distance. It is, besides, very probable that the shoe may answer better than the skate, if the snow be in a loose state. But leaving these two points out of the question, I apprehend the skate common to Scandinavia is immeasurably superior to the American snow-shoe.

If the skate be properly put on, it never injures, in the slightest degree, the feet or ankles. Hear what Captain Franklin, the celebrated Arctic traveller, when speaking of the snow-shoe, says on that subject.

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The sufferings on these occasions can be but faintly imagined by a person who thinks upon the inconvenience of marching with a weight of between two or three pounds constantly attached to galled feet and swelled ankles. Perseverance and practice only will enable the novice to surmount this pain.”

Again." The miseries endured during the first journey of this nature are so great, that nothing could induce the sufferer to take a second, whilst under the influence of present pain. He feels his frame weighed with insurmountable pressure; he drags a galling and stubborn weight at his feet, and his track is marked with blood. The dazzling scene around him affords no rest to his eye-no object to divert his attention from his own agonizing sensations. When he sleeps, half his body seems dead, till quickened into feeling by the irritation of his sores."

In the vicinity of Lapp-cottage, skidor were little used, and, in consequence, few people thereabouts could go even tolerably well with them. Farther to the southward, they were almost unknown. In the more northern districts of Wermeland, however, and particularly among the descendants of the Fins, there were many who could run capitally upon them.

As a substitute for skidor, when the snow was deep, the peasants usually provided themselves, when in the forest, with skarbogar, which are represented at page 230. These are frames of wickerwork, of a roundish, or rather oval shape, about fifteen inches in length, and twelve in breadth; but, independently of their very insufficiently answering the purpose for which they are required, owing to their very imperfect construction, they are continually liable to get out of order. But skarbogar are possessed of this advantage, that they are easily made, and as easily repaired.

I have occasionally seen horses provided with skarbogar in Dalecarlia. These consist of circular iron rings, of about ten or twelve inches in diameter, across which are several transverse bars of the same metal: they are fastened to the fetlock with leathern or other thongs: thus equipped, those animals necessarily straddle a little in their gait; but they are then enabled to traverse the forest in all directions, let the snow be ever so deep.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Journey to Granberg. Mattias Mattsson.-Warm rooms.— Beating the ring.-Night bivouac.

As neither Elg nor myself were conversant with the particular track we were about to pursue to Granberg, we were now necessitated to take a guide along with us. We had to wait for the man, however, upwards of two hours, that he might make, as he said, some needful preparations. From this cause, it was six o'clock in the evening before we left Warnäs. It was now dark; and as we had no moon, and the route was a most sorry one, we had not a very comfortable time of it.

To add to the evil, whilst we were waiting for our companion at Warnäs, he had been indulging in too liberal potations of brandy: though tolerably sober when we set off, he had not proceeded half the distance, before he became top-heavy, and was rolling about like a ninepin. At last, in short, he came down altogether. Here we should certainly have left him, for the liquor to

have evaporated, had we known the way to Granberg; but that not being the case, we could not well do without his assistance.

We were therefore necessitated to rouse him from his lethargy, (for to proceed of his own accord he was either unwilling or unable,) and almost to drive him before us. This caused not a little delay; so that, though the distance could easily have been performed in three hours by daylight, what with the darkness, and the fellow's drunkenness, it took us more than twice that time, and until two o'clock on the following morning, before we arrived at the end of our journey.

When we reached Granberg, a small Finnish hamlet, consisting of three families, situated in the province of Dalecarlia, and in the solitudes of the forest, we took up our quarters with a peasant named Mattias Mattsson, the same who, rumour said, had ringed the bear.

This man was a son of the individual of whom I have spoken, that distinguished himself by the successful pursuit of bears during the summer season; but he himself was not much of a chasseur.

Our host did not appear to be in very flourishing circumstances; he had no want, however, of the necessaries of life,-there being abundance of wholesome though coarse bread, milk, cheese, potatoes, &c. in the house.

My lodgings, on this occasion, were none of the

best; for there was only a single room, habitable at that period of the year, for the accommodation as well of the peasant's family, as of our party. This apartment was, fortunately, a pretty large one, so that the air was not quite so pestilential as is too often the case in the houses of the peasantry; but as I was tired, I quickly caused a bed of sweet hay to be prepared in one corner of the room, and as far removed as possible from the more habitable parts of it, that I might the better escape the vermin, &c.; here I managed to get two or three hours of tolerable repose.

My people fared better than myself: they shook down a truss or two of straw in a circular form around the fire; towards this they then placed their feet, and with their knapsacks for pillows, they thus had a most luxurious couch. If there are not beds to accommodate wayfaring persons, this is the plan universally adopted during the winter season, in the northern parts of Scandinavia.

It might be supposed that people thus lying without any other covering than their clothes would suffer much from the cold during the night season; but this is not usually the case, as the apartments of the peasantry are generally very warm. The houses of the Fins, or rather their descendants, that one meets with in the Wermeland and adjacent forests, are, indeed, often heated to that degree that one would be glad to sleep