the most northerly country of Europe, extending from the north cape in 71° 30' N. Lat. to the White Sea under the arctic circle, is inhabited by the same people, though the country is subject to different powers. Norwegian Lapland, under the dominion of Denmark, lies between the northern sea, the river Päis, and the lake Enarak. Swedish Lapland comprehends all the country from the Baltic to the mountains that separate Norway from Sweden. It is divided into five districts, denominated marck or territory; and these are distinguished by the names of rivers, such as Aungnermanland, Elma, Lapland, Peta, Luka, Torna, and Kiemi. The eastern part, subject to the Czar of Muscovy, situated between the lake Enarak and the White Sea, is divided into three distinct prefectures; namely, that of the sea coast towards the north, called Mourmankoi Leporie; the Ter-skoi Leporie, upon the coast of the White Sea; and the third, or inland, known by the name of Bellamo-rejbol Leporie. In Swedish Lapland, which is the most considerable of the three, the provinces or marcks are subdivided into smaller districts called biars, consisting each of a certain number of families; among which the land is parcelled out by government, or the prefect of the district appointed by the king of Sweden.

Lapland may be termed a huge congeries of frightful rocks and stupendous mountains; interperfed, however, with many pleasant valleys, watered by an infinite number of rivulets that run into the rivers and lakes, which discharge themselves into the gulf of Bothnia. The names of the principal lakes in Lapland are the Great Uma, the Great Windel, the Oreavan, the Stor-avan, the Great Lula; the lakes of Kartom, Kali, Torno, Enara, and Kimi. Some of these extend 60 leagues in length, and contain a great number of islands: Stor-avan is said to contain 365; and Enara contains an archipelago of islands so large, that no Laplander has lived long enough to visit each particular island. The natives believe this country to be the terrestrial paradise; and indeed nothing could be more enchanting than such vast prospects of mountains, hills, forests, lakes, rivers, &c., if the country was in a moderate climate; though even here, in summer the roses are seen blowing wild on the banks of the lakes and rivers, with all the beautiful glow of colour which appears in those cultivated in our gardens. But all the intervals between the mountains are not ingrossed by these agreeable prospects; great part of the flat country is covered with brown dusky forests of fir and pine trees; and these are often skirted by wide extended morasses, the stagnating waters of which in summer produce myriads of mischievous insects, that are more intolerable than even the cold of winter.

The cold of Lapland is very intense during the winter, freezing even brandy and the watery part of spirit of wine, if the latter is not highly rectified: all the lakes and rivers are frozen to a prodigious thickness; and the whole face of the country is covered with snow to the depth of four or five feet. While this continues loofoe, it is impossible to travel; for a man's eyes are not only blinded with it, but if a strong wind should rise he will be buried in the drifts of snow: yet should a partial thaw take place for a few hours, the surface of this snow is formed by the succeeding frost into a hard impenetrable crust, over which the Laplander travels in his sleigh with great celerity. While the thaw prevails, the air is furred with vapours, and the climate is rainy; but while the north wind blows, the sky is beautifully serene, and the air very clear.

The heat of summer is almost as intolerable in Lapland as the cold of winter. At the northern extremity of the country the sun never sets for three months in summer, and in winter there is an uninterrupted night of the same duration; but this is qualified in such a manner by a constant revolution of dawn and twilight, by a serene sky, moon-light, and aurora borealis. Lapland, reflected from the white surface of the earth covered with snow, that the inhabitants are enabled to hunt, fish, and proceed with their ordinary occupations. The country abounds with excellent springs; and is remarkable for some surprising cataracts, in which the water rumbles over frightful precipices, and dashes among rocks with amazing impetuosity and noise.

The soil of Lapland is generally so chilled and barren, that it produces little or no grain or fruit-trees of any kind. This sterility, however, is not so much owing to the soil, which is in many places of a rich mould, as to want of industry; for in some districts the Swedes have tilled and manured pieces of ground that bear plentiful crops of rye. There is also great plenty of berries; such as black currants; what is called the Norwegian mulberry, growing upon a creeping plant, and much esteemed as an antiscorbutic; raspberries, cranberries, juniper berries, and bilberries. The tops of the mountains are so much exposed to intense cold, and tempests of snow and hail, that no tree will grow near the summit; but in parts that are more sheltered, we see fine woods of birch, pine, and fir, disposed by nature as if they had been planted by art in rows at regular distances, without any undergrowth or incumbrance below. Besides these trees, some parts of Lapland produce the service tree, the willow, the poplar, the elder, and the cornel. Among the plants of this country the principal is the angelica; which is greatly esteemed by the natives, who use it in their food. Here is likewise the acetofa or forrel, which grows in great plenty, and is of much service on account of its antiscorbutic properties. They have also other kinds of herbs peculiar to the country, different kinds of grass, heath, fern, and moss; which are all enumerated by Linnaeus in his Flora Laponica. But the vegetable which is in greatest plenty, and of the most extensive use among them, is the lichen rangiferus. The rein-deer is wholly sustained in winter by this vegetable; and the Laplanders themselves boil it in broth as a cordial and restorative. They likewise use one sort of it as a soft, easy, and wholesome bed for their newborn children.

Some silver and lead mines have been discovered in the provinces of Pitha and Lula; and two of copper, together with excellent veins of iron, in the district of Torno; but they are not at present worked with any considerable advantage. In some places there are veins of silver and gold mixed; but these mines are worked only for a few months in the summer, because the frost hinders the engines from playing. Here are found beautiful crystals, of a surprising magnitude, so hard and fine, that when polished they resemble real diamonds. In some places amethysts and topazes are also found, but pale and cloudy; also a great quantity of very curious stones, which are too hard to be worked by the tool of the mason. Some of these found on the banks of rivers and lakes, when they happen to bear the least resemblance to the figures of animals, the Laplanders remove to more conspicuous places, and adore as deities. The province of Torno affords some curious stones of an octagonal shape, regular, shining, and polished by the hand of nature. In some rivers they fish for pearls, which are generally pale; but some of them are as bright as the oriental pearls and much larger and rounder. These pearls are found in muscleshells; and the fishery is not in the sea, but in rivers.

Lapland, as well as Norway, is infested with a great number of grey wolves and bears, with whom the inhabitants wage perpetual war. The most honourable exploit among the Laplanders is that of killing a bear; and the heroes adorn their caps with a small plate of lead or pewter for every bear they have slain. The country abounds also with elks, beavers, and otters, which live here unmolested, and find plenty of fish for their subsistence. The forests of this country furnish haunts to a great number of beautiful martens and squirrels; which last change their colour every winter from brown to grey. Lapland is also the native country of the zibeling or sable, whose skin is extremely valuable. Here are likewise ermines, weasels, hares, large black cats which attend the Laplanders in hunting, and little prick-eared curs trained to the game. But the most remarkable animal of Lapland is the reindeer, of which an account is given in the article Cervus n° 4. These animals, so useful in various respects to the natives, are kept at no expense. In summer they feed upon grasses and alpine plants; in winter, as already mentioned, upon the lichen rangiferus, or rein-deer lichen, and its varieties, which are so abundant as in many parts almost totally to cover the ground for the space of several miles, and which the sagacious animal discovers under the snow by the peculiar acuteness of its smell. Most of those used for draught are castrated when very young, and are larger and fatter than the bucks. The woods, mountains, and rivers are well stocked with wild-fowl; such as bullard, partridge, grouse, heathcock, pheasants, lapwings, swans, wild-geese, wild-ducks, and all sorts of aquatic birds that build and breed in northern climates. In the beginning of the spring the swans go thither in numerous flights from the German ocean; the lap wings follow in such swarms that they darken the sky as they pass along, and scream so loud that they may be heard at a great distance. The rocks and mountains are likewise frequented by eagles, hawks, falcons, kites, and other birds of prey.—The rivers abound with delicious salmon from the gulph of Bothnia, trout, bream, and perch of exquisite flavour and amazing magnitude; and the inhabitants of Wardhus, or Danith Lapland, are well supplied with fish from the northern ocean.—With respect to insects, the flies hatched in the marshes and woods in summer are so numerous, that they often obscure the face of day; so venomous, troublesome, and intolerable, that the rein-deer fly to the tops of the highest mountains for shelter, and the Laplanders betake themselves to the sea-side, which is the least infected by these pestilent vermin. M. de Maupertuis, in his account of the voyage he made to Lapland, in company with the other French mathematicians sent thither by the king to measure a degree of the meridian, gives us to understand, that on the tops of the mountains in Torno the flies were so troublesome, that even the Finland soldiers, who are counted the most hardy troops in the service of Sweden, were obliged to cover their faces with the skirts of their coats from the attacks of these animals, which swarmed to such a degree, that the moment a piece of flesh appeared it was blackened all over. Some of these flies are very large, with green heads, and fetch blood from the skin wherever they strike. The Laplanders shroud themselves in the smoke of a large fire kindled for that purpose; yet even this disagreeable expedient was not sufficient to defend the French philosophers: they were obliged, notwithstanding the excessive heat, to wrap up their heads in garments made of the skins of rein-deer, called in that country lapmutes, and to cover themselves with a thick rampart of fir boughs; yet all these precautions proved ineffectual. M. de Maupertuis observed a lake quite covered with little yellowish grains, resembling millet seed, which he supposed to be the chrysalises of some of these insects.

The Laplanders are very low in stature, and are likewise remarkable for having large heads. They are also ill shaped, and their features harsh. They are, however, strong, hardy, and robust, insomuch that they will bear incredible fatigue; and it is remarked that the stoutest Norwegian is not able to bend the bow of a Laplander. The women are much less homely than the men, and many of them are noted for a delicate and florid complexion.

These people are simple, honest, hospitable, and timidous; their timidity, however, respects war alone; for to many other species of dangers they expose themselves with surprising intrepidity, whether in ascending and descending mountains and precipices with their snow-shoes and in sledges, or in venturing amidst whirlpools and cataracts in little slender boats made of thin fir-boards, fastened together with thongs of leather, sinews of wild beasts, or tough and flexible twigs of willow and osier. These boats are of different sizes, from two to six yards in length, managed with oars, and caulked with moss so tight as to keep out the water. The Laplanders are partly settled, and in part wild and roving: the latter live in tents made with coarse cloth; the former are fixed in small villages near the lakes, and chiefly follow fishing. They build their cottages somewhat in the shape of a cone, by placing a circle of large trees or poles affixed in the earth, and close to each other, so that their tops meet, and form a small vent for the issue of the smoke: they cover the ground within with branches of trees. In spring their food consists principally of the eggs of water-fowl, which are extremely plentiful in those parts; in summer and autumn, of the birds themselves, and of various other of the partridge-tribe; and in winter of the milk and flesh of the rein-deer and dried fish. They had till lately no bread; but in lieu thereof used the inner rind of the pine-tree dried and ground, and dried fish reduced to powder. They make confections and decoctions of berries, angelica, and sorrel, which they justly reckon to be preservatives against the scurvy. The Laplander is secured in the possession of uninterrupted health by temperance and exercise, which, together with the severity of the climate, brace his nerves to a very unusual pitch of strength, and fortify his constitution in such a manner, that he often lives to the age of 100, without feeling the least pang of distemper, or even perceiving his vigour in the least impaired; for it is not uncommon to see a Laplander in extreme old age hunting, fowling, skating, and performing all the severest exercises with undiminished agility.

The summer garb of the men consists of a long coat of coarse cloth, reaching down the middle of the leg, and girded round the waist with a belt or girdle; from which hang a Norway knife, and a pouch containing flints, matches, tobacco, and other necessaries; the girdle itself being decorated with braids rings and chains. Their caps are made of the skin of the northern diver, with the feathers on; and their shoes of the rein-deer skin, with the hair outwards. They wear no linen; but the garments of the better sort are of a finer cloth, and they delight in a variety of colours, though red, as the most glaring, is the most agreeable. In winter they are totally cased up in coats, caps, boots, and gloves, made of the rein-deer skins. In the Flora Lapponica, Linnæus says, "Perhaps the curious reader will wonder how the people in Lapland, during the terrible cold that reigns there in winter, can preserve their lives; since almost all birds, and even some wild beasts, desert it at that time. The Laplander, not only in the day, but through the whole winter nights, is obliged to wander about in the woods with his herds of rein-deer. For the reindeer never come under cover, nor eat any kind of fodder, but a particular kind of liverwort. On this account the herdsmen are under a necessity of living continually in the woods, in order to take care of their cattle, lest they should be devoured by wild beasts. The Laplander easily does without more light, as the snow reflects the rays that come from the stars, and as the Aurora Borealis illuminates the air every night with a great variety of figures. No part of our body is more easily destroyed by cold than the extremities of the limbs, which are most remote from the sun of this microcosm, the heart. The kibes that happen to our hands and feet, so common in the northern parts of Sweden, prove this. In Lapland you will never see such a thing; although were we to judge by the situation of the country, we should imagine just the contrary, especially as the people wear no stockings, as we do, not only single, but double and triple. The Laplander guards himself against the cold in the following manner. He wears breeches made of rein-deer skins with the hair on, reaching down to his heels, and shoes made of the same materials, the hairy part turned outwards. He puts into his shoes slender-eared broad-leaved cyperus grass (Carex prairea, Spec. Pl. or the Bladder Carex), that is cut in summer and dried. This he first combs and rubs in his hands, and then places it in such a manner that it not only covers his feet quite round, but his legs also; and being thus guarded, he is quite secured against the intense cold. With this grass they stuff their gloves likewise, in order to preserve their hands. As this grass keeps off the cold in winter, so in summer it hinders the feet from sweating, and at the same time preserves them from being annoyed by striking against stones, &c., for their shoes are very thin, being made, not of tanned leather, but the raw hide."

The women's apparel differs very little from that of the other sex; only their girdles are more ornamented with rings, chains, needle-cases, and toys that sometimes weigh 20 pounds. In winter, both men and women lie in their furs; in summer, they cover themselves entirely with coarse blankets to defend them from the gnats which are intolerable. The Laplanders are Lapland are not only well disposed, but naturally ingenious. They make all their own furniture, their boats, sledges, bows and arrows. They form neat boxes of thin birch boards, and inlay them with the horn of the rein-deer. The Swedes are very fond of the Lapland baskets made of the roots of trees, slit in long thin pieces, and twisted together so nicely that they will hold water. Among the manufactures of this country we likewise number curious horn-spoons, and moulds in which they call the tinkers of tin which adorn their girdles. Over and above these domestic occupations, the men within doors perform the office of cooks in dressing victuals for the family. The women act as tailors and embroiderers; they make clothes, shoes, and boots, and harnesses for the rein-deer; they spin thread of fur, and knit it into caps and gloves that are very soft and warm. They draw tin into wire through a horn; and with this they cover the thread which they use in embroidering the figures of beasts, flowers, trees, and flares upon their caps and girdles.

The Laplanders make surprising excursions upon the snow in their hunting expeditions. They provide themselves each with a pair of skates, or snow-shoes, which are no other than fir-boards covered with the rough skin of the rein-deer, turned in such a manner that the hair rises against the snow, otherwise they would be too slippery. One of these shoes is usually as long as the person who wears it; the other is about a foot shorter. The feet stand in the middle, and to them the shoes are fastened by thongs or withes. The Laplander thus equipped wields a long pole in his hand, near the end of which there is a round ball of wood to prevent its piercing too deep in the snow; and with this he stops himself occasionally. By means of these accoutrements he will travel at the rate of 60 miles a-day without being fatigued; ascending steep mountains, and sliding down again with amazing swiftness.

The Laplander not only travels a-foot, but is provided with a carriage drawn by the rein-deer, in which he journeys with still greater rapidity. The sledge, called pulka, is made in the form of a small boat, with a convex bottom, that it may slide the more easily over the snow: the prow is sharp and pointed; but the sledge is flat behind. The traveller is swathed in this carriage like an infant in a cradle, with a stick in his hand to steer the vessel, and disengage it from pieces of rock or stumps of trees that may chance to encounter it in the route. He must also balance the sledge with his body, otherwise he will be in danger of being overturned. The traces, by which this carriage is fastened to the rein-deer, are fixed to a collar about the animal's neck, and run down over the breast between the fore and hind legs, to be connected with the prow of the sledge; the reins, managed by the traveller, are tied to the horns; and the trappings are furnished with little bells, the sound of which is agreeable to the animal. With this draught at his tail, it has been reported that the rein-deer will fly like lightning over hill and dale at the rate of 200 miles a-day. But this representation is greatly exaggerated. According to the best accounts, the common pace of the rein-deer is only at the rate of about four miles an hour; though, if he be pressed, he will travel 10 or 12 Swedish miles (70 or 84 English miles) in a day; but by such hard driving is generally destroyed. It, however, frequently happens, that he will persevere in his journey 50 miles without intermission, and without taking any refreshment, except occasionally moistening his mouth with the snow. Before he sets out, the Laplander whipsers in his ear the way he is to follow, and the place at which he is to halt, firmly persuaded that the beast understands his meaning; but, in spite of this intimation, he frequently stops short long before he has reached the journey's end; and sometimes he overshoots the mark by several leagues. In the beginning of winter the Laplanders mark the most frequent roads, by treasuring them with fir-boughs; and indeed these roads are no other than pathways made through the snow by the rein-deer and the pulkhas; their being frequently covered with new snow, and alternately beaten by the carriage, consolidates them into a kind of causeway; which is the harder if the surface has felt a partial thaw, and been crushed by a subsequent frost. It requires great caution to follow these tracks; for if the carriage deviates to the right or left, the traveller is plunged into an abyss of snow. In less frequented parts, where there is no such beaten road, the Laplander directs his course by certain marks which he has made on the trees.

The chief occupation of the Laplanders is hunting, and this exercise they perform in various ways. In summer they hunt the wild beasts with small dogs, trained to the diversion. In winter they pursue them by their tracks upon the snow, skating with so great velocity, that they very often run down the prey. They catch ermines in traps, and sometimes with dogs. They kill squirrels, martens, and fables, with blunt darts, to avoid wounding the skin. Foxes and beavers are slain with sharp-pointed darts and arrows; in shooting which, they are accounted the best marksmen in the world. The larger beasts, such as bears, wolves, elks, and wild rein-deer, they either kill with firearms purchased in Sweden or Norway, or take in snares and pits dug in the forests. Their particular laws relating to the chase are observed with great punctuality. The beast becomes the property of the man whose snare or pit he is caught; and he who discovers a bear's den has the exclusive privilege of hunting him to death. The conquest of a bear is the most honourable achievement that a Laplander can perform; and the flesh of this animal they account the greatest delicacy on earth. The bear is always dispatched with a foul, sometimes laid as a snare, ready cocked and primed; but more frequently in the hands of the hunter, who runs the most imminent risk of his life should he miss his aim of wounding the beast mortally. The death of a bear is celebrated by the Laplanders as a signal victory. The carcase is drawn to the cabin or hut of the victor by a rein-deer, which is kept sacred from any other work for a whole year after this service. The bear is surrounded by a great number of men, women, and children, reciting a particular hymn or song of triumph, in which they thank the vanquished enemy for having allowed himself to be overcome without doing any mischief to his conqueror, and welcome his arrival: then they make an apostrophe to heaven, expressing their acknowledgment to God, that he has created beasts for the use of men, and endowed mankind with strength and courage to overcome Lapland come and attack the fiercest of the brute creation. The hero is saluted by the women, who spit chewed elder-bark in his face. He is feasted three days successively, and his cap is decorated with an additional figure wrought in tin wire.

The manner in which the young Laplander chooses a wife is equally remarkable and ludicrous. When he has pitched upon a female, he employs some friends as mediators with the father; and these being provided with some bottles of brandy, the suitor accompanies them to the hut of his future father-in-law, who invites the mediators to enter; but the lover is left without until the liquor be drank, and the proposal discussed; then he is called in, and entertained with such fare as the hut affords; yet without seeing his mistress, who retires and goes out on this occasion. Having obtained leave of her parents to make his addresses in person, he puts on his best apparel, and is admitted to the lady, whom he salutes with a kiss; then he presents her with the tongue of a rein deer, a piece of beaver's flesh, or some other sort of provision. She declines the offer, which is made in presence of her sisters and relations; but makes a signal to the lover to follow her into the fields, where she accepts the presents. Thus encouraged, he begs her permission to sleep with her in the hut; if she contents, there is no further difficulty; if she disapproves of the proposal, she drops her presents on the ground. When the lovers are agreed, the youth is permitted to visit his amarata as often as he shall think proper; but every time he comes, he must purchase this pleasure with a fresh bottle of brandy; a perquisite so agreeable to the father, that he often postpones the celebration of the nuptials for two or three years. At length the ceremony is performed at church by the priest of the parish. Even after this event, the husband is obliged to serve his father-in-law a whole year; at the expiration of which he retires to his own habitation with his wife, and her patrimony of rein-deer, and receives presents from all his friends and relations. From this period he sequesters his wife from the company of all strangers, especially of the male sex, and watches over her conduct with the most jealous vigilance.

Many Lapland women are barren, and none of them are very fruitful. A woman, immediately after delivery, swallows a draught of whale-fat: the child is washed with snow or cold water, and wrapped up in a hare-skin. The mother is seldom above five days in the straw, and in fourteen is generally quite recovered: then she carries the child to church to be baptized. Before she can reach the residence of the priest, she is often obliged to traverse large forests, mountains, lakes, and wide-extended wastes of snow. The infant is fastened in a hollowed piece of wood, stretched naked on a bed of fine moss, covered with the soft skin of a young rein deer, and flung by two straps to the back of the mother, who always suckles her own child. At home this little cradle is hung to the roof of the hut, and the child lulled asleep by swinging it from one side to the other. The boys from their infancy practise the bow; and are not allowed to break their fast until they have hit the mark. The female children are as early initiated in the business peculiar to their sex.

These people, though for the most part vigorous and healthy, are not altogether exempted from distemper. They are subject to sore eyes, and even to blindness, from the smoke of their huts, and the fire to which they are almost continually exposed. Some waste away in consumptions; others are afflicted with rheumatic pains and the scurvy; and a few are subject to vertigo and apoplexy. For the cure of all their internal disorders, they use no other medicine than the decoction of a certain species of moos; and when this cannot be procured, they boil the stalk of angelica in the milk of the rein-deer. In order to remove a fixed pain, they apply a large mushroom, burning hot, to the part affected; and this produces a blister, which is supposed to draw off the peccant humour. To their wounds they apply nothing but the turpentine that drops from the fir-tree. When they are frost-bitten, (though according to the above extract from Linnaeus this seldom or never happens), we are told that they thrust a red hot iron into a cheese made of reindeer's milk, and with the fat that drops from it anoint the frozen member, which generally recovers. When a Laplander is supposed to be on his death bed, his friends exhort him to die in the faith of Christ, and bear his sufferings with resignation, by remembering the passion of our Saviour. They are not, however, very ready to attend him in his last moments; and as soon as he expires, quit the place with precipitation, apprehending some injury from his spirit or ghost, which they believe remains with the corpse, and takes all opportunities of doing mischief to the living. The deceased is wrapped up in woollen or linen, according to his circumstances, and deposited in a coffin by a person selected for that purpose: but this office he will not perform, unless he is first freed from the ill offices of the manes, by a consecrated brafs ring fixed on his left arm. The Christian religion in this country has not yet dispelled all the rites of heathenish superstition: together with the body they put into the coffin an ax, a flint, and steel, a flask of brandy, some dried fish and venison. With the ax the deceased is supposed to hew down the bushes or boughs that may obstruct his passage in the other world: the steel and flint are designed for striking a light, should he find himself in the dark at the day of judgment; and on the provision they think he may subsist during his journey.

The Muscovite Laplanders observe other ceremonies, that bear an affinity to the superstitions of the Greek church. They not only supply the defunct with money, but likewise provide him with money for the porter of paradise, and a certificate signed by the priest, and directed to St Peter, specifying, that the bearer had lived like a good Christian, and ought to be admitted into heaven. At the head of the coffin they place a little image of St Nicholas, who is greatly reverenced in all parts of Muscovy as a friend to the dead. Before the interment, the friends of the deceased kindle a fire of fir boughs near the coffin, and express their sorrow in tears and lamentations. They walk in procession several times round the body, demanding, in a whining tone, the reason of his leaving them on earth. They ask whether he was out of humour with his wife; whether he was in want of meat, drink, clothing, or other necessaries; and whether he had not succeeded in hunting and fishing? There, Lapland contains about eight churches, which in some parts lie at so great a distance from each other, that a native is frequently obliged to travel three days in order to attend divine service. The Laplanders, before their conversion to Christianity, which was not till lately introduced amongst them, possessed no books or manuscripts, though they knew many traditional histories and songs of ancient heroes and princes who once reigned over them; but involved in great uncertainty, and mixed with the most fabulous accounts. They have now a translation of the New Testament in their language; and many of the natives are able to read and write.