Part 20 (1/2)

_Imatra_ is glorious. _Wallinkoski_, the lower fall, is more picturesque, perhaps, but both are wonderful; they are worth journeying far to see, and holding in recollection for ever. We have nothing like them anywhere in Britain. The Falls of Foyers are as crumbs in a loaf of bread when compared with _Imatra_. The fall at Badgastein is as nothing beside Finland's great cataract; _Honefos_ in Norway a mere trifle. In Europe _Imatra_ stands alone, with _perhaps_ the exception of its solitary rival, _Trollhattan_ in Sweden, the exquisite beauty of which is already marred by the sacrilegious hand of the Philistine.

Above all, Finland, you should not allow St. Petersburg to light her streets with your water power; there is enough water in _Imatra_ to light half Europe--but keep it for yourselves, keep it as a pearl in a beautiful casket. _Imatra_ is one of Finland's grandest possessions.

It seems impossible that salmon could live in such a cataract, but yet it is a fact that they do.

Verily, Finland is a paradise for fishermen. A paradise for lines and rods, reels and flies, for masters of the piscatorial art; there are to be found freshwater lakes, and glorious rivers full of fish. Some call it the heaven of anglers, and permission to fish can easily be obtained, and is absurdly inexpensive.

The best-known spot is _Harraka_, near _Imatra_, because the English Fis.h.i.+ng Club from St. Petersburg found sport in those wonderful waters until they acquired _Varpa Saari_, an island a little farther down the river.

The _Saimen Lake_ is about 150 miles long, and the river _Vuoksen_, which forms _Imatra_, joins this fis.h.i.+ng water with the famous _Ladoga_, the largest lake in Europe, which again empties itself into the sea by the _Neva_. This is not a fis.h.i.+ng-book, or pages might be written of happy hours spent with grayling or trout with a fly, or spinning from a boat with a minnow.

Kind reader, have you ever been driven in a _Black Maria_? That is, we believe, the name of the c.u.mbersome carriage which conveys prisoners from one police-station to another, or to their prison home? We have; but it was not an English _Black Maria_, and, luckily, we were never anywhere taken from one police-station to another. Our _Black Maria_ was the omnibus that plies between _Imatra_ and _Rattijarvi_, some twenty miles distant, where we travelled in order to catch the steamer which was to convey us down the famous _Saimen Ca.n.a.l_ back to our delightful _Ilkeasaari_ host, in time for the annual _Johanni_ and the wonderful _Kokko_ fires, more famous in Finland to-day than the Baal fires formerly were in Britain.

It was a beautiful drive; at least we gathered that it would have been a beautiful drive if we had not been shut up in the _Black Maria_. As it was, we were nearly jolted to death on the hardest of hard wooden seats, and arrived stiff, sore, and tired, with aching backs at _Rattijarvi_.

A good dinner, however, soon made us forget our miseries, though it really seemed as if we had come in a prison van, when, the moment our _Black Maria_ drew up at the small inn, a man rushed down the steps, seized upon our poor friend the _Magister_ and began, violently gesticulating, to explain something about money.

What on earth had the poor _Magister_ done that he should be jumped on in this way? Were we criminals without our knowledge, and was this our jailor who stood gesticulating, and scowling, and waving his arms about in excitement? We felt we must immediately produce our pa.s.sports to prove our respectability, and, strong in our knowledge of innocence, were quite prepared to maintain our rights of freedom in spite of the appearance of any limb of Finnish law.

After all, it proved to be a mere flash in the pan. Explanation was soon vouchsafed. We had driven that morning in a private carriage to _Wallinkoski_ to see the wonderful fall below _Imatra_, and the landlord, having forgotten to charge that journey in the bill, had allowed us to leave _Imatra_ without paying for his beautiful equipage; discovering his mistake, however, as soon as our backs were turned, he had telephoned to the inn that we should send back the money by _Black Maria_. Though we had so dishonestly departed without paying our just debts, nothing worse came of the matter.

We might have been locked up in a Finnish prison!

We paid in coin for the carriage, and by our profound grat.i.tude to the _Magister_ and Grandpapa, who had added so ably to our enjoyment. Our time together for the moment was over, and once more my sister and I were alone.

CHAPTER IX

”KOKKO” FIRES

As we stood on the little pier at _Rattijarvi_, waiting for the steamer which was to bear us down the beautiful _Saimen Ca.n.a.l_, we were somewhat horrified to find that the only other probable pa.s.sengers were two men, both of whom were practically unable to keep on their feet. In honour of the day they had apparently been having a jollification, and it will ever remain a marvel to us that they did not tumble over the side of the pier--which had no railing--into the water beneath.

It seemed almost impossible, under the circ.u.mstances, to believe that in the rural districts of Finland generally there are no licensed houses, except in a few health resorts, where a medical man is stationed. Also at a few railway stations _bona fide_ travellers may be supplied. There is a strict law against importing spirits at all into Finland, while if more than ten litres are sent from one place to another in the country they are ”subject to control.” Indeed, no person, unless licensed to sell spirits, is allowed to keep more than six litres in his house for every grown-up individual living in the establishment; and the same rigorous rules that apply to spirits are enforced against liqueurs which, when tried at a temperature of 15 Celsius, are found to contain more than twenty-two per cent. of alcohol.

The temperance regulations are most stringent, and yet we are reluctantly obliged to own we saw a vast amount of drunkenness in _Suomi_. Small wonder, then, that the moment women became members of Parliament the first thing they did was to legislate for the diminution of this lack of sobriety.

The Civic Authorities can, and do, give the whole trade of wine, spirits, and liqueurs as a monopoly for two consecutive years to companies who undertake to sell, not for their own gain, but ”in the interests of morality and sobriety;” three-fifths of the profits being paid to the town for general purposes of usefulness, and the remaining two-fifths to the State.

As regards beer--in the country the County Councils rule the selling, in the towns the Civic Authorities. The brewers are, however, allowed to sell beer, provided they do not give more than twenty-five litres to one person.

The Senate or the Governor can, in some cases, grant special licenses, to sell wines and spirits to bathing-places, steamers, etc.,--from all of which careful, not to say stringent, regulations, it may be inferred that Finland is rigorous as regards the drink question; wherefore strangers feel all the more surprised to meet inebriates so constantly, as we must, unfortunately, admit was the case when we were in Finland.

The two men rolling about at the end of the pier and, singing l.u.s.tily, sadly disturbed our peace of mind, for my sister and I were going back to _Ilkeasaari_ alone, and as they seemed likely to be our only companions, we felt a couple of hours spent in such society would be rather more than we cared for. They might be affectionate or abusive, or they might even commit suicide, they were so deadly drunk.

Ah! what was that? Emerging from a lock came a bower of greenery rather than a steamer. The little s.h.i.+p was literally covered, not only with branches, but with whole birch-trees, and very pretty she looked as she glided towards us, decorated for the famous _Juhannus-ilta_ (Midsummer Day).

Taking hasty farewells of Grandpapa and the _Magister_, whom we were to meet again a week or two later, we hurried on board, and found to our joy that the unsteady Finlanders were not allowed to follow us. With a puff and a whistle the steamer left such undesirable pa.s.sengers behind, and the last we saw of them was fighting and struggling with one another, each man apparently imagining, in his muddled imbecility, that his own companion had kept him from going on board, whereas in reality the ticket-collector, now safely journeying with us, was the sole offender.

It is a delightful journey down the famous _Saimen Ca.n.a.l_, and there was a particular charm about it that night, because, as evening advanced, great beacon fires illuminated the scene.