that of the bear, which they frequently hunt and kill. Instead of bread
they strip off the bark of firs, which are almost the only trees that
grow upon those dismal mountains, and, boiling the inward and more
tender skin, they eat it with their flesh. The greatest happiness of
these poor people is to live free and unrestrained; therefore they do
not long remain fixed to any spot, but, taking down their houses, they
pack them up along with the little furniture they possess, and load them
upon sledges, to carry and set them up in some other place.

_Tommy._--Have you not said that they have neither horses nor oxen? Do
they then draw these sledges themselves?

_Harry._--I thought I should surprise you, Master Tommy. The reindeer
which I have described are so tractable, that they are harnessed like
horses, and draw the sledges with their masters upon them nearly thirty
miles a-day. They set out with surprising swiftness, and run along the
snow, which is frozen so hard in winter that it supports them like a
solid road. In this manner do the Laplanders perform their journeys,
and change their places of abode as often as is agreeable. In the spring
they lead their herds of deer to pasture upon the mountains; in the
winter they come down into the plains, where they are better protected
against the fury of the winds; for the whole country is waste and
desolate, destitute of all the objects which you see here. There are no
towns, nor villages; no fields enclosed or cultivated; no beaten roads;
no inns for travellers to sleep at; no shops to purchase the necessaries
or conveniences of life at; the face of the whole country is barren and
dismal; wherever you turn your eyes, nothing is to be seen but lofty
mountains, white with snow, and covered with ice and fogs; scarcely any
trees are to be seen, except a few stunted firs and birches. These
mountains afford a retreat to thousands of bears and wolves, which are
continually pouring down and prowling about to prey upon the herds of
deer, so that the Laplanders are continually obliged to fight them in
their own defence. To do this, they fix large pieces of flat board,
about four or five feet long, to the bottom of their feet, and, thus
secured, they run along, without sinking into the snow, so nimbly, that
they can overtake the wild animals in the chase. The bears they kill
with bows and arrows, which they make themselves. Sometimes they find
out the dens where they have laid themselv