The highest of these are the Alps of Lyngen, which rise to an elevation feet. The rest of the coast of Lapland is very rocky ; but, excepting the promontory of Kunnen, scarcely contains any high mountains. The promontories of eastern Finmark do not exceed an elevation of 2132 feet above the level of the sea ; and those on its north coast are only 1279 feet in height.
" It is extremely entertaining," says Baron Von Buch, " to climb great and rapidly ascending heights in these climates." " The vegetation, with which we are familiar in the wallies, gradually disappears under our feet. The Scotch fir soon leaves us ; then the birches become shrivel led ; now they wholly disappear ; and between the bushes of mountain willows, and dwarf birches, the innumerable clus ters of berry-bearing herbs have room to spread, blae-be•ries on the dry heights, and mountain brambles on the marshy ground. We at last rise above them ; the blae-berries no longer bear ; they appear singly, with few leaves, and no longer in a bushy form. At last they disappear, and they are soon followed by the mountain willows. The dwarf birch alone braves the height and the cold ; but at last it also yields before reaching the limit of perpetual snow ; and there is a broad border before reaching this limit, on which, besides mosses, a few plants only subsist with great difficulty. Even the reindeer moss, which rises in the woods with the blae-berry in luxuriance of growth, is very un frequent on such heights. On the top of the mountains, which is almost a table-land, there is no ice, it is true, nor glaciers; but the snow never leaves these heights ; and a few single points and spots above the level are alone clear of snow for a few weeks." " It is a melancholy prospect ; nothing in life is any longer to be seen, except perhaps occasionally an eagle in his flight over the mountains From one fiord to another." On Akka Solki, one of these mountains on the western coast, which is about 3392 English feet in height, the following limits of the different productions were ac curately marked: Of the mineralogical structure of the mountains of Lap land, little accurate information has yet been collected; but the following facts are enumerated by Professor Jame son, as the most important of those which have been ascer tained by the observations of recent travellers. 1. The mountains of Norway and Lapland are principally com posed of primitive and transition rocks ; fleetz rocks occur very rarely ; and alluvial rocks are uncommon. 2. Granite, contrary to the general belief of mineralogists, is a rare rock in Norway and Lapland ; it even occurs but seldom in Sweden, and is to be considered as one of the least frequent of the primitive rocks in Scandinavia. 3. The granite fre quently alternates with gneiss. 4. A newer granite some
times occurs resting on mica slate, as at Forvig ; or con nected with clay slate and diallage rock, as in the island of Mageroe. 5. Besides the gneiss, which is associated with the oldest granite, there is another of newer formation, which rests upon mica slate. 6. Gneiss appears to be by far the most frequent and abundant rock in Scandinavia, all the other primitive rocks appearing in some degree sub ordinate to it. 7. In the island of Mageroe, and in other quarters of Norway, there appears a species of simple ag gregated mountain rock, composed of compound felspar and diallage. This rock is the gabbro of the Italians, and appears in Norway to be connected with clay slate. 8. All the magnetic iron-stone of Scandinavia occurs in beds of gneiss, and not in veins, as has often been maintained by mineralogists. 9. The class of transition rocks in Norway contains, besides grey wacke, alum slate, clay slate, lime stone, and other rocks, well known to mineralogists as mem bers of that class ; as granite, which sometimes contains hornblende ; syenite, which contains Labradore felspar, and numerous crystals of zircon ; porphyry ; anlygdaloid ; ba salt ; sandstone. 10. The transition limestone of Norway, sometimes granular foliated, like that which occurs in pri mitive countries, and contains much trcmolite. The coun try abounds in mines of iron ; and furnishes several also of copper. Lead, zinc, and arsenic, are not uncommon ; and native gold has been found at Svappawara, in Torneo-Lap mark. But the rich iron ores form the chief treasures of the country, and might assist to introduce cultivation in those desert regions. The ore is found in thick beds in the gneiss, and, when the surrounding substance is worn down, appears in many places above the surface like mountains of iron. The bed of Junos Siwando, on the boundary be tween Western Bothnia and Lapland, is from fourteen to fifteen fathoms in thickness. At Luossovara and Svappa wara, several miles lower on the banks of the 'Portico river, are beds of the extraordinary thickness of 34 and 38 fathoms. But even this is still exceeded by the iron hill of Kerunaoara, about eleven English miles to the west of Jukasjerfivi, where the pure ore has been seen to the ex tent of 800 Paris feet. All these treasures, however, have hitherto been turned to little account, as the ore must be con veyed by a land carriage of 46 English miles with reindeer, and in small Laplandish pulkers ; and the furnaces cannot be erected nearer the mines, in consequence of the want of wood. The ore itself, though exceeding in richness that of Sweden, is very difficultly fusible, and yields an iron which becomes brittle when cold, unless it has been smelted with some of the better sorts of ore from Uto or Dannemora.