laugh of the 

 ptarmigan, as he rose from his bed of crags on 

 the opposite fell, the loud, unceasing pipe of the 

 golden plover, the soft, monotonous single call- 

 note of the Lapland bunting, and the shrill, clear 

 morning song of the blue-throated robin (our 

 earliest and loudest fell warbler), all welcomed 

 the break of another day : — 



" Birds, flowers, song, and beauty, 



Seemed this rugged realm to fill ; 



And what was my soul's entrancing, 



Was the music and the glancing 

 Of a rugged, rock-born rill." 



During the time we were on the fell a sharp 

 frost had set in, and Yfhen I went down to the 

 little mountain- stream, by the side of which we 

 had camped, to wash, I found it covered with ice 

 a quarter of an inch thick, and this on Mid- 

 summer night ! Truly — 



" There is a freshness in the morning air 

 Which ease and bloated wealth 

 Can never hope to share ;" 



and as I kicked the ashes of our wood-fire to- 



