THE JOURNEY DOWN, AND CONCLUSION. 393 



floating ; and the magnificent scenery which rose 

 on all sides around us ; I could not help thinking 

 that, notwithstanding the wild character of the 

 land, and the inclemency of the climate in the 

 winter, such a country as this could never have 

 been formed to be entirely forgotten, and to lie 

 for ever a desert on the face of the globe ; but 

 that possibly in the lapse of centuries, owing to 

 that change which, as geologists tell us, is gradually 

 but surely going on in the surface of the world, 

 the appearance of this land may be entirely 

 changed, and instead of standing as a wilderness 

 on the face of the globe, Lapland may become a 

 fertile region when the wave rolls over the richer 

 and more cultivated countries of the south. Yet 

 even these wild, and what we call barren coun- 

 tries, are, doubtless, necessary and important 

 links in the great chain of creation ; for, as old 

 Acerbi truly and philosophically observes, " The 

 imagination of the traveller through Lapland will 

 be exalted to an ecstacy of a melancholy kind — a 

 pensive sadness, not without its charms and useful- 

 ness ; that profound solitude and silence which 

 everywhere reigns will every instant suggest the 

 question, "What good end do these places serve ? 

 to what purpose all that beautiful scenery of lakes, 

 rivers, rivulets, and cascades, if these deserts, as 

 would seem to be the case, are never to be peopled 



