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exception of the few colonial families settled in lit- CHAP. tle farms, widely dispersed along the banks of the rivers, the human race may be considered as amongst the greatest rarities of the country. A single tent, more like a mole-hill than any habitation of men, in the midst of some forest, or upon the summit of some mountain, harbours a few wretched pigmies, cut off from all communion with society; whose dwarfish stature, and smokedried aspect, scarcely admits of their being recognised as intellectual beings "created in the image of God." What then are the objects, it may be asked, which would induce any literary traveller to venture upon a journey into Lapland! Many! That of beholding the face of Nature undisguised; of traversing a strange and almost untrodden territory; of pursuing inquiries which relate to the connexion and the origin of nations; of viewing man as he existed in a primæval state; of gratifying a taste for Natural History, by the sight of rare animals, plants, and minerals; of contemplating the various phænomena caused by difference of climate and latitude: and, to sum up all, the delight which travelling itself affords, independently of any definite object; these are the inducements to such a journey. Nor is it unrewarded in its consequences; for whether Science be materially

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CHAP. advanced by it, or any addition made to the general stock of human happiness, yet, so far as the traveller is himself concerned, he will be almost disposed to say with Reignard,' that it is a journey "he would not but have made for all the gold in the world; and which, for all the gold in the world, he would not make over again." After all that has been urged, it should be admitted, that the summer season is not that in which it is best to visit Lapland; although it be indispensable towards many purposes of scientific research. Winter is the festival time of all the inhabitants of these Northern latitudes. It is then that the Laplanders may be said to fly upon the wings of the wind. In this season, so congenial to his habits, his spirits are more elevated; a constant intercourse prevails among the nomade and agricultural families; all the fairs are held; provisions are more abundant, and more easily kept and conveyed; none of the evils of which travellers most complain are then felt; the perpetual darkness, in which the whole region is said to be shrowded, has been strongly mis-represented and exaggerated; the absence of the sun's rays is greatly compensated by serene and cloudless skies, in

(1) See Acerbi's Travels, Vol. II. p. 127.

London, 1802.

which all the other luminaries of heaven shine with a degree of lustre unknown in other latitudes; and, among these, the Aurora Borealis, added to the effect of reflection from a surface of glittering snow, produce a degree of light, of which persons can have no idea who have not witnessed a Lapland winter. The air, too, is then calm and dry: even when the frost is most intense, a traveller, well wrapped in furs, and seated in his sledge, is never known to complain of those chilly sensations, and that coldness of the extremities, which are produced by dampness, in a more humid atmosphere *.

CHAP.

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(2) These remarks are, of course, founded upon subsequent observations made by the author: he had, for the most part, a personal experience of their truth, during the following winter; and, besides, collected information, confirming the statement here made, from travellers who visited Lapland during the winter season.

APPENDIX.

No. I.

THE following List of all the CATARACTS and RAPIDS between ENONTEKIS and TORNEA, in the Rivers Muonio and Torneå, will be found very useful to future Travellers, who may follow the author's route, in their journey into Lapland. The principal Falls are marked with an asterisk; but, as a general rule, it may be observed that a Cataract has the termination koski: where the word Niva occurs, it implies only a Rapid or Force. The original document was presented to the author by the Rev. ERIC GRAPE, Pastor of Enontekis, in his own hand-writing. His orthography will therefore be adhered to, even where it differs from that adopted in the Work.