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176 REGNARD’S JOURNEY TO LAPLAND,
pike: but they make large apertures in the ice, at ftated diftances, and pufh, by means
of a pole, which goes below the ice, their nets, from aperture to aperture, and draw
them out in the fame manner. But what is ftill more furprifing, is, that they often
catch {wallows in their nets, which hold, by means of their claws, themfelves attached
to fome {mall pieces of wood. They appear dead, when they come out of the water,
having no fymptoms of life; but when they are placed near to the fire, and begin to
feel the heat, they recover a little, then clap their wings, and begin to fly, as they do
infummer. This ftrange fact has been confirmed to me by all thofe whom I talked
with on the fubject.
We fet out on our journey on Wednefday morning, and after having croffed to the
other fide of the torrent, we walked a fhort league on foot. We obferved on the road
a Lapiand-hut, compofed of leaves and turf. All the property was behind the houfe,
placed on fome planks: it confifted of fome fkins of the rein-deer, fome utenfils for
working with, and feveral nets which hung upon a rod. After having examined the
whole, we purfued our courfe to the eaft, in the woods, without any road. Wefound
in the middle, a Lapland-magazine, con{tructed upon four trees, which made a fquare
fpace. The whole of this edifice, covered with planks, was fupported upon four
pieces of wood, which are generally fir, and from which the Laplanders remove the
bark, for the purpofe of preventing particularly the wolves and the bears from climbing
up thefe trees, which they rub over with gréafe and train-oil. Itis in this magazine
that the Laplanders lay up their whole wealth, which confifts of dried fifh or flefh of
the rein-deer. Thefe fortified habitations are in the middle of the woods, at the
diftance of two or three leagues from the Laplander’s hut; the fame individual will
fometimes have two or three in different places. It isin this manner, that, as they are
continually expofed to the fury of the wild beafts, they employ their whole addrefs to
render their attempts unfuccefsful; but it frequently happens, notwith{tanding all
their exertions, that the bears deftroy all the toil of a Laplander, and eat in one day
all that he has collected during a whole year, which actually happened to one whom
we met on the lake of Tornotrefch, and whom we again found on our return, ex-
tremely difconfolate at the deftruétion of his magazine by the bears, who had devoured
all that it contained. ~
They have alfo another kind of reférvoir, which they call na/la, like the reft alfo
in the middle of the wood, but which is only placed ona fingle pivot. ‘They cut down a
tree fix or feven feet high, and place upon the trunk of it, two pieces of wood acrofs
each other, upon which they erect this little edifice, which has the fame appearance
with a pigeon-houfe, and is covered with planks. They have no other ladder, with -
which they mount to this refervoir, than the trunk of a tree, in which they cut a kind
of fteps. After having {till marched about half-an-hour, we arrived at the borders of
the lake, where we tound a little Laplander extremely old, with his fon who was
going to fifh. We afked queftions on feveral fubjeéts, particularly with refpect to his
age, which he was ignorant of; this want of knowledge is general among the Lap-
landers, who, almoft every one, not only are ignorant of the year in which they
live, but who only know time, by the tranfition from winter to fummer. We gave
him fome {pirits and tobacco, and he told us, that having feen us from his hut, he
retreated into the wood, from whence however he beheld us, and having obferved,
that we had done him no injury, and had carried nothing off, he had ventured to fally
out from his hiding-place, that he might attend to his ufual occupation. The good treat-
meat which we difplayed to this poor fellow, in giving him tobacco and fpirits, which
are the moft acceptable prefents which could be made to a Laplander, induced him
to
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