of this pleafure-ground flood a wooden houfe, covered with turf,
and inhabited by a family of fixed Laplanders. I wifhed to pay
them a v ifit; one of our guides, however, befought me not to go
there immediately by myfelf, but to fend him on before me'; be-
caufe, faid he, the family will perhaps be frightened at the fight
of a flranger of.fo different an appearance from their own. He
went into the houfe, but found nobody there : it was completely
deferted : the family had either gone on a fifhing excurfion, or
were in the mountains tending their rein-deer. T h e architeils of
the houfes on thofe coails, appear to have been of the fame fchool
with him who built the church of Mafi; though it might not
bear quite the fame proportion to that church, which our houfes
do to cathedrals, I cannot fay that we were veiy difcreet in our
.vifit: we looked at, and fearched out every thing, even their
pockets : all was open and expofed; for there are no locks in L apland.
W e found not any article of curiofity, befides a box of
rofin. This juice ifTues from the fir-tree, of which the Laplanders
make an ointment for dreffing their wounds. We returned
with regret to our boats, and it was not without pain that we
bade adieu to 1b charming a profpefi, which bore a flriking
refemblance to all that is moil romantic and delightful in the
natural fceneiy o f Switzerland,
There was not a breath of wind, and our boatmen were much
fatigued with rowing in fo great a heat. In order to give them
fome refpite, and to gratify our own curiofity, we: vifited all the
Laplanders fettled on this coafl, who generally lived at the diftah
c e
tance of a Norwegian mile, or mile and a-half from one another.
Abundance and contentment reign in all their dwellings. Each
Laplander is the proprietor of the territory around his little man-
fion, to the extent of a Norwegian mile, or eight eight Englilh,
in every direction. They have fome cows which furnifh them
with excellent milk, and meadow land which yields hay for their
fodder in winter. They have every one a flore of fifh dried in the
fun, not only for their own ufe, but wherewithal to purchafe
luxuries; that is, fait, oatmeal, and fome woollen clothes. Their
houfes are conflrudled in the form of tents : a hole in the middle,
which gives them light, ferves alio as an aperture for letting
out the fmoke of the fire, which is always placed in the centre
o f the cabin; and around which they fleep quite clofe to one
another. In winter, befides the heat of the fire, they have the
benefit o f the animal warmth of the cows, with whom they fhare
the fhelter of their roof, as the inhabitants of Scotland do in the
highlands and the northern iiles. T h e doors of their houfes in
fummer are always open ; and although in that feafon there is no
night, they are accuflomed to lleep at the fame time as other
Europeans ; with the exception of thofe who are in fuch inceflant
purfuit of pleafure, as to ffy from one objedl to another, and pufh
the hours gradually on, till they convert night into day. W e have
gone into their cabins at one and two o’clock, after the hour that
we call midnight, when we always found the whole family lain
down and afleep. W e have fometimes remained a quarter of an
hour near them before they were awakened by our prefence from
2 their