The Land of the Long Night Part 15

He replied, "The reindeer are hungry, and we have had no food ourselves for long hours. Let us remain overnight and breakfast here to-morrow."

In the mean time the owner of the place got up, put on a long dirty woolen shirt, and went with us into the next room, which was clean. I gave a sigh of relief. The wooden bed had no hay, no sheepskin blankets.

The man got for me a clean reindeer skin which he said had just come out of the open air, where it had been for several days.

To my consternation my Lapp guide offered to sleep alongside of me, and added, "We shall be warmer if we sleep together." I was in a dilemma. I did not want to offend him, but I told him that I always slept by myself. Then the owner of the place spread another reindeer skin on the floor, and my guide slept upon it.

The next morning we breakfasted on dried reindeer meat, hard bread, and milk. After bidding our host good-bye, and thanking him for his hospitality, we continued our journey, arriving towards noon at a farm owned by a river Lapp. The farm had three buildings; only the wife and daughter were at home. The husband was cod fishing in the Arctic Sea.

The wife told me she had been a sailor before she was married, and engaged in cod fishing.

There were on this farm three diminutive cows, an ox of the size of the cows, nine sheep, and they owned besides quite a number of reindeer. The cows were getting smaller and smaller as I went north. In the little dwelling-house was a small room for a stranger; reindeer skins made the mattress. My guide and I ate together. We had excellent coffee, smoked reindeer meat, and milk.

Further on we stopped awhile at a little farm owned by a woman and her daughter. The mother and daughter worked as if they were men; they fished for salmon in the river in summer, mowed hay, collected reindeer moss to feed their cows, went after wood. A faithful dog was their companion. At some seasons the daughter descended the river, and engaged herself as one of the crew on board of a fishing boat on the Arctic Ocean.

Resuming our journey we pa.s.sed the church hamlet of Utsjoki. Near Utsjoki I met some nomadic Lapps, who had a large herd of reindeer with them, and were willing to take me to Nordkyn. That night I slept in their tent. Early the next morning they la.s.soed some very fine reindeer, which had superb horns and had not been used for quite a while. I did not care now how fast the reindeer went, for I could keep inside of my sleigh. The men said: "We will meet on the promontory Lapps with their reindeer herds, and if it is very stormy we can go into their tent."

Soon after we started.

They were not mistaken in regard to the speed of their beasts. They set off at a furious pace, and it was all I could do to keep inside of my sleigh. My pride was up, and I was bound to do my utmost not to upset.

We finally reached the high promontory which divides the Laxe from the Tana fjord, at the extremity of which is Nordkyn. It was blowing a gale right from the north, and we had to protect our faces with our masks.

Fortunately we came to a Lapp encampment, and were received with great kindness and hospitality; enjoyed a good meal of reindeer meat, and a good sleep afterwards.

The next morning the weather was fine, and I drove on to Kjorgosk Njarg--hard name to p.r.o.nounce--the most northern land in Europe.

The land's end was nearing, and erelong I stood on the edge of Cape Nordkyn, 71 6' 50"--the most northern end of the continent of Europe, and rising majestically over seven hundred feet above the level of the sea. Before me was the Arctic Ocean, and beyond, a long way off and unseen by me, was the impenetrable wall of ice which the Long Night had built to guard the Pole.

From there I could see North Cape.

CHAPTER XXII

LEAVE NORDKYN.--FRANTIC EFFORTS OF THE REINDEER TO KEEP THEIR FOOTING ON THE ICE.--THE BEAR'S NIGHT.--FOXES AND ERMINES.--WEIRD CRIES OF FOXES.--BUILDING SNOW HOUSES.--SHOOTING-BOXES.--KILLING FOXES.--TRAPS FOR ERMINES.--A SNOW OWL.

Nordkyn being the land's end, I could not go further north, so I retraced my steps southward. That afternoon we saw on the other side of a frozen lakelet the tent of some nomadic Lapps, and we made preparations to cross the lake to go and see them.

While we were in the midst of the lake the wind rose, and before we knew it the ice was left bare around us, and our reindeer could not run or walk over it, it was so slippery. They would fall at every step they made, making all kinds of contortions to try to stand on their legs; their hoofs could not possibly hold on fast to the ice. We got out of our sleighs to help them. I said to myself that reindeer ought to be shod, especially to go over the ice.

It was awful--the poor beasts made frantic efforts to get on, but could not. I thought we should never be able to cross the lake, and that we should be obliged to abandon the reindeer, or try to put them into our sleighs, and drag these ourselves to the sh.o.r.e. But we watched our opportunity, and when a layer of snow was blown in our way, we succeeded in making some headway. At last we reached the sh.o.r.e, after three or four hours of hard work.

The Lapps received us very kindly.

That night I heard the weird and dismal howls of foxes. They sounded so strange in the stillness of darkness. In the morning I asked the Lapps how many kinds of foxes were found in the country. "There are red, blue, and black foxes," they answered. "During the Bear's Night or winter months the blue foxes and the gray hares turn white; the fur of the black fox is tipped with white, and he is known as the silver-gray fox, the fur thus tipped being very valuable. The ptarmigan also, a species of grouse, turns white during the Bear's Night."

I asked the Lapps, "Why do you call the winter months the 'Bear's Night'?"

"Because," one replied, "in this land the bears sleep all through the winter months."

"Goodness!" I exclaimed; "then the bear has a sleep that lasts five or six months, and even more?"

"Yes," the Lapp replied.

"Are there any bears here," I asked, "that are sleeping in the neighborhood?--for I should like immensely to stir one up."

"There are none this year," he replied.

Then I said to him, "Let us go fox hunting, for I should like to get some white and silver-gray fox-skins. We will build a snow house for our camp to shelter ourselves." One of the Lapps, called Jakob, agreed to go with me.

Besides hunting foxes, we were to trap ermines and kill white hares, for I wanted to have a rug of their skins. I remembered that I had slept between two rugs of white hare skins, and how beautiful, soft, and warm they were.

After this talk Jakob went off after reindeer, and returned with three of them. In a short time our preparations for camping were made. We took with us our sleeping-bags, some reindeer meat, a little salt, some hard bread, a coffee kettle, coffee, a small iron pot to cook our food in, two wooden shovels to help us in building a snow house and clearing the ground of snow, our skees, guns, and ammunition. I did not forget a couple of wax candles, for I always carried some with me, and plenty of matches, besides a steel and flints in case some accident should happen to our matches. We took also a few slender poles, upon which we intended to hang our meat to keep it out of reach of prowling carnivorous animals. These carefully packed and made secure in a special sleigh, we started. Our sleighs glided along as if they were going on smooth ice.

After a journey of four hours, having travelled about sixty miles, we came to the sh.o.r.es of a lake, and at one end were two conical dwellings belonging to fishing or river Lapps. The smoke curling above their tops showed us the people were at home.

"Here," said Jakob, "we will build our snow houses. I think we shall find plenty of foxes in the neighborhood, for the country is full of ptarmigans, and the foxes prey upon them."

We tied our reindeer with long ropes, so that they should have plenty of room to dig for moss. Then we began to build our snow house. It was so cold that the snow did not hold well together, so we concluded to make two instead of one, just big enough for each of us to sleep in and be protected from the great cold. It was hard work. When finished they were a little over five feet and a half long and some three feet wide inside.

"I like this much better than going in and sleeping in the dwellings of the river or fishing Lapps yonder," I said to Jakob.

Clearing a s.p.a.ce for our fire in front, we put up three long poles we had carried with us, and hung our meat high up upon them, so that wolves and foxes could not get at it. Then we put our sleighs containing our outfit on the top of each other and made them fast with cords. When this was done Jakob said: "Foxes are often very bold, and they come and rummage around the tents; and when famished they bite everything they get hold of. We shall be able to hear them from our snow houses if they try to get into our sleighs."

We had carried with us a few sticks of dry wood to be used as firewood, but Jakob knew the country well and that near us were some junipers, the branches of which appeared above the snow, and he went and gathered some of them. The wood of the juniper, though green, burns well, for it is full of resinous matter.

Our camp was now ready. The day's work being done we lighted a fire, cooked a piece of reindeer meat for our supper, and made coffee. Jakob, as usual, had some dried fish skin with him to clarify the coffee. After our meal we went into our snow houses, and taking off my Lapp gra.s.s and stockings, I laid them inside of my kapta on my chest to dry the dampness out of them during the night. Then I got into my bag. Jakob did likewise, and after bidding each other good-night we fell asleep. Our houses were warm and comfortable.

During the night we were startled by the piercing howls of foxes, and these kept us awake for a time. How dismal those howls sounded. We had evidently come to a good place to find foxes! Jakob evidently knew what he was about, and had brought me to the right place.

When we awoke the weather had become colder, the thermometer marking 45 degrees below zero. After a breakfast of reindeer meat and a cup of coffee we went to reconnoitre on our skees and saw many tracks of foxes.

I was delighted at the discovery, and said to myself, "Paul, do not leave this place till you have a few fox skins." I wished all the time that these tracks might be those of the white and silver-gray foxes, for they were the ones I particularly wanted.

On our return the fishing Lapps from the other side of the lake came on their skees to pay us a visit, and invited us to come and see them.

Looking at their faces I thought they had not been washed for months, for a coat of dirt covered their skins. I looked at their fur garments with great suspicion, and kept away from them without appearing to do so. I found it necessary to use all the tact I possessed to avoid wounding their susceptibilities.

After their departure Jakob said: "I am going to take the reindeer to some friends of mine who have their camp within two hours from this place, and they will take care of them until we go back." Then he bade me good-bye, saying, "I will not be long."

I watched him until I lost sight of him and of the reindeer. Then I put on my skees, took my gun, and went to look for foxes, and soon came upon fresh tracks of them. Once or twice I thought I saw white foxes, but they are difficult to see at a long distance, being of the color of the snow, and I could not be sure. Being satisfied of their presence in our neighborhood, I returned to the camp.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "I advanced cautiously."]

As I came within sight of our shelter I thought I saw on the snow, near one of the poles where the reindeer meat was hung, something that was not there when I had left. It was possible that it was only the snow that had been piled up in heaps by us. "Strange," I said to myself, "that I did not notice that this morning." I advanced cautiously, when suddenly I discovered that what I thought so strange was three foxes, white ones, seated and looking up intently at the reindeer meat, probably thinking how they might reach it. I watched them while they stood still and kept their heads up, looking at the meat. I was glad the meat was out of their reach, otherwise we should have had no supper. I stood perfectly still and kept watching them. The three foxes did not move. Suddenly one turned round, and when he saw me he gave the alarm to his companions and off they ran at a great rate, and soon were out of sight.

When I came to the camp I saw that the foxes had gone round and round the pole, in the hope of finding a way to reach the meat. It was lucky that they had not intelligence enough to dig the snow with their paws at the foot of the pole to make it come down.

After this, looking over the snow, I saw in the distance a little black spot, which grew bigger and bigger as it came nearer. I recognized Jakob on his skees.

Soon after he arrived in our camp I told him about the foxes. "They will come again," he replied, "for they are hungry. Other foxes will also come, for they will surely scent our meat."