the level of the
Muonio, I found no difficulty in keeping my balance, and began to enjoy
the exercise. My deer struck out, passed the others, and soon I was
alone on the track. In the grey Arctic twilight, gliding noiselessly and
swiftly over the snow, with the low huts of Muonioniska dimly seen in
the distance before me, I had my first true experience of Lapland
travelling. It was delightfully novel and exhilarating; I thought of
"Afraja," and the song of "Kulnasatz, my reindeer!" and Bryant's
"Arctic Lover," and whatever else there is of Polar poetry, urged my
deer with shouts, and never once looked behind me until I had climbed
the opposite shore and reached the village. My companions were then
nowhere to be seen. I waited some time before they arrived, Braisted's
deer having become fractious and run back with him to the house. His
crimson face shone out from its white frame of icy hair as he shouted to
me, "There is nothing equal to this, except riding behind a right whale
when he drives to windward, with every man trimming the boat, and the
spray flying over your bows!"

We now turned northward through the village, flying around many sharp
corners, but this I found comparatively easy work. But for the snow I
had taken in, which now began to melt, I got on finely in spite of the
falling flakes, which beat in our faces. Von Buch, in his journey
through Lapland in 1807, speaks of Muonioniska as "a village with an inn
where they have silver spoons." We stopped at a house which Mr. Wolley
stated was the very building, but it proved to be a more recent
structure on the site of the old inn. The people looked at us with
curiosity on hearing we were Americans. They had heard the name of
America, but did not seem to know exactly where it was. On leaving the
house, we had to descend the steep bank of the river. I put out my feet
to steady the pulk, and thereby ploughed a cataract of fine snow into my
face, completely blinding me. The pulk gave a flying leap from the
steepest pitch, flung me out, and the deer, eager to make for home,
dragged me by the arm for about twenty yards before I could arrest him.
This was the worst upset of all, and far from pleasant, although the
temperature was only zero. I reached home again without further mishap,
flushed, excited, soaked with melted snow, and confident of my ability
to drive reindeer with a little more practice.

During the first three days, the weather was raw, dark, and loweri