feeing again the river of Alten rolling its pellucid ftream through
rich meadows, and with a velocity which recalled to our minds
our paffage from Kautokeino to Koinosjoki. Betwixt Kautokeino
to the charming diftrid where we had now arrived, a fpace of one
hundred and twenty Engliih miles, we did not meet with a human
creature, excepting the two Laplanders of Kautokeino, who
left their nets and followed us, as before-mentioned.
At the place where we now were, we a t length fell in with a
falmon-fiiher, who had come thither with his wife. It is fo un-
ufiial and unheard-of a thing to meet with any human being in
thofe fequeftered regions, that when the woman heard the noife
we made in the woods, ihe was affrighted, and wanted to per-
fuade her huiband to betake himfelf with her to flight, for fear of
fbme wild beaft, or unknown monfter, coming to devour them.
When we came up ihe had not recovered herfelf; however ihe
had become more compofed as ihe had a nearer view of us while
we approached. She was young, and the changes o f colour in her
countenance occafioned by fear rendered her the more intcrefting.
Perhaps it was the effed of our prefent iblitude, and owing to the
circumftance that we had not enjoyed the pleafure of feeing the
fair fex for a long time, but I thought that this woman was not
unworthy o f a place in the number o f beauties. She had black
eyes, regular features, and chefnut hair. Whatever was the caule
I know not, but I could not help fixing my eyes on her more than
on any other of the furrounding objeds. The fiiher had a ftore
o f excellent falmon, and alfo a pot for boiling it. He cut two or
three of his fiili into ilices, and treated our whole caravan with a
diih of his falmon, prepared in the manner of foup and bouillie,
feafoned with fome herbs and fait, and a handful of oatmeal, which
he took out of a bag that feemed to form n o t th e leaft important
article of his wealth. Having neither plate, fork, nor fpoon, we
were obliged to fupply the place of theie with pieces of the bark
of the birch-tree, and we made an excellent dinner.
This falmon-fiiher’s boat was of great ufe in traniporting us
over a river that obftruded our way to Alten, where we were de-
firous of arriving as quickly as poiiible,. in order to put an end to
a fatiguing journey of nearly forty miles through the mountains.
W e were landed from the boat in a wood, the paths or trads of
which gave us to underftand that we had now come to a country
inhabited by men. W e enquired every inftant of our guides who
went before us, where was Alten-Gaard ? how many miles we
had travelled, and how many we had yet to go I Every moment
we expeded to be at our journey’s end, and our knees began to>
tremble, unable any longer to fupport us, as we purfued our winding
road through this foreft; when, to our extreme mortification
as well as furprife, we difcovered that the labyrinthical tr a d we
followed had milled us-; and after an hour’s walking we perceived
that we were exadly at the fame fpot where we had landed from-
the fiiherman’s boat.* Amidft this defolation, we could not help
* Nel bofco Ferrau molto-fi avvolfe
E ritrovoift alfin onde ft tolfe. A r i o s t o .
“ Long through the devious wilds the Spaniard paft,
M And to the river’s banks returned at laft:-
** The place again the wandering warrior view’d,
f Where late he dropt his cafque amid the flood.