Joseph Chamberlain

“ The route lies for the whole day through the almost trackless forests. Hardly a human being is to be met in these immense solitudes, and the silence is only broken occasionally by the note of some strange bird or the movement of the wind through the trees. ”

“ Primary education in Sweden is free and compulsory, though it is seldom necessary to recur to the interference of the magistrates. The Swedes cannot be made to understand the beauty of our English system, by which a national service, undertaken on the distinct ground of its importance to the whole community, is made unpopular by a charge extorted from the persons whose ready and voluntary acceptance of the service is the object desired. ”

“ The Swedes are undoubtedly a fine race; many of the men are very tall, and the women are almost universally refined-looking and graceful in their carriage. A crowd of Swedes might at any time be mistaken by an Englishman for a crowd of the better sort in his own country; and in character there is the same resemblance to a high average English standard. The middle and trading classes have great sympathy with the English nation and its institutions, and are ready at all times to express and prove it ”

“ The fishing in the lakes is exceedingly good, and very large trout, and even salmon, may be caught with the minnow and other spinning bait. For fly-fishing the best places are the rapids between the lakes, through which the boat is screwed in and out in an extremely clever and dexterous way by the boatman, who takes advantage of the shelter of every rock and stone as he passes from one to the other, while the stream shoots by. ”

“ Intermarriages are not uncommon, and many of the present settlers show signs of the mixture of the races.
The population of Swedish Lapland is said to include 4,000 persons of true Lapp race, and in some districts this number is increasing. The children born in the mountains die fast, but those who remain in the villages are healthy. Provision is made for their instruction, and in common with the children of the Swedes they all learn to read and write, though, judging by the absence of books at the settlements, they reap little advantage from their instruction. ”

“ The scenery is extremely striking, especially toward the end of the road. The river is a noble stream, never narrower than the Thames at Westminster, and expanding at intervals into broad stretches of water which, shut in by the windings of the river, present the appearance of considerable lakes. The banks are lined with the pine-forests for many miles, and the dark green of the firs and larches is varied by the brighter foliage and silver bark of the birches, which grow in considerable numbers among the other trees. ”

“ In the winter, when the lakes and rivers are all frozen, and the ground is covered three or four feet deep with hard snow, the settlers go long distances on snow-shoes and in sledges, and bring up from Luleä what stores they may require. The money for such purchases is gained by winter labor in the forests, where the trees are felled and dragged to the water's edge, to be thrown in and floated down to Luleä when the ice breaks up. At this work a team of one horse and two men can earn about 40s. ”

“ In Norway it is said that the Lapps are looked upon and treated as an inferior race, the pariahs of the North; but in Swedish Lapland there is no appearance of such distinctions. The comfort and even safety of the settlers depend so much on their good relations with their neighbors that they have remained on terms of equality and friendship. ”

“ They depend for their living entirely upon their reindeer, which they take up into the mountains all the summer, feeding them in the villages during the winter, when the rein-moss, which is their ordinary food, is no longer obtainable in the woods. This migration is rendered necessary by the habits of the reindeer, which must be near snow to keep in health. When on their summer excursions, the Lapps live in tents made of rein-skins, lying at night round a fire in the centre, a hole being left in the roof for the passage of the smoke. ”

“ Every educated Swede reads and probably speaks English well, and with very slight, if airy, foreign accent. English newspapers and books of all kinds are largely read, and English literature is a prominent branch of study at the high or middle-class schools, of which, as of all other educational institutions, there is an ample supply in Sweden. ”

“ For the angler there is almost unlimited trout and grayling fishing, with possibilities of salmon; and for the sportsman abundance of ptarmigan, willow grouse, hares, and wild-fowl of all descriptions; while the cost of living, not indeed sumptuously, but sufficiently well, may be covered by two or three shillings a day. ”

“ The most common offenses are against the forest regulations, and the observance of these is superintended by an officer who has his headquarters at Jockmock. On fête days, at this latter village, a patrol is selected by the Governor of Luleä from among the steadiest of the settlers, and to him the preservation of order is intrusted.
The men are physically a fine race, and are generally honest and industrious, with an air of independence and straightforwardness. Like the poorer Swedes elsewhere, they are greatly given to the use of tobacco in all forms ”

“ No living thing is seen for hours except occasional flights of wild birds, or a solitary heron disturbed by the passage of the boat. Hills, gradually developing into mountains, and finally covered with snow as the neighborhood of Quickjock is reached, shut in the scene, and the slopes of these are covered almost entirely with stunted pine, the birch having nearly disappeared. ”

“ In favorable weather an angler may easily land a hundred-weight of trout and grayling in a day's sport, the fish running from half a pound to two pounds in weight. The flies sold by the London makers should be supplemented by some of a smaller size for bright weather and clear water; one with a body of yellow silk and grayish-brown wings is said to be very killing.
The distance from Jockmock to Quickjock, the two principal villages on the route, is about ninety miles, and is performed in three days. ”

“ Unfortunately, these advantages can only be reached by routes so little tempting to the ordinary tourist that it appears from the visitor's book at Quickjock that only three hundred persons in twenty years have braved the discomforts of the approach. Now, however, that Norway is becoming hackneyed ground, and that all its available streams are rented and preserved, it is possible that the attractions of Lapland may yet counterbalance the well-founded objections to the gulf of Bothnia. ”

“ The settlers cannot afford to be ill, as the nearest doctor lives at Luleä, almost a week's journey from Quickjock. In ordinary cases they depend on their own resources, but in any serious illness the Luleä medico is sent for and is obliged to attend, being paid a small salary of £200 a year by the Government on this condition. Midwifery is performed by women. Crimes of any kind seem to be very rare ”

“ Originally the Government granted free gifts of land, but they have now ceased to do this, and the number of the settlers does not appear to be receiving many additions from outside. The houses usually consist of two or more large rooms on the ground-floor with lofts above, and vast chimney-hearths in one corner, in which the logs of pine, some two or three feet in length, are piled upright when a fire is wanted; being lit, they burn up in a few minutes into a roaring' fire which gives out an intense heat. ”

“ The forests cover nearly one-half of the whole surface of Sweden, and constitute an important part of the wealth of the country and the revenue of the Government. In past times they were very carelessly managed, and in many cases were sold outright and without conditions to merchants, who ruthlessly cut down the timber with sole regard to their immediate interests. The pine is of very slow growth, increasing only one inch in diameter in ten years, and reaching twelve to fourteen inches in a century ”

“ Cattle and ponies, and sometimes sheep and poultry, are kept at each station, but the food of the family is limited to fish—which is dried for winter use—milk, black or rather brown fiat bread, and dried reinflesh, with an occasional change in the shape of game or wild-fowl killed on the hills or lakes. Everywhere, even in the poorest houses, the most excellent coffee is obtainable ”

“ These boats are unprovided with seats, and the passengers have to squat at the bottom back to back, or crowded side by side; and, as very little movement would be sufficient to swamp so frail a craft, the limbs get cramped and stiffened, and the journey becomes very fatiguing. With a high wind the broadest lakes become rough and dangerous, and on one occasion we shipped so much water that it seemed doubtful whether our expedition would not come to an untimely end. ”

“ In looking at these settlements and considering the nature of the life we seemed to understand more clearly the position and circumstances of the immigrants who are gradually pushing farther and farther along the shores of the great rivers of the American Continent, and carrying into the solitudes of the immense forests of the West the proofs of Anglo-Saxon courage, endurance, and pertinacity. ”

“ At the present time the trip cannot be recommended to ladies, unless they are willing to put up with more than the usual inconvenience and discomfort of out-of-the-way travel; but for men, willing to rough it a little, there is no hardship or difficulty greater than those with which most sportsmen must be already familiar. ”

“ Built partly on islands in Lake Malar, it is intersected in every direction by the waters of the lake and of the Baltic, and, with its busy quays, broad streets, handsome buildings, pleasant gardens, and clear atmosphere, is certainly one of the brightest and most charming capitals in Europe. The streets are still enlivened by the gay costumes of the peasants, especially those of the nearest provinces ”

“ They argue that the state, as a whole, is bound to secure to all its citizens the opportunity of acquiring at least the elementary knowledge which is requisite for its security and general well-being, and that it is the function of the state to offer this instruction free of charge before it attempts to compel any individual to avail himself of it. ”

“ They attribute the almost universal prevalence of primary instruction in their country to the existence of these free schools, and point to their wide popularity as sufficient evidence of the fallacy of the proposition, so often taken for granted in England, that the poor do not value education which is paid for out of the general taxation of the community. ”

“ The older women look worn, but never have the haggish and almost brutalized look which is not uncommon in old women in other countries who have led hard, out-door lives. The general expression of countenance is somewhat pathetic, though they seem contented with their strange, solitary, and joyless life ”

“ In the winter they move about on their snow-shoes, in the management of which they are extremely adroit, shooting down the hills and in and out of the trees with immense swiftness and precision. On these shoes they hunt down both wolves and bears when these animals, which are now getting scarce, cross their path ”

“ The women have pleasant faces, with rather refined expression. There is a strong family resemblance among them, and the type consists in large gray eyes, brown hair, rather fair complexions, a free carriage, and not ungraceful figure, though with full waists and large hands and feet. ”

“ Their food consists of rein-flesh, fish, and game, and they keep a pot, like the gypsies, constantly on the fire, into which are thrown all contributions in the way of edibles, which are thus stewed down together into a thick rich soup. ”

“ The family live chiefly in the kitchen, and this and the guest chamber are about twenty or thirty feet square, and furnished with a kind of sofa-bedstead which pulls out so as to afford a sleeping-accommodation of about five feet six inches by three feet. ”