178 A SPRING AND SUMMER IN LAPLAND. 



formed by the rugged character of the bottom. 

 There is, however, but little good to be done in 

 these streams, except when a flush of water is on ; 

 consequently, spring and autumn are the only 

 seasons when any sport can be had, and the only 

 bait that can be well used is the worm. The 

 higher lakes are, of course, the reservoir of the 

 trout ; and these streams also abound in crawfish 

 and minnows, certainly the finest, both in colour 

 and size, that I ever saw, for I took many of the 

 latter nearly six inches long. The highest lake 

 lies on a mountain top, some thousand feet above 

 the level of the river, surrounded by as wild a 

 tract of forest as I ever saw in my life. Every 

 kind of ground — forest, swamp, and morass — is 

 met with here. Many of the trees are of immense 

 growth. Some of the old pines, scathed and 

 branchless, stand like^spectres among their living 

 brethren ; while others, borne down by old age, 

 lie rotting in the wind and sun — the whole giving 

 one a very fair idea of the primeval forests of the 

 north. Hill and dale, gully and range, for miles 

 and miles ; the mountains clothed with forest, the 

 lower gullies interspersed with morasses and lakes, 

 on many of which a boat has never floated, and 

 in whose waters a line has never been wetted. 

 Such is, more or less, the character of the whole 

 of this country from hence up to the North Cape, 



