166 A SPRING AND SUMMER IN LAPLAND. 



such, a war of extermination is being continually 

 waged against them, for the principal catch of all 

 the fish is in the spawning season, and drag-nets 

 are used, the meshes of which are so fine that no 

 fish three inches long can escape. I observed here 

 that after the middle of July very few fish were 

 taken in the drag-net. I fancied they had then 

 gone back to the deeps. This is a very bad river 

 for leistering,. a successful mode of poaching (and 

 of which I must admit I am very fond), much in 

 vogue in our Wermland waters. 



They say there are no reptiles in Lapland. I 

 only wish any one who fancies so had been with 

 me one fine spring day when I turned over a heap 

 of dry grass in a meadow in search of a field mouse. 

 I am certain if there was one lizard under it, there 

 must have been a thousand. They were just the 

 little common viviparous lizard, and I saw no 

 other up here. I never remember seeing a toad 

 in Lapland ; but as for frogs, I thought that one of 

 the plagues of Egypt had descended upon us, 

 when one fine day in spring, just as the snow 

 went, every lowland seemed alive with frogs, 

 leisurely hopping down from their winter quarters 

 to the water holes and ponds which the ice had 

 left. This was on May 15th, and I saw none 

 before. I certainly never observed such large or 

 handsome-coloured frogs. I never saw a newt 



