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256 JOURNEY OF MAUPERTUIS.
I leave my reflections and the monument to the conje€tures which may be entertained
on them, and take up the thread of-my relation. After we had copied what we found
on the ftone, we embarked in our pulkas to return to Erckiheicki. This journey was
fill more fatiguing than it had been in the morning: the pofture in the pulkas is fo
very incommodious, that it gives the fenfation of a broken back after a few hours; not-
withftanding we were fo feated continually from four in the morning until one in the
afternoon. Our return was ftill longer ; our deer ftopped every minute, and the mofs
we carried with us being all confumed, we were obliged to feek fome. When the fnow
isin powder, which is the cafe till fpring, although it cover the earth entirely to a great
depth, a rein deer digs himfelf a ftable in a moment, and brufhing away the fnow on all
fides, difcovers the mofs which is hid atthe bottom. It is pretended that the animal has
a particular inftiné& for finding the mofs fo covered with fnow, and that he is never de-
ceived when he makes his hole; but the ftate of the furface of {now hindered my afcer-
taining whether this account be true or falfe. As foon as this furface has been thawed
by the power of the fun, the froft which fucceeds freezes it, and forms a cruft fuficiently
hard to bear men, deer, and even horfes; but when fo hardened, the rein-deer being
unable to penetrate it, the Laplanders are obliged to break it; and this is the total of
the returns which they make them for their fervices.
Thefe rein-deer deferve that we fhould fay fomething of them: they are a kind of
deer whofe fpreading horns branch out before the forehead ; they feem defigned by
nature to fatisfy all the wants of the Laplanders ; they ferve them inftead of horfes,
cows, and fheep.
The rein-deer is faftened to a fmall boat, called a pulka, pointed before to cut through
the fnow, and a man in a pofture half-fitting and half-lying in this carriage, may go
with great fpeed, provided he does not fear overturning, or being ingulphed in the fnow.
The defh of them is excellent to eat,-either frefh or dried. ‘The milk of the doe is
rather fharp, but as thick as the cream from cows’ milk : it is capable when frozen of
being preferved for a long time, and the Laplanders make cheefes of it, which however
would be much better than they are, if more care and cleanlinefs were ufed in making
them.
The dkin of the deer ferves for all forts of clothing : that of the young ones, covered
with a yellowifh hair, a little curly, forms a very foft lining for the cloaths of the Fins :
when older, the hair becomes brown, when thofe drefles are made of it fo well known
over Europe by the name of Lapmades ; they are worn with the hair outwards, and are
avery light and warm drefs. ‘The fkin of the old deer is prepared in the fame manner
as that of bucks and does, and makes excellent gloves, the fineft waiftcoats, and moft
handfome girdles. The Laplanders make the nerves and guts, by twifting them into
thread, which isthe only kind they ufe. To conclude, that every part of them may be
ferviceable, they offer their horns in facrifice to their deities.
Being returned from Pellika, after having experienced much fatigue, cold, and tire-
fomeneis, we left it again on the thirteenth, early in the morning, and arrived by nine
o’clock at Kingis.
This place, although a wretched one, is rather more known than the others, by the iron
forges init: the ore is brought there during the winter by rein-deer, from the mines of Ju-
nefvando and Swappawara. Thefe forges are worked only for a fhort part of the winter,
the extreme froft not allowing the wheels to act upon the bellows and hammers. Kingis
is fituated on a branch of the river Torneo, which has a dreadful cataract before it, im-
paflable for boats. ‘The maffes of ice and foam precipitated with violence, and forming
a cafcade, the edges of which appeared like cryftal, formed a moft noble fpectacle. After
I dining
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