Northern Travel Summer and Winter Pictures of Sweden, Denmark and Lapland   By: Bayard Taylor (1825-1878)

NORTHERN TRAVEL.

BAYARD TAYLOR.

[Illustration: The Vöring Foss.]

NEW YORK: G. P. PUTNAM.

1859.

NORTHERN TRAVEL:

Summer and Winter Pictures

OF

SWEDEN, DENMARK AND LAPLAND,

BY

BAYARD TAYLOR.

NEW YORK: G. P. PUTNAM, 115 NASSAU STREET. 1859.

ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by G. P. PUTNAM, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.

PREFACE.

This book requires no further words of introduction than those with which I have prefaced former volumes that my object in travel is neither scientific, statistical, nor politico economical; but simply artistic, pictorial, if possible, panoramic. I have attempted to draw, with a hand which, I hope, has acquired a little steadiness from long practice, the people and the scenery of Northern Europe, to colour my sketches with the tints of the originals, and to invest each one with its native and characteristic atmosphere. In order to do this, I have adopted, as in other countries, a simple rule: to live, as near as possible, the life of the people among whom I travel. The history of Sweden and Norway, their forms of Government, commerce, productive industry, political condition, geology, botany, and agriculture, can be found in other works, and I have only touched upon such subjects where it was necessary to give completeness to my pictures. I have endeavoured to give photographs, instead of diagrams, or tables of figures; and desire only that the untravelled reader, who is interested in the countries I visit, may find that he is able to see them by the aid of my eyes.

BAYARD TAYLOR.

LONDON: November, 1857.

CONTENTS. Page

CHAPTER I.

A WINTER VOYAGE ON THE BALTIC.

Embarking at Lübeck Put into a Hut The Company on Board Night on the Baltic Ystad A Life Lost Stopped by Ice A Gale The Swedish Coast Arrival at Dalarö Conscientious Custom House Officer 13

CHAPTER II.

STOCKHOLM PREPARATIONS FOR THE NORTH.

Departure in Sleds A Meteor Winter Scenery Swedish Post Stations View of Stockholm Arrival Stockholm Weather Swedish Ignorance of the North Funds Equipment 21

CHAPTER III.

FIRST EXPERIENCES OF NORTHERN TRAVEL.

A Swedish Diligence Aspect of the Country Upsala A Fellow Passenger The Northern Gods Scenery Churches Peasant's Houses Arrival at Gefle Förbud Papers Speaking Swedish Daylight at Gefle A Cold Italian Experience of Skjuts and Förbud We reach Snow Night Travel An Arabic Landlord A Midnight Chase Quarters at Bro The Second Day We reach Sundsvall 27

CHAPTER IV.

A SLEIGH RIDE THROUGH NORRLAND.

Sundsvall and the Norrlanders Purchase Sleighs Start again Driving on the Ice Breakfast at Fjäl Twilight Hymn Angermannland A Bleak Day Scenery of Norrland Postillions Increase of Cold Dark Travel The Norrland People The Country and its Products Northern Thanks Umeå The Inn at Innertafle 39

CHAPTER V.

PROGRESS NORTHWARD A STORM.

Christmas Temperature First Experience of intense Cold Phenomena thereof Arctic Travel Splendour of the Scenery The Northern Nature Gross Appetites My Nose and the Mercury Frozen Dreary Travel Skellefteå and its Temple A Winter Storm The Landlady at Abyn Ploughing out Travelling in a Tempest Reach Piteå. 50

CHAPTER VI.

JOURNEY FROM PITEÅ TO HAPARANDA.

Torment Under the Aurora Borealis A Dismal Night Around the Bothnian Gulf Forest Scenery Månsbyn The Suspicious Iron Master Brother Horton and the Cold A Trial of Languages Another Storm New Year's Day Entrance into Finland The Finns Haparanda. 62

CHAPTER VII.