position amidst the mountains. As we proceeded
oiuvards, ive came very near upon the Reien Soe, a
lake which feeds the Oresund Soe, and out of the
latter of which floivs the Glommen, one of the
finest rivers in Norway. The height of this lake
is marked down in Forsell’s map at 2475 feet.
Having passed through these forests of birch-
trees, we reached a part of the mountain, which was
so barren as to exhibit scarcely any signs of vegetation,
save here and there a scanty bed of moss
or lichens, the most common of which was Ihe
rangiferlnus, or reindeer moss ; yet here we discovered
three wretched-looking hovels, built of
sods—they were those of some Laplanders, whose
Slimmer residence was in this neighbourhood. The
only human being near them ivas an old woman,
who ivas busily employed in boiling some reindeer
milk. Sheivas, without exception, the ugliest
creature, in the shape of a human being, that
I ever set eyes on : she ivas precisely one of
those beings whom, as Dr. Clarke has observed, a
person unaccustomed to the appearance of them,
meeting one suddenly in the midst of a forest, would
start from the revolting spectacle ; “ The diminutive
stature, the unusual tone of voice, the extraordinary
dress, the leering unsightly eyes, the wide
mouth, the nasty hair, and sallow shrivelled skin
— Hhe vellum of the pedigree they claim,’—all
appear at first sight out of the order of N ature,
and dispose a stranger to turn out of their way.”
We learnt from this old creature that her husband
and family had removed with their reindeer,
the day previous, to another part of the mountain,
about five miles distant, and that she had remained
behind to take charge of some of the utensils which
could not all be moved at once. This accidental
meeting was certainly fortunate, as she was able to
accompany us to the spot where they had taken np
their new abode, and which, from its remote situation,
we might in vain have hunted for. Ev'en this
position was, in my estimation, as dreary as it could
well be—a barren hollow, scooped out of the side
of a mountain, and shut in by bogs all around;—
but the spot to which she conducted us was many
degrees worse. It was situated on the side of another
bleak and naked mountain, on which the snow
was everywhere lying in large masses, close to the
miserable huts of the inhabitants, and at so great
an elevation that, with a strong wind then blowing,
and the rain descending in torrents, the cold was
excessive; so very piercing that, in all my rambles,
wet and weary as I now was, I never remember
to have felt myself half so uncomfortable as on this
visit to the Laps, whose hovels afforded but little protection
against the storm that was raging, or the rain.
In the language of the Laplanders the hut is
called koja. There were three or four of these
wretched buildings at short distances from each
other, all alike, but two only were at present
inhabited. They are constructed of birchen poles