"He sat on his haunches and looked at us, uttering a tremendous growl."
Then we saw the centre of the heap or hillock of snow tremble, as if some live creature were moving slowly under it. Then the snow moved a littlequicker. There was no mistake, the bear was awakened, had moved, and was on the point of rising; he was listening, and getting ready to come out. The noise had frightened him. The snow trembled more and more and rose higher and higher. Suddenly there was a great upheaval, and great cracks appeared in the crusted snow. Then we saw peeping out the head and back of a huge brown bear, then two legs, and finally the whole animal.
He looked round him with amazement. He seemed to be dazed at the strange and sudden sight before him. He sat on his haunches and looked at us, uttering a tremendous growl. We could not tell whether he meant to fight or to run. The dogs barked angrily around the huge beast, but did not dare to approach near enough to attack him. In the meantime we had all drawn together so that we could fire without danger of hitting any of our party. The bear was getting ugly, gave a series of fierce growls, and rose on his hind legs. At this moment Mikel and I fired. A grunt of pain showed that the animal was hit. He ran a few steps towards us and as we got ready to fire again the big beast fell, his blood reddening the snow.
We gathered round and looked at him. He was a huge beast, but very thin from his long fast, for he had been six months or more without food.
After the killing of the bear there was no time to be lost, for we had deviated from our course and had gone eastward into Finland. So now we had to gowestward, and after two days' travelling we came to the river Muonio, to a Finnish hamlet called Kuttainen, not far from Karesuando.
Now travelling became really dangerous. The frozen river was full of treacherous cracks, and others were appearing all the time. Once in a while we came to small open spaces, where we could see the swift water of the stream rushing with great rapidity; this made me shudder. In some places there were large pools of water.
It was getting really warm. Some days my "pesh" was comfortable, at other times it was much too warm, the thermometer reaching 48 to 50 degrees in the shade and 86 to 88 degrees in the sun. The dripping from the melted snow came into the river from the hills, and had succeeded in many places in melting the ice on the banks. This travelling was no joke. I followed Mikel, and watched him constantly, fearing that his reindeer and sleigh would disappear under the ice. Travelling appeared to become more and more perilous as we followed the Muonio southward. At times I could hear the angry water under the ice striking against boulders, and this became quite common.
At last I shouted to Mikel, "Let us travel on the land, for surely if we do not we shall fall through the ice and be engulfed."
"We cannot," he shouted back, "the snow is too soft. Our reindeer could not pull our sleighs. We can get along much better on the river, though theice is very bad. Trust in me, Paulus. I have made this journey over the Muonio River many times before, but you must follow me very closely, for sometimes I shall have to pass near rotten ice or open spots."
"I will follow you carefully, dear Mikel. Go on! Go on!" I said.
So I followed Mikel closely, as he had bade me, but what thumps our sleighs would sometimes get on the now uneven ice of the river! Fortunately they were very strongly built.
We slept at a place called Songamuodka. In the morning it snowed, but the flakes were big and soft and melted as they fell on the old snow. I met no more herds of reindeer, but since I had left on my journey southward I had seen between sixty-five and seventy thousand of them.
Two days after I saw the church spire of Pajala, rested there, and on the 24th of May, as I was travelling on the Torne River, I passed once more the Arctic Circle. It was raining. I was told that it was the first rain that had fallen for over seven months.
Here I said good-bye to the good Mikel and thanked him cordially for the care he had taken of me.
I had now left the kingdom of the "Long Night," and the "Long Day" was to rule over the land through which we have travelled together.
Now, my dear Young Folks, Friend Paul has comeback, as you bade him, and I hope you have enjoyed our travelling together in "The Land of the Long Night." Good-bye. Do not forget your Friend Paul, who loves you dearly, for once he was one of the Young Folks himself.
Paul Du Chaillu's Great Work
THE VIKING AGE
THE EARLY HISTORY, MANNERS, &CUSTOMS OF THE ANCESTORS OFTHE ENGLISH-SPEAKING NATIONSWITH 1400 ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAP2 vols., 8vo, $7.50
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, Publishers
New York Tribune.
"These luxuriously printed and profusely illustrated volumes embody the fullest account of our Norse ancestors extant. Mr. Du Chaillu has gone very fully and very carefully over the whole of his ground. This extensive and important work must be of high interest to all English-speaking people."
Newark Advertiser.
"Their weapons, ornaments, ships, domestic manners and customs, art and industries, are all reconstructed with a minuteness that is remarkable, if we consider (as we must) that all this comes to us after centuries of neglect."
London Athenæum.
"What is really valuable in these volumes is the exhaustive digest which they contain of the extant information respecting the manners and character of the ancient people of Scandinavia. The work deals with the entire field of Scandinavian archæology. In the main, we believe the picture he has drawn of the manner of life of the Vikings and their countrymen to be as accurate as it is undoubtedly full of interest."
Edinburgh Review.
"The subject of M. Du Chaillu's work is vast in extent and full of perplexing difficulties. We have shown that its author has collected a store of valuable information, a great part of which has hitherto been inaccessible to English readers. His enthusiasm will have a very useful effect if it leads the people of this country to study and admire the ancient civilization and the splendid literature of our Scandinavian kinsmen."
Springfield Republican.
"Mr. Du Chaillu is every whit as agreeable and entertaining as a student of history as he has long proved to be in the character of a traveller."
Chicago Inter-Ocean.
"Mr. Du Chaillu has certainly given to the literary world a work full of interest."
The Nation.
"While in Germany and in Scandinavia itself books have been written upon the life of the ancient inhabitants of the North, no such comprehensive, popular work as this, with citations from the old literature and illustrations of all sorts of objects preserved from the ancient days, has yet appeared. It is, accordingly, an unused opportunity that the author of the work, with characteristic energy, has recognized and seized. The two volumes are filled to overflowing with curious and interesting facts concerning the people of the Scandinavian North, whose manners, social customs, and national life the more than thirteen hundred illustrations serve to bring up almost visibly before us. The book as a whole is a record of persistent and ingenious research, and of extraordinary literary zeal."
Philadelphia Record.
"M. Du Chaillu's book is full of valuable information respecting the manners and character of the ancient Norse people. It is, in fact, a perfect museum of Northern antiquities, covering the entire field of Scandinavian archæology. The extracts from the Sagas which are furnished must whet the appetite of students of Norse literature."
Boston Transcript.
"Mr. Du Chaillu's monumental work, 'The Viking Age,' upon which the careful labor of over eight years has been expended, is one for which scholars will be profoundly grateful. It brings together from innumerable sources a vast amount of information, relative to the period covered, never before put in systematic form. The chapters on the mythology and cosmogony of the Norsemen, on the superstitions, slavery, graves, finds, weapons, occupations, feasts, warfare, etc., are intensely interesting. The text is accompanied by nearly fourteen hundred illustrations."
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, Publishers153-157 Fifth Avenue, New York
IVAR THE VIKING
A ROMANTIC HISTORY, BASEDUPON AUTHENTIC FACTS OF THETHIRD AND FOURTH CENTURIES12mo, $1.50
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, Publishers
The Nation.
"'Ivar the Viking' is to be thoroughly recommended. The story is characteristically spirited, and the romantic part leaves nothing to be desired."
Chicago Tribune.
"It is full of vigor, and seems to bear internal evidence of truthfulness as regards its historic side. Ivar was a Viking whose adventures the juvenile reader, and particularly the boy juvenile, will follow with eager interest."
Philadelphia Press.
"Of the subsequent adventures of Ivar and his foster-brothers the interested reader must gain knowledge in the pages of the delightful narrative itself. Suffice it to say that there is no lack of romantic incident at any stage of the story. The prowess of the four Vikings is always potent; they fall in love; Ivar fights a duel, and then wins the loveliest of brides. There is throughout the volume the stimulating air which blows through the Sagas, the nipping salt air of the sea."
Richard Henry Stoddard.
"There is that in Mr. Paul Du Chaillu's 'Ivar the Viking' which not only satisfies the lover of romantic adventure, but carries the scholar back into the remotest period of Scandinavian history. Beyond all living writers this traveller in and explorer of many countries has collected the documents and discovered the secrets of the Norselands."
New York Times.
"The reader who has begun with a blank mind closes the volume with a tolerably clear impression of a very energetic, powerful, and wealthy young Viking, capable of strong affections and disaffections, foremost in games and fights requiring physical force, and with a vast number of habits and customs. It is a history that interests through its simplicity."
Boston Transcript.
"For the splendor of the materials and the range and variety of the information imparted concerning the misty dawn of our Northern civilization, its religious ideas, its moral conceptions, and its social conditions, 'Ivar' will have high esteem among the growing number of students turning to the Northern folk-lore and chronicles for the true classic period of our modern races."
Philadelphia Public Ledger.
"He has rendered a double service, for not only does he instruct the reader in a most graphic and vivid manner, but he also develops a story of adventure and daring which will be followed with breathless interest."
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, Publishers153-157 Fifth Avenue, New York
Transcriber's NoteMinor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note.