Before seating myself in the sleigh, I turned my face towards the North Pole and looked at the Arctic Ocean beyond the fjord, and shouted: "Farewell to thee! farewell, tempestuous Arctic Sea! farewell to thy gales! farewell to thy snow and sleet storms. But I am glad I have been through it all, for I have learned something I did not know before. I have gained knowledge about the people and 'The Land of the Long Night.'" One of the Sea Lapps held my reindeer, and after I was seated another drew my bearskin round me, and made it secure with the cord belonging to my sleigh. When Mikel saw that I was ready he jumped into his sleigh and we started. "Good-bye, good-bye, Paulus!" shouted all the Lapps. "Good-bye, good-bye, dear Sea Lapps!"--I shouted back to them, and the last words I heard were: "Lucky journey, Paulus, come to see us again, come to see us again." CHAPTER XXXV WE ENTER A BIRCH FOREST.--THE REINDEER ARE SOON FAGGED.--SLEEP ON THE SNOW.--THE RAYS OF THE SUN MELT THROUGH THE SNOW.--GREAT DIFFICULTY IN TRAVELLING.--MEET HERDS OF REINDEER.--REINDEER BULLS FIGHT EACH OTHER. We entered the birch forest soon after our departure. We had great difficulty in driving among the trees. I was glad our reindeer were not as frisky as in the earlier part of the winter. I could hardly follow the track of Mikel, and sometimes I could not do so at all. I drove sometimes against one tree and then against another, then the boughs of the birch would strike against my face. I had not been five minutes among the birches when I was upset. At last, losing patience, I shouted to Mikel, "When are we to get out of these birch trees into the open country?" He replied: "We shall reach the river soon." The snow was not more than three or four or five inches deep at first, but grew gradually deeper as we moved further south. Along the coast of Finmarken the heat of the Gulf Stream prevents it from lying deep on the ground. That afternoon we reached the Tana river, at a place called Polmak, and sped on over its snow-covered ice. Seven or eight miles was all that our reindeer could do in an hour, and during the day we had to stop several times to give them rest. About eleven o'clock we stopped for the night. We spread our bags upon the snow, but we got into one only, for two would have been too warm at this time of the year; and as Mikel and I were ready to disappear in them, I said "Good-night, Mikel," and he replied "Good-night, Paulus." It snowed during the night, and when we awoke in the morning our bags were covered with it. I did not wonder when I saw this that I had felt so warm during the night. I was the first to be up. I shook Mikel's bag and shouted to him, "Get up, Mikel," and as his head peeped out of his bag, I said "Good-morning," and he cried "Good-morning, Paulus." Then we took our breakfast. The reindeer, while we were asleep, had dug through the snow to the lichen and fed, and now were quietly resting.