THROUGH FINLAND. 389 
about four hundred Englifh miles from the laft ftage of our in¬ 
tended progrefs in the North. 
Our arrival at Kengis, however, conciliated them a little. We 
met here an infpe&or of the mines, who received us with much 
civility, and fupplied us with a plentiful board and lodging. The 
objed: of this gentleman’s refidence in this country was to encou¬ 
rage and promote the erection of founderies, of which he had con¬ 
ceived the moft fanguine hopes, but which had been abandoned 
and refumed at different times, according to the profpeds of the 
adventurers. He had invited fettlers from the North, formed a 
fpecies of colony, opened a new branch of traffic, and within thefe 
few years had benefited this part of Lapland by the produce of 
the mines. He lived here happily enough, having, at a confider- 
able expence, been able to procure himfelf all the conveniences 
of life. Fie had turned fome land in the vicinity of his houfe into 
meadow ground, and planted an eminence hard by with Italian 
poplars, which feemed aftonifhed to find themfelves in thofe hy¬ 
perborean regions. When Maupertuis paffed by Kengis on his way 
to the heart of Lapland, in order to vifit a ftone with fome perhaps 
accidental impreffion upon it, which he chufes to denominate the 
moft ancient infcription in the univerfe, there feems to have been 
no infpedor of founderies here, as he then lived at the houfe of a 
clergyman. He calls Kengis a miferable place.* We were not 
tempted to vifit this monument; the people of the country feemed 
to have no tradition concerning it, nor did our curiofity lie greatly 
* See Maupertuis’s Travels, from page 179 to 209. 
in 
