ke of the northern summer. The captain was kind
enough to despatch a messenger to the Lapps, immediately on our arrival,
that their herd of reindeer, pasturing on the mountains, might be driven
down for our edification, and also exerted himself to procure a horse
for the American lady. The horse came, in due time, but a side saddle is
an article unknown in the arctic regions, and the lady was obliged to
trust herself to a man's saddle and the guidance of a Norseman of the
most remarkable health, strength, and stupidity.

Our path led up a deep valley, shut in by overhanging cliffs, and
blocked up at the eastern end by the huge mass of the fjeld. The
streams, poured down the crags from their snowy reservoirs, spread
themselves over the steep side of the hill, making a succession of
quagmires, over which we were obliged to spring and scramble in
breakneck style. The sun was intensely hot in the enclosed valley, and
we found the shade of the birchen groves very grateful. Some of the
trees grew to a height of forty feet, with trunks the thickness of a
man's body. There were also ash and alder trees, of smaller size, and a
profusion of brilliant wild flowers. The little multeberry was in
blossom; the ranunculus, the globe-flower, the purple geranium, the
heath, and the blue forget-me-not spangled the ground, and on every
hillock the young ferns unrolled their aromatic scrolls written with
wonderful fables of the southern spring. For it was only spring here, or
rather the very beginning of summer. The earth had only become warm
enough to conceive and bring forth flowers, and she was now making the
most of the little maternity vouchsafed to her. The air was full of
winged insects, darting hither and thither in astonishment at finding
themselves alive; the herbage seemed to be visibly growing under your
eyes; even the wild shapes of the trees were expressive of haste, lest
the winter might come on them unawares; and I noticed that the year's
growth had been shot out at once, so that the young sprays might have
time to harden and to protect the next year's buds. There was no lush,
rollicking out-burst of foliage, no mellow, epicurean languor of the
woods, no easy unfolding of leaf on leaf, as in the long security of our
summers; but everywhere a feverish hurry on the part of nature to do
something, even if it should only be half done. And above the valley,
behind its mural ramparts, glowered the cold white snows, which had
withd