THE WHITE SEA PENINSULA.*

WE imagine that most persons associate the White Sea with the town of Archangel, yet here is a volume of travels in that sea and on the adjoining peninsula, without either mention of or visit to that northern seaport. Mr. Rae has already secured the right to the attention of the reading public by his former volume on Arctic travel, and those who turn to this book will not, we can assure them, find their expectations disappointed. Mr. Rae set out with his old companion, "the Doctor," on this tour in the northern regions of Russia in Europe with the determination to see and learn as much as he could of the great territory of Lapland, to the eastern portion of which he has given the not in- appropriate and decidedly catching name of " the White Sea Peninsula." Although the whole of this vast region lies well without the Arctic Circle, Mr. Rae and his companion were the first Englishmen to penetrate into its interior, and to follow the course of the Ponoi and Niva rivers. Yet the Russian adminis- tration is firmly established here, in the practical form that the Lapps and the Samoyedes are liable to both taxation and the conscription. The population is extremely scanty, and the con- ditions of life are hard both for residents and for travellers ; yet Mr. Rae soon discovered the virtues and good qualities of these primitive people under their frigid exterior. It may be the redeeming feature in their lot that there is little inducement or opportunity for crime, and the honest and simple-minded Lapps might be ranked as the most virtuous people in the world, were it not that their human instincts or the exigencies of the climate sometimes lead them into exces- sive indulgence in vodka drinking. No one can, however, read Mr. Rae's account of his life among them without feeling his sympathies enlisted on their behalf, and all will share his ex- pression of regret at losing sight of a people so amiable and attractive in their very innocence and docility.

Mr. Rae and the Doctor set out from the Tyne on the last day of May, 1879, in the steamer ' Aurora,' and seven days later they were passing under " the North Cape, the solid, old cliff rising a thousand feet from the cold Arctic sea," and the next day they landed at -Pardo, the most eastern port of Norway. Of Vardo, Mr. Rae tells us that it "lives upon fish and fishing," adding that, " there are no old men there, it is said; few of the poor fishermen end their days in bed." Near this remote spot he visited the old castle of Vardohnus, " the most northerly fort in the world, once the bulwark of Northern Scandinavia, and the terror, now the jest, of the Muscovites." But their stay at Vardii was brief, not longer than the time required first to find and then to engage a small coasting steamer to convey them and their supplies,—of which Mr. Rae gives a compendious list, with characteristic comments sug- gested by his experience,—to Kola, a town and river in Lapland, or that portion of it to be known as the White Sea Peninsula. Not the least interesting or graphically described incidents of the journey are those referring to the difficulty of obtaining from these primitive people the use of their boats, for the purpose of

travelling distances really of the shortest, but which appear in their eyes to be of the most formidable nature. There, as else- where, the people seem to have sought, in pecuniary com- pensation, personal satisfaction for the shock involved to their feelings in permitting their boats to undertake what they

always represented as a very hazardous expedition. The charges made by Norwegian and Russian shipowners and by Lapp boatmen showed that they had little to learn in the way of driving a profitable transaction. The reader will find re- peated instances of this trait scattered throughout the book.

Mr. Rae gives a most graphic and striking picture of the River Ponoi, which has an easterly course through Lapland,

and flows into the channel at the entrance of the White Sea.

He experienced great difficulty in procuring boatmen to proceed np the course of this Arctic stream, but by dint of much persua-

sion and liberal payment, he succeeded in procuring a boat and a crew. Such, however, were their apathy and apprehension, that they refused to proceed farther than the point they had agreed to go to, and Mr. Rae had to supply their places with • The White Sea Pesinsula ; a Tourney in Russian Lapland and Karelia. By Edward Rae, F.R.G.8., Author of "The Land of the North Wind" and "The Country of the Moore." Map and Illustrations. London : John Murray. 1881.

recruits whom he was lucky enough to procure from another settlement. His description of this river may be quoted

"The banks were fringed with towering ice-blocks and boulders ; the great cliff sloped, wall-like, almost perpendicularly behind them. It was impossible to walk on or beneath the ice, and we scaled the cliff, only with exhausting efforts, and found ourselves on the wide, lonely tOrdra. So lonely it was, that even the lonely river seemed more genial. No bird, or animal, or human being could we see, and it seemed as if the Doctor and I were the last creatures in a deserted world. From the upper edge of the cliff projected frozen snow, like eaves, which only waited for a confiding and inquisitive traveller to crash down into the river. At times we crossed ravines upon a hollow snow-crust, under which we could hear running water. We saw our boat below,—an atom floating on the broad stream. A few hundred yards away from this great sunken river, one would not know of its existence. It was the grandest river I had seen. We seemed reduced to the importance of insects."

Mr. Rae excels in description, and his picture of Kem, the principal town in Karelia, might be quoted side by side with that of the Arctic stream Ponoi. But it is not only of scenery, but of active life, that he can bring a vivid impression before the reader. What can be more graphic or realistic than his account of the flight of the Karelian sledge-dog, " Janotka," which he had purchased, and which made its escape when on the point of embarkation ? Although we refrain from quoting this passage, we may mention that the hero of this adventure was subsequently sent to England, where it still lives. The following spirited epitome of the legend of the giant Viking Anika better admits of quotation :— " The legend is very familiar throughout Archangel province and among the Lapps. Anika came yearly to take tribute of the fishers. None knew of his coming or going, but he was always seen on the shore when the boats came in from the sea. He periodically chal- lenged the fishermen to fight, but his enormous size frightened them. For many years he was the terror of Ribatschi. One day, a young man presented himself, and induced the fishermen to take him fishing with them. On landing, the stranger cleaned the fish with incredible rapidity ; a fisherman's gloves being wet, the youth, in squeezing them between his hands, crushed them to dust, while the fishermen marvelled at his strength. Anika appeared, and the youth spake boldly to him, and slightingly. He, he !' laughed the giant, ' be careful, or I'll demolish thee.' They agreed to fight in this ring on the bill, and in the following fashion :- Each combatant was to turn a somersault, and strike his enemy in the chest with his feet. Anika took the first turn, and struck the youth, who did not budge. A second blow, and the young man recoiled a yard ; the third time, a fathom. It was the stranger's turn now. At his first somersault, he drove the Viking back a fathom ; at the second, three fathoms ; at the third, he flung the huge sea-robber seven fathoms outside the ring—dead. They buried him, and erected the stone heap over him. Thank God, each of you,' said the youth ; your enemy is no more. Henceforth, none shall molest your fishing. God be with you' Then he disappeared."

The remains of Anika's skeleton are deposited in the Museum of Christiania, and the leg-bone of the giant, " from knee to ankle measured nearly twenty-four inches." This legend is not the only one Mr. Rae preserves, and the few tales handed down of the early history of these primitive peoples are not devoid of a peculiar charm. He also sought to obtain informa- tion as to their views on natural phenomena, such as the northern lights, comets, &c. The folk-lore of the people attracted much of his attention, and the following proverbs may be quoted as typical of the character of the people. " One trusts most among his own people," and "One available kopeck is better than much money one cannot have," are specimens of Lapp wisdom, while the most characteristic of Karelian sayings is, " Better under one's own roof to drink water out of a sieve, than, in another man's dwelling, beer out of a silver tankard." Yet, despite this exaltation of the virtues of water, there is no doubt that the habit and prevailing vice of all these races is over-indulgence in vodka-drinking. There, as elsewhere throughout the world, the natural craving of humanity for a stimulant has asserted itself, and demands satisfaction.

It is interesting to learn that the rights of property are respected, and have assumed a tangible form, in these northern regions. Mr. Rae tells us that :-

" The fishing-places of the Lapps are looked upon as properties, and are hereditary—some of them from remote times. The Lapps are known as Pasvigski, Petscbengski, Nuotovski, Lovoserski, Terski, and so on ; from the river, lake, or district where they have their winter abode. None of the Greek Catholic Lapps are strictly.nomads, though they flit three or four times in the year from one spot to another. In the spring, from a winter pogost to a balagan near some lake or stream, for fishing or bird-catching ; at mid-July, to the larger lake fishing ; in August, again to fishing and fowling, or hunt- ing reindeer, martens, squirrel, otter, bear, tic. Finally, at Christ- mas, back to the pogost."

Although the fisheries, of course, constitute the principal wealth of the Lapps and Karelians, it would be a mistake to

suppose that they represent the sole means of support upon which they have to depend. There are the walrus and the seal, with their oil and their skins ; and the reindeer, with its succulent meat, to place Lapland high among the paying pro- vinces that owe allegiance to the Czar. Yet, great as these sources of wealth at present are, there is little doubt that they are capable of development and improvement ; while there are many other natural productions that would prove remunerative both to the people and the Government, absolutely untouched.

On this matter, Mr. Rae very justly expatiates in the following words :—

" I saw noble pines upon its banks, which, if cut and tossed into the river, would, with a little labour on the smooth water of thelakes, reach Kandalaks almost without assistance. None is cut here ; yet the Government, who are lords of these huge forests, might here find revenue for themselves, and work and wages for the often starving- Karelian peasantry. Fish on the coast for the seeking, timber for the labour of cutting; and the peasants are eating birch-bark bread, and their wives begging piteously in the summer months. If the natives will not work on their own initiative under Government encourage- ment, they should be set to work in the interest of themselves and of the common weal. Lapland abounds in minerals ; but if the natives have not the heart to work for timber, which they see, no wonder they will not work for something which they do not see."

Here, as elsewhere throughout this vast empire, the Govern- ment neglects to improve the resources which lie at its disposal, and the people are too backward in intelligence and too deficient in means to take the necessary steps on their own initiative. Mr. Rae touches, it will be seen from this, on matters of political importance as well as of social and general interest. Enough has, perhaps, been said to convince the reader that Mr. Rae is one of those travellers, so rarely met with, who possess the happy knack of describing in a vivid manner the scenes they have visited,.

at the same time that they exhaust the stores of information they have been able to collect. We close this book with regret, and we feel sure that all who take it up will share the feeling, for it will seldom fall to their lot to travel in an unknown region

with a more pleasant, genial, and informing companion that its author. In conclusion, we cannot refrain from giving one further illustration of Lapp home life and customs :-

" Should two Lapps be on a journey, and one die, the survivor musk try to find a witness, unless the deceased be his father or relative. In such case, be is beyond suspicion. If no witness be within reach, the Lapp straightway digs a hole in which to place the body, and utters- the words 'S'mirom o' Boghom,"At pence with God;' adding the simple, reverent prayer, Pomeni Gospod tsartsvoye nebjesnoye,' Remember me, Lord—thy Empire is in Heaven,' or this, Gospod nie sabout menya da smierti,"Lord, forget me not, until I die;' a brief and touching ritual of the dead. Then he fills in the earth, leaving nature to cover over his friend with moss and wild flowers."