THROUGH LAPLAND. 85 
work of art. It was covered with a canopy of trees, which inter¬ 
cepted the rays of the fun. We continued to defcend by a branch 
of the river Alten, which flowed with fuch rapidity, that if credit- 
may be given to our Lapland boatmen, we performed almoft a 
Norwegian mile (or eight Englifh) in little more than a quarter 
of an hour. When the current began to be very ftrong, our 
boatmen defired us to look at our watches, that we might be able 
to afcertain how much time we fliould take in getting on a mile. 
We did fo; and when we reached the end of what they com¬ 
puted to be a Norwegian mile, we found that the time taken up 
was tw r enty minutes. Our boatmen now wanted fome repofe, 
and we fet up our tent near the fmall church of Mafi, on the 
right bank of the Alten. We lighted feveral fires, and one as 
ufual in the midft of our tent, to defend us from the mufquetoes, 
our eternal tormentors. Our Laplanders, before laying them- 
felves dowm to take their reft, afked permiffion to go and let 
down the nets in the river, and draw' them only once. They 
obtained our leave to do fo, and our interpreter thought it an 
amufement to go along with them. They returned in a quarter 
of an hour with more than two hundred fifiics of different forts 
and fizes, fome more than a foot in length. Part of them was 
dreffed for our fupper: the reft the Laplanders gutted, and hung 
up on trees to dry, which they intended to take home wdth them 
on their return. 
Next morning, before we refumed our voyage, w 7 e paid a vifit 
to the fmall church of Mad, which is embofomed in the midft of 
trees 
