deer of _posk_, leggings and boots, and we started
again.

It was nearly five o'clock, and superb moonlight. This time they mounted
our sleds upon their own sledges, so that we rode much higher than
usual. Our way lay up the Muonio River: the track was entirely snowed
up, and we had to break a new one, guided by the fir-trees stuck in the
ice. The snow was full three feet deep, and whenever the sledge got a
little off the old road, the runners cut in so that we could scarcely
move. The milk and cognac had warmed us tolerably, and we did not suffer
much from the intense cold. My nose, however, had been rubbed raw, and I
was obliged to tie a handkerchief across my face to protect it.

While journeying along in this way, the sledge suddenly tilted over, and
we were flung head foremost into the snow. Our drivers righted the
sledge, we shook ourselves and got in again, but had not gone ten yards
before the same thing happened again. This was no joke on such a night,
but we took it good-humouredly, to the relief of the Finns, who seemed
to expect a scolding. Very soon we went over a third time, and then a
fourth, after which they kept near us and held on when there was any
danger. I became very drowsy, and struggled with all my force to keep
awake, for sleeping was too hazardous. Braisted kept his senses about
him by singing, for our encouragement, the mariner's hymn:--

"Fear not, but trust in Providence,
Wherever thou may'st be."

Thus hour after hour passed away. Fortunately we had good, strong
horses, which walked fast and steadily. The scenery was always the
same--low, wooded hills on either side of the winding, snowy plain of
the river. We had made up our minds not to reach Parkajoki before
midnight, but at half-past ten our track left the river, mounted the
Swedish bank, and very soon brought us to a quadrangle of low huts,
having the appearance of an inn. I could scarcely believe my eyes when
we stopped before the door. "Is this Parkajoki?" I asked. "_Ja!_"
answered the postilion. Braisted and I sprang out instantly, hugged each
other in delight, and rushed into the warm inn. The thermometer still
showed -44 deg., and we prided ourselves a little on having travelled for
seventeen hours in such a cold with so little food to keep up our animal
heat. The landlord, a young man, with a bristly beard of three weeks'
growth, showed us into the milk room, where there was a bed of reindeer
skins. His wife brought