he tops of the hills like a thin grey
brush.[20] North of this limit there are to be seen on the Yenisej
luxuriant bushes of willow and alder. That in Siberia too, the
large wood, some hundreds or thousands of years ago, went
farther north than now, is shown by colossal tree-stumps found
still standing in the _tundra_, nor is it necessary now to go far
south of the extreme limit, before the river banks are to be
seen crowned with high, flourishing, luxuriant trees.

[Illustration: LIMIT OF TREES IN SIBERIA. At Boganida, after
Middendorff. ]

[Illustration: THE CLOUDBERRY (RUBUS CHAMAEMORUS, L.) Fruit of the
natural size. Flowering stalks diminished. ]

The climate at Maosoe is not distinguished by any severe winter
cold,[21] but the air is moist and raw nearly all the year round.
The region would however be very healthy, did not scurvy, especially
in humid winters, attack the population, educated and uneducated,
rich and poor, old and young. According to a statement made by a
lady resident on the spot, very severe attacks of scurvy are cured
without fail by preserved cloudberries and rum. Several spoonfuls
are given to the patient daily, and a couple of quarts of the
medicine is said to be sufficient for the complete cure of children
severely attacked by the disease. I mention this new method of using
the cloudberry, the old well-known antidote to scurvy, because I am
convinced that future Polar expeditions, if they will avail
themselves of the knowledge of this cure, will find that it conduces
to the health and comfort of all on board, and that the medicine is
seldom refused, unless it be by too obstinate abstainers from
spirituous liquors.

It enters into the plan of this work, as the _Vega_ sails along, to
give a brief account of the voyages of the men who first opened the
route along which she advances, and who thus, each in his measure,
contributed to prepare the way for the voyage whereby the passage
round Asia and Europe has now at last been accomplished. On this
account it is incumbent on me to begin by giving a narrative of the
voyage of discovery during which the northernmost point of Europe
was first doubled, the rather because this narrative has besides
great interest for us, as containing much remarkable information
regarding the condition of the former population in the north of
Scandinavia.

This voyage was accomplished about a thousand years ago by a Norwegian,
OTHERE, from Halogaland or Helgel