The Mountains [1]

The Mountains

6th. I left Kvikkjokk in the afternoon and after 1 3/4 miles came to the mountain VALLEVARE, which was easily 1 3/4 miles high. When I reached its slopes I seemed to be led up into a new world and, as I ascended it, I might as well have been in Africa or Asia, for the soil, the situation, and all the plants were unfamiliar to me. I had now arrived in the mountains. All around me lay snow-covered hills and I was walking upon snow as though in the depths of winter. All of the rare plants I had seen before and rejoiced in existed here as if in miniature; what is more, there was such an abundance of them that I was terrified that there were more than I could possibly deal with.

These high hills, each rising above the other, were not unduly precipitous and they were covered with a scattering of stones, all of which were splintered and therefore easy to recognise. The snow, which lay on the mountains in sufficient quantity to half-cover the ground, produced a permanent stream of water, like a spring for the refreshment of travellers. It tasted excellent as it cut its way through the deep snow like a river.

The little ptarmigan, woodcock-coloured but with white wings, had chicks. I caught one of them and its mother ran right up to me and I could have caught her too. She ran round me continuously and I could have killed her a 100 times over without difficulty, had I not respected her maternal affection and taken care not to leave the small chicks unprotected in their youth. So I restored her son to her.

7th July. Having walked 25 to 30 miles during the night I went to bed in a hut in the morning.

The people, of whom there were 16, lay naked, washed themselves by rubbing downwards but not upwards, and did not dry themselves. They washed utensils with their fingers, squirting water from their mouths onto the ladle, into which they then poured boiled reindeer milk. It was as thick as egg and milk soup and tasted strong.

Several thousand reindeer came home in the morning and were milked by both men and women, who went down on one knee to do it.

I removed gnawing maggots from the swellings on a couple of the reindeer.

I saw here copious numbers of large yellow-collared flies that I had not seen before. They are perhaps the same sort as I saw earlier since they have long tails.

I was given “mes” to eat, ie. the whey that is left over after cheese has been made and which has then coagulated so that it is reminiscent of beer cheese. It goes very hard and it tasted fine and strong, but my appetite was undoubtedly taken away by the washing of the spoon, for the man of the house took water in his mouth and sprayed it on it, scrubbing and drying it with his finger. Meanwhile, his wife washed the vessel that the milk was in with a finger that she licked clean after each stroke.

I also tasted common sorrel mixed in with milk but the taste did not appeal to me.

I saw birds – snow buntings and many golden plover (“hutti” in Lappish). Wheatear.

The Lapps here do not shoot very often and seldom possess a gun. Instead, when they are not tending the reindeer, they spend the whole day lying at peace and eating nothing but milk and products thereof.

The clicking noise made by reindeer does not come from their hooves nor from their lowermost joints.

The women as well as the men smoke tobacco; everyone over the age of 12 or 15 smokes.

‘Cerastrium flore maximo’ [Alpine Mouse-ear] and ‘Lycopodium echinat’ [Fir Clubmoss] were growing everywhere.