THE JOURNEY DOWN, AND CONCLUSION. 391 



a village by tlie side of the great Lulea river, about 

 eighty English miles from Lulea. If we could only 

 obtain boats here we could row all the way down 

 to Lulea, and not have to shift our things (with 

 the exception of about five English miles bearing). 

 We luckily met with a most accommodating settler, 

 who provided us with a large boat and two rowers 

 at the rate of 3 rix-dollars the Swedish mile ; and, 

 as a hint to the traveller in the north, I will say 

 that it is as well to be a little liberal. One shilling 

 more or less to a peasant makes but little differ- 

 ence to the traveller, and if he chance to come the 

 same road again, it is not forgotten. We had 

 another school-boy palmed upon us here, but the 

 old settler was really such a good sort that I 

 could not do less than take charge of his son. I 

 may here mention that the boats on these rivers 

 are very long, and both ends are sharp, and rise 

 high out of the water. They always have two 

 rowers, who sit face to face ; the man in the bow 

 rows, and the other at the stern backs water with 

 a pair of short oars — in fact, steers the boat — and 

 in going down these rapids the whole management 

 of the boat falls on him. The oars are very small, 

 and, instead of rowlocks, run through a twisted 

 willow band or loop. The women here can row 

 just as well as the men. We left this settler's at 

 nine in the morning. We rowed through the 



