fprings were at four or five degrees of Celfius, which, was a great
difference in comparifon of the lakes, which were at nineteen,
and of the atmofphere, which was at twenty-five. I t was a
more delicious refrelhment'to'us, than all the iced creams in the
great cities of the louth of Europe to the moil confirmed epicure.
The river o f Alten, after fpreading into feveral lakes, and again
contracting itfelf within-its banks, which are here and there fringed
with trees, and 'confifl ibmetimes of rocks and ibmetimes of bare
land, ¡precipitates itfelf all of a fudden 'from between two rocks
about forty feet in perpendicular height. There it forms a mag-
'riificent'cataraCl; and the agitated water fends up a cloud of vapour
to the ikies, through which is ieen a beautiful and majeftic
rainbow. This catarait, of eourfe, interrupted our navigation,
and our boats were drawn'over the land for nearly the ipace of
an-Engliih mile, to a place w herothe river againsbecame paflable.
On the borders of this cafcade, the Laplanders, who accompanied
us from Kautokeino, had a magazine of fiih drying in the
air. After exploring'the beauties o f the Waterfall, we lighted up
a fire in this place, and had ibme of thoie-fiihes dreffed ; a part
boiled, and fome broiled. The Lapland faihion of broiling, is by
fixing a fiih on a itiek, and then holding it to the fire.
After our repafl We puriued our voyage; and as we proceeded,
had a fine view, and took a drawing of a very beautiful catarait
made by the falls of a tributary ftream belonging to the Alten,
which defcends on the right bank - of that river over a number o f
fhelving rocks, difpofed like fteps of flairs, as if they were the
work
work .of .art. I t was covered with: a canopy of trees, which intercepted
the rays of the fun. W e continued to defcend by a branch
of the river Alten, which flowed with fuoh rapidity, that if credit
may be given to our Lapland boatmen, we performed almoil a
.Norwegian mile (or eight Engliib) .in little more than .a quarter
of an hour. When the current began to be very .ff-rong, our
boatmen defired us;to look at our .watches, that w.e might be able
;to afcertain how much time wefhould take in getting ;on a mile.
W e did fo; and when we reached the :end o f what they computed
to be a Norwegian mile, we found that the time taken up
was twenty minutes. Qur boatmen now wanted fome repofe,
and we fet up our tent near the fmall church of Mail,-on the
-right bank of the Alten. W e lighted feveral .fires, and one as
ufual in the midlt of our tent, .to defend us from the mufquetoes,
our eternal tormentors. Our Laplanders, before laying them-
felves down to take their reft, afked permiflion 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 filhes of different forts
and fizes, fome more than a foot in length. Part of them was
drefled-for our fupper: the reft the Laplanders.gutted, and hung
up on trees to. dry, which they intended to take, home w ith them
.on their return.
Next morning, before we refumed our voyage, we paid a vifit
to the fmall church of Mali, which is emboiomed in the midft of