LAP'LAND. A region embracing an area of about 150,000 square miles in Northwest Europe. It is not a political entity. but derives its name from the fact that it is the home of the Lapps, or Laplanders. Its southern boun dary is not definitely defined, but it may he said to extend south in Norway approximately to latitude 65°. in Sweden to latitude 64°. and in Russia to latitude 66' (Map: Europe, F 1). It includes the whole northern part of Norway (some distance inland from the Atlantic coast), Sweden, and Finland, and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. Norwegian Lapland is included under the province, of Nordland, Trouts(, and Fin marken ; Swedish Lapland occupies the northern part of the Province of Norrland and the whole of Norrbotten (North Bothnia). and is divided into Torneii-, Ltdeiie. Pite5-, Ume5-, and Asele Lappmark. Scandinavian Lapland is moun tainous in Norway, except in the northeastern distriet of Finmarken. while in Sweden. though very rough and uneven, the country inclines to flatness. In Finland the country of the Lapps is chiefly tint, with ninny glacial lakes: about one-half of the Peninsula of Kola is tundra or swampy. The rocks of Lapland are chiefly of plutonic origin. covered with a thin layer of humus. The course of the Swedish rivers shows that the land slopes gently front northwest to southeast, the rivers emptying into the Gulf of Bot Economically this whole region has only one resource, and that is the beds of iron ore scattered over the southern part of Swedish Lapland. The development of these mines at Gellivare. 44 miles north of the Arctic Circle, resulted in the building of a railroad from the port of Lulea. on the Gulf of Bothnia, to that milling centre. and its extension (com pleted in 1902) across Lapland to the head of the deep Motel) Fiord on the Atlantic, the railroad being about '2S10 miles long, of which 230 miles is north of the Arctic Circle. This railroad was extended to the Atlantic to give ore vessels an ice-free port, Vietoria Haven. the year round,
as the Gulf of Bothnia is frozen aming the winter. The mines of Gelliyare yielded !.:00000 tons of ore in 1599, I.000,000 tons in 1900. and the quantity will now be largely augmented by the increased facilities fur getting the mineral out of the country. These Swedish ores are regarded as among the best steel ores in the world, and there is a large market for them in England and Germany. At Kirunavaara, on the line of the railroad, is a ridge about 700 feet in height. several miles long. of solid magnetic ore, perhaps the largest and most compact mass of this superior iron ore in the world. The diamond drill has proved the continuity of this metallic rock throughout the ridge. and Swedish engineers estimate that the mass contains from •.00,000,000 to 2.50,000.000 tons of ore.
The climate of the whole of Lapland is very severe for nine months in the year. except along the coasts, where the ameliorating influences of the Atlantic extend even to the Murman mist of the Kola Peninsula. The snowfall in Sweden is very heavy. A large mileage of snowsheds has been built on the Swedish portion of the rail road. All the most exposed parts of the line are thus protected. The heat of July and Au gust is extreme, but these hot months are sepa rated from the cold seasons by a spring and autumn that are only two or three weeks long. Barley may be grown as far north as 70°, but the general limit of cereals is latitude 66° N. A large part of the country, particularly in the south, is covered with a thin growth of birch, pine, fir, and alder, but trees entirely disappear in the Kola Peninsula. The more elevated tracts, except in Norway. are destitute of vegetation and have no inhabitants; but in the valleys and the lower parts of Lapland there is an under growth of lichens and mosses which provide abundant food for the numerous herds of rein deer that are the chief riches of the inhabitants. Some of the southern Laplander: carry on a little agriculture with indifferent success.