Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1857-05-02

landscape the icy nectar of the perfect air
the tinging of the reused blood in every vein,
all alert to guard the outposts of life against
the besieging cod-it is superb The natives
themselves spoke of the cold as being unusual
ly severe, and we congratulated ourselves all
lie more on our easy endurance OF il. Had
We judged only by our own sensations, we
should not have believed the temperature TO be
nearly SO low.
The sun rose little afier ten, and have
never seen anything finer than the illumination
OF The forests and snow-felds in his level or
ange beams-for, even at midday, he was not
more than eight degrees above the horizon-
lhe tops OF the trees, only, were touched
still and solid as iron, and covered with spark
ling frost-cryslals, their trunks were changed to
blazing gold, and their foliage TO fiery orange
brown. The delicate purple sprays of the
birch, coated with ice, glittered like wands
OF topaz and amethyst, and the slopes of virgin
snow, stretching towards the sun, shone with
the farest saffron CLEANS. There is nothing
equal TO this in the South-nohing so tran
scendenly rich, dazzling and glorious. Italian
dawns and twilights cannot surpass those we
see every day, not, like those, fading rapidly
into the ashen hues of Dusk but lingering for
hour after hour with scarce decrease of splen-
dor. Strange that Nature should repeat these
lovely era effects in such widely different
zones and seasons. ! thought TO find in the
winter landscapes of the far North a sublimity
OF death and desoation-a wild, dark, dreary
monotony of expresson-bu, have, in reality,
the constant enjoyment Of the raresi, the ten
derest the most enchanting beauty.
The people we meet along the road harmon.
lze with these unexpected impressions. They
are clear eyed and rosy as the morning, straight
and strong as the fiji sapings in their forests,
and simple, honest and unsophisticated beyond
any class of men have ever seen. They are
no miksops, either. Under the serenity of
those blue eyes and smooth, fair faces, burns
the old Berserker rage, not easily kindled, but
terrible as the lightning wher once loosed-
81 would like to take all the young men north
of Sundsvall," says Braisted, "put them into
Kansas, tell them her history, and then let them
act for themselves" 1.-The cold u cline are
cold in blood sings Byron; but they are only
cold through superior seli-control and freedom
from perverted passions. Better is the asser.
tion of Tennyson -
"That bright, and fierce, and ickle is the South,
And dark, and true, and tender is the North"
There are tender hearts in the breasts of
these Northern men and women, albeit they are
as undemonstrativc as the Englsh-or we
Americans, for that matter. 1t is exhiaraiing
to see such peope-whose digestion is sound,
~ Il.
blood runs in strong, full stream, whose i'm
pulses are perfectly natural, who are good with
out knowing it, and who are happy without
irving TO be SO. Where shall we find snch
among our restless communities AT home.
We made two Swedish miles by noon, and
then took breakfast of fried reindeer meat and
pancakes, of which We ate enormously, 10 keep
up good supply of fuel. Brais,ed and con-
sumed about pound of butter between U.S.
Shrek not young ladies', at our vulgar appeties
you who sip spoonful Of cream, or trine
with diminuiive meringue, in company, but
make amends on cold ham and pickles in the
pantry, after you go hone-l shall tell the
Truth. though 1t dlsgusts you. This intense
cold begets necessity for fai, and with the
necessity comes the taste-a wise provision OF
Nature have no doubt shall be able 10
relish train-oil and ,allow-candles befoIe we
have done with Lapland.
had tough work at each station to get my
head out of my wrappings, which were united
with my beard and hair in one solid lump
The cold increased instead of diminishing. and
by the time we reached Gumboda, at dusk, il
was 40 deg. below zero. Here we found
company of Firms travelling soulhward, who
had engaged five horses, oblging US to wait
couple Of hours. We had already made forty
miles and were satisfied with our performance,
so we stopped for the night When The iher-
mometer was brought in, we found the mercury
frozen and on unmuiiling found the end Of
my nose scared as if with hot iron. The
inn was capital we had warm carpeted
room, beds of clean, lavender linen, and all
civilized appliances. In the evening we sat
down to Christmas dinner of sausages, po,a-
toes, pancakes, raspberry jam, and bottle of
Barclay d Perkins best porter, in which we
drank the health of all dear relatives and friends
in the two hemispheres. And this was in
umea Lappmark, where we had been told we
should staIve! AT bedtime, Brasted took out
the Thermometer again, and soon brought it in
with the mercury frozen below all the numbers
on the scale.
In the morning, the landlord came in and
questioned US, in order to satisfy his curiosity.
He took us for Norwegians and was quite sur
prised TO find out our real character. We have
also been taken for Firms, Russians and Danes,
since leaving Stockholm. 81 suppose you in
tend to buy lumber" said the landlord. NO."
said ]. tive travel merely for the pleasure of
it," "Ja-so-o-o" he exclaimed, in tone Of
The greatest surprise and incredulity. He ask
ed If 1t was necessary that we should travel in
such cold weather, and seemed reluctant to let
US go. The mercury showed 25 deg. below
zero when we started, but the sky was cloudy,
with raw wind from the northwest. We did
not feel the same hard, gripping cold as the day
previous, but more penetrating chill. The
same character of scenery continued but with
a more bleak and barren aspect, and the popu-
laton became more scanty. The cloudy sky
took away what little green there was in the
fir trees, and they gloomed as black as Styx on
either side of our road The air was terribly
raw and biting as it blew across the hollows
and open plains. did not cover my face, but
kent nm euoh lvaly criotion m rny noea a.,