168 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



MATTHIAS ALEXANDER GASTRIN. 



His Birthplace and first Studies.— Journey in Lapland, 1838.— The Iwalojoki,— The Lake of Enara. — 

 The Pastor of Utzjoki. — From Rowaniemi to Kenii. — Second Voyage, 1841-44. — Storm on the 

 White Sea. — Return to Archangel. — The Tundras of the European Samoi'edcs. — Mcsen. — Universal 

 Drunkenness. — Sledge Journey to Pustosersk. — A Samo' ede Teacher. — Tundra Storms. — Abandon- 

 ed and alone in the Wilderness. — Pustosersk. — Our Traveller's Persecutions at Ustsylmsk and Ish- 

 emsk.— The Uusa.— Crossing the Ural.— Obdorsk.— Second Siberian Journe.y, 1845-48.— Overflow- 

 ing of the Obi. — Surgut. — Krasnojarsk. — Agreeable Surprise. — Turuchansk. — Voyage down the 

 Jenissei. — Castren's Study at Plachina. — From Dudinka to Tolstoi Noss. — Frozen Feet. — Return 

 Voyage to the South. — Frozen fast on the Jenissei, — Wonderful Preservation.— Journey across the 

 Chinese Frontiers, and to Transbaikalia, — Return to Finland. — Professorship at Helsingfors. — Death 

 of Castren, 1855. 



H/rATTHIAS ALEXANDER GASTRIN, whose interesting journeys form 

 -^'J- the subject of the present chapter, Avas born in the year 1813, at Rowani- 

 emi, a Finland village situated about forty miles from the head of the Gulf of 

 Bothnia, immediately under the Arctic Circle ; so that, of all men who have 

 attained celebrity, probably none can boast of a more northern birthplace. 

 While still a scholar at the Alexander's College of Helsingfors, he resolved to 

 devote his life to the study of the nations of Finnish origin (Fins, Laplanders, 

 Samoiedes, Ostiaks, etc.) ; and as books gave but an insufficient account of 

 them, each passing year strengthened his desire to visit these tribes in their 

 own haunts, and to learn from themselves their languages, their habits, and 

 their history. 



We may imagine, therefore, the joy of the enthusiastic student, whom pov- 

 erty alone had hitherto prevented from carrying out the schemes of his youth, 

 when Dr. Ehrstrom, a friend and medical fellow-student, proposed to take him 

 as a companion, free of expense, on a tour in Lapland. No artist that ever 

 crossed the Alps on his way to sunny Italy could feel happier than Castren at 

 the prospect of plunging into the wildernesses of the Arctic zone. 



On June 25, 1838, the friends set out, and arrived on the 30th at the small 

 town of Muonioniska, where they remained six wrecks — a delay which Castren 

 put to good account in learning the Lapp language from a native catechist. 

 At length the decreasing sun warned the travellers that it was high time to 

 continue their journey, if they wished to see more of Lapland before the winter 

 set in ; and after having, with great difficulty, crossed the mountain ridge 

 which forms the water-shed between the Gulf of Bothnia and the Polar Sea, 

 they embarked on the romantic Iwalojoki, where for three days and nights the 

 rushing waters roared around them. In spite of these dangerous rapids, they 

 were obliged to trust themselves to the stream, which every now and then 

 threatened to dash their frail boat to pieces against the rocks. Armed with 

 long oars, they were continually at work during the daytime to guard against 



