Birds of the Arctic Regions. -- Effect of Continuous Daylight. --
Town of Tromsoee. -- The Aurora Borealis. -- Love of Flowers. --
The Growth of Trees. -- Butterflies. -- Home Flowers. -- Trees.
-- Shooting Whales with Cannon. -- Pre-Historic Relics. -- About
Laplanders. -- Eider Ducks. -- A Norsk Wedding Present. --
Gypsies of the North. -- Pagan Rites. -- The Use of the Reindeer.
-- Domestic Life of the Lapps. -- Marriage Ceremony. -- A Gypsy
Queen. -- Lapp Babies. -- Graceful Acknowledgment.
We have said nothing about the feathered tribes of Norway, though all
along this coast, which is so eaten and corroded by the action of the
sea, the birds are nearly as numerous as the fishes. They are far
more abundant than the author has ever seen them in any other part of
the world. Many islands, beginning at the Lofodens and reaching to
the extreme end of the peninsula, are solely occupied by them as
breeding places. Their numbers are beyond calculation; one might as
well try to get at the aggregate number of flies in a given space in
midsummer. They consist of petrels, swans, geese, pelicans, grebes,
auks, gulls, and divers; these last are more particularly of the duck
family, of which there are over thirty distinct species in and about
this immediate region. Curlews, wandering albatrosses, ptarmigans,
cormorants, and ospreys were also observed, besides some birds of
beautiful plumage whose names were unknown to us. Throughout all
Scandinavia the many lakes, so numerous as to be unknown by name,
also abound with water-fowl of nearly every description habitual to
the North. These inland regions afford an abundance of the white
grouse, which may be called the national bird of Norway, where it so
much abounds. The author has nowhere seen such fine specimens of this
bird except in the mountains of Colorado, where it is however very
rarely captured. In Scandinavia it changes the color of its plumage
very curiously, from a summer to a winter hue. In the first named
season these birds have a reddish brown tinge, quite clear and
distinctive; but in winter their plumage becomes of snowy
whiteness,--a fact from which naturalists are prone to draw some
finespun deductions.
As we advanced farther and farther northward our experiences became
more and more peculiar. It seemed that humanity, like Nature about
us, was possessed of a certain insomnia in these regions during the
constant reign of daylight. People were wide awake and busy at their
various occupations during all hours, while the drowsy god seemed to
have departed on a long journey to the southward. The apparent
incongruity of starting upon a fresh enterprise "in the dead vast and
middle of the night" was only realized on consulting one's watch.
To meet the temporary exigency caused by continuous daylight, as to
whether one meant day or night time in giving the figure on the dial,
the passengers adopted an ingenious mode of counting the hours. Thus
after twelve o'clock midday the count went on thirteen, fourteen, and
fifteen o'clock, until midnight, which was twenty-four o'clock. This
is a mode of designation adopted in both China and Italy.
Tromsoee is situated in latitude 69 deg. 38' north, upon a small but
pleasant island, though it is rather low compared with the
surrounding islands and the nearest main-land, but clothed when we
saw it, in July, to the very highest point with exquisite verdure. It
is a gay and thrifty little place built upon a slope, studded here
and there with attractive villas amid the trees; but the business
portion of the town is quite compact, and lies closely about the
shore. It is the largest and most important settlement in northern
Norway, being the capital of Norwegian Lapland, and having about six
thousand inhabitants. It rises to the dignity of a cathedral, and is
the seat of a bishopric. In the Market Place is a substantial Town
Hall, and a neat though small Roman Catholic church. There is also
here an excellent Museum, principally of Arctic curiosities and
objects relating to the history of the Lapps and Finlanders, with a
fair zoological department, also possessing a fine collection of
Alpine minerals. There are several schools, one of which is designed
to prepare teachers for their special occupation, somewhat after the
style of our Normal Schools. It must be admitted, however, that the
lower order of the people here are both ignorant and superstitious;
still, the conclusion was that Tromsoee is one of the most
interesting spots selected as a popular centre within the Arctic
Circle. Both to the north and south of the town snow-clad mountains
shut off distant views. During the winter months there are only four
hours of daylight here out of each twenty-four,--that is, from about
ten o'clock A. M. until two o'clock P. M.; but the long winter nights
are made comparatively light by the glowing and constant splendor of
the Aurora Borealis. The pride of Tromsoee is its cathedral, which
contains some really fine wood-carving; but the structure is small
and has no architectural merit. Though regular services are held here
on the Sabbath, that is about the only apparent observation of the
day by the people. Games and out-door sports are played in the very
churchyard, and balls and parties are given in the evening of the
Lord's Day; evidently they do not belong to that class of people who
think Sunday is a sponge with which to wipe out the sins of the week.
The streets are ornamented by the mountain-ash, birch-trees, and the
wild cherry, ranged uniformly on either side of the broad
thoroughfares. In one place it was noticed that a miniature park had
been begun by the planting of numerous young trees. The birches in
this neighborhood are of a grandly developed species, the handsomest
indeed which we remember to have seen anywhere. Just outside the town
there was observed a field golden with buttercups, making it
difficult to realize that we were in Arctic regions. A pink-blooming
heather also carpeted other small fields; and here for a moment we
were agreeably surprised at beholding a tiny cloud of butterflies, so
abundant in the warm sunshine and presenting such transparency of
color, as to suggest the idea that some rainbow had been shattered
and was floating in myriad particles on the buoyant air. The
short-lived summer perhaps makes flowers all the more prized and the
more carefully tended. In the rudest quarters a few pet plants were
seen, whose arrangement and nurture showed womanly care and
tenderness. Every window in the humble dwellings had its living
screen of drooping many-colored fuchsias, geraniums, forget-me-nots,
and monthly roses. The ivy is especially prized here, and is
picturesquely trained to hang gracefully about the architraves of the
windows. The fragrant sweet-pea, with its combined snow-white and
peach-blossom hues, was often mingled prettily with the dark green of
the ivy, the climbing propensities of each making them fitting
companions. In one or two windows was seen the brilliant flowering
bignonia (Trumpet-vine), and an abundance of soft green, rose-scented
geraniums. Surely there must be an innate sense of refinement among
the people of these frost-imbued regions, whatever their seeming,
when they are actuated by such delicate appreciations. "They are
useless rubbish," said a complaining husband to his hard-working
wife, referring to her little store of flowers. "Useless!" replied
the true woman, "how dare you be wiser than God?"
Vegetation within the Arctic Circle is possessed of an individual
vitality which seems to be independent of atmospheric influence.
Plants seem to have thawed a little space about them before the
snow quite disappeared, and to have peeped forth from their
frost-surrounded bed in the full vigor of life, while the grass
springs up so suddenly that its growth must have been well started
under cover of the snow. One of the most interesting subjects of
study to the traveller on the journey northward is to mark his
progress by the products of the forest. The trees will prove, if
intelligently observed, as definite in regard to fixing his position
as an astronomical observation could do. From the region of the date
and the palm we come to that of the fig and the olive, thence to the
orange, the almond, and the myrtle. Succeeding these we find the
walnut, the poplar, and the lime; and again there comes the region of
the elm, the oak, and the sycamore. These will be succeeded by the
larch, the fir, the pine, the birch, and their companions. After this
point we look for no change of species, but a diminution in size of
these last enumerated. The variety of trees is of course the result
of altitude as well as of latitude, since there are mountain regions
in southern Europe, as well as in America, where one may pass in a
few hours from the region of the olive to that of the stunted pine or
fir.
The staple commodities of Tromsoee are Lapps, reindeer, and midnight
sun. The universal occupation is that of fishing for cod, sharks, and
whales, to which may be added the curing or drying of the first and
the "trying out" of the latter, supplemented by the treatment of
cods' livers. From this place vessels are fitted out for Polar
expeditions, which creates a certain amount of local business in the
ship chandlery line. French, German, English, Russian, and Danish
flags were observed floating from the shipping in the harbor, which
presented a scene of considerable activity for so small a port. Some
of these vessels were fitting for the capture of seals and walruses
among the ice-fields of the Polar Sea, and also on the coast of
Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla. A small propeller was seen lying in the
stream fitted with a forecastle gun, from whence to fire a lance at
whales,--a species of big fishing which is profitably pursued here. A
huge carcass of this leviathan was stranded on the opposite side of
the harbor from where we were moored, and it is hardly necessary to
add that its decaying condition rendered the atmosphere extremely
offensive. As we lay at anchor little row-boats, with high bows and
sterns, flitted about the bay like sea-birds on the wing, and rode as
lightly on the surface of the water. These were often "manned" by a
couple of sturdy, bronzed women, who rowed with great precision and
stout arms, their eyes and faces glowing with animation. These boats,
of the same model as that thousand-year old Viking ship at
Christiania, seemed to set very low in the water amidship, but yet
were remarkable for their buoyancy, sharp bows and sterns, and the
ease with which they were propelled. The tall wooden fish-packing
houses which line the wharves suggest the prevailing industry of the
place. A long, low white building upon the hill-side also showed
that the manufacture of rope and cordage is a prominent industry of
the locality.
The Lapps in their quaint and picturesque costumes surrounded the
newly arrived steamer in their boats, offering furs, carved horn
implements, moccasons, walrus-teeth, and the like for sale. These
wares are of the rudest type, and of no possible use to civilized
people; but they are curious, and serve as mementos of the
traveller's visit to these northern latitudes. In the town there are
several stores where goods, manufactured by the better class of
Lapps, can be had of a finer quality than is offered by these
itinerants, who are very ready to pass off inferior articles upon
strangers. Their drinking-cups, platters, and dishes generally are
made of the wood of the birch. Spoons and forks are formed of the
horns and bones of the reindeer. In the fancy line they make some
curious bracelets from the roots of the birch-tree. These Lapps are
very shrewd in trade, and are not without plenty of low cunning
hidden behind their brown, withered, and expressionless faces.
On the main-land near by, as we were told, there are some singular
relics of antiquity, such as a series of large stones uniformly
arranged in circles, and high cairns of stone containing in their
centres one or more square chambers. At one place in this district
there is a remarkable mound of reindeer's horns and human bones,
mingled with those of unknown species of animals. It is believed that
here, centuries ago, the Lapps sacrificed both animals and human
beings to their Pagan deities. There are also some deep earth and
rock caves found in the same vicinity, which contain many human bones
with others of huge animals, which have excited great interest among
scientists. In the neighborhood of Tromsoee, and especially still
farther north, large numbers of eider-duck are found, so abundant
that no reliable estimate can be made of their number. The eggs are
largely used by the natives for food, the nests being also regularly
robbed of the down, while the birds with patient resignation continue
for a considerable period to lay eggs and to renew the soft lining of
their nests. The birds themselves are protected by law, no one being
permitted to injure them. The male bird is white and black, the
female is brown. In size they are larger than our domestic ducks.
Landing almost anywhere in this sparsely inhabited region along the
coast, but more particularly upon the islands, one finds the
eider-ducks upon their low accessible nests built of marine plants
among the rocks, and during incubation the birds are quite as tame as
barn-yard fowls. The down of these birds forms a considerable source
of income to many persons who make a business of gathering it. It has
always a fixed value, and is worth, we were told, in Tromsoee, ten
dollars per pound when ready for market. The waste in preparing it
for use is large, requiring four pounds of the crude article as it
comes from the nest to make one pound of the cleansed, merchantable
down. Each nest during the breeding season produces about a quarter
of a pound of the uncleansed article. When thoroughly prepared, it is
so firm and yet so elastic that the quantity which can be pressed
between the two hands will suffice to properly stuff a bed-quilt. It
is customary for a Norsk lover to present his betrothed with one of
these quilts previous to espousal, the contents of which he is
presumed to have gathered with his own hands. A peculiarity of
eider-down, as we were informed, is that if picked by hand from the
breast of the dead bird it has no elasticity whatever. The natural
color is a pale-brown. Many of the localities resorted to by the
birds for breeding purposes are claimed by certain parties, who erect
a cross or some other special mark thereon to signify that such
preserves are not to be poached upon. The birds, like the people, get
their living mostly by fishing, and are attracted hither as much by
the abundance of their natural food as by the isolation of their
breeding haunts.
The Lapps are to be seen by scores in the streets of Tromsoee. They
are small in stature, being generally under five feet, with high
cheek-bones, snub-noses, oblique Mongolian eyes, big mouths, large
ill-formed heads, faces preternaturally aged, hair like meadow hay,
and very scanty beards. Such is a photograph of the ancient race
that once ruled the whole of Scandinavia. By taking a short trip
inland one comes upon their summer encampment, formed of a few crude
huts, outside of which they generally live except in the winter
months. A Lapp sleeps wherever fatigue or drunkenness overcomes
him, preferring the ground, but often lying on the snow. He rises in
the morning refreshed from an exposure by which nearly any civilized
human being would expect to incur lasting if not fatal injury. They
are the gypsies of the North, and occupy a very low place in the
social scale, certainly no higher than that of the Penobscot Indians
of Maine. Their faculties are of a restricted order, and missionary
efforts among them have never yet yielded any satisfactory results.
Unlike our western Indians they are of a peaceful nature, neither
treacherous nor revengeful, but yet having many of the grosser
failings of civilized life. They are greedy, avaricious, very
dirty, and passionately fond of alcoholic drinks, but we were told
that serious crimes were very rare among them. No people could be
more superstitious, as they believe that the caves of the
half-inaccessible mountains about them are peopled by giants and
evil spirits. They still retain some of their half-pagan rites, such
as the use of magical drums and tom-toms for conjuring purposes, and
to frighten away or to propitiate supposed devils, malicious
diseases, and so on. The most advanced of the race are those who
inhabit northern Norway. The Swedish Lapps are considered as coming
next, while those under Russian dominion are thought to be the
lowest.
An old navigator named Scrahthrift, while making a voyage of
discovery northward, more than three centuries ago, wrote about the
Lapps as follows: "They are a wild people, which neither know God
nor yet good order; and these people live in tents made of
deerskins, and they have no certain habitations, but continue in
herds by companies of one hundred or two hundred. They are a people
of small stature and are clothed in deerskins, and drink nothing but
water, and eat no bread, but flesh all raw." They may have drunk
nothing but water three hundred years ago, but they drink alcohol
enough in this nineteenth century to make up for all former
abstemiousness. Scrahthrift wrote in 1556, and gave the first account
to the English-speaking world of this peculiar race whom modern
ethnologists class with the Samoyedes of Siberia and the Esquimaux,
the three forming what is called the Hyperborean Race. The word
_Samoyedes_ signifies "swamp-dwellers," and _Esquimau_ means "eater
of raw flesh."
The Lapps are natural nomads, their wealth consisting solely in their
herds of reindeer, to procure sustenance for which necessitates
frequent changes of locality. A Laplander is rich, provided he owns
enough of these animals to support himself and family. A herd that
can afford thirty full-grown deer for slaughter annually, and say ten
more to be sold or bartered, makes a family of a dozen persons
comfortably well off. But to sustain such a draft upon his resources,
a Lapp must own at least two hundred and fifty head. There is also a
waste account to be considered. Not a few are destroyed annually by
wolves and bears, notwithstanding the usual precautions against such
casualties, while in very severe winters numbers are sure to die of
starvation. They live almost entirely on the so-called reindeer moss;
but this failing them, they eat the young twigs of the trees. When
the snow covers the ground to a depth of not more than three or four
feet, these intelligent creatures dig holes in order to reach the
moss, and guided by some strong instinct they rarely fail to do so in
just the right place. The Lapps themselves would be entirely at a
loss for any indication where to seek the animal's food when it is
covered by the deep snow.
What the camel is to the Arab of the desert, the reindeer is to the
Laplander. Though found here in a wild state, they are not common,
and are very shy sometimes occupying partially inaccessible islands
near the main-land, swimming back and forth as necessity may demand.
The domestic deer is smaller than those that remain in a state of
nature, and is said to live only half as long. When properly broken
to harness, they carry lashed to their backs a hundred and thirty
pounds, or drag upon the snow, when harnessed to a sledge, two
hundred and fifty pounds, travelling ten miles an hour, for several
consecutive hours, without apparent fatigue. Some of the thread
prepared by the Lapp women from the sinews of the reindeer was shown
to us, being as fine as the best sewing-silk, and much stronger than
any silk thread made by modern methods.
These diminutive people are not so poorly off as one would at first
sight think them to be. The climate in which they live, though
terrible to us, is not so to them. They have their games, sports,
and festive hours. If their hardships were very trying they would not
be so proverbially long-lived. Though an ill-formed race, they are
yet rugged, hardy, and self-reliant. Their limbs are crooked and out
of proportion to their bodies; one looks in vain for a well-shaped or
perfect figure among them, and indeed it may be safely doubted
whether a straight-limbed Lapp exists. They are one and all
bow-legged. The country over which these people roam is included
within northern Norway, Sweden, Russia, and Finland, say extending
over seven thousand square miles; but the whole race will hardly
number thirty thousand in the aggregate. Lapland in general terms may
be said to be the region lying between the Polar Ocean and the Arctic
Circle, the eastern and western boundaries being the Atlantic Ocean
and the White Sea, two thirds of which territory belong to Russia,
and one third is about equally divided between Norway and Sweden.
We repeat that the reindeer is to the Lapp what the camel is to the
Arab. This small creature is the Lapp's cow, horse, food, clothing,
tent, everything. Food is not stored for the animals, as they are
never under cover even in the severest weather, and they must procure
their own food or starve. The females give but a small quantity of
milk, not more than the amount yielded by a well-fed goat, but it is
remarkably rich and nourishing. Oddly enough, as it seemed to us,
they are milked but twice a week; and when this process is performed,
each animal must be lassoed and firmly held by one person while
another milks. Many of the doe on the occasion of our visit were
accompanied by their fawns, of which they often have two at a birth.
These little creatures are able to follow their dam twenty-four hours
after birth. We were told that the bucks are inclined to kill the
fawns when they are first born, but are fiercely attacked by the dams
and driven away. A Swiss chamois is not more expert in climbing
mountains than are these Norway deer; and were it not for the
efficient help of their dogs, which animals are as sagacious as the
Scotch sheep-dogs, the Lapps would often find it nearly impossible to
corral their herds for milking and other purposes. In their nature
deer are really untamable, being never brought into such complete
subjection as to be quite safe for domestic use. Even when broken to
harness, that is when attached to the snow-sledge or carrying burdens
lashed to their backs, they will sometimes without any premonition
break out into rank rebellion and violently attack their masters. We
were told by an intelligent resident of Tromsoee that the Lapps never
abuse these animals, even when they are attacked by them. They only
throw some garment upon the ground upon which the buck vents his
rage; after which the owner can appear and resume his former control
of the animal, as though nothing had happened out of the common
course of events.
The Lapps live in low, open tents during the summer season, moving
from place to place as food is found for their herds, but keeping
near the sea-coast for purposes of trade, as well as to avoid those
terrible pests the gad-fly and the mosquito, insects too obnoxious
for even the endurance of a Laplander. In the winter they retire far
inland, where they build temporary huts of the branches of the trees,
plastering them inside and out with clay, but leaving a hole in the
top to act as a chimney and convey away the smoke, the fire being
always built upon a broad flat stone in the centre of the hut. In
these rude, and according to our estimate comfortless, cabins they
hibernate rather than live the life of civilized beings for eight
months of the year. Hunting and fishing occupy a portion of their
time; and to kill a bear is considered a most honorable achievement,
something to boast of for life, rendering the successful hunter quite
a hero among his associates. Though the forest, river, and sea
furnish this people with more or less food throughout the year, still
the Lapp depends upon his herd for fixed supplies of sustenance. The
milk made into cheese is his most important article of food, and is
stored for winter use. Few are so poor as not to own forty or fifty
reindeer. The Norwegians and Swedes who live in their neighborhood
have as great a prejudice against the Lapps as our western citizens
have against the North American Indians. This as regards the Lapps is
perhaps more especially on account of their filthiness and
half-barbarous habits. It must be admitted that a visit to their huts
near Tromsoee leads one to form an extremely unfavorable opinion of
the race. When a couple of young Lapps desire to become married a
priest is sometimes employed, but by common acceptation among them
the bride's father is equally qualified to perform the ceremony,
which is both original and simple. It consists in placing the hands
of the two contracting parties in each other, and the striking of
fire with a flint and steel, when the marriage is declared to be
irrevocable. Promiscuous as their lives seem to be in nearly all
respects, we were told that when a Lapp woman was once married the
attendant relationship was held sacred. Though it was our fate to
just miss witnessing a marriage ceremony here, the bride and groom
were pointed out to us, appearing like two children, so diminutive
were they. The dress of the two sexes is so similar that it is not
easy for a stranger to distinguish at a glance men from women, except
that the latter are not so tall as the former. Polygamy is common
among them. Men marry at the age of eighteen, women at fifteen; but
as a race they are not prolific, and their numbers, as we were
informed, are steadily decreasing. The average Laplander is less than
five feet in height, and the women rarely exceed four feet. The
latter are particularly fond of coffee, sugar, and rye flour, which
the men care nothing for so long as they can get corn brandy,--a
local distillation quite colorless but very potent. The Norwegians
have a saying of reproach concerning one who is inclined to drink too
much: "Don't make a Lapp of yourself." Both men and women are
inveterate smokers, and next to money you can give them nothing more
acceptable than tobacco.
Nature is sometimes anomalous. Among the group of Lapp men and women
whom we met in the streets of Tromsoee, there stood one, a tall
stately girl twenty-two years of age, more or less, who presented in
her really fine person a singular contrast to her rude companions.
Unmistakable as to her race, she was yet a head and shoulders taller
than the rest, but possessing the high cheek-bones, square face, and
Mongolian cast of eyes which characterizes them. There was an air of
dignified modesty and almost of beauty about this young woman, spite
of her leather leggins, queer moccasons, and rough reindeer clothes.
Her fingers were busily occupied, as she stood there gracefully
leaning against a rough stone-wall in the soft sunshine, twisting the
sinews of the deer into fine thread, while she carelessly glanced up
now and again at the curious eyes of the author who was intently
regarding her. One could not but imagine what remarkable
possibilities lay hidden in this individual; what a change education,
culture, and refined associations might create in her; what a social
world there was extant of which she had never dreamed! It was
observed that her companions of both sexes seemed to defer to her,
and we fancied that she must be a sort of queen bee in the Lapps'
hive.
There is one thing observable and worthy of mention as regards the
domestic habits of these rude Laplanders, and that is their apparent
consideration for their women. The hard work is invariably assumed
by the men. The women carry the babies, but the men carry all heavy
burdens, and perform the rougher labor contingent upon their simple
domestic lives. The women milk, but the men must drive the herds from
the distant pasturage, lasso the doe, and hold the animals by the
horns during the process. It is not possible to tame or domesticate
them so as to submit to this operation with patience like a cow. Up
to a certain age the Lapp babies are packed constantly in dry moss,
in place of other clothing during their infancy, this being renewed
as occasion demands,--thus very materially economizing laundry labor.
The little creatures are very quiet in their portable cradles,
consisting of a basket-frame covered with reindeer hide, into which
they are closely strapped. The cases are sometimes swung hammock
fashion between two posts, and sometimes hung upon a peg outside the
cabins in the sunshine. It is marvellous to what a degree of seeming
neglect semi-barbarous babies will patiently submit, and how quietly
their babyhood is passed. Probably a Japanese, Chinese, or Lapp baby
_can_ cry upon occasion; but though many hours have been passed by
the author among these people, he never heard a breath of complaint
from the wee things.
Some of the Lapps are quite expert with the bow and arrow, which was
their ancient weapon of defence as well as for hunting, it being the
primitive weapon of savages wherever encountered. Few of this people
possess firearms. The long sharp knife and the steel-tipped arrow
still form their principal arms. With these under ordinary
circumstances, when he chances upon the animal, a Lapp does not
hesitate to attack the black bear, provided she has not young ones
with her, in which case she is too savage a foe to attack
single-handed. In starting out upon a bear-hunt, several Lapps
combine, and spears are taken with the party as well as firearms if
they are fortunate enough to possess them.
As we were standing among the Lapps in Tromsoee, with some passengers
from the steamer, a bevy of children just returning from school
joined the group. A blue-eyed, flaxen-haired girl of ten or eleven
years in advance of the rest attracted the attention of a gentleman
of the party, who presented her with a bright silver coin. The child
took his hand in both her own, pressed it with exquisite natural
grace to her lips, courtesied and passed on. This is the universal
act of gratitude among the youth of Norway. The child had been taken
by surprise, but she accepted the little gift with quiet and
dignified self-possession. There is no importunity or beggary to be
encountered in Scandinavia.