drove on for a short distance, and drew up before a large,
substantial log-house, which Long Isaac informed me was the residence of
the _Lansman_, or magistrate of the district. I knocked at the door, and
inquired of the Norwegian servant girl who opened it, where Herr Berger
lived. Presently appeared a stout, ruddy gentleman--no less than Herr
Berger himself--who addressed me in fluent English. A few words sufficed
to explain everything, and in ten minutes our effects were deposited in
the guest's room of the Lansman's house, and ourselves, stripped of our
Polar hides, were seated on a sofa, in a warm, carpeted room, with a
bountiful supper-table before us. Blessed be civilisation! was my inward
ejaculation. Blessed be that yearning for comfort in Man, which has led
to the invention of beds, of sofas, and easy chairs: which has suggested
cleanliness of body and of habitation, and which has developed the noble
art of cooking! The dreary and perilous wastes over which we had passed
were forgotten. With hearts warmed in both senses, and stomachs which
reacted gratefully upon our hearts, we sank that night into a paradise
of snowy linen, which sent a consciousness of pleasure even into the
oblivion of sleep.

The Lansman, Herr Lie, a tall handsome man of twenty-three, was a native
of Altengaard, and spoke tolerable English. With him and Herr Berger, we
found a third person, a theological student, stationed at Kautokeino to
learn the Lapp tongue. Pastor Hvoslef, the clergyman, was the only other
Norwegian resident. The village, separated from the Northern Ocean, by
the barren, uninhabited ranges of the Kiolen Mountains, and from the
Finnish settlements on the Muonio by the swampy table-lands we had
traversed, is one of the wildest and most forlorn places in all Lapland.
Occupying, as it does, the centre of a large district, over which the
Lapps range with their reindeer herds during the summer, it is
nevertheless a place of some importance, both for trade and for the
education, organization, and proper control of the barely-reclaimed
inhabitants. A church was first built here by Charles XI. of Sweden, in
1660, although, in the course of subsequent boundary adjustments, the
district was made over to Norway. Half a century afterwards, some
families of Finns settled here; but they appear to have gradually mixed
with the Lapps, so that there is little of the pure blood of either race
to be found at present. I should here remark