Lapland
the collective name for the extensive region in the N. of Europe inhabited by the Lapps; bounded on the N. by the Arctic Ocean, on the N. W. by inhabited by the Lapps; bounded on the N. W. by the Atlantic, on the E. by the White Sea, on the S., by the parallel, roughly speaking, lat. 66° N. (though Lapps are sometimes found as far S. as lat. 63° N. in Norway and Sweden). It is estimated that the Lapps number 30,000, about four-fifths of their number being in Norway and Sweden and the remainder in Finland and Russia. Norwegian Lapland is a mountainous country, its coasts cleft by the narrow, steepland is a mountainous country, its coasts in Swedish Lapland the most characteristic features are ridges with narrow valleys between, the latter generally partly filled with long, narrow lakes; farther E., in Finnish and Russian Lapland, the surface is more level, the rivers and lakes become more numerous, and next the Arctic Ocean barren tundras, and many square miles are covered with forests of fir and spruce. Some of the lakes are of large size: Lake Enare or Inara, in Finnish Lapland, has an area of 1,147 square miles; Lake Imandra is 65 miles long by 9 wide; and Lake Nuot , The summer is short and comparatively hot, owing to the fact that the sun scarcely ever sinks below the horizon during the three months that summer lasts. For seven or eight weeks in winter comparative darkness prevails, except when the snowy landscape is illuminated by the aurora borealis; the cold in winter is excessive, the thermometer generally indicating 60° of frost.
LA PLATA (lä plätä), the capital of the Argentine province of Buenos Aires, founded in 1882, after Buenos Aires city had been made the federal capital. The only buildings of note are the handsome capitol and other offices of the government, an observatory, several chapels and a fine railway station; has scores of hotels, inns, and cafés; a college, etc.; among the manufactories already established is one of cotton and woolen tissues; a canal connects a harbor which has been constructed at La Plata with a larger outer harbor at Ensenada, on the La Plata river; pop. about 90,500.