The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1861-01-03
From Chambers Edingburg Journal.
a Winter under Ground.


The short but glorious summer of Lapland
was drawing to aIclose, and remembered with
regret that the hour of my departure form Ku.
biz was at hand. Kubliz is place but little
known. 1t lies in Swedish Lapland about one
hundred and fifty miles beyond the extreme
limits of Norway, and its silvery rivers and EN-.
erald pastures are surrounded by the far stretch.
ing moorlanGs, of which by far the greater pa ri
of the country consists
And the people Inever met young face
or an old one among those simple people that
had not pleasant smile for the stranger
never went into a Lapland hut without finding
a kindly welcome, for my worthy little hosts
would hustle to fill the biggest bowl with milk
and the largest basket with berries, and to pro
duce great piles of "smolke and dried fish from
the sea coast.and luxury unparalleled, perhaps a
great black loaf, brought all the way from Nor
way, (fOr Lapland has no bread, } to do honor
to the foreign guest. How could help grow.
ing fond of these queer, elfn looking soft heart
ed people?
The village of Kubiz was built of green
boughs and wattels, the posts alonesswhich sup.
ported each cottage being of pine timber. In
tactthe huts were not cottages-ttey were eafy
booths, such as the rowing Tartar sometimes
constructs; and these summer palaces oflIving
verdure added to the holiday air Of the place,
and were suggestive of perpetual picnic. But
the true houses were under The earth, not above
its surface. The green tents l have been des-
cribiDg were mere temporary pavilions and
beneath them, with Only low chimney, like a
magnified mole hill peeping out of ground,
were the true homes of the Laplanders, the
caverned storehouses of all their wealth, and
their own dwelling for nine monthe of the year
And now the time was coming when the
green boughs were to be deserted, and
the sun to vanish, and the strange I'M
foreground life, like molea, was to begin again
for the long, iron bound arctic winter. Peter
Wow, the chief man of the village, in whose
wigwam dwelt, warned me that the daylgh
would speedily cease, and that he had better
prepare the boat to convey me down the river
southwark, so that might reach Norway "be-
ore it got dark"
A strange idea seized me-what if | were to
stop behind have been here through the
daylight, the long three months day, that puz-
zled me so terribly at first and robbed me OF
my sleep, and made me blink like an owl at the
unwearying sun that would shine at midnight,
and which upset all the habits of my previous
life. l recolected what a strange sensation
that had been, how new, fresh and piuuant ;
and it is not often, let me tell you, that some
what world worn and world wealied man, who
has passed his grand climacteric can discover
g sensation that shall he at once new fresh and
piquant. had promised to spend Christmas
with my sister in Worcestershire. to be sure ;
but, "pshaw ~ thought I, II can go next sum-
mer. Maria Jane hasn't seen me these eight
cen years and more, so she can probably wal
till Easter; and my nephews and neices won't
fret much,4 dare say, about the non appear
ance OF an uncle they never set their juvenile
eyes upon. My mind is made up. I'll stay all
night
A pretty long night, too, reader--a night that
begins early in October and ends in June
Having tried perpetual daylight, 1 was now 60
ing to essay how liked its antipode
A Lapland winter hut has generally two
drawbacks, of a nature almost unbearable to
Europeans-it is too crowded, and it is shock
ingly smoky. But Peter Wow, chief of the vii
lage, was a rich man in his way, and had roo-
my and commodious set of caverns for his
dwelling, with furs and eider-down quilts in
plenty, as became the owner of five hundred
reindeer The family dwelt in quaint tier of
box beds, about the usual length of mignonette
troughs, which were sunk into clay walls like
row Of sleeping berths on board a packet ship
But |, as distinguished foreigner, had a cen
to myself, such as hermit of especially austere
and self Notifying tendencies might have con
s:ructed, for 1t was without a window of any
kind, and air was admitted by means of the
thrust through the roof of The cave, and made
a sort of wooden shaft overhead The floor
was carpeted, however, with soft died moss
softer ana more luxurious than the most costly
three-pled velvet that ever loom wove the bed
was a pile of dressed deer skins, as supple and
plant as silk; a copper lamp hung by chain
from the roof; had pillows and holsters stuffed
with the plumage of the elder duck and wild
swan, two bear skin coVerets. and at least a
dozen quilts of yielding elder down and -
crowniug magnifcence there was an old
fashioned chest of oaken drawers, with brass
handles and keyplates, to which Peter Wow
pointed proudly, as proof of intercourse with
the civilized world of modern Europe 1t was
evidently some relic of Il wreck eff the North
Care, and bad been dragged many a weary
mile by the patient deer that drew the sedges.
l tancled the scent Of the sea hung about it
still.
Scarcely were we snugly established in our
underground quarters, when, one fine evening,
was summoned to join solemn procession
which annually according to immemmorial GUS
tom, assembled a neighboring hill, TO see the last
of the sun for that year. and bid the orb of day
''Good-by." 1t was strangely picturesque
sight, and not without its touching pathos; that
assembage of villagers, of every age, from the
wrinkled grandsre who tottered on his staff, and
with palsy shakan hand shaded his aged eyes
as watched that fast declining sun, which
was setting, not for night, but for drear
winter, and which he might scarcely hope To
mark again, down to the child whose wondering
eyes noted the scene for the first time since its
reason began to dawn. All were there-the
maidens and the young men, the reverend ell
derS the feeble crones, who shivered already
IN the strange ominous chill that pervaded the
air, the hardy hunters, the no less hardy shep
herds, or rather deerherds-old and young were
gazing with a common purpose and intensity of
feeling upon the sinking luminary, All kinds
OF wild imagings all manner of poetic memo
rles, rushed in upon my mind rs the sun app
preached the horizon, and prepared for the ina
plunge. The wild and mystic verses Of Tugner
perhaps suggested by that very spectacle Of the
death OF the nor her, sun, required to me witli
boding ceamess. | began 10 wonder whether
had 10 been very rash and absurd in Wishing
TO stop winter ia Lapland, like a mole in It's
burfom. | began 10 sigh after Gloucestersbire
where the sun would shine out, many a dav on
the crisp snow aad frost-silvered bounhs. when
l should be left in C'mmelian darkness
Plunge! the red sun had flashed down below
the honzon. heavy twilight settled. as if by
magic, over the fair landscape, still gilded by the
smiles OF summer. Alas! the good tairy SO be-
innocent so bright in her rainbow robe, studded
WIN mowers, was gone, and King Frost was to
reign over her devasted realms. Hank! the
long waiiing cadences of the sweet, sad chant,
an old, old heather chant, OF the days when
treya was worshipped, at once Venus and
summer of this remote race-in which the lap
ianders oewail the parting day Now for the