The practice of dram-drinking is so general that mothers pour the horrid dose down the throats of their infants. Their christenings and funerals become mere pretexts for indulging in brandy. But their mild and pacific disposition shows itself in their drunkenness, which is manifested only in howling, jumping, and laughing, and in a craving for more drams with hysteric screams, until they fall senseless on the ground -while at the same time they will suffer kicks, cuffs, blows, and provocations of any kind, without the smallest irascibility. When sober they are as gentle as lambs, and the softness of their language, added to their effeminate shrill tone of voice, remarkably corresponds with their placable dispositior. An amiable trait in the character of the Lapp is the warmth of his affection towards his wife, his children, and his dependents. Nothing can exceed the cordiality of their mutual greetings after separation, and it is to be feared that but few married men in England could match the Lapp husband, who assured Castrén that during thirty years of wedlock no worse word had passed between himself and his wife than Loddadsham,' or 'My little bird.'

In spite of his fatiguing life, and the insufficient shelter afforded him by his hut, the Fjall Lapp is generally vigorous and healthy, and not seldom lives to a hundred years age. Continual exercise in the open air braces his constitution, his warm clothing protects him against the cold of winter, and his generous meat diet maintains his strength. To prevent the scurvy, he eats the berries of the Empetrum nigrum, or Rubus Chamamorus, and mixes the stems of the Angelica among his food. But his chief remedy against this and every other bodily evil is warm reindeer-blood, which he drinks with delight as a universal panacea.

The Skogs Lapp, or Forest Lapp, occupies an intermediate grade between the Fjall Lapp and the Fisher Lapp, as fishing is his summer occupation, and hunting and the tending of his reindeer that of the winter months. His herds not being

so numerous as those of the Fjall Lapp, he is not driven to constant migration to procure them food; but they require more care than his divided pursuits allow him to bestow upon them, and hence he inevitably descends to the condition of the Fisher Lapp. Lästadius describes his life as one of the happiest on earth as a constant change between the

agreeable pastime of fishing and the noble amusement of the chase. He is not, like the Mountain Lapp, exposed to all the severity of the Arctic winter, nor so poor as the Fisher Lapp. He is often heard to sing under the green canopy of the firs.

The villages of the Fisher Lapps-as they are found, for instance, on the banks of Lake Enara-afford a by no means pleasing spectacle.

About the miserable huts, which are shapeless masses of mingled earth, stones, and branches of trees, and scarcely equal to the dwellings of the wretched Fuegians, heaps of stinking fish and other offal taint the air with their pestilential odours. When a stranger approaches, the inmates come pouring out of their narrow doorway, so covered with dirt and vermin as to make him recoil with disgust. Not in the least ashamed, however, of their appearance, they approach the stranger and shake his hand, according to the code of Lapp politeness. After this preliminary, he may expect the following questions: Is peace in the land? How is the emperor, the bishop, and the captain of the district?' The more inquisitive of the filthy troop then ask after the home of the stranger, and being told that it is beyond the mountains, they further inquire if he comes from the land where tobacco grows. For as our imagination loves to wander to the sunny regions,

Where the citron and olive are fairest of fruit,

And the voice of the nightingale never is mute;

so the fancy of the Lapp conceives no greater paradise than that which produces the weed that, along with the brandybottle, affords him his highest luxury.

His Birthplace and first Studies-Journey in Lapland, 1838-The IwalojokiThe Lake of Enara-The Pastor of Utzjoki-From Rowaniemi to Kemi-Second Voyage, 1841-44-Storm on the White Sea-Return to Archangel-The Tundras of the European Samojedes-Mesen-Universal Drunkenness-Sledge Journey to Pustosersk-A Samojede Teacher-Tundra Storms--Abandoned and alone in the Wilderness-Pustosersk-Our Traveller's Persecutions at Ustsylmsk and Ishemsk-The Uusa-Crossing the Ural-Obdorsk-Second Siberian Journey, 1845-48-Overflowing of the Obi-Surgut-Krasnojarsk -Agreeable Surprise-Turuchansk-Voyage down the Jenissei-Castrén's Study at Plachina-From Dudinka to Tolstoi Noss-Frozen Feet-Return Voyage to the South--Frozen fast on the Jenissei-Wonderful PreservationJourney across the Chinese Frontiers, and to Transbaikalia--Return to Finland -Professorship at Helsingfors- Death of Castrén, 1855.

MAT

ATTHIAS ALEXANDER CASTREN, whose interesting journeys form the subject of the present chapter, was born in the year 1813, at Rowanièmi, a Finland village situated about forty miles from the head of the Gulf of Bothnia, immediately under the Arctic Circle; so that, of all men who have attained celebrity, probably none can

boast of a more northern birthplace. While still a scholar at the Alexander's College of Helsingfors, he resolved to devote his life to the study of the nations of Finnish origin (Fins, Laplanders, Samojedes, Ostjaks, &c.); and as books gave but an insufficient account of them, each passing year strengthened his desire to visit these tribes in their own haunts, and to learn from themselves their languages, their habits, and their history.

We may imagine, therefore, the joy of the enthusiastic student, whom poverty alone had hitherto prevented from carrying out the schemes of his youth, when Dr. Ehrström, a friend and medical fellow-student, proposed to take him as a companion, free of expense, on a tour in Lapland. No artist that ever crossed the Alps on his way to sunny Italy could feel happier than Castrén at the prospect of plunging into the wildernesses of the Arctic zone.

On June 25, 1838, the friends set out, and arrived on the 30th at the small town of Muonioniska, where they remained six weeks-a delay which Castrén put to good account in learning the Lapp language from a native catechist. At length the decreasing sun warned the travellers that it was high time to continue their journey, if they wished to see more of Lapland before the winter set in; and after having, with great difficulty, crossed the mountainridge which forms the watershed between the Gulf of Bothnia and the Polar Sea, they embarked on the romantic Iwalojoki, where for three days and nights the rushing waters roared around them. In spite of these dangerous rapids, they were obliged to trust themselves to the stream, which every now and then threatened to dash their frail boat to pieces against the rocks. Armed with long oars, they were continually at work during the daytime to guard against this peril; the nights were spent near a large fire kindled in the open air, without any shelter against the rain and wind.

The Iwalo river is, during the greater part of its course, encased between high rocks; but a few miles before it discharges itself into the large Lake of Enara, its valley improves into a fine grassy plain. Small islands covered with trees divide the waters, which now flow more tranquilly; soon also traces of culture appear, and the astonished

CASTREN'S TOUR IN LAPLAND.

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traveller finds in the village of Kyrö, not wretched Lapland huts, but well-built houses of Finnish settlers, with green meadows and cornfields.

The beautiful Lake of Enara, sixty miles long and forty miles broad, is so thickly studded with islands that they have never yet been counted. After the travellers had spent a few days among the Fisher Lapps who sojourn on its borders, they proceeded northwards to Utzjoki, the limit of their expedition, and one of the centres of Lapland civilisation, as it boasts of a church, which is served by a man of high character and of no little ability. On accepting his charge, this self-denying priest had performed the journey from Tornea in the depth of winter, accompanied by a young wife and a female relation of the latter, fifteen years of age. He had found the parsonage, vacated by his predecessor, a wretched building, distant some fifteen miles from the nearest Lapp habitation. After establishing himself and his family in this dreary tenement, he had returned from a pastoral excursion to find his home destroyed by a fire, from which its inmates bad escaped with the loss of all that they possessed. A miserable hut, built for the temporary shelter of the Lapps who resorted thither for divine service, afforded the family a refuge for the winter. He had since contrived to build himself another dwelling, in which our party found him, after five years' residence, the father of a family, and the chief of a happy household. Gladly would the travellers have remained some time longer under his hospitable roof, but the birds of passage were moving to the south, warning them to follow their example.

Thus they set out, on August 15, for their homeward voyage, which proved no less difficult and laborious than the former. At length, after wandering through deserts and swamps-frequently wet to the skin, and often without food for many hours-they arrived at Rowaniemi, where they embarked on the Kemi river. With conflicting feelings,' says Castrén, 'I descended its stream; for every cataract was not only well-known to me from the days of my earliest childhood, but the cataracts were even the only acquaintances which death had left me in the place of my birth. Along with the mournful impressions which the loss of beloved relations made upon my mind, it was de