“ In Norway there are three classes—the sea Lapps, the river Lapps and the mountain Lapps, the first two settled, the third nomadic. The mountain Lapps have a rather ruder and harder life than the same class in Sweden. About Christmas those of Kautokeino and Karasjok are usually settled in the neighbourhood of the churches; in summer they visit the coast, and in autumn they return inland. Previous to 1852, when they were forbidden by imperial decree, they were wont in winter to move south across the Russian frontiers. ”

“ Flesh is their favourite, in winter almost their only food, though they also use reindeer milk, cheese and rye or barley cakes. The sea Lapps are in some respects hardly to be distinguished from the other coast dwellers of Finmark. Their food consists mainly of cooked fish. The river Lapps, many of whom, however, are descendants of Finns proper, breed cattle, attempt a little tillage and entrust their reindeer to the care of mountain Lapps.
In Finland there are comparatively few Laplanders, and the great bulk of them belong to the fisher class. ”

“ Catching a single deer and belling it, he drives it through the wood; the other deer, whose instinct leads them to gather into herds for mutual protection against the mosquitoes, are attracted by the sound. Should the summer be very cool and the mosquitoes few, the Lapp finds it next to impossible to bring the creatures together. About the end of August they are again let loose, but they are once more collected in October, the forest Lapp during winter pursuing the same course of life as the mountain Lapp. ”

“ The Scandinavian portion of Lapland presents the usual characteristics of the mountain plateau of that peninsula—on the west side the bold headlands and fjords, deeply-grooved valleys and glaciers of Norway, on the east the long mountain lakes and great lake-fed rivers of Sweden. Russian Lapland is broadly similar to the lower-lying parts of Swedish Lapland, but the great lakes are more generally distributed, and the valleys are less direct. The country is low and gently undulating, broken by detached hills and ridges not exceeding in elevation 2500 ft. ”

“ The Lapps are a quiet, inoffensive people. Crimes of violence are almost unknown, and the only common breach of law is the killing of tame reindeer belonging to other owners. In Russia, however, they have a bad reputation for lying and general untrustworthiness, and drunkenness is well-nigh a universal vice. ”

“ In Norway the total number of Lapps was 20,786 in 1891, and in Sweden in 1904 it was officially estimated that there were 7000. Add to these some 3000 for Russian Lapland, and the total Lapp population approximates to 30,000. In Sweden the Lapps are gradually abandoning their nomadic habits and becoming merged in the Swedish population. The majority of the Norwegian Lapps lead a semi-nomadic existence; but the number of inveterate nomads can scarcely reach 1500 at the present day. In Sweden there are about 3500 nomads. ”

“ The Russian Lapps are also for the most part fishers, as is natural in a district with such an extent of coast and such a number of lakes, not to mention the advantage which the fisher has over the reindeer keeper in connexion with the many fasts of the Greek Church. They maintain a half nomadic life, very few having become settlers in the Russian villages. ”

“ When he has acquired a little means it is not unusual for the fisher to settle down and reclaim a bit of land. The mountain and forest Lapps are the true representatives of the race. In the wandering life of the mountain Lapp his autumn residence, on the borders of the forest district, may be considered as the central point ”

“ In education the Scandinavian Lapps are far ahead of their Russian brethren, to whom reading and writing are arts as unfamiliar as they were to their pagan ancestors. The general manner of life is patriarchal. ”

“ In children the eye is large, open and round. The nose is always low and broad, more markedly retroussé among the females than the males. Wrinkled and puckered by exposure to the weather, the faces even of the younger Lapps assume an appearance of old age. ”

“ The body is usually of fair proportions, but the legs are rather short, and in many cases somewhat bandy. Dark, swarthy, yellow, copper-coloured are all adjectives employed to describe their complexion—the truth being that their habits of life do not conduce either to the preservation or display of the natural colour of their skin, and that some of them are really fair, and others, perhaps the majority, really dark. ”

“ Sailing is hardly ever practised, and squalls on the lakes are often dangerous to the rowing-boats. On a few of the lakes wood-fired steam-launches are used in connexion with the timber trade, which is considerable, as practically the whole region is forested. Between the lakes all journeying is made on foot. The heads of the Swedish valleys are connected with the Norwegian fjords by passes generally traversed only by tracks ”

“ But much of the evidence adduced for these theories is highly questionable. The contents of the so-called Lapps’ graves found in various parts of Scandinavia are often sufficient in themselves to show that the appellation must be a misnomer, and the syllable Lap or Lapp found in many names of places can often be proved to have no connexion with the Lapps. [5] They occupied their present territory when they are first mentioned in history. According to Düben the name first occurs in the 13th century—in the Fundinn Noregr, composed about 1200, in Saxo Grammaticus, and in a papal bull of date 1230 ”

“ Lapps, because they paid to two or even three states—Russia, Denmark and Sweden.
The Lapps within the historical period have considerably recruited themselves from neighbouring races. Shortness of stature [2] is their most obvious characteristic, though in regard to this much exaggeration has prevailed. Düben found an average of 4.9 ft. for males and a little less for females; Mantegazza, who made a number of anthropological observations in Norway in 1879, gives 5 ft. and 4.75 ft., respectively (Archivio per l’antrop., 1880) . Individuals much above or much below the average are rare. ”

“ He is the most brachycephalous type of man in Europe, perhaps in the world. [3] According to Virchow, the women in width of face are more Mongolian in type than the men, but neither in men nor women does the opening of the eye show any true obliquity. ”