SUMMER IN FINLAND.'

WE would offer the above heading to the author of Trig. nettes from Finland; or, Twelve Months in Strawberry Land,

as a more appropriate title to her book than that which she has chosen ; for the twelve months of her residence in Finland do not appear to have been consecutive, and her knowledge of the country seems to be confined to its summer aspect. Finland presents a very different appearance in her wintry and her summer dress ; but though the former may be her principal and most characteristic wear—for the winter endures for seven weary months—the latter is certainly the most charming and the most interesting, and we may say at once that its beauty loses but little in the equally charming and in. teresting description which Miss Clive-Bayley has given us. If this is the author's first essay in literature, she is to be con- gratulated upon the possession of many of the qualifications which go towards making a successful writer,—a pleasant and natural style, a decided talent for descriptive writing, and, above all, the sympathetic power of attuning herself to her subject. We all remember the historic criticism passed by a fair American on her first introduction to the Alps- " My ! ain't it rustic ! " Miss Clive-Bayley shows herself in better harmony with the spirit of her surroundings. The description which was singularly misapplied to the Swiss mountains, is one, however, that might very fairly be applied to Finland. There is nothing of awe-inspiring grandeur in its scenery, not even in the famous cataract of Imatra.

Its beauty is of a quiet, almost homely, loveliness, which finds a fitting expression in the author's simple and unaffected prose.

The visitor, who wishes to see Finland under the best and most favourable aspect, should always arrive by sea, thread- ing the passage of the innumerable islets that guard he' rocky coast,—the ideal "desert islands "of childhood's dreams The author's description is worth quoting:—

" Soon after changing pilots, we came among the larger islands, which seemed to increase in size Ls we neared land. They were rich in tall timber, some of the firs rising in faultless spires above the forests, while others showed like ragged masts against the sky, and spoke of wind and tempest. Rushes fringed the • Viononas from Finland. By Min A. M. Olin-Bayley, London: Bampeoe Low, Manton. and Oo. islands now and again with a dash of exquisite verdure, but in the grey light the colour of the forest seemed sombre, though here and there relieved by the delicate hues of the silver birch. Suddenly we changed our course a little, and the sun caught some of the yellows and greys of what I suppose are sand, limestone, and granite rocks, and gilded them with a perfect halo of light. The channel, too, opened out, and the reaches of water between the larger islands were very beautiful. Wooden huts, rich in red, showed here and there among the trees, and now and again a little craft, poised motionless as a bird with folded wings, appeared in the bend of a bay, or close to the shore of some islet. A few of the islands stood out high and precipitous, almost as though they were fortified. It is, at all events, a charming entrance to the Empire which stretches eastward to the further shore of Asia."

With the political status of Finland as a province of the Russian Empire the author wisely does not concern herself very much, though she touches lightly upon some of the petty tyrannies which seem inseparable from Russian government, but, fortunately, have not yet marred the friendly relations existing between the Fin and the Russian. The Finlander would require a great deal of provocation before he could be induced to abandon his attitude of peaceful and law-abiding forbearance. The character of the people is well brought out by the author, though, we think, she lays too much stress upon the difference between the Svekoman and the Finoman, a distinction which loses its force with every year that passes. The fact of a different language and, to some extent, of a different social status dividing the population of the country into what appears to be two separate races, cannot fail to impress a foreigner at first sight ; but experience shows that division to be more superficial and apparent than real. Education or circumstances constantly converts the Finoman into the Svekoman ; while every Svekoman, at the first hint of Russian oppression, proves himself a Finoman at heart. The author seems to have been more interested in the Fino- man peasantry than the Svekoman nobility and burghers, and her account of the rural population is entertaining as well as instructive. Farming in Finland, in spite of the recent introduction of more scientific methods, is still carried out, for the most part, on rather primitive principles. The wasteful custom of burning the forest in order to obtain more arable land is still prevalent, as the author shows, and an occasional failure in the harvest, through frost or some other untimely cause, always calls for a protest against the system of rotation of crops to which the peasantry have never quite reconciled themselves. As far as dairy- farming goes, however, we fear the Fins have little to learn from our farmers at home, though, by the way, the author omits to mention that the Finnish breed of cows owes not a little to English blood, having been greatly improved of late years by the importation of Ayrshire cattle. The same legis- lation. which has striven to put an end to the disastrous methods of fire-clearing, by which large tracts of land, after two or three crops have been raised from them, are rendered unproductive for generations, has also attempted to discourage the reckless waste of young trees for fencing purposes. The fences, known in America as "snake-fences," which the author finds so picturesque, are a sign neither of thrift nor of industry; their chief merit lying in the fact that they are easily erected and easily repaired as long as there is no lack of material growing in the neighbourhood. Perhaps the peasant may be excused for his apparent wastefulness in the matter of timber, for, indeed, ibis hard to believe that mere human extravagance can ever seriously diminish the illimitable wealth of the forests. According to the author, the peasant is more apt to regard the tree as a noxious obstacle than as a source of profit or beauty. "Do you think I cannot manage to keep my laud free of trees?'

is a common rejoinder, when any one, eyeing regretfully the bare patch round a cottage, suggests that a few trees would shelter and beautify it." But if the Finnish woods are well furnished with trees they are even more richly carpeted under- foot. As the author writes in one place :—

" Our way lay through a long forest ravaged here and there by fire. The mosses along the road were beautiful, and indeed everywhere in Finland where I went I saw much beauty on the ground, not merely in the way of flowers, but of leaves, some of which he by me as I write, still glowing as when first gathered, and sprays of moss which are long feathering trails of marvellous loveliness. The lichens and fungi add purples, yellows and reds, in every shade, so that the artist's palette might soon be ex- hausted in painting these rich carpets of gorgeous colouring."

Add to this a wealth of wild fruit in the shape of cranberries and strawberries beyond all the dreams of childish avarice. The Finnish child ought to be a happy one, though its outward demeanour, as a rule, shows the same serious calm that is so characteristic of its native land. Its description in these pages, as a kind of harmony in copper and silver, is rather a

happy one.

"The people appeared to me very much sunburnt, especially the children. The little ones have almost copper-coloured faces, arms, and feet, and their hair is bleached a silvery white, which seems all the whiter by its contrast to the tan of the skin."

Fins are proverbially good to children, so that the Poor- law which boards out paupers, men, women, and children— they used once to be sold by auction to the highest bidder—

is not so harsh in practice as it sounds in theory. The author,

speaking of the exchange of the old fire-lit darkness for the new oil-lamps that now iUumine the Fin's winter evenings, shows that the winter nights as well as the summer days must have their special fascination for the small folk :— "It was in the long dark evenings that the old people sang, and the children learaed the runes of their fathers. It is doubt- ful now whether any one will have the patience to learn them. There is something very suggestive of brooding and magic incaasi. tation in the torch-lit cottage, where the flare of the turpentine in the summer-dried splint is the only light to waken the shadows. Fancy a child's delight in having to replace the bit of wood which burns out every ten minutes or so. Then the sparks whizz in the bucket of water placed beneath it, or have to be damped out as they fall on the wooden floor."

The exchange of old lamps for new is not often an advan- tageous one from the point of view of romance. The author seems to have hunted for runos and runo-singers with some perseverance. Of her visit to one famous rune-singer—the peasant woman Paraske—she gives a very amusing account. But surely she rather overstates Paraske's feats of memory when she credits her with the knowledge of three thousand two hundred runos. The whole of the national epic, collected from the national songs by Elias Lounrot, and called by him the Kalevala, contains but fifty runos in all its twenty-two thousand eight hundred verses. To know more than a

million verses by heart is altogether too prodigious a feat. One cannot but believe that many of the runo-singers--such, for instance, as the author describes as sitting hand-in-hand for hours capping each other's songs—depend quite as much upon their powers of improvisation as upon their memory. With regard to the magic-songs, one might remark that the Fin, in parts of Russia where he is not personally known, still bears a somewhat unenviable reputation as a wizard and practiser of dark arts.

We have not space to quote from the excellent description that the author gives of the lake scenery. She is mistaken, we think, in stating that salmon are caught in the Saima Lake. The peasants often confuse the salmo ferox and the real salmon under the name of loki, and we should doubt whether any salmon has ever ascended the Vuoksi river above the falls of Imatra. Her account of the Greek monastery on the storm-vexed island of Walamo in the lake of Ladoga, with its unclerical monks, and monastic cows which flee from the sight of a petticoat, is very entertaining. One more quotation we are tempted to make, illustrative of Finnish matrimony :— "All the way our driver had been very chatty. He told UB how he had chosen his wife. He said : There was some talk of her in the village. My aunt's nephew spoke to me of her, but I never saw her till the day before we were engaged. When I heard of her I went to the Puhumies (man of speech) who always arranges these things. I gave him five marks for her. She liked what she heard of me, and she gave him, as she was bound, a white shirt. Then I thought I would see her, so we arranged to meet at church at Unnikiemi, and we went there and it was all right. We get on together."