TRAVELS 
42 
an uninhabited country, he was in no danger of harm from any 
living creature, except the bear, which in the fummer is far from 
being ferocious. He might, indeed, have fallen down a precipice, 
or loft his w 7 ay in the w'oods, and fo have been unable to recover 
the boat. The fifhermen were preparing to fet out in fearch of 
him, and we began to defpair of being able to proceed any farther, 
when, to the great fatisfa&ion of all of us, he made his appear¬ 
ance. He related to us, that having been difappointed in meet¬ 
ing with Laplanders on the neareft mountains, he w 7 as unwilling; 
to go back without effecting the object of his million, and went 
onwards, until at length he fell in with tw 7 o families, whom he 
conduced with him to the banks of a rivulet called Reftijoki, 
where he had left them waiting until we joined them. 
This intelligence was the fignal for our departure from the 
ifland. Our tent was taken down and packed up, and bidding 
adieu to our fifhermen we fet forward. 
We foon reached the mouth of the rivulet, on the banks of 
which the rendezvous was appointed. We afeended it through 
all its windings, and were impatient to join the Laplanders, left 
they fhould think us long in coming, and grow 7 tired of waiting 
for us, for we had conceived no high opinion either of their pa¬ 
tience or their complaifance. At length we arrived where they 
were. The party was compofed of fix men and a young girl.. 
We found them feated under a birch-tree, on the branches of 
which they had hung up the provifions for the journey, which 
confifted ot dry fifli. They lay along the ground in different pof- 
tures. 
