id a salary by the government; besides a fee must be given
by the patient, who will then not call the doctor for a trifle.

CHAPTER XXXIV

PREPARATIONS TO LEAVE THE ARCTIC COAST.--GREAT DANGER OF ENCOUNTERING
MELTING SNOW, OR RIVERS MADE DANGEROUS BY THE ICE BREAKING.--REINDEER
COME.--FAREWELL TO THE SEA LAPPS.--I LEAVE FOR MORE SOUTHERN LAND.

The advice the Sea Lapps had given me was not to be neglected, and I at
once made hasty preparations for my journey southward. There was not one
hour or one minute to be lost. I did not want to be caught in the midst
of vast tracts of half-melted snow, seven, eight, or ten feet deep, with
reindeer unable to travel further; or to drive over rivers and lakes
covered with treacherous ice, made the more dangerous by being hidden
under the snow--or, worst of all, to find no reindeer to carry me
onward; or delayed somewhere, waiting for the snow to melt and the land
to become dry and the rivers navigable, for during the time of thaw the
country is full of bogs and swamps, and the rivers become in many places
but roaring torrents, their waters dashing against huge boulders strewn
in their beds, or breaking over them in rapids and pouring cataracts.

My little sleigh, my skees, my bags, and winter outfits were landed, and
were before me. I left off my sou'wester and oilskin garments and
sea-boots, and I said to them: "We have had rough weather together on
this stormy Arctic sea. Henceforth I do not need you any more; I hope
you will keep the Sea Lapp to whom I give you as dry as you did me."

Then I donned my Lapp costume once more. Now the fur shoes of winter
were unsuitable to travel with, for being porous they are only good to
get over dry and crisp snow with. I had to wear henceforth the shoes or
boots that are without fur and the leather of which is prepared in such
a manner as to be impermeable to water or damp snow. I had provided
myself with two pairs of these, while at Haparanda on my way to "The
Land of the Long Night," for my return journey,--a short pair, of the
shape of the winter shoes, and a pair of boots coming as high as my
knees.

One of the Lapps smeared them with a preparation of tar and fat that he
used for his own shoes. When they were ready he said: "Now you are all
right, no dampness or water will penetrate them," and he gave me some of
the stuff to use on my journey, saying, "Rub your shoes every two days
with it." I thanked him. Then I pu