n grain and rich green meadow land. To travel in Southern
Finland after Northern Russia is like leaving the most hideous
parts of the Black Country to suddenly emerge into the brightness
and verdure of a sunlit Devonshire.

_LAPLAND_

_ALEXANDER PLATONOVICH ENGELHARDT_

The Peninsula of Kola, which forms the District of that name, extends
about 650 versts, or 433 miles, from west to east, from the frontiers
of Norway and Finland to the White Sea, and about 400 versts, or 266
miles, from north to south, from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of
Kandalax, covering an area of 131,860 square versts, or 37,022,400
acres. The coast belt from the Norwegian border-line to Holy Cape
(or Sweet-nose), is called the Murman Coast, or simply the Murman;
the eastern and south-eastern part, from Holy Cape along the White
Sea to the mouth of the Varzuga, goes by the name of the Tierski
Coast; and the southern part, from the Varzuga to Kandalax, the
Kandalax Coast; whilst the whole of the interior bears the name of
Russian Lapland. The surface of the Peninsula is either mountainous,
or covered with _tundras_ (i. e., moss-grown wilds), and swamps.
The Scandinavian mountain range, which divides Sweden from Norway,
extending to the Kola Peninsula, breaks up into several separate
branches. Along the shores of the Murman they form craggy coast
cliffs, rising at times to an elevation of 500 feet. Further to
the east they become gradually lower, so that near the White Sea
they seldom exceed fifty or one hundred feet, with less precipitous
descents. The reach their greatest height further inland, to the
east of Lake Imandra, where they form the Hibinski and Luiavrout
chains, veiled in perpetual snow. Some of the peaks rise to 970
feet above the level of the lake, which, in its turn, is 140 feet
higher than the sea-level, so that the mountains surrounding the
lake are over 1,000 feet above the level of the sea.

Not far from Lake Imandra is the lofty Mount Bozia, (or Gods' Hill),
at the foot of which, according to the traditions of the Lapps,
their ancestors offered up sacrifices to their gods. Even at the
present time the Lapps of the district speak of this site with
peculiar veneration. Between the village of Kashkarantz and the
Varzuga rises Mt. Korable, remarkable for its many caverns, studded
with crystals of translucent quartz and amethyst, the former, together
with fluor and heavy spar, being met with, too, in the eastern
parts of t