e Arctic Circle there is a time
of continuous night. To us, who have no experience of such a state of
affairs, it seems as if life must be bereft of all its pleasures. Yet
the dwellers in the Arctic regions think nothing of it. To them even
the dark winter has its charms, for, as has been said of a certain
gentleman, it is not really as black as it has been painted.

In the first place, there is the snow, covering everything, and even
at the darkest time of year there is sufficient light, if the sky be
clear, to see to read for an hour before and an hour after midday. Then
there is the light given by the moon and stars, and lastly the cheering
glow of the aurora borealis,or northern lights. It is not, therefore,
always dark, though when snow falls or the clouds block out the sky
the darkness becomes intense. At such times the picture is truly a
melancholy one.

To say that the light given by the aurora borealis does duty for
sunlight is not true. Magnificent spectacle as it presents, this
marvellous phenomenon produces no light of any real value, and only
occasionally for a few minutes does it illumine the landscape. Tales
of sleighing over the wastes of snow by the light of the aurora
borealis have no foundation in fact, for seldom, if ever, has it
sufficient power to obliterate the stars, and never does the moon
pale before it. On the other hand, it is certain that these northern
lights, streaming up into the heavens on every clear night of the long
winter, must bring feelings of pleasure to the inhabitants of the Polar
regions. The form, the intensity, and the colour of the light is ever
varying, and thus, in watching it, there is always expectancy. We in
England are accustomed to see these lights on autumn nights, but the
display is feeble in comparison with that of the Arctic winter.

No one knows for certain what the aurora borealis really is, and
even the most scientific people can tell you no more than that they
suppose it to be "a phenomenon of electrical origin"!

CHAPTER XV

LAPLANDERS AT HOME

Although Lapps are occasionally seen in charge of reindeer herds on
some of the southern mountain tracts of Norway, their real home is
in the Far North, not only of Norway, but also of Sweden, Finland,
and Russia, and the country which they inhabit is known as Lapland.

That portion of it which belongs to Norway covers only some 3,000 or
4,000 square miles, while the whole of the Land of the Lapps has