scene:

Novaya Zemlyan landscape, and inspires even the rough sailor with a kind of religious awe. 'It is,' says Von Baer, 'as if the dawn of creation had but just begun, and life were still to be called into existence.' The universal silence is but rarely broken by the noise of an animal. But neither the cry of the sea-mew, wheeling in the air, nor the rustling of the lemming in the stunted herbage are able to animate the No voice is heard in calm weather. The rare landbirds are silent as well as the insects, which are comparatively still fewer in number. This tranquillity of nature, particularly during serene days, reminds the spectator of the quiet of the grave; and the lemmings seem like phantoms as they glide noiselessly from burrow to burrow. In our fields even a slight motion of the air becomes visible in the foliage of the trees, or in the waving of the corn; here the low plants are so stiff and immovable that one might suppose them to be painted. The rare sand-bee (Andrena), which on sunny days and in warm places flies about with languid wings, has scarcely the spirit to hum, and the flies and gnats, though more frequent, are equally feeble and inoffensive.

As a proof of the rarity of insects in Novaya Zemlya, Von Baer mentions that not a single larva was to be found in a dead walrus which had been laying at least fourteen days on the shore. The hackneyed phrase of our funeral sermons cannot therefore be applied to these high latitudes, where even above the earth the decay of bodies is extremely slow.

However poor the vegetation of Novaya Zemlya may be, it still suffices to nourish a number of lemmings, which live on leaves, stems, and buds, but not on roots. The slopes of the mountains are often undermined in all directions by their burrows. Next to these lemmings, the Arctic foxes are the most numerous quadrupeds, as they find plenty of food in the above-mentioned little rodents, as well as in the young birds, and in the bodies of the marine animals which are cast ashore by the tides. White bears are scarcely ever seen during the summer, and the reindeer seems to have decreased in numbers, at least on the west coast, where they are frequently shot by the Russian morse-hunters.

The hosts of sea-birds in some parts of the coast prove

that the waters are far more prolific than the land. The foolish guillemots (Uria troile), closely congregated in rows, one above the other, on the narrow ledges of vertical rockwalls, make the black stone appear striped with white. Such a breeding place is called by the Russians a bazaar. On the summit of isolated cliffs, and suffering no other bird in his vicinity, nestles the large grey sea-mew (Larus glaucus), to whom the Dutch whale-catchers have given the name of burghermaster. While the ice-bear is monarch of the land animals, this gull appears as the sovereign lord of all the seabirds around, and no guillemot would venture to dispute the possession of a dainty morsel claimed by the imperious burghermaster.

This abundance of the sea has also attracted man to the desert shores of Novaya Zemlya. Long before Barentz made western Europe acquainted with the existence of Novaya Zemlya (1594-96), the land was known to the Russians as a valuable hunting or fishing ground; for the Dutch discoverer met with a large number of their vessels on its coast. Burrough, who visited the port of Kola in 1556, in search of the unfortunate Willoughby, and thence sailed as far as the mouth of the Petschora, likewise saw in the gulf of Kola no less than thirty lodjes, all destined for walrus-hunting in Novaya Zemlya.

Whether, before the Russians, the adventurous Norsemen ever visited these desolate islands is unknown, but so much is certain, that ever since the times of Barentz the expeditions of the Muscovites to its western coast have been uninterruptedly continued. As is the case with all fishing speculations, their success very much depends upon chance. The year 1834 was very lucrative, so that in the following season about eighty ships, with at least 1,000 men on board, sailed for Novaya Zemlya from the ports of the White Sea, but this time the results were so unsatisfactory that in 1836 scarce half the number were fitted out. In 1837 no more than twenty vessels were employed, and Von Baer relates that but one of them which penetrated into the sea of Kara made a considerable profit, while all the rest, with but few exceptions, did not pay one-half of their expenses.

The most valuable animals are the walrus and the white

FISHING GROUNDS OF NOVAYA ZEMLYA.

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dolphin, or beluga. Among the seals, the Phoca albigena of Pallas distinguishes itself by its size, the thickness of its skin, and its quantity of fat; Phoca grænlandica and Phoca hispida rank next in estimation. The Greenland whale never extends his excusions to the waters of Novaya Zemlya, but the fin-back and the grampus are frequently seen.

The Alpine salmon (Salmo alpinus), which towards autumn ascends into the mountain-lakes, is caught in incredible numbers; and, finally, the bean-goose (Anser segetum) breeds so frequently, at least upon the southern island, that the gathering of its quill feathers is an object of some importance.

Their ancient History and Conversion to Christianity-Self-denial and Poverty of the Lapland Clergy-Their singular Mode of Preaching-Gross Superstition of the Lapps-The Evil Spirit of the Woods-The Lapland Witches-Physical Constitution of the Lapps-Their Dress-The Fjälllappars-Their Dwellings Store Houses-Reindeer Pens-Milking the Reindeer-Migrations-The Lapland Dog-Skiders, or Skates-The Sledge, or Pulka-Natural Beauties of Lapland-Attachment of the Lapps to their Country-Bear Hunting-Wolf Hunting -Mode of Living of the wealthy Lapps-How they kill the Reindeer-Visiting the Fair-Mammon Worship-Treasure Hiding-"Tabak, or Braende "Affectionate Disposition of the Lapps-The Skogslapp-The Fisherlapp.

nation of the Lapps spreads over the northern parts Tor of Scandinavia and Finland, from about the 63rd degree of latitude to the confines of the Polar Ocean; but their number, hardly amounting to more than twenty thousand, bears no proportion to the extent of the vast regions in which they are found. Although now subject to the crowns of Russia, Sweden, and Norway, they anciently possessed the whole Scandinavian peninsula, until the