114 A SPRING AND SUMMER IN LAPLAND. 



settler liere but has killed liis score of bears, and 

 with weapons of the most primitive description. 

 The gun in use here is called a " Lod Bossa" — a 

 small pea rifle, often not more than a foot long in 

 the barrel, fitted up with a very original kind of 

 flint-lock, the mainspring outside, and carrying a 

 ball perhaps forty to the pound. Armed with 

 such a rifle and his spear (to my mind a much 

 more formidable weapon), a little Lap will follow 

 the bear by his spor in the snow in spring or 

 autumn, with the untiring energy of a sleuth- 

 hound, till he is brought to bay, when the Lap- 

 lander attacks him, often single-handed, and in 

 nine cases out of ten will kill him, without receiv- 

 ing any injury. It is when the bears leave the ice 

 in early spring, and they can follow them in the 

 soft snow, that the principal slaughter takes place. 

 A bear is a great prize to a Laplander, for, inde- 

 pendent of the meat, the skin, when properly 

 dressed, is worth from £2 10s. to £4. The black 

 ones are the best. There were lots of bears round 

 Quickiock, and two were killed in the vicinity 

 while I was up, but I saw neither. Formerly the 

 Laps never molested the bear, but looked upon 

 him with a sort of veneration. Now, however, 

 they have learnt the art of killing him from the 

 more civilized settlers, and, next to the wolf, the 

 bear is the principal quarry of the Lap hunter. 



