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TRAVELS OF FHRENMALM. 303
we faw might be tilled, if the Laplanders were made to quit their wandering life of
fhepherds, for the ftationary life of tillers; or if the Swedifh colonies were to increafe
and extend by degrees to thefe mountains. It would be imprudent to plant an ifolated
colony here. The con{truction of houfes would be difficult and too expenfive, in a
place from which the neareft woods of fir are fix miles diftant. The neceflary ad-
vances for two or three years would become burthenfome, to tranfport cattle by water
would be difficult; to condué& them by land troublefome.. When the colony en-
larged, they would perhaps want wood to build new houles, or to inclofe fields, or
even for firing. ‘Trees, which grow more flowly than men, would not aflift the
wauts of cultivation, and might deprive the colonifts of the fruit of their advances and
pains. ‘The general maxim for the clearing of land, is to doit by degrees, by advancing
from all the inhabited places which furround the untilled country. Men fhould proceed
ftep by ftep, like nature. The population and culture of a defart miuft not be com-
mienced at the centre, but at the circumference. ‘The borders of a heath join to fruitful
lands; it is there it fhould be vivified by the communication of feeds and the fources
of cultivation. Every other method is in vain and ruinous. The nations of Europe
who were willing to feize on the interior lands of America, have loft their popula-
tion and their culture. ‘The Englith, who have only occupied the fea coafts, have
gathered ftrength, increafed, and enriched themfelves. The colonies of the in-
terior will in the end be invaded by thofe of the extremities. It is becaufe the for-
mer are infulated, while the latter are fupported by a free communication with their
metropolis.
We travelled two miles more to arrive at the mountain of Kitfchewari. Although it
was the middle of Auguft, we walked over fnow, with a kind of pattens made of green
branches. We met with more ice-houfes, than could be wifhed for in this feafon, in
the warmeft countries of Europe.
Here the travellers feparated in order to proceed, fome towards the north beyond the
mountain, the others towards the fouth over an extenfive and marfhy land. It reaches
in the form of a circle for two miles to theS. } W. Many hills of various heights are
there obferved, covered with fome pines and bufhes. ‘Thofe who pafled beyond the
mountain, difcovered to the N. E. and by E., the weftern extremity of the lake Malgomai,
about three miles from Kitfchewari : the two lakes of Lidfio, to the N. E. and by N. to the
north, a part of the lake of Koultfio which the Anghermanna crofles ; to the N. N. E. the
lake of Marfio which communicates with that of Malgomai. Lidfio is three miles and
a half from the mountain ; Koultfio and Marfio are four miles. From the fame place
are alfo feen, twelve miles to the N. E. the mountains of Lyckfele-fiall ; Mars-fiall five
miles to the N N.E.; Fiald-fiall twelve miles north; Biork-fiall, nine miles to the
N. W. and by N.; Arnas-fiall, twelve miles N. W. ; the mountains of Norway 20 miles
W. ; N.; Hammardahls-fiall, eight miles to the W. S. W.;. Yemptelands-fiall, twelve
miles to the S. W. and by S. ; Block-fiall, four miles to the S. E. ; and, laftly, Arkfio,
fourteen miles to the S. W., and many other mountains which, on account of their fmall-
nefs, have no name, although it does not fecure them from being covered with {now,
nearly the whole of the year. In the midit of this frightful compats, the traveller feels
the fuperiority of nature over human ftrength. In other countries we find it yield to
the induftry of man, which changes the face of the earth. The fea even affords a
paflage to man through its tempetts, and its rocks. But here the mouutains forbid him
from afar to approach, and their fummits briftled with flakes of ice oppole to his au-
dacity a barrier more formidable than the fires which formerly burned on a mountaia
ef Arabia. The foot of volcanos is inhabited ; the mountains of Norway and Lapland
342 can
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