The reindeer suffers great hardship in autumn, when, the snow being all melted away during summer, a sudden frost freezes the mountain Lichen (_L. rangiferinus_), which is his only winter food. When this fails, the animal has no other resource, for he never touches hay. His keepers fell the trees in order to supply him with the filamentous Lichens that clothe their branches; but this kind of food does not supply the place of what is natural to him. It is astonishing how he can get at his proper food through the deep snow that covers it, and by which it is protected from the severe frosts. The reindeer feeds also on frogs, snakes, and even on the Lemming or Mountain Rat (_Mus Lemmus_), often pursuing the latter to so great a distance as not to find his way back again. This happened in several instances a few years ago, when these rats came down in immense numbers from the mountains. The Pike pairs in this neighbourhood as soon as the river becomes open. I met with some strangers who had been six or eight miles, or more, to the north of Lycksele, and had resided there on a fishing party ever since Easter. I accompanied one of them to his hut. Each man had collected about twenty pounds of fish, which were drying. It is certainly very unjust that these people, settled more than eight miles down the country on the other side of Lycksele church, should drive the native Laplanders away, and be allowed to fish in these upper regions, which have no communication with the sea shore, and this without paying any tax to the crown or tithe to the curate of the parish, which the fishermen of the country are obliged either to do, or to farm the fishery of the land-holder, who pays tribute for his land, and who justly complains of the hardship he suffers in various respects, without daring to make any open resistance. When any of these complaints were made by the Laplanders in my hearing, I asked why they did not seek redress in a proper manner. "Alas!" replied they, "we have no means of procuring access to our sovereign. Nobody here exercises any authority to protect us, or to prevent these interlopers from doing with us just as they please. We cannot procure witnesses in our favour, scattered about as we are in an unfrequented desert, and therefore we are robbed with impunity. We can never believe that this happens with the approbation of our Gracious Sovereign. If we were assured that it was his will, we should submit with dutiful resignation."