. We stopped at Weda, on the
Angermann River, the largest stream in Northern Sweden. Angermannland,
the country which it drains, is said to be a very wild and beautiful
region, where some traces of the old, original Asiatic type which
peopled Scandinavia are yet to be traced in the features of its secluded
population. At Weda, we found excellent quarters. A neat, quiet,
old-fashioned little servant-girl, of twelve or fourteen, took charge of
us, and attended to all our wants with the greatest assiduity. We had a
good supper, a small but neat room, clean beds, and coffee in the
morning, beside a plentiful provision for breakfast on the way, for a
sum equal to seventy-five cents.

We left at half-past seven, the waning moon hanging on the horizon, and
the first almost imperceptible signs of the morning twilight in the
east. The Angermann River which is here a mile broad, was frozen, and
our road led directly across its surface. The wind blew down it, across
the snow-covered ice, making our faces tingle with premonitory signs of
freezing, as the mercury was a little below zero. My hands were chilled
inside the fur mittens, and I was obliged to rub my nose frequently, to
prevent it from being nipped. The day was raw and chilly, and the
temperature rose very little, although the hills occasionally sheltered
us from the wind. The scenery, also, grew darker and wilder as we
advanced. The fir-trees were shorter and stunted, and of a dark
greenish-brown, which at a little distance appeared completely black.
Nothing could exceed the bleak, inhospitable character of these
landscapes. The inlets of the Bothnian Gulf were hard, snow-covered
plains, inclosed by bold, rugged headlands, covered with ink-black
forests. The more distant ridges faded into a dull indigo hue, flecked
with patches of ghastly white, under the lowering, sullen, short-lived
daylight.

Our road was much rougher than hitherto. We climbed long ridges, only to
descend by as steep declivities on the northern side, to cross the bed
of an inland stream, and then ascend again. The valleys, however, were
inhabited and apparently well cultivated, for the houses were large and
comfortable, and the people had a thrifty, prosperous and satisfied air.
Beside the farmhouses were immense racks, twenty feet high, for the
purpose of drying flax and grain, and at the stations the people offered
for sale very fine and beautiful linen of their own manufacture. This is
the staple