their attention, you get another salute that makes you feel as big as
a major general, or as if you had been mistaken for a member of the
royal family. Railway conductors are equally polite, and seem
to understand that it is a part of their business to protect
tender-footed travelers, as angels always look after good little boys.

In southern Sweden there is scarcely a parish without a railway, and
in the northern part of the kingdom, where the railway facilities are
limited, posting stations are maintained by the government similar to
those in Norway. There is a railway running as far north as the 67th
parallel of latitude, about fifty miles beyond the polar circle
into Lapland, to the famous mines of Malmberget, with a branch to
Trondhjem, Norway. The line follows the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia
very closely, through a country well covered with small pine timber,
which was being rapidly stripped until the government interfered by
passing rigid regulations and appointing foresters to enforce them.

You can see the midnight sun from several places on this railway,
anywhere above 66 degrees and 33 minutes of latitude, from the 9th
of June to the 3d of July, and farther north for a longer period. At
Gellivare the midnight sun can be seen regularly from June 5 to July
11, and it is a much more convenient and quicker journey than to the
North Cape and other polar resorts in Norway. During that period a
traveler is reasonably certain of seeing the sun at all hours of the
day as long as he cares to stay, while over in Norway that privilege
is rare and uncertain, owing to the fogs and clouds that obscure the
horizon sometimes for days at a time. But there is nothing else to
call the tourist to this part of Sweden, for the scenery is monotonous
and uninteresting and the facilities for travel are primitive and the
tourists are few.