3-052-496 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Russian Sketches: Laplanders on the Neva, St. Petersburg, 1880. 'Laplander's Tent on the Neva; Laplander; Interior of Tent...The Sketch of a Lapland encampment on the ice of the Neva was taken some time ago by one of our Special Artists, Mr. J. Procter, who visited Russia on the occasion of a grand State ceremonial. It is the custom of some of that singular people, inhabiting the remote northern parts beyond Finland, to repair every winter to the capital of the Empire, and to gain a little money by the exhibition of their curious domestic habits and fashions, of their tents, costumes, household utensils, hunting and fishing gear, and sledges drawn by reindeer...A moderate charge is made to the visitors for admission to the tent and for a ride in the sledge, while the Lapp women offer for sale purses of skin, and other small articles of their own manufacture, by which they earn a sum that helps to augment the store laid by at home in their thrifty course of life. The number of these Russian Lapps is much less than of those in Sweden and Norway, but they are generally richer in herds of reindeer; while those who live by fishing, on the banks of the lakes and rivers, make a good profit in favourable seasons'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.